I , non- USA IMG , am simply grateful for my score as I have struggled & worked hard to achieve it
especially after doing Post Graduation !! 
◦ Goal : 250+ (As per my opinion, give exam once you get 5-10+ marks in assessments
from your target score)
◦ UG Passed (India) - 2016
◦ PG Passed (Ophthalmology) (in India) - 2019
◦ Duration of study - 1 year
( Preparing since June 2019 after passing MS Ophthalmology in India , I was planning to give exam
within 9 months but duration got extended due to COVID-19 Pandemic but nonetheless I improved a lot
during that time so Be Positive !! )
I had some personal experiences after which I decided to pursue my further studies in USA which I don’t
like to discuss here so don’t ask me why I chose USMLE after PG in India !!
◦ Study plan : Just after completion of my Uworld first pass , I started revising FA with
B&b + Uworld annotations with upto 8 hours of reading & 1 block of Marked Uworld Questions per day
& it took 1.5 month to complete whole revision then started giving NBMEs & in between each NBMEs, I
used to revise everything again with same hours of reading & 1-1.5 block of Uworld Marked questions
per day ! I STUDIED EVERYTHING WITHOUT DOING ANY HOSPITAL WORK JUST
DEDICATED STUDY ! NEVER LEAVE DOING MCQ UNTIL LAST WEEK OF PREPARATION as
USMLE is not about memorising Facts but to apply right concept & doing mcqs only will teach you that
!!
◦ Preparation sources :
- B&b videos - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for all HIGH YIELD CONCEPTS of FA &
Uworld together. - Uworld- Uworld is such a tool from which you will get to know ALL POSSIBLE TEST
RELATED TOPICS so never miss any of it & remember all of it & make good notes of it very well !!!
My personal experience, EVEN NBME TOPICS ARE FROM UWORLD CONCEPTS SO NEVER
IGNORE UWORLD !!!
⁃ My 1st Pass score —> 75 % ( But it doesn’t matter so don’t go behind it and take
Uworld as a learning tool not as an assessment tool) ,
⁃ 2nd Pass —> HIGHLY RECOMMENDED & I had done only 1500 MARKED
QUESTIONS (keep marked questions which you find TRICKY & Have NEW CONCEPTS & never
mark those which are Wrong). - Step1 First Aid -
—> All words of FA can make a question in all different ways so FIRST UNDERSTAND THE CORE
CONCEPT BEHIND IT (Uworld & B&b will help you in it) then SECONDLY MEMORISE EACH
WORD IN SUCH A WAY THAT YOU CAN RELATE TO ITS CONCEPT ALONG WITH ITS LINE
& LIKELY QUESTIONS WHICH CAN BE ASKED FROM IT.
—> KEEP all UWORLD , B&b, NBME
ANNOTATIONS within FA in
SMALL & SIMPLE WORDS
or
A SINGLE LINE that you understood that concept so that you can relate to it quickly whenever you
revise the topics from FA.
For example,
I used to remember difference between SIADH & DI —>
In SIADH: DILUTED BLOOD &
In DI : DILUTED URINE !!
So this is how you can RELATE to concepts of both & how to get to the clues in questions both !!
Hope it makes sense to you all !
—> Once you start give assessments then you can come to know topics from FA which are your among
WEAK topics & some will be from those which can give you SILLY MISTAKES so keep a note of such
topics from each chapter & ALWAYS TAKE EXTRA TIME REVISING, UNDERSTANDING &
REMEMBERING them more than others !!
( HIGHLY RECOMMENDED ADVICE — Must to do for those people who are not improving their self
assessment scores ). - SKETCHY MICRO for MICROBIOLOGY- HIGHLY RECOMMENDED as I had
mastered Microbiology with it & believe me , I was worst at it !! You’ll remember my words if you don’t
score well in Microbiology., so better do it earlier ! - 100 cases of Ethics - I had read only 100 cases & not theory as I found cases explanations
had covered almost all theory part. - Uworld Biostatistics Review- Must be done for Biostatistics ! Minimum 2 Passes are
required for it ! Understand the concepts of it very well ! - 1st 3 Chapters of PATHOMA - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED !!! Don’t forget to do them
1-2 weeks before exam as you must refresh your basic Pathology concepts before giving your real test !
Mark my words & never forget to do that !! - Kaplan Videos for Genetics & Molecular Biology - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED !!
◦ Journey from Scratch to 246 in real exam :
⁃ Yeah it was a journey which I started from scratch as altogether reading genetics &
immunology was a tough part on my side after completing Post Graduation in Ophthalmology. I started
first with B&b videos alongside of FA & had annotations from it & it took 3 months to complete my first
read of FA with B&b videos
⁃ —> then I subscribed to Uworld & I used to read FA single chapter with my B&b
annotations & then same chapter initially 40 mcqs per day with making notes of it in my FA as I had
added blank pages in my FA
⁃ —> So meanwhile I revised FA while doing Uworld & it took me 4.5-5 months to
complete everything & by then I had my FA with complete annotations from all Uworld & B&b
⁃ —> Then I started revising my FA with annotations & completed my 3rd reading in 1.5
months then gave NBME
⁃ —> Now I knew that FA with Uworld notes is all what I need to get conceptualised &
memorised so kept on doing that in between giving NBMEs & yes it’s the worst part but believe me it’s
to be worth doing
⁃ —> in the last 2 months, I used to revise whole FA in 2-3 weeks then I had made a list of
my weak topics which I used to revise in 1 week before giving any self assessments !
⁃ —> At last, I didn’t have any weak topics as I had revised them very well !! Overall I
highly recommend minimum 3-4 worth readings of FA with Uworld notes & WEAK TOPICS which you
can get to know from self assessments !!! FINDING WEAK TOPICS & MASTERING THEM IS THE
BEST PART TO CROSS 240s !!
◦ My assessment scores :
⁃ First, I had made a mistake of DOING NEWER NBME earlier so DON’T DO THAT as
it takes time to get oriented to NBME question styles so it will be worthless to directly jump to newer
NBMEs !!! (must to follow advice it’s) &
⁃ Secondly—> DON’T FALL IN TRAP OF ASSESSMENT SCORES & THEIR
PREDICTIONS !!! Have an approach to improve in every assessments from your last
mistakes ! According to me , you yourself can predict your scores, not any assessments !!
⁃ Exam day performance matters the most which no any assessments can predict so never
get depressed or excited by assessment scores ! I have seen people who have different scores than their
assessments INCLUDING ME
so it’s not so how you think !!
My scores are in following order -
I HAD OVERALL PROGRESSIVE PERFORMANCE IN NBME ONCE WHICH IS WRITTEN NEXT
!!
⁃ NBME 20 - 12/2/2020 - 220
⁃ NBME 21 - 07/03/2020 - 241 (was excited after this )
⁃ NBME 22 - 26/03/2020 - 230 (a reality check to realise where I used to make mistakes so
I found it takes minimum 3 self assessments to get to know your strengths & weaknesses)
⁃ UWSA1 - April /2020 - 243 (DEFINITELY OVERPREDICTS but it was the toughest I
done then)
⁃ NBME 13 - 25/04/2020 - 236
⁃ NBME 15 - 8/05/2020 - 240
⁃ NBME 19 - 11/05/2020 - 242
⁃ NBME 17 - Had done offline in between so don’t remember scores & wrongs
⁃ NBME 16 - 24/05/2020 - 257 (first time crossed 250 !!! )
⁃ NBME 23 - 29/05/2020 -> 18 days back real exam —> 244
⁃ NBME 24 - 04/06/2020 -> 11 days back real exam —> 246 —> SCORES CLOSE TO
REAL SCORE SO I WOULD RECOMMEND ALL TO DO NEWER NBMEs
⁃ NBME 18 - 10/06/2020 -> 1 week before real exam —> 250
⁃ UWSA2 - 13/06/2020 -> 4 days before real exam —> 256
so it’s not so how you think !!