Background: Non-US IMG from Mexico, did the exam at the end of my social service year (an obligatory year you have to give back to the community after completing medschool). I did mine at a non-profit ophthalmology clinic, which gave me a lot of time to study, so it was nice.
Preparation:
March 2020 - August 2020
Test date: August 18th, 2020
RESOURCES
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I watched OME for the first couple of months, very passively, like 5 videos a day. They were good, gave me a good basis, and helped me get some algorithms down. I used their 7 or 6 week program they have in their website to guide me.
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ANKI - love this. I did use it during step 1 prep, but not as much as I wish I did, so I decided to turn it around this time and use it since day 1 of prep. I used DORIANs deck, but I deleted everything that came from UW, NBMEs or UWSA. I suggest you do the same, to not “inflate” your practice scores. I also did my own anki deck from UW, NBMEs, AMBOSS, etc. Helped me a lot to drill down some concepts.
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UW. The holy grail of Step-prep. I did it twice. My first time I did one block a day and at the very end started doing two blocks a day because I was not going to make it for the second pass. I did not do incorrects this time. In my second pass I started doing two blocks a day and ended up being four blocks a day my last three weeks of prep. I did incorrects this round. Don’t do this, but I didn’t read all the explanations. If I knew the correct answer, I would only read the educational objective. If it was correct, but I didn’t know how I got to the answer, I would read the whole thing, and if I got an incorrect answer I read the one I got wrong and the correct answer. Pretty unconventional, but it worked for me since step 1 prep. I don’t recommend you following this, just writing it for the other weirdos like me lol.
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NBMEs. 7 was weird as f. 6 and 8 were easy in my opinion with harsh curves (don’t worry about the scores). Do them, I got some concepts for the exam from them. They’re there for a reason.
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FA for step 2 CK. I Read it three times wish it had the same effect as the FA for STEP 1, but it didn’t. I was wishing that it could serve as a mind map like the latter FA, but I think I just wasted my time. If I had to do it over again, i wouldn’t have bought any books. (Also had step 2 secrets and MTB, but they were worse, used them like 2 days and gave them away).
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Divine intervention. It was good. I used it while I drove to the clinic, because using it back home made me super sleepy. RF, immunodeficiency and military is definitely HY.
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AMBOSS. I finished UW second pass with 2 weeks to spare, so I got a free trial at AMBOSS and used their QBank. I was really impressed by the quality of their questions and regretted it I didn’t used them earlier. Did about 1,000 qs (4 blocks a day) and ONLY USED 1-4 HAMMERS.
WHAT A DAY THE LAST THREE WEEKS LOOKED LIKE
7:30 AM - wake up, coffee and anki.
9:00 AM - 11:00 AM - back to back blocks
11:30 - 2:00 PM - review qs
2:00 - 3:30 PM - lunch
4:00 - 6:00 PM - back to back blocks
6:30 - 9:00 PM - review qs
9:00 - 10:00 PM - dinner
10:00 - 11:30 PM - review other stuff, like YouTube for stats, AMBOSS library, etc.
DAY BEFORE THE EXAM
I only did my anki reviews and then played FIFA20, watch a bunch of nonsense in Youtube and saw two movies. Tried to relax as much as possible but it did not work LOL. I went to bed at 11:00 PM but didn’t sleep at all. I finally slept like at 2 am and woke up at 6:00 am.
DAY OF THE EXAM
Got there 30 min before the exam. Was really tired but pushed through it. I didn’t feel really tired until the last 2 blocks. I did 2 blocks / break / 2 blocks / break, and so on. I think I used like 15 min each on the three breaks. I left the exam feeling like shit. I didn’t know what happened. I did a post about it the day I came out, so you can check it out. But as I was warned, “trust your practice scores”. HAVE FAITH IN THEM.
PRACTICE EXAM SCORES
STEP 1: 246
UW 1st pass 73%
NBME 7 - 245 66 days out
NBME 6 - 253 45 days out
UW 2nd pass 88%
NBME 8 - 261 14 days out
UWSA 1 - 260 10 days out
New free 120 - 83% 8 days out
Old free 120 - 88% 6 days out
UWSA 2 - 260 3 days out
(Amboss qbank last 2 weeks 81% corrects)
REAL DEAL: 262
FINAL WORDS
Trust yourself. Remember to have days off for family and friends. AND REMEMBER TO RELAX.
Thanks again, best of luck to all, and questions welcomed. Ask questions here, so everyone can benefit. I’m not responding DMs
PS Sorry for any grammar/spelling/writing mistakes