finally three miserably LONG weeks later, guess its my turn to contribute ladies and gentlemen.
this forum has been the best thing that's happened to me since I started studying for step 1 in September and I hope I can give even a fraction back of what its given me. I apologize in advance for the long post but it has been an incredibly emotional and exhilarating journey that I do need to share with everyone.
Background and Study History: IMG here, couple of years since I studied basic sciences and I was in the 2nd quartile of my class throughout med school. Having never worked hard for anything, step 1 was the first time I really worked towards something with serious dedication. I chose not to use the traditional kaplan LNs method that most IMGs follow (which is undoubtedly very effective if done properly) and instead rocked the American way, I UFAP-ED ALL THE WAY BABY (yeah I'm not too sure if thats a word but whatever). Started with reading FA cover to cover. In retrospect this was really dumb because reading FA is like reading a book in French, if you don't know the french alphabet, it'll just be a bunch of nonsensical gibberish just like with FA, if you don't know your basic concepts, FA will be a bunch of gibberish and you will not grasp the zillion brilliant concepts packed into a 600ish page review book. So after this first read I had memorized some random stuff and didn't truly understand anything so I bought RX and started solving the bank. This is where I made another mistake. What I should have done was used RX to engrain FA into my brain, however I straight up just solved RX qbank without referring to FA once (yeah I know what all of you are thinking, unbelievably stupid move, but I really had no idea what I was doing. I didn't join this wonderful forum till after finishing RX and as I'll explain later on, it was a game changer for me). RX helped me learn the material in FA better and I grasped some concepts here. I would type up things that explained physiology concepts that I felt was important onto a word document and referred to it periodically. After finishing RX, I then purchased UW and started solving it. This time while solving questions I would have FA open, and I completed 70% of UW in Random/Tutor. Again I would type up notes into a word document or annotate notes into FA. I took my time reading all the explanations, it would take me approximately 5 hours to solve and review a block simultaneously. UW is an absolute golden qbank and everyone here already knows that. Around the same time I started UW, I discovered SDN. This forum is amazing man, an absolute gem. I spent a full day reading the 2015 step 1 experiences and scores thread and only then did I realize the importance of concepts, step 1 is all about concepts man. I started Googling anything I wanted to learn more about out of pure curiosity, SDN ignited the curiosity in me. I spent a lot of time on Google, on Wikipedia just reading to enhance my depth of understanding.
At this point it was December and I was about 8 weeks out from my test date. The last 8 weeks I divided my time reading FA a third, final and comprehensive time, I did various NBMEs, I did UWSA1, and I spent an incredible amount of time on this forum. I was like a damn parasite man trying to extract all the knowledge I could from any post I deemed interesting. I was also sick for about two weeks which kinda messed up my studying for a period of time but in retrospect because I studied much less during this period, I was able to grind out the last 2-3 weeks.
When I first started studying in September, all I knew about step 1 was from a few friends of mine/ peers who had written it. They had told me 240 was the benchmark score, so arbitrarily I decided that my goal was a 240 or better. After 3 months of studying, when I started taking NBMEs and UWSA1, I started off eclipsing 240s and I realized that maybe, just maybe I could possibly do better than 240s. This was incredibly exciting because with each passing day, I felt that I could "erase" and forget about my years of mediocrity in medical school by achieving something spectacular on the step 1.
Materials Used:
UFAP +
Google/Wikipedia
FA (3x)
Pathoma (2x)
Qbanks used:
RX (79% 1x, random/tutor)
UW (76% 1x, 70% random/tutor, 30% random/timed)
Assessments: UWSA1
248 (~8 weeks out)
NBME 13
254 (~6 weeks out)
NBME 15
249 (~4 weeks out)
NBME 16
260 (~2 weeks out)
NBME 17
262 (~10 days out)
Free 137
94% (there's 137 qs people)
NBME Avg:
256
Exam Experience: my short term memory is terrible. now this is advantageous when taking an exam like step 1 since like me you can rapidly forget about the previous block and then focus in on the next one which is very important folks, never let the previous blocks experience linger since you have 300 + questions to get through and you need to maintain a high level of focus throughout. However having a short term memory is terrible when you really want to be able to tell people what topics showed up but honestly cannot remember (sorry folks). I just remember thinking each block I was marking more and more questions. I had a lot of ethics and biostatistics type questions which unfortunately was one of my main weaknesses. I probably had 3-4 questions per block. In my score report I was borderline for biostatistics/population health which disappoints me a little because had I answered a few more in this category, I probably would of hit 260.
Take Away: newsflash, step 1 is a thinking exam (you already knew that). the amount of recall questions probably varies per form or simply on your luck but I personally had very little. In other words, once or twice a block I confidently knew the answer because the question was testing a factoid, you either knew it or you didnt. UFAP is absolute gold. Understand every word of everything you encounter in these materials and I am confident all of you will be more than okay. Be curious folks, if you don't understand something, dont be frustrated but rather take it as a fun opportunity to explore something which you didnt know 5 minutes ago but now you do. Im certain we would all rather screw up a question on a bank than on test day and everything you read may be assessed in one way or another so dont lose focus while studying. No matter what your background, whether IMG or US Med student, all of you can do well on this exam with dedication, discipline, and curiosity. With honest time and effort, after completing step 1 you will have enhanced yourself as a human being, you will already be on the path to a wonderful medical career, one way or another you will be a better you, I certainly feel that way. will conclude this by saying thank you to everyone on this step 1 page, everyone who I messaged and took the time to reply back to me. shout out to
@tasar1898 for being one of the most helpful and active members of this thread and personally teaching me a crap ton, you a sensei to us all bro!
edit: your preparation, practice tests (NBMEs, UWSAs) give you a pretty good ballpark range of scores you will likely fall within,
however it is what you bring on test day that will truly decide the final score.
Real Deal: >255 😉
