Check out this experience of Dr. Gowri Korpalss
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Books used:
Pathoma (Fundamentals of Pathology)
First Aid USMLE Step 1
This experience has been submitted to usmlexperiences.review website by the student doctor. If
you would like to submit your experience please use the contact us page to do so. Make sure you
look at the USMLE Code Of Conduct before submitting an experience. Thanks.
Books used:
Pathoma (Fundamentals of Pathology)
First Aid USMLE Step 1
NBME 15 -22 incorrect – 247
I gave these from the start of my preparation and i finished NBME 15 – 4 months before my test. I
then prepared for 3 months and i gave the following NBMEs in the last month just prior to my
exam. In these 3 months of preparation i did the things i was more weak in.i.e. Behavioural and
Anatomy. This caused my score to jump from high 240s to low-mid 260s. With God’s grace i
scored even higher 270 in my real test.
Advanced Preparation:
Now after doing the offline NBMEs…it was time to do the topics which i was weak in PRIOR to
doing the online NBMEs. And those topics were Behavioural Science & Gross Anatomy.
In Behavioural Science there are multiple parts and each one needs to be done in a specific
manner. Following are the sections in Behavioural Science:
– Core Behavioural Science (stuff like conditioning)
– Psychiatry and Psychotherapeutics
– Patient – Physician Relations
– Biostatistics
The first 2 are pretty easy and i will concentrate on the last 2 as that was what i was getting wrong
in my NBMEs. To improve this i did UWorld Biostatistics Subject Review, BRS Behavioural Science
and Conrad Fischer’ 100 most likely questions of Ethics.
Apart from this i saw that in my NBME performance i was also weak in Anatomy and i was not just
weak in Gross and Clinical Anatomy, i was also weak in Embryology. These sections i was at a
point in time planning on ignoring and doing just UFAP for it. However, i am incredibly thankful to
god that i did not ignore it and did it well. The reason is that it was heavily tested in my exam. I
had concentrated on the questions in the following books more than the text. I would recommend you to do both, text + questions… however, the questions are very helpful in actually memorizing
the text and they are a must-do. I used:
BRS Gross Anatomy
High Yield Gross Anatomy
BRS Embryology
After doing my weak sections from these books for these 2 subjects, i went on to give online
NBME and my score in th
Following i gave online:
NBME 16(24 days before exam): 261
NBME 17 (17 days before exam): 265
NBME 18 (13 days before exam): 269
NBME 19 (6 days before exam): 261
Final Preparation:
After these NBMEs i was sure that i am going to do well in the exam…so in the final 5 days before
the exam… I did wrong questions from UWorld, wrong questions from NBME and First Aid USMLE
on last time. I made sure i knew each and every word in FA when i went in to give the test, I could
literally visualize every nook and corner of the textbook.
Exam Day:
I slept well on the day before the exam. On the exam i was calm and confident and it helped me a
lot. Being neurotic and anxious will not help…you did what you had to… you prepared for a long
time… Its all done now. Be confident and win the race… Go in with your 100%