Hi guys ! I was thinking a lot about is it useful to write you my experience if there are tons of them already here. Is it gonna change anything if I add one more.
You know thinking this way I decided to write only the stuff I always was lookink for in the others experiences, like my NBME scores UWSA scores, and materials I’ve used, and nothing about my struggling during all the studying process.
So here are my scores in NBME (I did 1 - 17 offline and 18,19 online) :
NBME 1 – 29 wrongs; NBME 2 – 14 wrongs;
NBME 3 – 10 wrongs; NBME 4 – 17 wrongs;
NBME 5 – 15 wrongs; NBME 6 – 19 wrongs;
NBME 7 – 10 wrongs; NBME 11 – 14 wrongs;
NBME 12 – 15 wrongs; NBME 13 – 17 wrongs;
NBME 15 – 14 wrongs; NBME 16 – 18 wrongs;
NBME 17 – 12 wrongs; NBME 18 – 19 wrongs/ 252 score;
NBME 19 – 9 wrongs/ 258 score;
UWSA1 – 258 score;
UWSA2 – 245 score;
I’ve spent around 17 months on my preparation, and was studying an average 6-7h/day with an one day off a week and a couple gaps during preparation because of some sort of other business.
I started my preparation with Kaplan books (from Biochem by the way, I loved Dr.Turko, he is awesome, he was like a boost for me
=)), and after every couple of chapters of LN I watched video
according to the text. After each
subject I did the same subject of uWorld offline. I didn’t skip the dr.Barone Pathology, but I also did Pathoma with video and Goljan with audio.When I did all the subjects I begun to read the FA, and did it twice, during first read I also did uWorld online systemwise.
After I’ve finished the second read of FA I begun the third round of uWorld (random) and started the NBME. I did one NBME every second day by breaking it down to 40q blocks and added the rest 80 questions from uWorld in purpose of modeling the real exam.
I also read 100 cases of Conrad Fischer. Behavioral and Statistic was my weak areas and I actually scored it the less on real exam.
My advises to you guys :
- Find your own way to study, plan it carefully and stick to it.
- Don’t use too much of materials to study.
- Never do a big gaps in study process.
- You have to be fair with yourself and know how strong are your basic knowledge. For me Kaplan was much more essential then even FA, because it helps setting the stage, it gives you the understanding of the materials. Everybody is saying here that Step 1 is not knowing but understanding and I can’t emphasize it enough how much it is the truth! But you also have to understand that exam is not gonna last for a week, it is short, it only looks like 8h is a long time, no it is not, and knowing this you have to understand that lots of materials you have to just know, even without thinking, and here is when the FA comes into play. It is the condensed material of almost all the exam, but it is NOT for studying BUT much more for reweaving and making the material stuck into your brain. Use it carefully don’t think that FA is all you need. Maybe it is, if you already know all the stuff, but for me it wasn’t.
- Make the appointment for the exam only after you feel strong, and not just feel but also have the NBME scores matching your aim score.
- Do some simulations of the exam before the actual one. It helps you to get used to the tension you are gonna experience.
- Be self confident but still rational.
As you can see the most predictable for me was NBME 18, and I want to tell you that exam by it self was like a mix of uWorld and NBME 18, it includes the questions style, the difficulty and the length.
One more thing for those who aren’t fluent in English. When I begun to preparing to the Step 1 I wasn’t even close to the middle level of the English language, my byochem book was a mess because of all the marks I did near the words that was new for me. Don’t worry guys you are gonna read around 4500 pages of medical stuff, you will have no other choices as learn the damn language
😊
For those who panic, I can tell you with all the confidence – exam is doable and the preparation is much harder then exam by itself.
Take care and good luck !
- Don’t use too much of materials to study.
- Never do a big gaps in study process.
- You have to be fair with yourself and know how strong are your basic knowledge. For me Kaplan was much more essential then even FA, because it helps setting the stage, it gives you the understanding of the materials. Everybody is saying here that Step 1 is not knowing but understanding and I can’t emphasize it enough how much it is the truth! But you also have to understand that exam is not gonna last for a week, it is short, it only looks like 8h is a long time, no it is not, and knowing this you have to understand that lots of materials you have to just know, even without thinking, and here is when the FA comes into play. It is the condensed material of almost all the exam, but it is NOT for studying BUT much more for reweaving and making the material stuck into your brain. Use it carefully don’t think that FA is all you need. Maybe it is, if you already know all the stuff, but for me it wasn’t.
- Make the appointment for the exam only after you feel strong, and not just feel but also have the NBME scores matching your aim score.
- Do some simulations of the exam before the actual one. It helps you to get used to the tension you are gonna experience.
- Be self confident but still rational.
As you can see the most predictable for me was NBME 18, and I want to tell you that exam by it self was like a mix of uWorld and NBME 18, it includes the questions style, the difficulty and the length.
One more thing for those who aren’t fluent in English. When I begun to preparing to the Step 1 I wasn’t even close to the middle level of the English language, my byochem book was a mess because of all the marks I did near the words that was new for me. Don’t worry guys you are gonna read around 4500 pages of medical stuff, you will have no other choices as learn the damn language
😊For those who panic, I can tell you with all the confidence – exam is doable and the preparation is much harder then exam by itself.
Take care and good luck !
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