My Step 1 Experience - Road to 246

 USMLE EXPERIENCE 

USMLE STEP 1 EXPERIENCE

By Muhammad Asif Bashir

(Graduate Nishtar Medical College 2012)

                                                                                   Score: 246

 

Exam Date: 9^th april 2014

Result Reported: 30^th april 2014

Resources Utilized:
                                Notes: Kaplan USMLE STEP 1, First Aid for Step 1

                                Video Lectures: Kaplan lectures for Step 1, Goljan lectures for pathology

Qbanks Utilized: Online USMLE WORLD STEP 1 (HIGHEST YIELD)
Online NBME Forms: Form 12 (235), Form 15 (247)

I can’t be more grateful to ALMIGHTY ALLAH for giving me such honor, n blessing me such success…

I didn’t mention prep time because I did my first read with house job of 7 months n after that had to take breaks….. so time taken by me can’t be generalized……
secondly I had issues with permit issuance and it took some EXTRA time also… I will mention these problems and suggestions to avoid them at the end

First read:
I started house job in aug 2012…. Started studying with it…. Kaplan lecture notes subjectwise with videos…… bcz of HJ … it took me quiet long, but it really opened my mind,,,, built concepts mainly… no memorizing…. For pathology I listened to goljan audio lectures but read Kaplan pathology notes.

Second read:                     
From march to september 2013 with breaks… I just did Kaplan lecture notes subject wise… except patho, which I did system wise with FA organ systems….…. Starting to integrate some concepts n remembering also. Did questions from Kaplan qbook aftr completing pharma, physio, biochem…
Took nbme 3 offline…. Got (150/200)

Third Cycle:                       
Now it was UW time… left everything,
did UWorld timed subject wise… read Kaplan Lecture notes for each subject quickly then did all its questions.
took me 3 mnths to complete. Cumulative score at the end was 71%. This was the real prep.

NBME 12 (expanded feedback):
Then did FA complete in a week n 7^th January I took nbme 12(expanded)…scored 235
identified weak areas from feedback…

Fourth read:
Full of confidence set my goal at 250 (earlier was 240).
So went for another quick read of Kaplan for those subjects in which I was weak…. In 20 days I did physio, patho , biochem, pharma…took 1 month subscription of UW… planning exam 30 days after.
Kept doing UW timed random…… along with few hours daily for remaining subjects….. completing 4^th read with 40 % UW in next 20 days…

NBME 15 (non expanded):
On 24^th feb 2014, Took NBME 15 simulating it with exam…scored 247
Felt great and ready for exam… But I had no permit… L

Final read:
I knew my permit would take a month….So decided to repeat the same process again…
I tried to simulate my fourth read exactly…… by doing 1 block UW timed random daily…. And reading books rest of the day… completed Kaplan books & Uworld timed random by 25^th march 2014 (cumulative 87%) ….. Then fixed exam date
In last 15 days just kept doing UW marked questions, incorrect, mixed…. N studied FA Only..                        I did USMLE Fred practice software 150 questions 2 days before exam… getting 92%...

Test Day: 9^th april 2014.
Day before test, just relaxed… no study…. Slept early ….. so woke up early in the morning..
Did breakfast, reached centre early… relaxed there…. Got familiarized….
Fortunately I didn’t have any anxiety or any time issue….
took 10 min break after each block…. Did several blocks few minutes earlier..
kept eating small chunks of chocolate n sips of drinks in breaks to keep energy level higher but not to overwhelm my GI,,,
felt relieved after completing…… Thanked ALLAH n waited for result…..

MISTAKES & SUGGESTIONS:

1. I did 1^st read with house job… took too long, so I still had to give an extra read eventually…
   so DO NOT DO THIS, CHOOSE ONE PATH ONLY…
2. Took first NBME offline…. I suggest TAKE NBMEs ONLINE ONLY, identify weak areas with each nbme n focus on them… that’s the ONLY way to improve scores
3. Did uworld with 3^rd read…
   I suggest.give GIVE CONTINUOUS AND STRONG FIRST READ & START UW WITH 2^ND READ…
4. Took triad toooo late, so had to delay exam because of a clerical error ,,,so
   LEAVE MARGIN FOR ERRORS, APPLY AT LEAST 3 MONTHS BEFORE YOUR EXPECTED DATE