Skip to main content

Step 1 experience-- 250


Alhamdulillah I finally got my score and
This is my Step 1 experience
Exam on 27th March 2019
Result on 17th April 2019
Target score 240+
Actual score 250
Total study time 15 months (almost 5 months interrupted no study) average 4 hours per day (very slow and bad time management with 8-4 Job)
Dedicated study time 2 months (12-14 hours per day)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
All assessment online and in this order
NBME 13 (8 weeks out) 221
NBME 15 (6 weeks out) 236 (24 mistakes)
NBME 16 (4 weeks out) 240 (22 mistakes)
NBME 17 (2 weeks out) 240 (20 mistakes)
UWSA 1 (8 days out) 260 (29 mistakes)
UWSA 2 (5 days out) 254 (27 mistakes)
NBME 18 (2 days out) 252 (18 mistakes)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Study material:
-First Aid (4 runs total)
-Uworld (started very late so I ran out of time and had 290 unused questions)
-Kaplan videos and books for almost all subjects (kaplan was phenomenal in my opinion in Immunology by Dr kim and Biochem by Dr turco, anatomy not so much, physio and pharm were fair)
-Micro from sketchy (Highly recommended for great recall)
-Pathology from pathoma (Highly recommended after other basics as it had great integration)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Things I think I did right:
-studied subjects with first aid hand in hand. eg. I would study anatomy from kaplan then go over anatomy from every chapter in First aid.
-I would recommend to add uworld to that as well so eg. (anatomy from kaplan or whatever source, then anatomy from first aid, then anatomy from uworld) and annotate uworld in FA (VERY IMPORTANT)
-took 2 months off from work for my dedicated study
-Did 7 block uworld timed with strict environment for food and breaks as to simulate exactly how the exam will be and noting where my focus falters and how I fair and how my break distribution is ...etc)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Things I think I did wrong:
-Wasted so much time with kaplan as I repeated it multiple times (DONT DO THIS) once for concepts to be clear is more than enough then HAMMER first aid and uworld in.
-had interrupted times with no study which slowed me down immensely (set a dedicated time plan and just do it)
-Used assessments extremely late (last 3 only used for score prediction and for the questions rather than actual areas to improve cause they were less than a week before my exam)
use assessments not too early so that you have nothing to predict with and not too late so you don't have time to improve on weak areas.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
During the exam felt a bit overwhelmed during the first block as I was thinking "this is IT the end of what I prepared for all this time" but tried to keep my composure and stay focused and muscle through.
After the exam I honestly felt like I sh*t the bed and that I did awful. Recalled a few silly easy questions I got wrong, few more I wasn't sure about and kept contemplating how badly I would score (completely normal to feel just stay busy and keep your mind off of it and just wait for those 3 weeks to pass and get your score)
Trust your Preparation
Sorry if this was too long of a read
good luck to all of you in achieving what you want
Glad to answer any questions

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Step 2 CK Experience (280)--vvimp

• Background: Hello everyone. This is Hasan Alarouri, a Jordanian graduate of Jordan University of Science and Technology (2017). I started my dedicated preparation for Step 2 CK during my internship, and the total duration was around 15 months. Owing to how helpful this group had been during my preparation, and the rarity of experiences similar to mine (Step 2 CK prior to Step 1), I thought I’ll have to share my experience with you. • USMLE Scores: Step 1: not done yet Step 2 CK: 280 Step 2 CS: Passed • Self assessment scores: Free120: 96% (5 mistakes); 5 months prior to exam NBME 4: 6 mistakes (offline); 4 months prior to exam NBME 7: 13 mistakes (offline); 3 months prior to exam NBME 6: 5 mistakes (offline); 2.5 months prior to exam NBME 8: 279 (online; 8 mistakes); 2 months prior to exam UWSA1: 286 (10 mistakes); 1 month prior to exam UWSA2: 274 (15 mistakes); 2 weeks prior to exam • Preparation duration and hours studied each day: The total duration was 15. This was supposed ...

MY Step 2 CK Experience 284 Medhat Farwati

Dear (future) Doctors, I am Medhat Farwati, a Syrian graduate from Aleppo University, Faculty of Medicine. Hereby I share with you my experience with Step 2 CK. 1. Score: 284 2. Self-assessments: UWSA 1: 273 (2 months out) UWSA 2: 276 ( 1 week out) NBME 7: 277 (1 week out) NBME 8: 280 (3 days out) 3. Preparation time: After I was done with Step 1, I moved to the US as a postdoctoral research fellow. As such, I realized it is going to be challenging to navigate my research du ties, US rotations, Step 2 CS exam, and Step 2 CK preparation. Collectively, the actual preparation time for CK was 12 months with an average studying time ranging from 4 hours a day for the first 10 months to 8 hours a day for the last 2 months prior to my exam. 4. Materials used: UW Step 2 CK (x3) UW Step 3 (x2) Kaplan Q bank (x1) Internal Medicine Essentials Q bank De Virgilio (surgery textbook) Up to date and Medscape Google, YouTube, and Siri 😊 UW Step 2: Your baseline. Most people preparing for CK rega...

USMLE Step 1 experience - Mohammed Qussay Al-Sabbagh: 263

I’m Mohammed Qussay Al-Sabbagh, a 6th -year medical student at the University of Jordan, and I have recieved my Step 1 results a few days ago, which’s turned out to be 263, Alhamdulillah! Thus, I have decided to note down and share my experience, as I found reading others’ experiences very useful to me… This experience documentation will be divided into three sections; general take home messages, my USMLE step 1 journey, and my studying sources. I. Big misconceptions “Just because everybody does it, doesn't make it right” In this section, I’ll present some big misconceptions about Step 1 preparation, which drives students to be needlessly worried, rendering them unefficeintly anxious and distressed at all times. Before starting, ALWAYS REMEMEBR that there exists no schedule or technique that fits all kinds of medical students, which calls for the creation of your own personal approaches according to your own capabilities which no one knows for exact except for yourself! Misconc...