For all of you who are aspiring to give the USMLE, we have the advice of our very own
Dr. Mubashir (Batch'18) who has successfully navigated through the hurdles of Med school and simultaneously stepped his way to an amazing score. Here we will break down his formula for success and hopefully it will work for you...
You can contact him on his email for any queries: mubashir14@hotmail.com
USMLE Step 1 experience
Mubasshar Shahid
Score: 253
Duration of prep: 1.5 years
Year of exam: Final year, gave exam in 2018, 6 months before Proff leave
NBME scores
- NBME 11: 234
- NBME 16(online): 240
- NBME 18(online): 244
The 3 most important sources I needed for this exam were USMLE world(UWORLD) question bank, First Aid, and Pathoma. Focus on these guys for the remainder of your prep after you are done building a strong base for each individual subject mentioned below in the Resources section.
Resources:
First aid is needed for all the subjects I will mention down below, the other resources used are just to help build a strong base so that First aid can be easily read and understood
- Physiology: BRS Physiology, Kaplan for topics I was week in, youtube videos for specific topics ( its all on youtube just type any topic and you will find amazing high yield videos)
- Biochemistry: All of Kaplan, youtube videos
- Pathology: Pathoma, Rapid Review Goljan for weak topics
- Phramacology: Kaplan, Katzung should be studied well in 3rd year course
- Microbiology: Made Ridiculously simple in 3rd year should be studied well, Sketchy mirco and Sketchy pharma for the antimicrobials
- Immunology: Kaplan, First aid covers all the syllabus
- Biostats and epidemiology: Kaplan, youtube videos( check videos by Randy Neil MD and LY Med), UWOLRD is more than enough
- Behavioral Sciences and Ethics: BRS Behavioral Sciences( Try to cover this book thoroughly in 3rd year), Kaplan
- Anatomy: Kaplan for all anatomy including histology, embryology,and neuroanatomy, Dr Najeeb videos for weak neuroanatomy topics, youtube videos, there is no single good source for anatomy, but rest assured if you study First aid, uworld and the Kaplan material well it will be enough to help score good!
- Cardiology: ECG made easy by Hamptom( try to cover it in 3rd year), youtube videos, for heart sounds use youtube videos and just practice daily
- Genetics: Kaplan, youtube videos by Meet Patel, UWORLD again and again
Study Period:
Phase 1: First 2 years of med school just do your best and study hard to score those distinctions and stuff. Don’t think about Step prep, I regret not knowing about Dr Najeeb videos at the time, so please do watch them for weak topics they will help in the long run! Try to read some BRS physiology in your free time and attempt the mcqs at the end of each chapter
Phase 2: In 3rd year I mainly focused on doing well in Pharmacology and microbiology so I read Katzung and Made Ridicuolously Simple, I was doing pathoma lectures, I managed to cover ¾ of the material, and read the ECG book and learnt heart sounds. I also prepped biostats from Kaplan. For biostats youtube was the best source! Practice is the only way to get through biostats, UWORLD was enough for that. Forensic was tough to manage with all this material so I do recommend to study forensic an hour a day so that it doesn’t pile up and cause problems in the Proff( although I didn’t and survived because the SEQs were straight out of past papers!)
Phase 3: In 4th year I started my proper prep. I did Kaplan for all the topics I mentioned in my resources, I finished all of pathoma, watched the sketchy videos, Najeeb videos, etc. This took me about 3 -4 months, Then I opened up First Aid and read it for 2 months. After that I got a subscription of UWORLD for 6 months. I solved all of UWORLD system wise in one go. I would read a section for example cardiology and I would do all questions related to cardiology in UWORLD. I solved all the questions but did not review them. This took me 1.5 months. I started making a uworld journal after I was done solving UWOLRD, it was basically an idea copied form the following site please read the link its extremely important! https://www.medschooltutors.com/blog/how-to-make-and-use-a-uworld-journal-101
I was making this journal and reviewing my UWORLD for 1.5 months and then proff prep started. So I took a break and focused on Proff. Community medicine, ophthalmology, and ENT all can be very dangerous in Proff. I would try to cover the topics that were very hard in each of these subjects so that when Proff came things did not get bad.
Phase 4: In final year I just continued revising UWORLD and making my UWORLD journal. My routine during 4th year was, come home at 4 and eat food and rest till 6. Study UWORLD from 6pm till 1am. This process took me 3 months form Jan till March. Final year is very relaxed in terms of material to learn and workload. The USMLE prep helps a lot in final year so focusing on USMLE for the first 6 months is not an issue at all. Just attend all the important wards like medicine and surgery. I also had great attendance record for my prior 4 years so I was able to bunk loads of the lectures without issue. I gave an NBME midway of the 3 month period and scored 234. I applied for the exam and set the date. Later I gave NBME 16 online on may 21st and scored 240. I had completed my UWORLD journal and was revising it by then and was revising my First Aid a third time. I then gave NBME 18 online on June 8, a few weeks before my exam and scored 244. I gave UWSA 2 a week before my exam and scored 258. At this point I was just revising First Aid over and over with my friend. For the last week try to cover First aid and do as much of the UWORLD flash cards as possible. Last day just relax and pray to god. The last 2 month of my prep was also done during Ramadan so yes, it is possible to do it. I would just wake up at 9am and try to do as much work as possible till iftar. I think it helped a ton in terms of building stamina for the real test! Get a good 8 -9 hours of sleep before the test day. Being tired on exam day is the worst thing one can do!
On exam day I took a light breakfast and drove to the prometric centre and reached there at 8am. The exam is consisting of 7 blocks, each block has 40 questions and the duration for each block is 1 hour. On the exam day its ok to be a little anxious. No one’s going to feel relaxed on the most important career defining day of their lives most probably. But don’t overdo it, trust god and treat the exam like any of the mock exams you have given. Most of the questions will be fair and doable after studying UWORLD. Take breaks when you feel tired after doing blocks. Trust your gut for the questions that you can’t seem to find an answer for. The first thought that comes to mind is usually the right answer. Don’t make stupid mistakes, even if a stem seems super easy, read it all the way through. Take breaks whenever you feel exhausted. I just drank a redbull and ate a biscuit during my break and that got me through the exam. Again UWORLD, First Aid, and Pathoma are more than enough to get you through this exam and score good.
I gave my exam on Wednesday so score reporting occurs on the third Wednesday from the day of the exam. Score came out at around 5:30 pm. The closing points I would like to make are that this exam is a tough thing to prep, but anyone can score amazing in it. Don’t feel discouraged if you are not good at your college studies, all that matters is the amount off work you put in to prepare. Also don’t burn yourselves out, if you feel that you have done all you could have done to prepare for the exam then just take the damn thing! InshaAllah God will reward you for the effort you put in to prepare for this exam! So start studying early. I am available to answer any queries you guys have.
Best of luck in your USMLE preparation/journey. Remember all this will ultimately make you into a better physician so never feel like you are wasting time!
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