Hi everyone. First things first. I would like to thank everybody from this group for being supportive and for basically contributing to my USMLE STEP ONE journey.
My story will be short and I will stick to the main idea.
Time of preparation:
6 months + 3 months due to COVID (my exam was scheduled on March 21st but because of COVID 19 it was postponed by 3 months)
Resources:
-First Aid (I can not say how many times I read it, you just keep getting back to FA as you go through different concepts from other sources)
- QBanks
(I started with Rx and did half of it basically the hardest ones, this is a very good QBank to start with)
(UW - I did it once, do not see the point of doing it multiple times, better go and do other QBanks)
(Amboss - I did not plan to do AMBOSS but because of COVID I had time so I did it, in my opinion, it is a good Qbank, questions are harder than UW but explanations are worse)
-
Pathoma (The best resource you should definitely do. Book + Video.)
-
Did not use Anki, BnB, Sketchy, and other recently popular resources.
-
During my 5th and 6th year of University that is way before I started to prepare for the exam, I watched Kaplan Videos (Biochemistry is gold, Microbiology, Physiology, Anatomy, Pharmacology)
Practice tests:
UW First Pass - 80 %
Free 120 - 90%
UWSA 1 - 245 (after half of UW)
UWSA 2 - 259 (one week before the scheduled exam in March)
NBME 20 - 235 (after half of UW)
NBME 19 - 243
NBME 16 - 244
AMBOSS SA - 250
NBME 18 - 257 ( one week before the exam in July)
Bullet points:
-
The most predictive self-assessments are UWSA 2 and NBME 18. New NBME are under predictive.
-
Make a STEP ONE JOURNAL where you annotate all the concepts in your own words and drawings, review it periodically. Do not move to the next questions until you did not understand it and did not annotate in such a way you will remember it.
-
Do not just read Q and A from QBanks you need to understand the concept. All of the questions at the exam won’t repeat any other question you see in any QBank, they will use the concept. If you don’t understand the concept then search on google or youtube more explanation for that concept and then annotate it in your own words in your self-made STEP ONE JOURNAL.
-
The day before the exam is very stressful don’t try to study anything you will make it worse. Try to do a sample test at Prometric if you can, that will reduce some stress.
-
The exam was very hard in my opinion, more like NBME questions than UW, and a lot of confusing, tricky, and unknown concepts.
-
Do as many QBakns as you can. The best are UW>RX, Amboss. Do all NBME SA and try to find explanation and understand each question.
-
Begin to do QBaks from the first day of your study. Start with Rx. You will get many wrongs but you are in the process of studying so don’t worry.
-
FA does not work if you just read it, you need first, to begin with, a source that can explain concepts can be Kaplan, Bnb, Pathoma or whatever.
-
Use the latest FA, I had a book form 2017 and I was impressed by how many new things are in 2020 edition.
-
The images at the exam suck in terms of resolution and clarity. Try to do a google search on each image you could be possibly tested (especially neuroanatomy).
-
Don’t forget about questions that use audio especially cardiac murmurs (check Khan Academy for that on youtube).
-
Believe in your self-assessment. After exam I was devastated I thought I did not pass it.
-
Prometric associates are very polite and kind, the room is quiet but a little bit cold so take a sweater.
-
Try to have a healthy and organized period o study, do breaks, run, talk with your relatives. Don’t just study 24/7 you will get burnout very quickly.
See you in STEP 2 CK group.
Good luck to everybody.
Cei care sunteți în acest grup din Moldova sau România contactați-mă poate facem un grup aparte unde am putea să ne ajutăm, ori dacă există deja unul aș fi recunoscător dacă m-ați putea invita.