Check out this amazing experience of USMLE Step 1 from Anastasia
Hello all. This is Anastasia. My experience is divided into 4 parts:
Preparation Books
Journey
Assesments
Exam experience
- PREPARATION BOOKS:
First Aid USMLE Step 1
Kaplan Lecture Notes (even Pathology… i did it all from Kaplan. Barone Rocks !! )
BRS Behavioural Science
BRS Gross Anatomy
BRS Physiology
High Yield Embryology
High Yield Neuro-Anatomy
Conrad Fischer’s Kaplan Medical Ethics – 100 most likely questions
Fundamentals of Pathology – Pathoma - JOURNEY:
I started with Kaplan Lecture Notes with some of the videos. I did the Pathology lectures contrary
to popular opinion it is quite good. Behavioural science is the achilles heal of all IMGs and hence i
did BRS Behavioural science and also Kaplan Medical ethics 100 most likely questions. I was week
in NeuroAnatomy so i did HY Neuroanatomy and it was helpful. I also did Pathoma and while it
was helpful… Barone rocks !! First aid and Uworld are the 2 most high yield resources in
USMLE… its even higher yield than high yield books despite the name. - ASSESSMENTS:
NBME 18: 269
NBME 19: 267
I dont recall the other NBMEs scores as it has become a long time since i gave them but i gave all
NBMEs online which were available online and the rest i just did the questions and answers with
explanations offline. It was very helpful as i found a similar pattern between this and the real
exam. - EXAM EXPERIENCE:
Do the following before the exam:
Sleep well before the day of the exam. I got 7 hours of good sleep before the exam and i think it
helped me a lot.
Do the tutorial from FRED before the exam as it is very helpful as it save the time which would
otherwise have been used in it. That time can be effectively used in breaks.
Do the images on the last day before the exam and dont study too much on the day before the
exam as it is not helpful and rather you will be hyper and may have difficulty sleeping.
Make sure to have food, drinks etc for the exam breaktime packed before the exam. Dont pack at
last moment as you will just be anxious then.
The exam was tough and it was also lengthy. Questions were weirdly worded and even corner
questions from corners of First Aid were asked. I recommend you to concentrate on First Aid and
UWorld the most. Best of luck… on to step 2 Ck now…