M. Ali Lak STEP 1 Experience

 

                                                             My STEP 1 Experience

 

Hello Guys!

I’m Muhammad Ali Lak from the recently graduated final year MBBS, having taken my prof in January ’22.

Batch: Dec 16- Feb 22

I am currently skipping house job to study for step 2.

I consider myself an above average student, having always gone for the bigger books like KLM/Guyton over the useless review books. My advice is to stick to the big books preferably by foreign authors throughout college, as it really helps to build a broad base, which is of utmost importance in preparing for STEP1.

I started properly studying for STEP1 on 14^th February 2021 (LOL) and sat for the exam on 16^th December 2021.

No major breaks except that I had to postpone my exam by a month due to a minor surgery. YIKES.

List of subjects with resources I used:

1)      Special pathology: use Pathoma if you’re used to it, I didn’t need to because I had used medium Robbins and BNB patho by Dr Ryan during 4^th year which made this my strongest subject and I also ended up getting a distinction in college. Special Path is the crux of medicine and there’s no way you can become a good doctor if you find shortcuts with this subject. It’s also 60-75 percent of the exam. So definitely go all out with this subject. (BNB patho, med robbins and FA)

2)      Gen path: Pathoma 1-3 are a must do, and FA

3)      Biochem and Genetics: I’m really bad with ratta so I used pixorize and I highly recommend it if you’re a visual learner.

4)      Anatomy: UW is enough and have a look at shelf notes.

5)      Communication/Ethics: UW, everything else is outdated.

6)      Physio: FA and some bnb for difficult concepts like resp physiology.

7)      Pharma: I used Kaplan pharma by Steve Harris in 3^rd year and it was gold. People opt for Sketchy too, so go for it if you have time or if you’ve seen it already, Pharma questions are the most straight forward on the exam so don’t worry, just MOA and major S/E. e.g. Hemorrhagic cystitis by cyclophosphamide etc.

8)      Micro: Sketchy is a lifesaver

9)      Biostats and epi: Dr. Ryan is okay (BNB), highly recommend Randy Neil videos on YouTube

10)  Gen pharm: please do yourself a favor and watch those 6 videos by randy neil on gen pharm, they’re hardly an hour long.

11)  Eye/ENT : Uw and fa and your prior knowledge is more than enough

12)  Psych: FA is more than enough, psych is straight forward.

13)  Immuno: FA and UW

My day would start at 10-11 I would do 35 UW questions on random mode, if I’m getting a question wrong then I’d open FA and revise the topic that’s it, don’t go back to old resources, move forward. Your brain already has that information you just need to organize it and create a synapse LOL.

Try to write as little as possible on your FA because it becomes a mess by the end, I made flashcards on UW but never revised and I’m not an ANKI person at all, and it’s okay you can still do amazing without ANKI.

I studied at the cantt library, I prefer it over the cmh library because I knew less people there and I could focus on my studies more and socialize less.

I did random UW because I started right after 4^th year and just done medium Robbins for pathology, didn’t need much revision. System wise is equally good, my peers who did system wise UW scored as much as the random uw lot, so please ignore the random/system wise myth and focus on content.

I did some amboss before starting UW but I guess i would not recommend, UW and FA are the step 1 bible and stick to them ONLY. Literally 90 percent of your exam content is in these 2 resources hence know them well.

I was slow with UW because I was unsure if id do a second pass , I remembered the questions so it took me 5 months for first pass. spent an extra 2 months on amboss, the amboss library is really good and I’d recommend it for hard to crack topics, but the questions make you think in a different direction which I guess is not needed for step 1, questions on the exam are pretty straightforward trust me.

UWSA 1 (40 days out): 266 lmaooo didn’t study for a week after this

NBME 26 (32 days out): 248 bad question quality but really important topics tested

NBME 29 (24 days out) 249

NBME 30 (15 days out) 250

UWSA 2 ( 7 days out) : 256

Real deal: 250’s

Free120: 91% got 4 repeats on the real exam.

There was definitely a discrepancy between my UWSA and NBME scores even though I was doing UW random 2^nd pass (did 25 percent only) and was studying FA with a friend over zoom.

PROTIP: find a friend to study FA with, me and my step1 buddy from college had decided to read 5 pages per hour so that we could do at least 20 pages per day, this strategy makes the book a bit less boring and YES you need to study FA at least ONCE.

ALSO, do try to ask people who sat for the exam for the types of questions they got, this helps a lot and calms your nerves.

Exam day:

Woke up at 5am a day before the exam, read pathoma 1-3, did some cycling, got my documents printed, prayed, did amboss audio for cardio murmurs, took melatonin and slept like a baby.

On exam day, be super confident, you’ve done all the hard work now leave the rest to Allah, take loads of water, dry fruit, protein bars, nuggets, sugar free red bull (I took 3-4 sips after 3^rd block and so on).

THE EXAM IS EASY AND DOABLE, IF YOU’VE STUDIED WELL AND ARE CONFIDENT ENOUGH, YOULL CRUSH IT.

Since the exam is now pass/fail, you should make your basics strong and study like it’s the most important exam of your life. As of yet I’ve done 40 questions of the step2 q bank, and all I’m using is my prior step 1 knowledge, so don’t ignore the process even if its pass/fail: you’ll have to study more for step 2 if you use shortcuts for step 1.

Must use resources:

·         UWORLD (hands down the best and most important resource)

·         First Aid 2022

·         Randy Neil and dirty medicine videos in your free time, I’m a Randy Neil fan so I definitely recommend him.

·         Keep BNB with you to watch videos for confusing topics.

Don’t make long notes, you’ll never read them.

Feel free to reach out in case you’re confused/want to apply for step1/ want to start the preparation/ feel like you’re stuck. It’s completely normal to have these emotions, this too shall pass.

Thank you and good luck!

Muhammad Ali Lak

muhammadalilak7@gmail.com

Instagram: alihayatlak