USMLE Made Easy

I have already declared in my experience part that I will discuss about "100 confusing topics". This is the First one for you- Surely you may get 4/5 marks more from this topics in the real test because it is very very high yield topics. Topic 1: Fatty acid catabolism 1. Hypoketotic hypoglycemia with intracellular fatty acyl carnitines on muscle biopsy- it may be LCAD or MCAD deficiency. If question says carnitine is present, that means carnitine can't be deficient, because if it were, then you would only get fatty acyl-CoA derivatives but not anything carnitines related. Therefore, the answer here would be MCAD or LCAD deficiency. 2. Intestinal FA that are 12 or more carbons in length are absorbed in lymph and bypass liver. 12+ carbon FA are termed long chain. So, if the question stem mentions the classic hypoketotic hypoglycemia and then tells you the build up of 16C FA like palmitic acid, than the answer is LCAD deficiency, not MCAD deficiency. 3. Acetyl...

Almighty has blessed with much more than I deserve and could ever imagine of (Alhamdulilah). I’m from Lahore, Pakistan and took my Step 1 exam on 24th April, 2019. Was battling with thoughts of writing this up or not, however, in the end I thought I owe my share to the beautiful people like you who are reading this & are probably going through toughest phase of their life. Important message: I once saw a post on a page asking a question along with mentioning that only 250+ should respond. This broke my heart. It’s not in ones hands to go beyond doing hard work for months and then choosing a step 1 score of 250+. For me, it’s the worse form of mentality with which one can go into prep or exam. Yes you can plan, aim and then work on it. But, what if you make a goal of seeking perfection instead? In every aspect, from Physio to path and biochem to biostats and so on, trying to master everything you could & set a target not to lose a single MCQ? I think you...

I have attached a sample evaluation form that is used to evaluate applicants during an interview. You can score a theoretical maximum of 120 points. Let’s discuss it in detail: 1) USMLE Scores (2 to 10 points): After you get the interview, your scores do matter but not to the same extent as interview skills! You can score 10 points provided you have great scores which correspond to >=245 on step 1 and >=253 on CK. Step 3 is not mentioned on the form and its importance varies depending on the specialty that you are applying and the program. For e.g. Psychiatry places a great weightage on step 3 while IM is not that rigid about step 3. 2) Medical Knowledge (other than USMLE scores) (0 to 10 points): When you are asked any clinical question, this is where your clinical experience will help you. A person who has strong clinical experience will nail this section vs. a person who does not have clinical experience will not be able to create an impression in this section. 3) Me...

I just got my exam result today that is 261. My exam date was 26th September and here is my experience: First of all, it’s long and though way that requires patience, ambition, hardwork and self-confident. You must study well and more important: YOU MUST BELIEVE THAT YOU CAN DO IT. Aim the top, work hard, get result and be happy. But you must also know that it’s not everything. Even if you failed the exam, you should know there are something else different than it and  there are other ways. Briefly, keep living in each way. I saw preparation time and periods in other experiences. Well, mine is a little bit confusing. I decided to take USMLE Step 1 on September 2015. I did my plans and planned to take it on July 2016. But things didn’t go as I want, so I postponed my plans to next year. Again, becuase of things that I don’t know even now, didn’t study well in fall 2016. I started my real devoted study period probably in end of May. (The date I chose my eligibilty period and did...

USMLE-Step1 experience, Ferial Tammam Alloush ,5th year medical student , HU ,Jordan Target : >260 Score:265 J all glory to Allah Exam date : 8/28/2017 Performance : Preparation time :10 months (14 months with 4 month break (finals, minors, travels, depression episodes  :p ) though….inside the exam I realized that my preparation bagan the day I started medical school…. when to start dedicated study ? 4th year was perfect for me … there is an outstanding similarity between step1 and forth year subjects …I studied the last20 days of the year (finals ) ,some minors , couple of days before each OSCE and had almost the same GPA as previous years! important point :try not to skip a single day in the hospital training … step1 is a basic science exam …but it’s based on clinical vignettes…. You don’t have to STUDY 4th year subjects (that’s a step2 issue)….yet,you have to LIVE them and to build a clinical SENSE out of the (I think same applies for 5th year ) “it’s all about FA...

Hello everyone,  I gave my step 1 exam on Oct 24th, and just got my score - 243  :)   I wanted to write this experience to all those out there who are struggling with the exam, hopefully it will motivate and give proper guidance which I lacked. My exam prep duration -  15 months (July 2016 to Oct 2017) I took a break of 2 months in between and again a break of 4 months later on for my rotations.  Total prep time being 9 months (last 2 months dedicated period with 8-10 hours of study; other months I studied for 6-8hrs a day.)  ----------------------- Resources used -  FA and UW; added selected kaplan videos (for biochem, immunology); Dr. Steven lectures for Behav; Pathoma videos; Kaplan behav book; Shelf notes for anatomy ------------------------ Preparation:  I took a baseline Nbme 12 at the very beginning - got 130 (June ending 2016)  I was doing my internship at that time - juggled between step 1 prep and the duties. Later I took off f...

Thank god its a an awesome 260  😀 😀 😀 First off i would like to thank members of this group , ur posts and experiences guided me through every stage in my preparation. Prep time : 1 year wizout the interruptions i think i would have done it in 8 months 3rd year dermatology resident i was working during my prep except for the last month Exam date :22 oct FA 5 times Uworld once offline and once online with 94.6% correct Kaplan once expect for bio and neuroanatomy i did them twice Regarding my sources Biochemistry: kaplan 2010 ,kaplan book,fa Anatomy : kaplan 2014 ,kaplan , fa ,shelf notes Physiology: kaplan 2014 , kaplan ,fa Pharma: kaplan 2010 , kaplan ,fa Micro : kaplan 2010 , sketchy micro ,fa Behavioral : kapaln 2010 , kaplan , fa , 100 cases Pathology : pathoma , fa and i underlined every line in pathoma that wasnt in FA * For me kaplan was essential but if u wanna skip it Dont skip neuroanatomy , biochemistry, first 4 chapters of pharm , cardio respiratory and renal phy...