Step 1 Exam experience: (Long read, so buckle up)
I just came home from the test center. I took my Step1 today at Houston Space Center, which is a good center with amenities (I went to Harwin once to check, and it is not as good as this one). Writing this post today because I am afraid I might forget my experience by tomorrow.
The exam is totally doable. I spent a lot of time for the preparation which I think isnt necessary. I felt 75-80% of the questions in each block are easy and straightforward, you need to think more and struggle for the remaining 20% or so. 3rd and 5th blocks seemed difficult for me (more percentage of difficult questions relatively). Ultimately you need to select your best option and move on. After 5th block I was a bit stressed and started having headache (may be bcoz I was scared about my performance, I still have the headache as I am typing this ), but I tried my best to cool down and finish the test.
I had bit of difficulty with time in the 1st block, had to rush towards the end. But for other blocks I had 10 min of time to recheck marked questions. But you always need to have an eye on the clock, time passes very quickly if you relax and take your time in answering questions. Utilized my entire break time. Moved out and had a chocolate after every block except between 1st & 2nd and 5th & 6th. I think the breaks helped me in recharging.
You need to wear mask throughout your exam and you need to carry your own mask. You also need to carry your passport and Usmle scheduling permit pdf (CIN# in the permit is what you need to enter every time you access your test after the break and have to provide them). Obviously you need to get your own food and water (u can drink from a fountain there if u want). I was asked to not use phone during the breaks (it is a new rule apparently), it needs to remain switched off throughout the test. It wasn’t easy doing the test with a mask, I wear glasses so they fog up with the air. But I used to keep pressing the upper end of the mask sometimes to prevent fogging, overall I wouldn’t say it was much of a problem. I do recommend practicing your nbmes with the mask, (don’t remove it at all during your test), it helps a lot (you don’t want surprises on the test day).
Overall, I really cant tell how I performed, I expected the worst, so I don’t feel it was that bad. It was actually much easier than the new nbmes I feel. I felt I got a lot of micro and immuno questions, most micro were straightforward and easy, immuno was okay. I felt difficulty answering a lot of anatomy questions. Genetics were easier for me. A couple of molecular biology questions were difficult to answer. Overall, I felt clueless for about 5-8 questions. Patho questions were easier to answer if you know the concepts well. Biochem qs were straightforward as well, I felt biostats was easy as well. I had difficulty answering some ethics questions, which I think could be answered, but I neglected ethics during the prep). I got a good chunk of embryology questions. I didnt get as many psychiatry questions as i expected. The questions were entirely UW format, long stem ones, sometimes u just need to read the last line of the question, but I read all and calculated Bun/cr for every question. I stress on reading the last line of question carefully.
Overall, I would say it wasn’t as bad as I imagined. I felt it was easier than what many ppl said (have to wait until I get score to know if it was really easy😝).I feel very relieved now. My test was postponed in Mar due to Covid-19, and I got to take it now again. During the last days, the fear of my whole prep reducing down to 8hrs scared me a lot, but had to cope with it. I strongly recommend not studying for a day before the test, because that will help you mentally for giving the test, I know its hard but you have to do it. The fb groups and many ppl helped me in this preparation especially my family which I am very grateful to. I wish everyone best of luck with their preparation.
Edit: I made my own Anki cards in the yellow Anki app during my Uw prep, i didnt write down all the notes in the fa like everyone does traditionally (im a bit lazy and i dont like text being full with writings:stuck_out_tongue:
), also keeping the info in the Anki cards makes it easy to prepare and revise instead of entire info being in the text which can be overwhelming. Please let me know if anyone wants any cards, but I would like to sell them instead of giving away for free (for two reasons: i spent a lot of time making them, they arent perfect but they do the job for me; ppl tend to put more efforts and give value for those they spent money on, than those they got for free). I still havent figured out how i will do it, but if anyone needs, shoot a personal msg.