USMLE Help! Extremely desperate! 4 weeks until Step 1!

[Barbarossa2015]

Hi - here is my situation:

Due to an illness in which I needed to recover, I was not able to prepare for step 1 during the 6 weeks that we were given in May-June. Now that I have fully recovered I have exactly 4 weeks + 1 day until the exam. I spent all morning reading up on what others used during this time frame, and initially decided on the UFAP (UWORLD, FA, PATHOMA) method.

However, I feel there is just not enough time during the day to go through 2 blocks of UWORLD (fully reading all explanations and annotating into FA), 30 pages of FA, and still watch Pathoma lectures. I am thinking about cutting out Pathoma - since I feel UWORLD does a great job of explaining the pathophysiology and mechanisms behind diseases. Is this wise??

So with the remaining 4 weeks, I will read FA 2X to memorize as much as possible, and then read and annotate thoroughly ALL the UWORLD questions. Do you think I can achieve a 230-240 on Step 1 WITHOUT pathoma??? Thank you!!

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[kehlsh]

depends on what kind of background you have.. some people start with 240+ foundation before the dedicated.. some start with 170ish (me)

 

[malin]

agree with above post; it depends how hard you worked during the MS2 year. the short answer is, yes, it is certainly possible to get 230-240 range, but it depends on a lot of things, such as if you're understanding concepts vs just memorizing, and how well you might be able to cram things like micro and pharm if you haven't learned them well the first time [again, not sure what background you have].

i wouldn't cut out pathoma. maybe don't read pathoma given the limited time. i would just listen to pathoma while i ran/biked at the gym or something (so i get my hour of exercise and simultanesouly listen to the most High yield pathology concepts). also, be careful how much you annotate. annotating takes a long time, depending on how much you write. it's something that's worth doing if you're many months away from your exam, in my opinion. at this stage, you might be better off reading very closely and marking specific questions you want to re-review. but again take all this advice with a grain of salt. good luck!

 

[OnePunchBiopsy]

Depends on your background knowledge.

I went from a 200 NBME to a 234 NBME in four weeks using UFAP. Anything is possible with hard work.

I wish you the best!