Step 1 experience
I gave my step 1 exam towards the end of my 4th year of
MBBS. From the day I'd set foot in med school, I knew that I was going to give
my step exams so I planned my course work around that. I didn't do any MLE
related prep during the first two years.
During third year , I started watching Kaplan videos for
Biochem ( Dr Turco is really good if you're weak at Biochem) and Pharmacology
and sketchy micro. I also watched most of the pathoma videos during this time
and was able to finish Pathoma videos a few weeks before my third year proff. (
Note: I only knew general patho uptil now and only watched the videos for the
rest of the systems in order to get the videos out of the way. Didn't start
memorizing anything until after my proff).
After my third year proff, I bought the latest edition
of First Aid (2021) and started going through Pathoma. This was around March. I
spent the entire month doing Pathoma and read through the relevant section of
FA. Because of COVID we were home do I had ample time. By the end of March, I
think I had retained about 50 percent of the information.
I bought Uworld in April and spent April and May doing
Uworld ( system wise ). I used to do two blocks a day ( 80Qs) and then used to
spend the rest of the day going through the explanations. This was an extremely
time consuming process. I used to annotate every thing that I considered
important on the relevant section of FA. My aim was to have an annotated
complete FA before I started to learn the nitty gritty details .
College opened in June (unexpectedly) by that time I was
done with 95 percent of Uworld. I put it on a hold and started doing my FA.
This took me approx two months because I had a number of
tests and major wards in between. Juggling things became exponentially hard but
I tried not to give my college tests more than 4 days . The key to Step 1 is
consistency. Remember it's a marathon.
I booked my exam for Oct 6 which meant that now I had
roughly two months to go. I'd call this my dedicated because I did absolutely
nothing except study for step 1 during this time and this was the time that I
learned the most as well
After going through FA I took my first nbme ( 21) on
August 1st. Fair to say I didn't do very well. It was around this time that the
stress kicked in .
For the months of August and September, I used to get up
at 4:45 in the morning. Used to do 1.5 blocks of my incorrects of Uworld. Used
to go to college, did one block ( untimed, random ) of Amboss during lectures.
Then I'd used to go through my weak areas during and between lectures. I'd come
back home, go through the relevant section of FA according to my schedule and
then before going to bed I used to do 1.5 more blocks of Uworld ( on some days
I would manage only 1).
I think I did 3 passes of FA. I was able to complete my
incorrects of Uworld in August and then spent the first three weeks of
September during a second round ( was able to get through 75 percent).
I also did Amboss 3,4,5 hammer questions ( roughly 1600
questions) . Amboss really makes you think but the real exam was nothing like
it so I'm not sure if it'll be necessary for pass/ fail.
I used to do one nbme every Sunday for the months of
August and September and used to spend the rest of the day going through the
answers.
Then the next week would start and I would rinse and
repeat.
I took the following nbmes in the following order:
NBME 21
24
18
UWSA1
26
27 (did these two , two days apart)
28
29
30
UWSA2 AND Free 120 ( did these back to back to simulate
the real thing , 5 days before the exam )
I didn't do 25 but went through the explanations.
During the last 4 days, I went through the new nbmes,
topics that I was weak at or that I knew that I would forget, anatomy shelf
notes. A lot of people chill during the last 1/2 days but I still put in 10
hours. I knew I would be able to chill after the exam but I'm the sort of
person who likes to work till the end. I tried to sleep by 10 but I when I
couldn't I popped half a pill of a muscle relaxant and went to bed.
The exam itself didn't seem very hard, I knew most of
the concepts that were being tested and time wasn't a big issue. I took a break
after every block, used to go to the washroom, empty the tank, drink a few sips
of Sting and nibble on a protein bar. Most of my breaks were of 5 mins except
maybe one where I had a bit of a sandwich. All in one, I didn't eat a lot
during the exam because the aim was to maintain my blood glucose level above
the threshold, I had no intention of crashing during the exam.
Resources:
Biochem: did Kaplan but I believe that FA is
enough. Also watched a few pixorize videos
Genetics : FA. Plus videos of the King Randy Neil
and our Great Savior Dirty medicine
Immuno: FA plus I used pixorize to memorize
things that I was weak at. If you're good with pictures, then I would recommend
pixorize. It's like sketchy but for Biochem and immuno.
Biostats: FA , practice and Randy Neil
Public Health: FA plus a few dirty medicine
videos
Communications: This is the only thing from the
ethics portion being tested these days. Had 3-4 questions per block. practice
as much as you can. Use Amboss , UWORLD, Khan ethics, Conrad Fisher, dirty
medicine, Randy Neil. Basically any resource that you can get your hand on. The
key to cracking this is practice
Pathology: FA supplemented with UWORLD. I only
did Pathoma once and then I never went through it again except for Pathoma 1-3
chapters which I did during the last days. YOU NEED TO DO THESE THREE CHAPTERS
during the last few days or prep.
Pharmacology: FA is more than enough. Kaplan helped
build the basics. I also watched Sketchy for weaker areas.
Micro: Sketchy is the undisputed king. I watched these
videos in third year and never forgot micro. I also bought the book version of
sketchy ( you can get it at any medical book store ) since I prefer reading
from a book rather than studying on my laptop.
Anatomy: FA and Anatomy shelf notes
Physio: FA and BRS . I also watched a few videos of
Physeo. I had a strong base in physio so I didn't find it that difficult to
begin with
QBanks:
UWORLD: Uworld is the undisputed king here. Do it well
and understand it well. It will be more than enough once step 1 becomes pass
fail
Amboss: I really liked Amboss. It really challenged you
but like I said before the real exam was nothing like it. Do Amboss only if you
have time otherwise you don't need to .
All in all, start early , study hard and leave the rest
to God . Make good friends, get proxied and beat the system. It's doable during
MBBS and with it becoming Pass/ Fail it will be even easier and less stressful
to do it during 4th year! Good luck !
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