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.
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