Just took Step 1 at the end of August so I can share my 2 cents. I had a weird COVID-influenced dedicated period at home with my family, so I had a less than ideal study environment but way more time than I usually would have. Anyway, that aside... I tried to approach this test in light of my future goals and, like you said, not really knowing how my score would be interpreted. Since we're M2's in MD-PhD programs, we've taken a lot of tests and we know how terrible it can feel when you're taking a test you haven't really prepared well for. I didn't want that feeling regardless of whether my score would be seen like a "P." On the other hand, I wasn't aiming for a 260+, I was aiming for a score that would put me in a competitive position at academic programs in my areas of interest (psych, peds, EM, etc, still undecided but not neurosurg, ya know?).
So I didn't reinvent the wheel. I did flashcards for memorization things (sketchy micro and sketchy pharm) and did BrosWorld so I didn't forget the names of biochem stuff. I watched and annotated Pathoma. I did all of UWorld and some of my incorrects and took an NBME every weekend. I read First Aid, although I don't really think that was an effective use of my time. I used Cram Fighter for my schedule because I'm not one of those people who's organized enough to time block resources in an Excel spreadsheet. I panicked once or twice a month, but during that panic I was able to reassess what was working and what wasn't and got my head on straight. I took 1-2 days off a week, except in the last two weeks, and never studied after I was totally exhausted. It's said all the time, but this test, and the prep for it, is a marathon, not a sprint.
This test is massive in its scope, but while I was taking it I was suprised, in general, by how straightforward most of the questions were. You're always at the risk of getting some bizarre questions that are being tested and won't be scored, but almost all the questions I saw felt like "yeah, I have looked at this topic and do or should know this." There are tons of resources at your disposal and the biggest thing is just finding what works best for you. I had a terrible time in pre-clinicals, so I was using a lot of these resources (Sketchy, Pathoma, qbanks) for the first time, but that may or may not be your experience. And I still hit my goal score.
Hope some of this is helpful, I really feel for you and how uncertain this time is. I pondered a lot of options, including taking Step 2 now and waiting to take Step 1 post-PhD, but generally I decided to just follow the flow and do what previous classes have done and trust that it should be fine. That way, whether our scores become effectively P's or whether they look like scores that would have been decent/good for members of our entering MD cohort, either way we're fine.
