Dr.

KDs

Journey to 254-Usmle step 1.

Hello guys,
I just got my result and achieved what I wanted. At the beginning of the preparation my target
was to touch psychological landmark of score-250.
Exam Score -254
Preparation time - 8-9 months
Material- Kaplan, pathoma, FA, uworld.
This review may help some of you for the better score in step-1. Will be more helpful to
beginner.
I started preparing for step1 in March, beginning with the B.science then pharmacology, microimmune, pathology then Anatomy and physiology. I did anatomy and physiology at last because
it was just a review for me as I did it earlier.
Pattern at the beginning that workedI preferred doing 1 subject at a time only with Kaplan. 1st used to read the 2-3 chapters from
the book then see the videos of that chapters. At the end of the subject , I used to do FA of that
subject and then after offline uworld with my 2-3 friends. Doing offline uworld with the friends
helps a lot, it will help consolidate the memory and some important topics you may missed or
ignored during Kaplan reading. So, it's helpful for all of friends and doing the subject together is
also beneficial for the pace in the beginning. We used to make notes from the uworld to the FA.
So it will help during subsequent readings.
I did pathoma for the pathology and I think it's sufficient for step-1. Dr.Sattar explained all the
concepts very well. Each and every line is important and significant.
I used to make notes of the important topics during reading that I found difficult for me or the
topics which I used to forget easily.
FA is a charm of the step-1. Main thing is to do FA nicely and its structure helps us to do the
revision at a end in few days. So we don't have to look to different books again and again.

Dr.KDs
Physiology- Kaplan
Anatomy-Kaplan
Micro-immuno- Kaplan
Pharmacology- Kaplan
Pathology- pathoma
B.science- Kaplan, Conrad 100 cases.
With FA , uworld, wiki, you tube for few topics.
Images , heart sounds, ecg from Google.
BRS and high yield for few topics(few pages only)
After finishing 1 time reading of all subjects form Kaplan , I did whole FA before starting online
uworld. Then I begin the master preparation material-the UWORLD online. I brought it for 1
month with uwsa tests. 2 blocks/day was the plan with reading the full explanations and
annotate to the FA if missing. So, I finished it in a month with the same pace. After online
uworld, I did FA again in few days.
Then it's like I was done with the Kaplan, pathoma, FA-3 times and uworld offline and online
both. So I was clear in every aspects of the material and almost every topics. So, I decided to go
for NBMEs now.
NBME:
I started with the NBME 13 around 1.5 month before the exam. I used to do NBME with 1 of my
friend, we begun with the offline NBME and solve it together so that it will boost the knowledge
of both of us, we can share the topics and important points in between NBMEs. For the offline
NBME, answer key should be verified from 2-3 sources. (Usmle forums, scribd, Facebook are the
important sources we can use.)
I preferred doing 2 NBME simultaneously so that I can get used to 8 hour long exam.
Strategy was to do NBME weekly and in between review of the weak topics from FA, Kaplan, wiki
etc.
Never exposed questions in NBMEI Tried to make the best choice if I don't know the answer or haven't exposed to the topic of
question. Rule out the other options and making the best choice was helpful. Important for
ruling out is that we must have enough and to the point diagnostic criteria for the options we
are considering to rule out. By this 1 can confidently strikethrough the options and get 1-2
choices at end. So, chances increases of being right in a don't know questions.

Dr.KDs
Review of NBMEDuring review of NBME, I check the wrong ones from wiki and get idea about the never exposed
topics and some repeatedly asked topics. Making note is also important, I made a note from
uworld and NBME that helped me reviewing the all the odd things in just a day before exam.
My scores in NBME were..(out of 200 questions of offline NBME)
NBME 13- 175 ( 7week before exam)
Uwsa 1- 252 ( 6 week before exam)
NBME 5- 176 (6 week before exam)
NBME 11- 179 ( 5 week before exam)
NBME 12- 174 ( 5 week before exam)
NBME 6- 167 ( 4 week before exam)
Online NBME 15- 243 ( 4 week before exam)
NBME 4- 176 ( 4 week before exam)
Online NBME 16- 243 (3 week before exam)
NBME 7-178 ( 3 week before exam)
Uwsa 2- 257 ( 1 week before exam)
Free 150 Usmle -90% ( 1 week before exam)
Online NBME 17- 249 (5days before exam)

Dr.KDs

After finishing NBME 15-16 , I did FA again for the last time and then did uwsa 2 and NBME 17.
After that just 4-5 days were there, so I decided to do uworld again for just getting accustomed
to the pattern and did around 10 blocks. Reviewed my notes and weak topics of NBME 17.
Day before exam:
Did not do many things, just few videos I found important and I was weak at. Travelled to the
city(exam center)-took around 4-5 hours. Saw TV and slept early. Got 6-7 hours nap.
Exam:
I found that It is not so big deal if you practiced for that. Exam was going smoothly like I was
solving the uworld or the NBME blocks. I used to finish each blocks 44 questions before 55 min
so that I cAn review the marked questions.
Took 2 breaks after 2-2 blocks and then I had 30m min remaining for the break so I was taking 5
min break at every block in last 3.
Important tip for the exam is you will find the extremely difficult questions that you had never heard of, but don't panic for
that. Make most probable guess and mark it and go on to the next one. Review that question in
last pending minutes otherwise it will be hard to finish the 44 questions and may some people
loose 2-3 points just due to time shortage.
So, it's very similar exam to what we practice. Nothing like a drastic change. So, prepare yourself
like the exam environment and it will boost your score at least 5 marks at the end.
Some points to throw the light at

Do FA very nicely, don't do it in a hurry.

Do look at images during preparation, it will help a lot. Save important images to
review later.

Do look at x-Ray , MRI, CT from web.

Try to remember the pathways and inter connections of the pathways in biochem,
don't just mug it up.

Do as many questions possible, it will help making the answer choice quickly in exam.

Don't just keep going in Kaplan books for long and long. Actual preparation starts
after finishing Kaplan.
Best of luck to all of you. May all get the score what they target.