Ok, so I got a
262 on Step. For reference, this was my study prep:
Did Lippincott's Q&A anatomy, Roadmap neuroscience, all of the Robbins Review of Pathology questions in their review book, UWorld more than once, Mixed in some kaplan and USMLERx and did great on exams throughout the first 2 years of class but still feel rabidly nervous about this exam.
Pre-studying NBME 6: 235 in early April.
NBME 11: 252, 5 weeks ago
NBME 12: 256? It was either 256 or 258 whatever. 3 weeks ago
UWSA1: 259
NBME 13: Did offline, was distracted by the highlighting of someone's jpgs naturally so...
NBME 15: Purchased (like everything else I did), 268. Thought it was the easiest by far. Thought the H. pylori cancer question was bogus, it's protective against GERD. Had a cancer doc and GI doc go head to head on that in class during a lecture actually.
UWSA2: 261
Week of: NBME 7, 249. Not happy that I moved back, but I can live with it.
And somehow I still expect to get 240 only come game day, due to reading that experiences thread, lol. Didn't do as much Pathoma (slammed the module book not the lectures) as others, take the exam next Saturday. Main resources: FA + UWorld + writing a Step 1 workbook.doc that consolidated Pathoma, Uworld, and FA stuff into it for the last 4-5 days (200 pages total) to hammer down.
First world problems but I hate getting questions wrong still on Uworld. Been through them all....
In short, looking back:
UWorld Approach: Get through it twice. No, it never took me 3hours+ to go through them. The first time, I read the explanations and integrated into my FA/Pathoma notes. The second time, if I got it right, I moved on unless a distractor interested me or compelled me, then I would read that explanation to suss out the differences between the correct and incorrect choices. I probably never read entire explanations -- some distractors are worthless -- but reading them well the first time goes a long way. I know there's a poll about how many hours it takes you to get through a UWorld block, lmao at 3 hours being the lowest option.
The heck with Kaplan and all the other ancillary sources one could use as far as I'm concerned; Gunner Training, DIT, whatever. More power to you if you use it, but not needed if your school is "average" (my school puts out USMLE scores that are only +3 above the mean) and you work really hard. I used some of Kaplan's qbank questions to supplement when I finished.
The most important thing you can do (and was pertinent to several questions on my Step 1) in the first 2 years is work hard and do well in your classes. My standard deviation location for Step 1 is slightly higher than it was on average after every block exam during 2nd year, as our school gives us those numbers for reference. Several questions weren't easily integrated into a UWorld qbank, but were principals discussed in our classes at some point in the year, and I was thus able to semi-confidently choose the answer on the exam.
Main Sources: Mentioned above, but really,
identify weaknesses and supplement them with additional question sources if you have time. Otherwise,
UWorld, First Aid, First Aid Q&A, and some USMLERx to go along with Pathoma (and Phlostons slides in the last week of studying (search for em on here)) should be your bread and butter.
I did have a different exam-taking experience than others, but I have ADHD so I was likely biased against perseverating on long vignettes for too long. I was done with all but one block with about 12-18 minutes to spare. I marked on average 15 questions but because I was done so early I could go through them all again.
KISS. Keep it simple, stupid! I gave my initial impression answer first, semi-confidently unless marked, then went through and if I read it right and had the same impression the second time, I kept that answer. If my impressions changed, then I adjusted the answer accordingly. This worked even on the block where I only had 3 minutes to go through all answers -- I changed 3 answers to correct ones from incorrect in the last minute due to an impression change.
I'm not sure everyone should adapt this strategy - perhaps the perseverating until comfortable style is more appropriate, but also offers much less time to go through them a second time.
Long vignettes? Read the last 2 sentences first then go back and (1) See if you even need to read the vignette anymore - sometimes it was totally standalone, those last 2 sentences, but I would check by skimming (2) Read the vignette in a way that has now honed in what you're looking for based on the actual question. This helps in situations where you get this massive tB vignette and they ask you if the patient is in denial, repression, suppression, rationalization, etc.
That's all. My weakest section (all were * except two) was Anatomy and Embryology, and that was because of two ultra esoteric anatomy questions that I couldn't care less about. I mean A-M answer choices on topics such as, for example (but not what I had) a certain foramen that is not pertinent to any important pathology. Who cares? Get it wrong. Shoot for 260 and stick with viewing the forests and the trees, don't strive for 270, get sucked into those esoteric details, and then miss a few fundamental principles. Just my two cents.
I felt 250 was likely my score getting out, but felt it to be UWorld difficulty level. Definitely didn't feel like I failed, and was on 4 hours of sleep so not my best sleep day. It can be done.
You'll see people posting 6 month preps and such, well, mine was 6 weeks. So just adding that for reference. MCAT was 33. Desired fields: Top 6 of Psychiatry, Neurology, Hematology, Internal Med (hospitalist possibly), Anesthesiology, Endocrinology.
Cheers to 2013 
