Skip to main content

Step 1-238



Hello guys, I want to share my experience as a gratitude for all the people that shared their step 1 journey before .For me all the stories posted in this group gave me strength to continue and became my guidelines in a process from I didn’t know anything about. 
Started with Kaplan lecture notes except for pathology. Then I watched all Kaplan 2014 videos except for pathology. Then I did Pathoma and gave my first FA read along with DIT videos, it made it easier to digest the book. Then I solved Usmle Rx and jumped straight to Uworld , first pass timed random mode score 62 % and after that I made it second time 85%. I felt confident with the knowledge I had but not with my test taking skills because I made online nbme 15 with a score of 213 and a lot of silly mistakes so I decided to do Kaplan qbank timed random mode( score 77%). I felt is very strong in anatomy and physiology concepts. After that I started to make more nbmes and I realize that my weakness was test taking skills and a little knowledge gaps specially in Behavioral sciences and biostats. I did all new nbmes in this order :
Nbme 13 online 6 months before: 190
Nbme 15 online 4 months :213 
This was the time where nbmes (13-19 were retired so I had to make the new ones , For me it was ok because I wanted to make the more online assessments as possible )
Nbme 20 online 6 weeks before test : 232
Nbme 21 online 4 weeks before : 234 
This was the time I scheduled the exam because although my goal was 240, seeing 230’s in nbmes ,for me was a reached goal by itself) 
UWSA 1 3.5 weeks before : 245 
Amboss self assessment : 260 
Nbme 23 online 3 weeks before: 229 
Nbme 24 and 22 online 2 weeks before : 230 in both 
After these nbme I traveled to the US to make the exam and I felt I was learning nothing new from FA and Uworld and made 80-100 questions per day timed random from amboss 
Nbme 18 online 1 week before : 236 (satisfied I break 235 in nbme 18 as I heard It was very predictive) 
Free 120 in center 5 days before : 82%
UWSA 2 , 4 days before : 237 ( did It after 2 amboss blocks to simulate the exam I was shocked because I expected 240 on it but I had to finish with it ! )
The day before the exam I didn’t see anything I went to the beach and relaxed, in the morning I went running so I had 7 hours sleep , I think my body had rest but my mind wanted to betray me. When I woke up I was nervous but after breakfast I was decided to kill the beast. 
The exam was doable , just as everybody says , there’s nothing more you can say... it is just like a mix of nbme and Uworld but more similar to Uworld and I can say Amboss make a great work in the length and 2 step questions as were written on the exam. But If I can do some thing different in my preparation will be: start you preparation with questions and finish your preparation with questions . I always say that is better 1 month with a qbank than 5 months with books, there’s nothing better that learning with qs , it is just active learning. And the other thing I regret is not continue seeing Uworld questions in my last month of preparation , I did amboss instead and even though amboss is great , nothing compares the work Uworld makes in explaining the questions and teaching the concepts , after all the step 1 is about concepts, every question is not a question, it is a concept they are asking about. I want internal medicine and taking the score apart , just doing step 1 is an achievement by itself , just by taking this exam with the level of demand it will take from you will make you a different physician in a positive way. I made my preparation while working in a military Hospital were we can see a lot of things that I had been studying while preparing ( so don’t get discouraged by the people saying isn’t possible if you are working ), and comparing the days when I decided to start this journey with today ,after step 1 is done , I can say that I’m a better Physician and just by that it definitely worth it.

Comments

  1. Dr Carl StephensFebruary 25, 2021 at 9:57 PM

    Hi admin!
    Your giving information is very useful. Thanks for sharing informational blog post. Keep it up. For more information click this hyperlink USMLE Step 1 Examination

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

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 ...
2 comments
Read more

My Voyage For Residency From PATIALA To PHILADELPHIA

MOTIVATION AND INTRODUCTION : The Unfortunate event of Medulloblastoma in my younger sister leading to permanent blindness despite successful surgery and chemo-radiation sparked in me a desire to become physician. Coming from a small city Dera Ghazi Khan, I entered in KEMU (former KEMC) in November 2004 and graduated in March 2010. Road to USA had never been easy. I was motivated by my parents and elder brother Adnan Khalique to reach the highest as I am the first one ever in my family who was going to become a physician and dreamed of training abroad as physician. But for me burning the boats was not an option so it had to be in this way in the form of many twists and turns till first step of success(Residency). I was looking for shortcut to settle early and was inclined toward going to Australia and that’s the reason I didn’t do any electives. After graduation I contacted my seniors in USA and Australia. I did Istikhaara for the first time in my life with a belief that Allah will...
Post a Comment
Read more

My Step 2 CK experience- 260

I’m writing this because I read about 30 or more experiences and it helped me make strategy. And I want to add mine to pass on this act of kindness. CK Score – 260, exam in mid march. Prep time – 4.5 months with 2 weeks gap so 4m effectively. I’m a recent grad. Step 1 score – 262, gave in mid sept last year. Resources - uw for ck (gold standard), did online 2.5 times. Cms all forms except family med. Nbme 4,6,7,8. Uptodate for reference. Uw step 3 for psych only. Kaplan patient safety notes. FA for step 1. Process – got step 1 score in mid October, celebrated for few days. Started ck prep in late October. Tried mtb 2 for cvs for a week, didn’t like it so started straightaway with online uw. My step 1 prep helped a lot in CK prep. Never did mtb again. Did uw first round till mid January. I also annotated new points to all uworld notes (whoever did the hard work of compiling it I send my best wishes and blessings to you, thanks a million). Revised the notes after 1st round....
Post a Comment
Read more