USMLE STEP 1 EXPERIENCE
Study Duration: 1.5 years ( 4—5 th grade)
Dedicated period: 5-6 months
Materials Used:
—UW: did 2 times all and 3 times mistakes. First pass %80, second pass %95. In my first
pass, I studied in tutor mode; the second pass, I used time mode. —FA: read 4 times. Too weak for anatomy
—Pathoma videos and text. Perfect for Basics.
—Kaplan videos and notes except Pathology and Micro
—MRS Micro: read 1 time but don’t recommend. Too Long and boring I think —Sketchy Micro: Excellent. I think everybody must watch at least 1 time and take
notes on FA from it.
—-Goljan Pathology: I think a good book but not useful for me. Too long and hard to concentrate. Wasted 5 months to read!!!
—BRS Physiology: I think Kaplan notes with videos are better
—-100 cases by. Conrad Fischer: not enough I think. You can learn rules from it but
in step1 you need beyond.
—UW 100 Biostatistics Questions: Everyone must do before the exam.
—-FA Q&A: not useful, don’t do it.
—RX, Kaplan Q Bank: not done all of it. 2 test of some topics in the first part of my preparation. It’s up to you, I am not sure.
—ANKI Flashcards: I prepared cards from FA, not all of it but things I don’t know well. Very useful, you can learn details easily.
—NEJM Image Challenge: I used this site randomly when I was bored. Mostly STEP1 topics, but not like exam Qs. There are very useful pics, do it for fun 
:))
—Wiki, Google Images: whenever needed.
Assessments
Took NBME 18, UWSA1-2 and Free 120 online, others offline. I used NBME 13-16 to reach 280q at the end of the others. I take free 120 at the end of the UWSA2
NBME 15 (5 months before the exam after the first pass of UW): 248–21 mistakes(nearly)
UWSA1 (4 months before the exam): 247
NBME 17 (3 months before the exam): 260
NBME 18 (2 months before the exam after the second pass of UW): 258 NBME 19 (1.5 months before the exam): 250
Free 120 (1 month before the exam): %93 UWSA2 (1 month before the exam): 266
I started studying when I was at 4th grade of medical school. There are hard courses like Ped, Internal Medicine, Surgery… I just studied in some days of the week and like 2-3 hours per day. My first book was Goljan and it was a total mess. Nearly finished Goljan at 4 -5 months and remember nothing. It was a big mistake.
In summer studied 4-5 h per day with Kaplan videos and FA. I recommend reading books with videos because just reading is not an efficient method.
After that at 5th grade, I studied nearly all days of the week and at least 3-4 h in a day. Read the books then read the FA and finally solved questions in RX, Kaplan but not all of them. This was a mistake too because I didn’t watch the videos, only reading and reading. This is not efficient. After that in my second pass, I watch the videos then read the book then read that chapter of FA then finally solved that topic in UW(Tutor mode). Like I said above my first pass of UW was 80%. I read explanations very well and prepared Flashcards about them. Tried to learn every word that I don’t know. Later read my flashcards(2-3.000) in UW and prepared ANKI flashcards from FA (3-4.000). In my second pass of UW, I used timed mode: 95%. Never like the first pass. I think you must use the first pass well. Have the knowledge and use in questions to reach the best answer because you never feel 100% right in the exam.
Another thing: use time wisely. It’s too important. In my first pass I wasted 6-7 minutes in some questions, never do that. I later have had time problems both in NBMEs and in the real exam. Even you are learning, you have to think faster. Don’t flag Qs that you can’t change later. I am like 20 flags per block and never looked at all of them in the real exam. Flag Qs that you can really change and need to think more.
In my last 2-3 months, I tried to study at least 5-6h per day.
You can do NEJM Image Challenge while you are on bus or sth like that. There are more than 600 challenge and all of them have pictures. Some of them not related to Steps you can skip them. I used it when I was bored of studying.
NBMEs have some stupid questions, don’t think too much on these. But try to learn about other Qs well. I read forums a lot about Qs even I did correctly. Of course, do time practicing on them.
I think NBME 18 is the most special one, showed my result correctly, my friend’s too.
Learn FA all, every word can be a question. Read or do ANKI, but learn.
Don’t hesitate to use Google, Wiki for topics. If you hear sth new, just 2-3 sentences talk about it in UW search it. I don’t tell you to read an article just Google it and look for images, paragraph under the site name. It gives you a great summary even you don’t click the site links. First two are always Wiki and Mayo Clinic (Radiopedia for imaging):))) I especially used this method in Radiology, Micro, Pharma and Anatomy. But helped me a lot in others too.
Biostatistics, Ethics, and Anatomy are hard, really hard. FA and UW are not enough for these. You can use other sources for them. I didn’t but I should have done. Ethics killed me in the Exam, I was like WTF !!!
Know Genetic mechanisms and understand them.
Exam Day
Slept 7 hours. I had a great breakfast. Took coffee, chocolate, water and coke with me. I can honestly say that the exam looks like no other things. Not NBMEs, not UW, not free 120 at all. Harder than I expected and there were some things that I have never heard. I was demoralized. I took a break between every block like 5-6m. Used all of them in WC :))) Because I was shocked and I didn’t think where I spent my time, I wasn’t hungry even after 4 blocks due to Adrenaline. But took 15m break and ate a sandwich from the cafeteria, drunk my coke. Every new block, I tried to forget the last one and do my best. After the exam, I wasn’t satisfied.
When my result released, I was too happy and surprised. That’s a great score for me.
That’s the point: The big part of your score comes from usual questions. You can solve them with your knowledge from general sources. Don’t miss them. After the exam you can only remember hard, new questions and think have done bad like me. But you just forgot all of the questions that you have done easily or done in a short time. Because you don’t flag them, you don’t think them in your break. At the same time, you can do hard Qs too. I searched about my hard questions and seen that I had solved most of them correctly. Sometimes by picking the most rational, sometimes by chance or sometimes by feeling that the answer is right to me :))
Do your best in every question of every block.
Lastly, I used this forum in every part of my preparation. Helped me a lot. Thank you very much all of you. I wish you all success in STEP 1 and beyond.