Rajesh’s USMLE Step 1 – 271 Experience
Rajesh’s USMLE Step 1 Experience
Video Lectures and Books used:
First Aid USMLE Step 1
High Yield Behavioural Science
Conrad Fischer’s 100 Most Likely cases Kaplan Medical Ethics
Fundamentals of Pathology (Pathoma) – Dr. Hussain Sattar’s book
Qbanks:
UWorld
Kaplan Qbank
USMLE Rx
All 3000 NBME questions
NBME Scores:
NBME 15 – 248
NBME 16 – 257
NBME 17 – 265
I did all 15 NBMEs (Retired i.e. Offline as well as Online)… above scores are of the online ones.
General Prep Style:
First I finished reading FA & Pathoma end – to – end. Only after that did i read books if needed. My
method of preparation was different. I had a question-centric approach to my studies. While First
Aid was my main book… I only referred to the other books as and when i needed them when i did
not know something in a Qbank and needed to refer to text… I would use the books and would
Google for the topic. But the main modus operandi I used was: Questions, Questions and
Questions !! I would do a block of random questions in a question bank. Then i would read the
answers + explanations carefully. I would use other resources i.e. books and google… only if i did
not understand anything in the qbanks. If i understood…I would annotate whatever smal amount
was must – annotate into FA. I would not annotate everything. In this way, my style of preparation
was much different. But i think it was a better style of preparation. I concentrated on questions…
including NBME. NBME doesn’t declare correct answer + explanation as we all know. But i did it
from the explanations compiled by previous students and in that way i did all 3000 questions. It
was very helpful.
USMLE Step 1 Exam Day Experience:
I slept well before the exam and i was at peak performance in exam… I did each block and took a
break. I neever wanted to do blocks back to back as my brain kinda freezes if i do many questions
together. So i did all the blocks and then in between took 5 mins of break. I recommend
memorizing all the Lab Values in the front of First Aid USMLE Step 1 book so that in the exam you
dont have to waste time to see the Lab Values part of the software repeatedly as in almost every
other question they will have lab values and it is a wastage of time. Also, I recommend you not to
study in the day before the test as it is unnecessary strain. Prepare well in advance and take last
day as a break. It is not wise to strain in the end as believe me you will recall everything even from
years ago. Relaxing and having a rested mind is key to a great score