My Step 1 Experience - Road to 256 By Dr. Karim Adel

Introduction

In this blog, we have successfully found the latest available resources on My Step 1 Experience - Road to 256 By Dr. Karim Adel. Our website is dedicated to collecting all the free resources that are available on the internet. We do not own any files personally on our website But, what we do is collect them which are scattered over in difficult nooks and corners of the websites. The major drawback is that we need to check every other link posted in the past ourselves. It is you people who have to report to us if any links are not working as they should be.

We are very proud to present you with My Step 1 Experience - Road to 256 By Dr. Karim Adel. This website contains free pdfs, videos, ebooks, and other stuff that are incredibly rare to find by yourself. On our website, we believe to provide quality products to everyone.

If you want to encourage us in what we are doing for medical students that are facing difficulties to get these premium contents because of their financial barriers. Consider Donating to us.

{getToc} $title={Table of contents}

EXPERIENCE

My USMLE Step 1 Advice (Score: 256)

Study Materials:

·         Kaplan videos and lecture notes for all subjects except Pathology.

·         Pathology: Pathoma videos and lectures + Goljan audio and Goljan 125 page transcript.

·         First Aid 2013.

References: (used on an as-needed base for topics not understood from study materials)

·         Goljan's Rapid Review of Pathology

·         BRS Physiology (Board Review Series)

·         Lippincott's Illustrated Reviews: Pharmacology

·         Google Images (seriously!!)

·         Others:

o   Medscape, NEJM, Wikipedia

Question Banks:

·         USMLEWorld QBank: Online QBank for 5 months (3 months are fair enough, however, I had several interruptions so I subscribed for 2 extra months because I didn't finish my first pass in the first 3 months)

·         Kaplan QBank offline:

o   Most of: Biochemistry and Genetics, Microbiology and Immunology

o   Few of: Pathophysiology, Pharmacology, Statistics

o   None of: Pathology, Physiology, Anatomy, Embryology, Histology and Behavioral)

NBMEs (CBSSA): All forms taken online.

·         Form 15: 18 October 2014     - (251) – performance profile included.

·         Form 13: 26 October 2014     - (254)

·         Form 16: 1 November 2014   - (251)

·         Form 7: 12 November 2014   - (254)

UWSA: online.

·         UWSA 2: 12 October 2014     - (257)

·         UWSA 1: 21 December 2014 – (265)

Actual Step 1 Exam: 28 December 2014: (256) – performance profile included.

Timeline: I prefer not to mention this because it might be disappointing. I wasted too much time due to multiple interruptions during my preparation plus a bulk of time wasted at the beginning, when I used large, exhausting, low-yield resources until I read recent examinees' experiences (in this group) and followed them.

Tips and Advices

(The next part summarizes in points what I learned during my preparation; my mistakes and ways to avoid them in my opinion)

 

Advice Regarding Study Materials:

 

1.    Before starting, choose among the study materials mentioned in the various experiences in this group. They are more than enough. Big text books are never good for exam preparation. Using Lange for physiology or Lippincott's illustrated reviews for biochemistry and pharmacology are probably terrible ideas, unless you have done them already during coursework.

2.    The choice of your study resources should only be based on your own personal preferences. Pick up a resource you feel comfortable with, a resource that you feel more friendly. Avoid studying from a resource that you don't like or can't handle just because it has more recommendations. A good example is pathology. I've read many experiences (in this group) about people who scored 250+, and each one of them studied pathology from a single resource whether Kaplan, Goljan or Pathoma. So pick up the one that "appeals" to you the most and "master" it.

3.    Avoid using more than one study material per subject. If you use other materials for reference only, that is fine. Mastering 100% of the material in Pathoma alone is better and more time efficient - in my opinion - than accomplishing 90% of Pathoma and 75% of Goljan (as in my case).

4.    In your first read, start with foundation subjects (physiology, anatomy, immunology, biochemistry). Leave pathology till the end. During your revision (i.e. your second read), start with your weakest subjects and topics first.

5.    QBooks (I am not talking about QBanks here) could be used best – if any – only during your first or second read. Kaplan QBank, First Aid Q&A and Robbins Review of Pathology are all good QBooks to aid the consolidation of important concepts. But they are NOT good at all to prepare you for the actual exam. To be honest, I barely used any of these.

6.    Do not even try to memorize anything during your first read. Your first read has only one purpose: to understand the concepts. Spend time on understanding rather than memorization. Refer to textbooks, lectures, YouTube, Google Images, Wikipedia, Medscape, NEJM, etc. to understand any concept that seems hard.

7.    Get the First Aid book. Regardless of whether you like this book or not, it is a treasure. I didn't like it myself. I used it as a review tool, as a study guide and as a curriculum reference.

 

Advices Regarding Online Question Banks (USMLEWorld)

 

1.    QBanks – especially USMLEWorld – focus on high-yield Read more...

DISCLAIMER: 

The given links are only for educational purposes and the author does not encourage any illegal activities. we are not responsible for the reliability of the link; neither do we own the proprietary of the link.