USMLE Made Easy

ABOUT ME :I am final year student of nishtar medical university,Pakistan & made up my mind in 2nd year to take step1 exam in 4th year. ABOUT THE EXAM: taking this exam during your med school is no doubt very difficult as it`s not a smooth journey(u have professional exam(prof) to handle and other things) but it`s worth doing it and it`s doable. U have many advantages of taking this during your undergrad period ,the most important of which is FRESH KNOWLEDGE of almost every discipline. BACKGROUND: There are many things I done during my 1st and 2nd year of med school which I found very useful later on.like;  Listened to najeeb`s lectures for biochemistry,neuroanatomy, renal physiology embryology. For Those topics I didn’t listen najeeb lectures, I regreted afterwards like CVS and respiratory physiology which are very highyeild(HY) topic.  Read good textbooks like guyton,harper(lipin is as usefull but I liked the harpers flow charts more) and keith L. moore (klm) for physiol...

Hi everyoneee! Im the girl was posting days ago that I was going crazy while waiting for the score report  :( I got my score today, It it not a high score but I wanted to share my experience for those out there that freak out during nbmes! Step 1: 211 (June 30) Score report: JULY 25 NBME 13: 194 ( January 24) NBME: 15 offline (I do not remember the date and mistakes) UWSA1: 212 (January) UWSA2: 227 ( January) Nbme 19: 205 (June 28) I studied for 2 years while doing my internship and social service (current), sometimes I used to study for 8 -10 hours a day or Skipped 2 weeks without studying. I planned to take step 1 on Feb 17 but I had to reschedule because I freaked out doing the nbmes and uwsa. During these practice tests I used to cry for 1-2 hours and shake, had to go to the restroom due to nausea and funny bowel movements:(, I chose to reschedule, start the journey again, and look for help! My doctor gave me alprazolam just to take during the practice te...

#your_performance_in_an_interview_should_not_be_considered_while_ranking_all_that_should_be_considered_is_your_liking_for_that_program This is high time when applicants are making rank order list. I hope this post may help them making their decision. This is based upon our observation, discussion with residents and fellows in different programs in last 5 years. you can deviate based on individual preferences and circumstance): Following is the suggested order of rank list in descending order based on fellowship, type of program and visa perspective: 1. University program with fellowships that are given to their own residents and with H1 (e.g Kalamazoo University, Nebraska University ) is most preferred and shoul dbe at top. 2. University program with fellowships that are given to their own residents and with J1 (e.g Oklahoma University) is next in list. 3. Community program that is H1 but has in house fellowships given to its own people . (e.g Montefiore Wakefield ( for GI) G...

After being matched, it is natural reflex to start thinking of visa process and documents . I will try to explain it in simplest effective way but let me begin with encouraging fact that " only 1/100 residents are unable to join their program due to work visa ". :)-while 1/5 of applicants is refused a match - so if you are reading my post as matched applicant ; it means you are not that 1 in 5 ; so if you are not 1 in 5 then there is very very remote possibility that u will be that 1 in 100- so deep nice breath  :) 1- h1b is work permit sponsored by respective hospital and it has different durations depending on state ( New York gives 3 yr h1b while others give one year h1b) 2- it has sponsorship fee of 3000 dollars which good programs pay themselves while some programs ask resident to pay for it 3- premium processing is 1200 dollar fee that in simple words is fees for urgent processing of visa ( 10 days processing vs1 month )- that fees is always paid by resident 4- yo...

MY STEP 1 EXPERIENCE 254 “I am always doing things I can't do, that's how I get to do them."   ― Pablo Picasso GRADUATION YEAR (2013), Done with STEP 2 CS & STEP 1 Exam : July 23,2014 Score report : Aug 13,2014 Preparation time : 8 months Resources Used: 1) Kaplan Lecture notes (for all subjects except pathology) 2) Pathoma for pathology (Excellent study tool; enjoy it with it’s lectures) 3) Kaplan video lectures (for all subjects except pathology) 4) First Aid( annotate all important points on it,I found it really boring but it’s elixir for STEP 1) 5) 100 cases by Conrad Fischer Additional books (optional) 1) BRS physiology 2) High yield Neuroanatomy 3) High yield Biostats 4) High yield Cell and molecular biology (few topics) 5) Goljan audio lectures Q banks: 1)U world (most important study aid,do it thoroughly,ONLINE mode is recommended) 2)Kaplan Q bank (Solved it offline) 3) Usmle Rx (incase one has time, helps with retaining First Aid...

I am writing this experience because I think it might help others avoid the mistakes I made during my preparation. I started preparing for step 1 after my final year result was declared, and I took a long time preparing for it. I did all  subjects from kaplan except pathology, for which i did goljan and it was a big mistake as it took me more than 3 months to complete it along with my medicine rotation and in the end I almost retained none of it. I hadn't completed my first read until the end of my 3rd rotation of house job i.e 9 months for the first read with house job.  I read every subject from kaplan(except patho) along with video lectures for most subjects followed by relevant First aid portion after each subject. For patho I did goljan along with its lectures followed by first aid of patho.            Then I  left my last rotation of house job in view of speeding up the things a bit (no use at all) only to resume it 4 months...

I began preparing for my step 1 after I got my step 2 result. I had about 3 to 4 months for the prep. I knew I could not spare time to go through all of Kaplan books and then do First Aid and UWorld all in the given time frame, so I jumped straight to First Aid. I had taken step 2 before so I was confident I could use First Aid right away.  I began with microbiology, assuming I would be good at it and did it in about a week. Really couldn’t gain much momentum as reading First Aid was really hard. Someone advised me to use Doctors in training videos to make FA easy to read as they were mostly based on First Aid. So I started them. Although they were old videos and were based on FA of 2010 while I was reading 2014 so I found it hard to go back and forth finding stuff from the new FA but I still managed to complete FA using the DIT videos and reading all the extra stuff from the new edition of FA. Its important to mention here that I skipped completely genetics and biochemistry becau...

Salam, I just got my usmle step 1 score and since reading about my seniors’ experiences helped me a lot, I want to share mine with you. Material used: Books: Kaplan series Goljan pathology First Aid 2012 and 2013 High yield biostatistics Conrad fisher ethics cases Internet resources: Webpath and neuroanatomy3d Videos: DIT Qbank: Kaplan and uworld Journey: I started studying step 1 books as my textbooks during my studies so by the time I had graduated in March, 2013 I had given at least one read to: Whole Kaplan series(except biochem), Goljan pathology, First Aid 2012, High yield biostatistic, conrad fischer ethics, patho and pathophysio from offline Kaplan Qbank (I didn’t use the rest.) I don’t know how useful that was since I didn’t start my official prep till August, 2013 3 months into my housejob. By that time I am sure I must have forgotten most of it but I guess I was more confident and comfortable then so I didn’t review much of it again. I started...

I am going to explain how one can start for step 1 de novo. I will try to make it as simple as possible: USMLE step 1 needs 4 reads in total. Materials required include:  Kaplan series UWorld First Aid 100 cases by Conrad fischer ( blue book ) Online NBME  READS:=4 DURATION EXPECTED:  3 months (1st read)+2 months and 10 days (2nd read) +2 months and 10days (3rd read) +6 days whole 1st AID and NBME, then 10 days ( 4th read) =Total 8 months Sequence of subjects in each Read:  Physiology, then pharmacology; biochemistry; microbiology; immunology; pathology; anatomy; behavioral sciences First Read:  3 months Physio-10days pharma-1week biochem/genetics- 8 days immunology-4 days microbiology-8 days pathology-3 weeks anatomy -10 days behavioral sciences 4 days In this plan , when you finish one subject , don't rush to next; rather re-read same in 1-2 days . For example, you are supposed to finish physio in 8 days and then revise in next 2 days whole physio .Same plan ...

First of all thanks to Allah Almighty, my family and friends for the continuous support and encouragement. And to everyone reading this, the purpose of this experience is to encourage you because if I can do it, so can you.  I had made up my mind to take my step 1 in 4th year after my 2nd year prof when my elder brother decided to go for USMLE(who was then preparing for his 4th year prof, he used to talk to seniors for guidance so listening to their conversations I had a very good knowledge of the things-to-do for step 1 in the beginning of 3rd year). In the first few months of 3rd year  I started with kaplan video lectures and notes of biochem and physio and did them along with offline uwolrd of physio and biochem by march 2015.Then came KDS and KAPS and I couldn’t study for next 3 months(Though I had planned to do anatomy as well in 3rd year but couldn’t).Then in june i started preparing for 3rd year proff, did pharma and micro from kaplan and Gen.Path...