Breakdown of What you need for USMLE Step 1

[medflava]

You worked hard for your basic sciences and now you need to pass the USMLE Step 1 with a kickass score. Fortunately, the resources required for the USMLE Step 1 is not as a vast as. It all boils down to two resources: USMLE World question bank and the First Aid for the USMLE Step 1 book.

The resources overall I used to score higher than the national average was:

1. Dr. Najeeb Videos
   Dr. Najeeb videos is gold and I think when you don't know anything, you should start watching those videos first before trying anything else.
2. Kaplan Videos
   Kaplan videos are very comprehensive but they waste a lot of time reading off the slides to you instead of drawing things out like Dr. Najeeb. The Behavioral science section for the USMLE Step 1 is perfect which provides excellent explanation of Ethics and Biostatistics.
3. Pathoma
   Dr. Sattar, from university of Chicago, does a great job smoothly explaining the pathology behind every disease. He offers an online video course and book to follow along.
4. First Aid for the USMLE Step 1
   This should be your bible for the USMLE Step 1 as it has has an outline for 80% of what will be on the test. Remember this is not a book so you cannot just open it from page one and expect to read it smoothly to the last page. However, make sure you write all your notes on this.
5. Doctor In Training (DIT)
   This DIT course is excellent if you can't figure out how to use First Aid for the USMLE Step 1. This course helps in going back and forth and how and what to annotate on the book to full understand each and every concept.
6. USMLE World Question Bank
   USMLE World for the USMLE Step 1 is the ultimate resource which is a must. It is the most difficult question bank I have ever used but it helped me get a good score on the test. This question bank should be done simultaneously as you are doing DIT and reading the First Aid book.

For questions and information regarding the resources check out my other articles at Steps on Studying for the USMLE Step 1

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[mcloaf]

I would seriously pay a couple hundred bucks if Najeeb would change his video player to allow faster playback. He's a fantastic teacher, but his videos are just such a time sink.

 

[ulikedaggers]

What was your score? Also what's Najeeb like? I keep seeing his name on SDN, but haven't heard much about it otherwise.

 

[Lavan]

What was your score? Also what's Najeeb like? I keep seeing his name on SDN, but haven't heard much about it otherwise.

Different people get every variety of score while using the same materials. It's possible to both fail and get a 270 using nothing but UWorld, depending on who you are, how you study, etc. Don't feel that by not using a particular resource (Goljan, pathoma, whatever) that you have handicapped your score, with the exception of UW, which you do actually need without a doubt.

 

[mcloaf]

What was your score? Also what's Najeeb like? I keep seeing his name on SDN, but haven't heard much about it otherwise.

He reminds me a lot of how my undergrad professors taught (in a good way). He explains everything very thoroughly and draws everything out by hand on a white board, which prevents the usual med school lecture approach of just reading off a poorly designed slide. He has a bunch of videos and it's like 100 bucks, but I didn't know until after I paid for them that the webplayer he uses doesn't allow for faster playback, which is a dealbreaker for me. Some of his videos are on youtube if you want to check them out.

 

[Brain Bucket]

He reminds me a lot of how my undergrad professors taught (in a good way). He explains everything very thoroughly and draws everything out by hand on a white board, which prevents the usual med school lecture approach of just reading off a poorly designed slide. He has a bunch of videos and it's like 100 bucks, but I didn't know until after I paid for them that the webplayer he uses doesn't allow for faster playback, which is a dealbreaker for me. Some of his videos are on youtube if you want to check them out.

How different are they from the more accessible ones?

 

[ninjasurgeron]

I would seriously pay a couple hundred bucks if Najeeb would change his video player to allow faster playback. He's a fantastic teacher, but his videos are just such a time sink.

Checkout a program called MySpeed. 🙂

 

[900829]

What was your score? Also what's Najeeb like? I keep seeing his name on SDN, but haven't heard much about it otherwise.

Dr. Najeeb is a god.
I don't understand how one man is capable of teaching the entire basic science course load from memory.
Like the author of this thread said, if u don't know or understand anything, Dr. Najeeb is ur man. There's no need to review what u don't know.

 

[mcloaf]

How different are they from the more accessible ones?

AFAIK they are the same, it's just a very limited number of them that are available on Youtube.

Checkout a program called MySpeed. 🙂

Thanks! I downloaded the free trial, but am having some issues with the video loading fast enough to playback at higher speeds so I end up getting video lag/stuttering. Have you encountered/figured out this issue? Maybe I should go do something else for a while and hope that the video loads.

 

[KKDDJJMM]

AFAIK they are the same, it's just a very limited number of them that are available on Youtube.


Thanks! I downloaded the free trial, but am having some issues with the video loading fast enough to playback at higher speeds so I end up getting video lag/stuttering. Have you encountered/figured out this issue? Maybe I should go do something else for a while and hope that the video loads.

right click and switch to media progressive

 

[madcowz]

Thanks! I downloaded the free trial, but am having some issues with the video loading fast enough to playback at higher speeds so I end up getting video lag/stuttering. Have you encountered/figured out this issue? Maybe I should go do something else for a while and hope that the video loads.

There's no fix. I did the same thing as you, hoping that I could speed up my Pathoma videos. No such luck. It explains it in the FAQ section about how there are two different ways for flash media to play and varies according to website. One way they can speed up, the other way they can't speed up. It lists Najeeb videos as being in the group you can't speed up using their software. Thank goodness for that free trial.

 

[madcowz]

right click and switch to media progressive

I don't see that option. You're talking about right clicking on the icon in the top toolbar, right?

 

[KKDDJJMM]

I don't see that option. You're talking about right clicking on the icon in the top toolbar, right?

Just checked it out (its been a while since I used Najeeb) and it looks like they changed it. You use to be able to right click the video and switch to "media progressive" and use myspeed to watch it at your desired rate without all the annoying pauses. From what I could tell, it looks like now you can just click on settings and select 1.5x and 2x straight from his website.

 

[mcloaf]

Weirdly enough I switched from Chrome to try it in IE and now it seems to be working fine without any skipping.

 

[redblue]

It also depends on the videos. Some videos where you can see the buffering move forward are videos that you can speed through while others I just sit through and watch slowly

 

[dysdiadochokinesia]

same issue with DrNajeeb - no faster speed playback, take way way way too long to watch so I haven't watched any. I'll look up MySpeed...

 

[Pisiform]

I tried Dr. Najeeb but he goes into so much detail that it is useless ... better off listening to kaplan lecture at 2x if you have to. If you have done well in pre-clinical years you would not have any trouble recalling most of the basic conceptual stuff

 

[001100010010011]

I tried Dr. Najeeb but he goes into so much detail that it is useless ... better off listening to kaplan lecture at 2x if you have to. If you have done well in pre-clinical years you would not have any trouble recalling most of the basic conceptual stuff

Najeeb is the man if you are lost on a topic.

 

[notbobtrustme]

Najeeb is the man if you are lost on a topic.

yea he saved my ass on renal.