I got my result a while ago. Thanks to everyone for your unconditional care and DM asking my journey and score. Thanks all you talented and helpful people out here who take time to clear others’ doubts and type such sweet words when someone needs motivation.
Starting off,
Preparation time: on and off for more than 3 years (yes, it’s a very long and patient journey)
Dedicated period: 6-7 months
Before pandemic:
Nbme 20 211 8 months before
Nbme 21 221 7 months before
Uwsa1 226 6 months before
Nbme 22 221 5 months before
Nbme 23 230 4 months before
Uwsa2 239 3 months
Nbme 24 228 3 months before
Amboss 252 3 months before
Rx1 252 2 months
Rx2 248 2 months (rx assessments do not come alone; need to buy the q bank)
After pandemic:
Free 120 88% 8 days before
Nbme 18 242 10 days before
REAL DEAL 238
Score predictor had me at 252+ but it does over predict.
I did almost all resources. Started off with kaplan lectures which I feel is not needed unless if you have lots of time. Then I did bnb videos along with fa and first pass uworld (70%). Did another round uworld (85-90%). For few topics, did 3rd round as well.
When exam got cancelled, I subscribed to both amboss and rx which took me a month for each.
Rx helps you in memorization; do it in initial phase but don’t underestimate its hard q which are as good as amboss q. Amboss is better done after doing uworld second round. Amboss is a great qbank to learn from but hands down nothing beats uworld. If you’ve limited time it’s fa+uworld that’ll get you your dream score.
Apart from these qbanks, I did pathoma, shelf notes for anatomy, 100 cases ethics, google and wiki for anything I didn’t understand, uworld biostatistics.
How I climbed from 210s on nbmes to 230s is I realized I had problem memorizing and I started anki. Thanks to the pandemic, I got lots of time to do anki. Would do 800-1000 cards/ day. I did zanki, lightyear, hoopla but I did them real quick since I was in the last stage of preparation and it was a quick revision. Many cards have same info so choose only 1 deck. I did all because my exam was cancelled and didn’t know what to do. If you’ve less time, go for lolnotacop or soze which have around 3-5k cards.
~I started nbme very early on in my preparation and doing so got me accustomed to their way of framing questions. This is different from that of uworld so start nbmes early and you’ll get used to that style.
~ Annotated uworld highlights in fa; do this during your first round. It takes time but is all worth it in the end. Even annotated bnb notes. Highlight each type of notes with a different color so you’ll know what to what to revise and what to skip. ( example; I did bnb notes annotation with green; uworld with black etc)
~ Know your weaknesses from your nbmes and work on them. It’s better to focus your time doing something you’re weak at than doing the topics you already are good at. If it’s anatomy, do shelf notes and wiki and snells atlas has great images too.
~ https://webpath.med.utah.edu/
this is a good website to look at pathology images but I was running out of time so didn’t do much of it. This would be helpful especially if you’ve trouble looking at pathology images and figuring out as to what is it.
~ Biostats questions were easy and direct. Uworld and biostats review are more than enough. I didn’t get a single twisted/ twerked biostats q or even felt like I was asked something I didn’t know.
~ Not many pharm questions; whatever was asked was straight forward.
~ Psychiatry is always the unpredictable one. Did uworld, fa, 100 cases.
~ Neuro images can be confusing; go over nbme Neuro images and search for answers in the group. Many people have done the excellent job of labeling all parts of Neuro images of nbme. Screenshot them and look at them time and again.
~ after getting step 1 done, I didn’t wait for the result. It’s better not to. A break of a week is fine and head straight to ck. You wouldn’t want to waste time waiting for it and then be affected by it once you have it. (Clever move is to move on with ck).
Anything different that I could have done:
• Cram the schedule and get it done in a short phase and not prolonging the preparation for so long. The longer you take, the more you forget.
• Can’t emphasize this enough but SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP the night before, the week before, the month before. I had only 5 and half hours sleep and I’m a person you can’t function with less than 8 hours and maybe that got me!
• Anxiety on exam day was another enemy. Tried to fight it off by doing anything I could possibly do: wore cool comfy clothes, packed my fav food, relaxed, stretched, meditated and what not.
• DO NOT CHANGE ANSWERS. If your first instinct is what you believe in, don’t change answers when you read the marked questions unless you strongly believe you’re wrong. I changed many many many answers( should have listened to my gut feeling).
Overall, I felt the exam was easy and doable and that’s where the catch is. Maybe the curve was harsh. But all in all, alhamdulillah (thankful to allah) for the score I got.
Thank you, all
Good luck
Keep me in your prayers.