Hey guys!
Firstly would like to thank everyone of you for helping me throughout this journey. This group indeed is the best without a doubt. And special thanks to my biggest support system DrUsmle Aspirant and Abhinav Sinha. Couldn’t have done it without you two 
Step 1 score - 256
Duration of preparation - 14 months (11 months with internship - 5 to 6 hours per day, last 3 months dedicated - 8-12 hours per day)
Materials used, along with timeline
March 3 weeks - pathoma videos plus annotations in pathoma hardcopy.
March last week - immunology from Kaplan videos and directly annotated it into fa.
April - physio brs ( no videos seen at this point. Mistake made - should have seen Kaplan videos too)
-Micro sketchy with direct annotation into fa
May - micro sketchy (took me 3-4 weeks to finish, along with micro fa too. Saw the genetics part of micro from Kaplan videos)
May 3rd-4th week : behavioural science and biostatistics - brs, Kaplan, Conrad’s 100 cases
June : had a hectic month during my internship. Barely got things done. (By this I’m trying to say that’s it’s okay if there are unwanted breaks in your prep)
Still managed to get pharmac done. Saw the Kaplan videos with direct annotation into fa. Didn’t use Kaplan notes
July : Kaplan lectures for neuroanatomy with direct annotation into fa. Didn’t open Kaplan notes at all.
There’s a lot of extra stuff. My fa got cluttered after this.
For embryology - brs and Kaplan videos.
For gross anatomy - couldn’t find anything good enough. People suggest shelf notes, I haven’t tried it myself. I decided to come back to gross anatomy later.
August - Dr. Turco videos for BIOCHEMISTRY. He’s the best. Used Kaplan notes and annotated in Kaplan.
Also did biochemistry from fa after finishing with Kaplan
From march-august, I kept solving questions as and when I’d finish a subject from offline uw. I would recommend using a different q-bank. Maybe Usmle Rx in order to prevent over prediction while solving online uw.
September - finished fa 1st read. Since I had already read fa for immunology, micro, pharmac and neuroanatomy earlier, it got over quicker than expected.
30th sept - Gave nbme 5 - 140/200
Realised my prep wasn’t good enough. Or I hadn’t learnt it properly.
October/November
- did Kaplan physio videos
-Did Kaplan q-bank for anatomy questions and learnt anatomy retrospectively. Made my own notes.
-Revised biochemistry from Kaplan (I had forgotten everything from my first read)
-revised fa and this is when I started retaining stuff
-Did random questions from Kaplan q-bank (I wouldn’t recommend it…They were tough, couldn’t retain a lot)
Nbme 11 : 5 months before exam - 32 mistakes
Dec/Jan : online uw 1st pass with annotation into fa
Nbme 12 : 4 months before exam - 24 mistakes
Feb : fa 3rd pass along with pathoma and Kaplan biochemistry notes
Took these nbmes in Feb (exam on 2nd may)
Nbme 13 : 230
Nbme 15 : 15 mistakes
Nbme 16 : 21 mistakes
March : first 10 days fa 3rd pass (continued) fa took me longer than expected.
Mid 10 days - uw 2nd pass (did only marked and wrong questions) 4 blocks per day
Last 10 days - amboss q-bank free trial plus random 500-600 questions from Usmle Rx just for practice. 150-200 questions per day
Assessments in March
Uwsa 1 - 256 (exact predictor for me. Haha)
Nbme 19 - 16 mistakes
Nbme 17 - 257
Nbme 20 - 246
Amboss exam - 269
April (a month before exam) - fa 4th pass along with pathoma and Kaplan biochemistry notes
Assessments in April
Nbme 18 - 255
Nbme 21 - 257
Uwsa 2 - 260
Nbme 22 - 250
Free 120 - 88%
5 days before my exam, I realised my biostats had still not improved. So I did uw biostats review. Finished it in a day. Super helpful.
I booked my exam date 3 months in advance. It gave me a boost to study harder. I also started waking up at 7am every morning and slept by 12am. So basically practiced this schedule for 3 months. (I prefer studying at night, hence took time to adjust)
I went to the city which had my exam centre, 2 days in advance. I stopped studying after 7pm on both days. wanted my mind to relax.
I slept 9 hours the night before the exam and woke up that morning with the worst headache of my life. Took ibuprofen and an antacid and went to the centre with a smile.
I could barely eat 1/3 of a Frankie in the entire day during the exam. Drank a lot of coffee, peed a lot! 
Took a 2 minute break after my first block and didn’t go out. Just prayed.
Took a 8 minute break after the 2nd block.
After that, took 8-10 minute break after every block.
Obviously skipped the tutorial (had already seen it on free 120)
Over all, it was tough, with a hectic internship, but I just kept telling myself ‘If they can do it, why not us?’
Its God’s grace, the strength he gave me to get through this with this result and my family and friends who prayed relentlessly. Faith can actually move mountains.
I hope this is useful. Feel free to ask as many questions in the comments. Good luck everyone
Humble request, please don’t DM me, I don’t check the message requests.
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