I was an average student in my medical school and always thought Usmle was out of my league. After working for 6 months we friends decided to give it a try at least step 1.
We prepared for step 1 for about a year with part time job. Had to study from very basics because we did not study a lot during medical school. I feel like we took a little long to jump to uworld from fa and Kaplan. Similarly the long preparation caused us to forget things in between. Finally scored 254 in step 1. It was a huge boost for us.
Then we studied for about 5 months for step 2 ck. Studied few topics from master the board and straight away jumped to uw. Scored 268 in step 2 ck.
This scores gave overconfidence in us and we took cs exam very lightly. Rushed for cs exam and gave with 7 days preparation. Failed cs in spoken English proficiency and had marginal pass in ICE. All of my us failed the exam. Had a first obstacle in our USMLE journey. Felt depressed, had PTSD and woke in between sleep for about a month. Confidence had hit rock bottom. Kept on remembering the money and time wasted for this journey. Was the hardest time of my life. Finally after 2 months, gathered courage and gave exam and all of us passed comfortably this time.
Now I had about a year time for next application. Being from underdeveloped part of world I had financial crisis so returned to home country and resumed the work along with preparation for step 3.
Did 2 observership in between and scored 236 in step 3 exam.
Applied for 150 programs including Internal Medicine and family medicine. Got 10 ivs for IM and 1 for FM. Ranked 10 IM programs. Matched this year. And the good thing was all of us matched this year. So this journey is the test for patience and persistence. Don’t be excited or upset in between.
Feel free to ask anything.