What up all you Anxiety Junkies? Just got my score back so I thought I would post my super awesome strategy.
First of all: 188! YES! So now that I've got the attention of the gunners, focus your cross hairs on this prep strategy for a fool proof road to being better than everyone else (on paper) (actually on virtual paper).
1) Everyone knows that First Aid and USMLEWorld suck, so definitely stay away from those. First Aid is good to hold my couch up on one end because one of the legs fell off after too many pre-exam nights of Call of Duty. I always get killed straight away because I suck at most xbox games. But I also suck at life, and hey, that doesn't mean I should stop playing, right? Right? USMLEWorld is just like the real boards, which is exactly why you want to stay as far away from this as possible. I mean, people always do better with surprises. Science shows this. I published five articles in NEJM (first author, by the way) last year where we surprised the hell out of people in the subway, then we made them solve complex logic puzzles. They did fantastic. You will too.
2) Manage your Mojo. Everyone only has a certain amount of Mojo. Once used up, I'm sorry to say, your Mojo is gone. This is why people get progressively more lame as they get older. Their Mojo dries up. Understanding this basic law of physics can help you boost your board score. For example, never ever take an NBME practice test. This will only drain your exam Mojo on unnecessary virtual paper. Likewise, never do any practice problems of any kind. NEVER! Save all of your exam Mojo for the real Step 1 exam. If you are bursting with Mojo (combined with the Surprise Principle described above) then exam day will be like Christmas morning and guess what. You just got 322 brand new presents! Surprise! (note: some authorities claim that one can, in fact, "recharge" their Mojo through spontaneous acts of adventure or through buying lots of good food and leaving it out in common areas for other people, like myself, to eat)
3) As for 1st and 2nd year, just remember... Pain is temporary, chicks dig scars, and glory lasts forever. Get it? Get it? Thats all you need to know about class. If you don't get it, you probably just need to recharge your Mojo, then read it again.
4) How did I know what the exam would be like if I didn't do any practice questions at all? Simple. I went down to New Mexico and bought a Dream Catcher thing and hung it in my window. Then every night I would go to sleep saying over and over to myself, "Oh thoughts in my head, as I lay in my bed, please dream of the test, so I can be the BEST!" Just over and over and over until I fell asleep. Then when I woke up I would hold my dream catcher and write down all the things I dreamed about! Thus ensuring that I knew EXACTLY what I was going to see come test day.
5) And finally, how did I get my rock'n score? Well, aside from following these basic rules of life from the moment I was born until this moment, right now, I also got the Kaplan Qbank. Hahaha just kidding. But seriously, the final secret to an AMAZING OUT OF THIS WORLD Step 1 Score is Karma. "But Mike," you ask, "How can I possible get good karma when I pretty much only care about myself and those who can get things for me?" Glad you asked, ITS EASY! Here's what I did! Over a year ago I made about 50 fake SDN accounts with random names and posted all over the place in the 2010 Step 1 thread saying I got scores in the 260s and 270s! You see??!! My simple act of thoughtful kindness motivated THOUSANDS of young eager medical students to push themselves to be as good as I pretended to be! BAM. Good Karma.
Well, sorry for the long post, but I just had to get my method out there! Good luck to all of you and just remember, If you can Dream it, you can DO IT!
-Mike
