Hey Everyone.

Sorry I sort of disappeared and didn't post my experience right after my exam. I thought I might have scared off people with my exam experience right after my exam as I felt I did horrible. Alhumdulillah things worked out for the best. Possibly the duas working out in my favor :)

Anyhow:

Total Prep Time : 8-9 Months Dedicated Prep Time: 5 months

Materials: Kaplan LN + Videos Except Patho Goljan Patho UsmleRx Kaplan Qbank UWorld

Prep: I read through Kaplan LN while going through classes and what not. Tried to do as much as I can with school coursework and rotations. I didn't do the typical 1-2-3 Read of Kaplan as I felt it to be highly unnecessary. I read through Kaplan LNs once with videos and did biochemistry and immunology twice as I thought they would be useful. For Pathology I had gone through Goljan about 3 times for my medical school Pathology course and never go the time to go through it again in my dedicated study period. After finishing up with Goljan 3 times + Kaplan LNs + Videos + USMLERx(only 50% on and off in random timed blocks) before my dedicated study time. I drilled through First aid in 20 days @ the beginning of my dedicated study time and took my first NBME. NBME 11 and scored a 228 in it. At this point I tried to pick up Kaplan LNs again but realized they were of no use and ditched it in 2 days.

Bought Kaplan Qbank Online and finished it in about 45 days. Scored a 72% in this. Took a Kaplan Simulated test (8 hours) and got a 74% in that. Soon after I started Uworld. I was very slow with Uworld initially as the content/question was twice as much and only did about a block per day and started slacking off. 25% into uworld I decided to take NBME 12 and got a 226. Was shocked at first but realized that I wasn't focusing so I decided to pick up the slack. Went through about a block and half to 2 blocks of Uworld (Annotate uworld in FA) at this point and 10-15 pages of First Aid everyday. Finished off Uworld only once with a 75% random and timed blocks. I sort of slacked off at uworld initially as my scores were mid 70's and I thought I was there so don't let that happen to you. Anyhow after doing so I took UWSA and got a 257 in it. I knew not to let that overwhelm me as it tends to over predict. Used the weaknesses on that and went through FA hitting those weaknesses + incorrect Uworld Questions in the next 7 days. Decided to take NBME 13 and got a 247, felt weird because of the huge jump as well as not being so sure about the questions I had answered so read through First Aid trying to focus on memorizing factoids and learning concepts I was having problems with. I literally picked up a bunch of chart papers and drew out certain mechanisms and wrote memorized the lists of drug side effects at this point. Sat down for NBME 15 10 days before my exam and got a 250 on it. I felt like I was somewhat ready to take the exam even though I didn't know everything in first aid and allowed NBMEs to test my preparation instead.

In these 10 days I went through First aid about twice and writing down anything I didn't remember on 2 chart papers. Simple factoids basically. Drilled through FA in 7 of these 10 days. Last 3 days I focused specifically on the factoids I had written on those 2 chart papers back and forth and went through it 2-3 times and still felt unprepared for the exam as there's no way that we could know everything and I was ok with that. Last day before the exam I went through formulas and the back of FA once which was a complete and utter waste. Went through charts again only looking at things I marked on those things that I couldn't recall. Called it a day at 5 pm before the day of the exam. Relaxed and chilled with the family and then hit the bed around 10 pm. Woke up fresh the next morning.

Day of the exam: Felt scared going into it but I was sure that I could figure out most things they threw at me based on all the questions I had done. Had a light breakfast to kick me through the first 2 blocks.

Got settled in and went through the first block of the exam. Felt like it was definitely harder than NBME 13 and 15. More so like uworld as in the exam itself was vague but questions were more like NBME 13 and 15 themselves. Stems were as long as they are in Uworld. I

marked about 8-12 questions per block and felt that I had a hard form and prayed really really hard that the curve was lenient. :) Time was an issue for me as I take my time doing the questions but regardless managed to solve all of them. Just never had the time to recheck the marked questions except in 2 blocks.

I took a 5-10 min break in between all the blocks as my brain doesn't function on a 2 block stretch. Definitely had a point where I was about to have a meltdown but managed to pull myself out of it. Had minor sugary snacks to kick myself out of these and pulled through it.

All in all I felt the exam was doable but the time and the fact that it's 8 hours of 100% concentration sort of starts to deteriorate the minds ability to conceptualize questions. The method of answering question in the 6th and 7th block is more instinct than a mental process. So you have to know things really well to be able to get through that.

After the exam I finally realized what people mean by USMLE tests concepts. Memorization isn't a huge part of the exam. Probably 5-10% of the questions were memory based and those were very easy. Focus on learning your concepts from Uworld. Start it midway in your prep. It's the best resource out there along with FA. I had annotated Uworld into my FA and 70-80% of the exam could have been solved right out of that. The other 20% is instinct and your general knowledge of medicine itself from your years of grunt work in med school.

So take home point is that don't delay your exam just cause you feel like you don't know everything. You will always feel that your preparation is inadequate. That's one of the main things about these standardized exams. It's all bout confronting your fears.

Step 1 Score: 243

Feel Free to ask any questions you have and I'll try my best to help out.