Hello everyone , I was a silent member in the group and I got my score on last Wednesday and one of friend asked me to share my story and she said, it will give motivation to a lot of people who had either failure or low score in step 1, unfortunately I had both.
I will give a general idea first and then what helped me improve my score,
Total preparation time- around 1 year , and dedicated around 8 months- from November 2019
1st round uworld (65%)with writing my notes on uworld notes and cms form 3,4- for 4 months.
1st nbme after 1st round -nbme 6- 21 February- 201 score
Read whole uworld notes for 40 days- total waste for me- just passive reading never helps ,at least for me.
2nd uworld round - 2 months - 75-80%.
Nbme 7- 31st May -213
June - half of marked uworld , cms form 5,6 , nbme 8 offline with 33 mistakes, tzanki whole deck with Skype group
July- wrong uworld , tzanki again around half focusing on weakness, uwsa1 10 days before exam 249, uwsa 2 -7 days before 246, free 120 recent 90%, difficult free 120 -79%.
Real deal- 250
I did uworld biostat review as well, khan ethics 100 cases, googled all related images in uworld, I also did some amboss with Skype group discussion and very little medquest. I used UpToDate for difficult and important topics.Amboss is good, if you have extra time. I found out about different Skype groups very late, but it’s a kind of different study world, I found all of the group discussions very very helpful. skype group discussions for anki, amboss, ecgs, difficult questions, everything was so helpful, kudos to all those who conduct the sessions. Thank you so much.
Tzanki was most helpful and doing tzanki and uworld in less time is most important. And I think that helped me to improve my score.
Now my story, I failed my step 1 in 2015, as I followed my genius husband’s pathway do uworld once and no nbme , no assessment and you are good to go, I did not even ask anyone else. I was so stupid. And gave exam after 1 year studying bcoz my husband studied just for 2 months and did really well, but I didn’t compare his knowledge base and mine, he was one of the toppers and I just studied to pass. And result came, and I failed the exam, it was devastating, It crashed me completely. It took me 2-3 years to start again. My husband ,my parents and family members motivated me to start again, then I started studying but was doing too much timepass on YouTube as if I was YouTube addict, and years were passing by just like that. Then we moved to some other area, where I got few friends who were studying for USMLE, I started seeing them, looking at their dedication, studying with them, got to know about online study partner, then searched for online sp and started studying, heard their stories and struggles which motivated me to give my best , if you are someone who needs little bit push, I would suggest definitely look for good sp who is better than you, that way you are answerable to someone which makes you more efficient in managing time .I agree, getting good study partner is really difficult,but keep trying and looking for one, after some tries you will find a good study partner.
I didn’t have the courage to appear for exam, that fear , what if I fail again? I had biggest fear, if I fail again , I will lose myself , my dream to be doctor will be crushed just like that. Then one day, I remember, I said to myself , irrespective of the score I get, if I give this exam, I will overcome my biggest fear, which itself was an achievement for me. I gave exam in 2019 March, I got score of 223, below average score, little bit disappointed, but I was happy also bcoz my life was moving at least a little bit. Then After 3-4 months, I started preparing for step 2 ck, and throughout the journey, I was observing, what works for me, what does not work for me, how should I improve the retention and how should I apply the knowledge to questions, bcoz understanding and knowledge were not the problem for me now, but still my scores were stuck around same range. I heard about anki at end of my step 1 preparation, and wanted to try, but trying something new is always questionable at the end of prep, so I didn’t do it for step 1 which I regret a lot. And in step 2 ck also, until last 2-3 months, I didn’t do anki. Why? Bcoz this is how our resistant mind works, it won’t easily allow you to do something new, bcoz it takes an extra effort, and you avoid taking extra efforts unknowingly- by giving 100 reasons like I need to do uworld more, I need to do this, that and what not. But this time, I decided to do anki , no matter what, I didn’t allow my mind to manipulate me. And I started doing anki with different Skype groups, I continued doing it with groups and only last 15 days of exams , I did it on my own.
Luckily I got amazing study partners in step 2 ck, in last phase, we did uworld quickly and I was doing anki regularly, no matter what.
I feel, my score improved the moment I started discussion, actively remembering important stuff, tzanki and doing uworld in small time period. If anyone is suffering like I did, then I request, please don’t drag things years and years, the stuff is so volatile, that if you are slow, you start forgetting the stuff you did 1 month back and vicious cycle continues for years. So I would suggest,do 2-3 rounds as quick as possible, I would say 6 months with anki regularly and active memorization, not just simple reading, you will see your score increasing. And step 2 ck is about knowledge as well as question solving skill, you will get it by doing more questions, ask yourself why that answer is right and others are wrong. I would definitely suggest to keep doing questions until last day of exam bcoz you don’t want to lose question approaching skill. I felt, I was guessing for about 70% questions in real exam, and you need to have that proper approach for solving. One more thing, I went for the exam with some assumptions like, I should feel during exam that I am doing at least okay, but my exam went horrible, I cried after coming out of exam hall, so please make your mind , don’t keep any hopes, whatever happens, just hold yourself, and keep your mind stable. I have decided to keep my head cool no matter what before exam ; bcoz in step 1 , I cried in between exam, which affected my performance, so I learnt that lesson also hard way and I kept my mind cool and composed during this exam. Take break after every block, close eyes, do meditation in between for 2 mins, do yoga , I did it in breaks in bathroom
. Practice studying with mask on before exam.
From all this , what I learnt is, no matter how someone else achieve their scores, observe yourself, see what works for you and what does not. If scores are not increasing, definitely you are doing something wrong, observe yourself, try some other ways. No matter, what your big brother, sister , husband, relative, friend says, see things by yourself, discuss with all, but do, whatever works for you and do it quickly. And also I stopped going to all social events , no meeting with friends, no Facebook except this USMLE profile, no YouTube for last 1 and half months before exam. My mind works that way, bcoz even if I do any other activity, my mind finds it more interesting than studying and I will go in the thinking loop, and at the end of the day, I use to realize I studied just for few hours. And one more thing, every time you study , use timer or Pomodoro technique, and at the end of the day see how many hours you genuinely studied, don’t ever lie to yourself( I have been guilty of manipulating my study time in step 1 when I failed it ), it is harmful for you only, learnt the lesson hard way. So be true to yourself.
Thank you for reading, I hope it helps someone. All the best to all of you. May god give you the score you wish for.