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 physiology,biochemistry & anatomy respectively.
Regarding kaplans, those are good book to read and one must read those but they can`t REPLACE text books, Never ever ever !you can keep them together but text book should be your priority.
In future context , I will be referring to the above context as BACKGROUND KNOWLEDE.
As I already said ,step1 for undergrad in not a smooth process so I will divide my journey into phases.
PHASE I: (3rd year)
I started with kaplan physiology(lectures alongwith kaplan book) as I didn’t do it before.At the end,I did offline uw(book form).Renal physiology and endocrinology were easy as I had this background knowledge.
Then moved to biochemistry(left the genetics portion as that portion is not taught in our system) & I did the above things(lectures+kaplanbook+uw) I was good at metabolism stuff because of background knowledge.
Pharma :took me some time to master it but that time was fruitfull as I gave much less time to pharma later(phase2,3,4).I did listen to kaplan lectures >>skim the book>>read the mini katzung thoroughly and did solve offline uw . This was helpful in my class tests and prof. Exam too so basically I was killing two birds with one stone.
Microbiology.i did the bacterio portion to my best didn’t give much time to viro or others(as I had less time left and had prof. exam at head)but u should do both very well.I listened to kaplan lectures and found IT useless and so was the book. Levinson is very good book:It is rapid review book but prefer it over kaplan. I did the offline uw(just bacterio portion).
Offline uw: just one block for each subjects to assess myself and understand the exam orientation by going thru explanation .But I think kaplan q bank is better than uw during this phase i.e when u are doing kaplans.
How I managed the class tests?
step1 just one week before exam I paused the things which I was doing for and switched to the topic of test, spent whole week on it and reswitched to step1 after the tests. P.s I got my all tests passed with good scores.
How I managed classess?
I used to spend whole day (upto 2 pm) in college taking all classes and ward initially(for two months).After that,I just went to college to take important lectures(where proxy was not possible:P) I have good friends who did this proxy stuff for me.
I paused my step1 prepration two months before prof exam for almost 3 months.
Phase II :( 4th year december to mid march)
I started with pathology from pathoma and goljan alongwith pathoma lectures. I didnt find goljan much useful that time but I felt it to be very useful when I started nbmes later in phase 3.There are many things in goljan which are tested in various forms but are not given in uw or pathoma or fa. Took me two months doing this stuff.Also I did offline uw for pathology but ONLY some blocks to assess myself.
biostat :Kaplan(vedio plus book)>>biostat review(70Qs)>>made my own notes which were mixture of these two so that I don’t have to go thru this book and review again(but I was wrong atleast for biostat review)
anatomy I Did kaplan neuroanatomy(vedio+book) and went thru high yield anatomy:it is very good book,basically a short form of klm(same pictures and texts)so I kinda got helped from my background knowledge. I didnt pay much attention to kaplan anatomy portion except CT scans portion(chest and abdomen) for which I listened its lectures too(very helpful).
immunology I listened to kaplan lectures alonwith kaplan book, both are usefull.
Next I took nbme 11(68 mistakes) and didn’t calculate the scores.
Regarding nbmes, I was always kinda eager to challenge my self. And didn’t pay attention to scores calculation because no formula is accurate.
Phase III(mid march to august)
I started online uw(everybody knows its importance so no need to elaborate).The way I chose to do it was ‘’subject wise’’.1st I read fa respective system for one subject e.g neuropathology from fa then solved uw.made my own notes separately not on fa.I continued this for upto june(left with psychiatry and BS portion of uw to solve) when I was frustrated(here it comes the first reason I failed to give exam in 4th year, I was kinda fed up with studies and routine. I found it`s in phase 4; I were not taking proper breaks.our mind is not computer(even u laptop needs rest :P) so it needs rest(one day off per week).I left uw there(2nd reason) and started revising fa and planed to give nbme by end of july.At the end of july I gave nbme 13 offline(3rd reason) had 52 mistakes but the downfall is I didn’t know my weakness and I couldn’t study for next few weeks then gave online nbme 15(225) on 20th august and my BS portion was below the bar as I didn’t do its uw. But at this time I had no time to improve since my prof. exam was at head,so paused my prepration there and moved to preparing for my prof. exam for which I chose goljan pathology as I knew it would help me in the future(phase 4) too.
Phase IV(final year start)
At the end of my prof. exam I took uwsa2 and scored 245.Moved to revising fa (3rd revision BUT this time with DIT vedios alonwith sketcy micro lectures for micro portion as I found it to be most memorizing portion of step10. I could`nt revise the whole fa(BECAUSE OF MY EAGRNESS TO ASSESS HOW MUCH I CAN RELY ON SUBCONSCIOUS MEMORY) and gave nbme 16(230) on 6 January. I worked on my weakness which were
behavioral scinces(BS) for which I did brs b.s (FOR THE 1ST TIME HERE I WAS THINGS RELATED TO BS);very very usefull things written in it esp. at the end of chapter in mcqs portion.Ethics is about understadnding the principle of patient care and Once u get it u can get star on it like I did. :P
biostat;revised my notes and did revise uw biostat review.
Genetics;revised kaplan genetic portion(1st time I did it with uw).
I took nbme 18(232). I found IT very difficult but I was happy to know that I improved on my weaker areas.HERE, I found that I am not improving on pathology much so thought of listening pathoma lectures.
Next I started online uw(2nd pass) random this took me whole month and In this month I was studying fa+uw+ankinotes & was listening to pathoma lectures at night as I got bored of reading texts after 8hrs study.It`s in this month when I was discussing nbmes(11,12,13,15,16) with a study partner and this was
very usefull as I learned many things from her as well as from nbmes(what they actually want to ask about a particular topic).During this month I gave uswa1(247) and at the end of this month when I was done with 90%of uw and most of uw, I gave nbme17(232),this was very horrible for me as nbme 17 was easiest of all and I ALSO found it too easybut scored less,then I noticed the no. of mistakes on nbme 17 were 25 as compared to 34 mistakes on nbme 18 which means I were making less no. of stupid mistakes.At this point, I decided to go for exam as I could`nt delay it anymore.So with faith in ALLAH and confidence in my prepration I took the exam date.in next 10 days,worked on my nbme 17 weakness ,revised notes ,completed uw and gave exam on 7th march.
Exam day; I was relaxed kinda as I did a lot of nbmes and had this expectation of unexpected question.exam was similar to uw and nbme with 6-7 wth type question in every block.took break after each block.had enough time in each block and took energy drinks(red bull)to boost my performance and it definetly helped. :D
Post exam week:pray to ALLAH ,this is one of those points where HE steps in and does what we can`t do.
Regarding my schedule; did`nt have any fixed schedule like in one week I studied during the day and in the next I was night owl.Just choose a routine which suits u the best.In phase 1 and 2 it was variable.
I worked for almost 7 hrs in phase 3 and in last phase I used to study 12 hrs with one day off per week.
BOTTOM LINES,
Don`t ignore the fact that textbooks are usefull.
Listen to nejeeb`s lectures if u have time.
Take proper breaks.
Try to do most of things online(it is a good investment)
Don’t talk about ur plan with everyone.
Do discuss NBMEs.No need to go for old NBMEs(nbme 9 backward).
Always be ready to accept ur weakness this is only when u can improve on them(even in real life).
Remember me on ur prayers.
Best of luck to all!
Dilawar
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