Been too long since I've haunted the forums, but I figured I would share my recent Step 1 experience (Warning: The following is a novel).
I took my Step a few days ago after studying for ~7-8 weeks of dedicated time. It seemed like sufficient time when I started, and ultimately it was enough to memorize FA, Pathoma, Uworld, UsmleRX, and a few extra resources. However, it wasn't enough for the test itself. Why? Read on my friends.
Background: My plan was to fill my first 3 weeks with FA, BRS physiology, BRS embryo, HYA Neuro, Pathoma (I had already finished the videos before my dedicated period), and UsmleRX. That worked well. By the time I started UWorld, I had a sufficient knowledge base to average 85% on my first pass. I tossed in some practice tests every few days in the final three weeks to test my study plan.
UWorld SA 1: 265
UWorld SA 2: 265
NBME 15: 275
NBME 13: 273
In short, I was missing about ~5 questions on many of my NBME practice exams. To fill in some blanks, I looked at Goljan and webpath for pathology images and LearningRadiology for, well, radiology. HYA gross anatomy allowed me to get some pelvic/abdominal anatomy knowledge missing from other books.
I thought I was ready for the real thing. Boy was I wrong.
AT LEAST 20-30% of my exam had info I had never seen before (I went back and checked my annotated FA, Pathoma, and UWorld - nada). Unlike what most people have described, the test gave me NO HINTS on the cardiac auscultation questions. The questions were basically, "A patient comes in. You hear a murmur. What is it?" Every anatomy question used obscure synonyms for each structure - the structures were in FA, HYA anatomy, and UWorld but were never identified by those names in the real step. There were at least 5 neuro questions I nailed because of my undergrad bio classes (info missing from most resources, including HYA Neuro). Unfortunately, I don't think those will be enough to help me out. The real thing was also much more ambiguous - every question included symptoms that could be reasonably attributed to two possible answers. They threw out numerous red herrings, way more than on the NBMEs or in UWorld.
Most of the infectious disease questions were laughably easy (they practically gave the answers in the question stems :|) except for two that were not covered by most resources and one question that required high-level mycology knowledge (something that I might have known 4 years ago, but not now). Barring one question about meds in pregnancy (one never covered even in Katzung IMO) and one on drug abuse that I would argue had ~3 correct answers, pharm was very straightforward. Psych was good except for one Q, which had so much history it was almost impossible to figure it out. There was actually one question I might consider "inappropriate" (wink wink nudge nudge) for a standardized exam (was choking during the test while trying to stifle my laughter), but the point was clear.
In short, after destroying the practice exams, I ended up marking about 60-70 questions on the real thing, easily 2-3x my usual. Being somewhat obsessive and blessed with a great short-term memory, I checked answers to as many questions as possible later. I missed at least 20-30, and those are just the marked ones I remember (and I'm assuming I got the unmarked ones correct...haha).
If I could do it again? I would skip almost every resource except FA, UWorld, Goljan (which I pushed to the side b/c of time constraints), a good anatomy review text, and HYA Neuro. Good luck to you all. My getting even to where I am now has depended on many contributions to this forum by its wonderful members.
<-- I bet that's how u felt walking out of the prometric center. Congratulations! Hope to hear from u in 3 weeks!
