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158 tells me that you may have knowledge gaps in all major topics. Here's how I would approach Step 1 prep:
(1) Figure out and optimize your studying habits first. Find a suitable daily routine where you prioritize studying and breaks (for sanity's sake).
(2) Fix your knowledge gaps first. Are you an anki or non-anki person? I did not use Anki to study for Step 1. I found going through BnB + Pathoma and annotating First Aid to be effective for first round. Integrate sketchy in your routine. When UWorld becomes available, use it primarily as learning tool. It is not necessary to do timed, random blocks (unless you have trouble finished tests on time).
(3) After you have made at least 1 pass through FA, take an NBME (timed) and see where you stand. Find your weak areas and prioritize them in FA. During dedicated, take NBMEs weekly/biweekly under testing conditions to track your progress. Save UWorld Sim 2 for the week of your exam, since I found it to be the closest predictor of my Step 1 score.
(1) Figure out and optimize your studying habits first. Find a suitable daily routine where you prioritize studying and breaks (for sanity's sake).
(2) Fix your knowledge gaps first. Are you an anki or non-anki person? I did not use Anki to study for Step 1. I found going through BnB + Pathoma and annotating First Aid to be effective for first round. Integrate sketchy in your routine. When UWorld becomes available, use it primarily as learning tool. It is not necessary to do timed, random blocks (unless you have trouble finished tests on time).
(3) After you have made at least 1 pass through FA, take an NBME (timed) and see where you stand. Find your weak areas and prioritize them in FA. During dedicated, take NBMEs weekly/biweekly under testing conditions to track your progress. Save UWorld Sim 2 for the week of your exam, since I found it to be the closest predictor of my Step 1 score.
Start experimenting with uworld blocks. If you're averaging <40%, do some targeted content review prior to continuing with a UWorld subject. If you're averaging >40%, keep doing UWorld - just thoroughly review the keys and supplement with FA or videos
What is a good uworld percent that correlate with a pass in the step?
Are your preclinical years true P/F at your school? If so, stop using in-house materials right now and start going hard on Boards and Beyond, Sketchy, FA, and Pathoma to study for class. With time being an issue, you need to start prioritizing step material over your courses (so long as you're still passing). Glance over your in-house lectures the day before the exam, if you must. You'll start seeing your practice scores go up once you do this; at least, that's what happened for me.
I also highly recommend bingeing Sketchy Pharm and Micro and unlocking all the relevant Anki cards from Zanki/Lolnotacop decks. This will buy you a bunch of stupid easy points on your practice exams. If you get through a few videos a day, it's not that bad.
I also highly recommend bingeing Sketchy Pharm and Micro and unlocking all the relevant Anki cards from Zanki/Lolnotacop decks. This will buy you a bunch of stupid easy points on your practice exams. If you get through a few videos a day, it's not that bad.
When do you actually take step? A 158 3 months out is different than a 158 6 months out. If you're still 5-6 months out I wouldn't be at all concerned about passing. If you're taking it in early January then the situation is a little more urgent.
Hmm. Well, if you think your rank is relatively fixed, I still vote for transitioning to all Step prep materials to study for class, unless you have reason to believe this will cause your exam scores/internal ranking to seriously drop for any reason. Might as well kill two birds with one stone with your studying.
I'm an M2 that's now currently in passing range for Step, and I want to reassure you that it's absolutely possible to see a major jump in your scores once you start prioritizing Step materials. It's what happened for me. I jumped from 172 to 201 in 3 months simply by grinding through a lot of Sketchy, completing two more organ system blocks in school and keeping up with my 800 Anki reviews of old systems every day. I've started ignoring all in-house material in favor of mainly B&B and Pathoma, and haven't looked back. I haven't started a deep dive into UWorld yet, but from everything I'm hearing, my scores will continue to increase once I add in that resource.
I really think you could make some fairly simple adjustments like this to your current study routine and see a major increase in your practice scores. You may have to work a little harder because of time, but I don't think you need to panic or get discouraged yet.
