Journey to 250+ USMLE Step 1 – Dr. Donmez
Try your best and left rest of it on The Creator who creates you such a perfect complex body.
All thanks belong to Almighty and Merciful God.
Sorry for my poor writing.
There are many things I couldn’t write here to avoid letting you bored. If you have any question,
pleasure to help.
Target:
Time:
Roughly 7 months
My Background:
Dr.Necip videos in 2th-8th semester of MBBS and goljian pathology 6-9th semester in MBBS.
These were the two meaningful things for my preparation. I don’t want you waste your time with
Dr.necips video and Goljian. I did these two materials when I have no idea about Usmle.
Materials:
FA, Uworld, Kaplan Qbank, RX Qbank, Other supportive materials (Kaplan, Brs, Netter,Goljian)
Methods and Tips:
1-Put FA at the center of your preparation
My journey started with FA end ended with FA. I also put FA center of my preparation. I also advise
you to the same. I don’t want you waste your times with Kaplan, Brs. I know that my brain is so
leaky, I didn’t read those books. Rather than reading a bulky book without memorization, I only
focus on FA understanding and memorizing without losing any single facts in it by space repetition
method.
2-Use other books just to support your understanding of FA
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Online Test Prep
Medical Residency Programs
Online Teaching Jobs
FA is 70-80 percent of all exam content. Most of the medical student find FA tough to understand
at the beginning of preparation as I do so. When I was facing with a new term in FA in which the 3-Select your own way to study
I have two options to offer you if you are the beginner of your prep or mid-time of your prep with
bored methods. First one is my one described below with detailed explanation. My study was only
on the computer for convenient propose. You can easily search things on the computer and take
notes very fast by copy face and revise wisely via anki by space repetition methods. The second
option is that you will anode everything on FA, study again and again. I don’t like the second
option since hate taking notes by hand because of a sweating problem.
3-Use ANKI ANKI ANKI ANKI ANKI ANKI ANKI ANKI ANKI ANKI ANKI ANKI for your short-term
memorization
Anki is an application designed to memorize things by the most easiest way. I was using this app
from beginning to end of my preparation and am still using to revise step 1 materials for step2
prep. First aid RX flash cards in apkg format(anki only import flashcard with this format) This app
let you memorize FA by its flash cards which include all content of FA. Even I didn’t open my FA
book. I was always using apps to memorize and checking the things from other materials which I
didn’t understand. I finished all Usmle RX flash cards which composed of around 10000 flash
cards prepared from FA in about two months.
4-Use space repetition methods for your long term memorization
This is the most important method that I can use it for my whole life when I want to memorize
something. I may not say precisely but it is that when you learn some new fact or knowledge you
should revise it at least 4 times to memorize it permanently. A revising in a week, a revising in
three weeks, a revising in three months, a revise in a year. This may change according to your
memorization skill. For me, I revised more frequently. may you think that is that time-consuming?
No, it really worth it and your time requirement for revise is gradually decrease. At the beginning
of preparation I was finishing 200-300 flash cards, at the end I was finishing 1500-2000 flash cards.
5-Plan your study according to Space repetition for each week and execute your plan as this will
give you so much confident and motivation.
What I did is that I restrict my materials with FA flashcards and my own flash cards from uworld,
Kaplan,etc, it was very easy to revise everything quickly and by space repetition. Especially when
you start Uworld which will takes a long time, you should revise your background often.
6-Make your own flash card in Anki
Taking notes from Qbank(uworld, and others) is important as FA is not enough for the exam. I
was making my own flash cards when I was solving Qbanks. I have taken almost 10000 flash cards
from my preparations aside from 10000 flash cards in First Aid Rx flash cards. I after I made my
own flash cards I revised all the decks by space repetition methods. The link below shows you
how I make own flashcards. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7K2StK7e3ww
7-Do NBME for your assessment and studying tools
I did almost all NBMEs exams except 18, 19, 6 as far as I remember (my exam was three months
ago, result is delayed some document issue.)
Nbme 11-215(Three months before) others mostly btw 220-250
Nbme 15-220(two and half month before)
Nbme 17-234
Nbme 16-256
Nbme-18 it was tough, I did two blocks and gave up
Kaplan 7 Hour sample exam: 78 percent
Kaplan 7 Hours sample exam: 72 percent
8-After revising three time’s First aid flash cards you should read FA quickly.
consolidate your own flashcards from Qbank before the exam and revise at least one time in the
last month of your preparation.
9-After accomplished your plans many times; you will be definitely relaxed when you are going
into the exam. So just try your best in exam left rest of it on The Creator.
My Mistakes:
1-I did Uworld offline, you should do online.
2-I did some useless qbank, you shouldn’t
My Q banks Ranking
Uworld (offline)
Kaplan q bank (paid online), It was most similar to my exam.
Pastest q bank (free online)
Rx q bank 2014(offline)
Mustafa Ridvan Donmez