USMLE Step 1 Experience by Dr. Farook
Materials studied and number of times studied:
Kaplan Lecture Notes – 2 times + Kaplan Videos – 1 Time
First Aid USMLE Step 1 – 6 times
UWorld (1 time offline and 1 time online)
BRS Behavioural Science – only questions 1 time
Journey:
USMLE is a long process and i recommend you understand your strengths and weaknesses in
order to go for this test. My strength was studying for 8-10 hours a day consistently. Some
people’s strength maybe to study 24-36 hours non-stop but that is not my strength. I believe that
in order to synthesize memory one needs good sleep, good diet and good exercise in addition to
studies. So i went to the gym regularly and ate healthily. I did not stay up late and made sure i
study in proper rhythm. Rhythm is very important for me and i studied in the following pattern:
Wake up at 8
Go to library after a breakfast and begin reading at 9
Take a light lunch at 1-2 PM. I brought the food along with me to the library and in this way i did
not have to go back home to get the food. That maintained my tempo and i did not get distracted
in time wasting transit from one place to another.
Then i would study till 7 PM from 2PM i.e. 5 more hours.
Then i would go for a run and then exercise. That was from 7PM to 9PM
9PM – 10PM i would have dinner
And finally i would study 1-2 hours in the night after food
So all in all i studied for 10 hours roughly per day…each and every day.
Preparation:
UW and FA i did word for word…each and every thing. I made sure i knew those books well.
Uworld i solved as untimed timed and tutor mode for the first time and i got 82%. In the second
time i got 96% and second time i did random and timed.
I annotated everything from UW and Kaplan into FA. I would also google for things not explained
well in the books. After googleing i would enter some useful information into my FA. I had
basically put FA into a binder and seperated the pages. I would be able to add new pages in
between this way. Basically, because FA has so less free space… i had to add my own pages in it.
So in this way i annotated stuff from everywhere into my book.
I also did all the NBMEs. I did each and every NBME – offline and online as it is known that the
questions can come form any of them
Final days:
In the last week i did somethings like – Heart sounds, ECG, FRED practice test. I also did the
questions i got incorrect on the NBME and on the UWorld.
Exam day:
I got cold coffee, red bull and chips in my bag to the Prometric center. No heavy food. I took
breaks between all blocks except first 2 and i did them back to back. Rest blocks i took a break
between them. Also after 4th block i had the chips. In the rest of the block i alternate between
consuming 1 red bull or 1 cold coffee…