M-1: During this year the only boards-specific resources that I used were SketchyMicro and the first 3 chapters of Pathoma. I did well in classes, but I am not a fan of my school’s curriculum and don’t think it contributed significantly to my performance.
M-2:
July to Feb: Completed Pathoma, Goljan audio lectures, and Kaplan Pharmacology with each school module.
March:
- One 44-question block of UWorld per day. I only did questions on material that was covered in school by then (we had 2 organ systems left at this point). I finished my first pass of UWorld right before I started my dedicated study period (64% average).
- Review of topics that I felt weak in: embryology, physiology, pharmacokinetics, autonomic pharmacology, immunology.
- Anki - I started using brosencephalon’s Step 1 deck. I only ever got through ~1/2 of it, but it really solidified certain weak topics for me that I thought I’d never remember/understand (cardiac blood supply, congenital immunodeficiencies, heme/onc).
April to June: dedicated study period
2nd pass of UWorld
1.75x FA
1x Pathoma
SketchyMicro
1x Kaplan Biostatistics, Biochemistry, Pharmacology videos
~2/3 of BRS Physiology (in retrospect it was overkill for Step 1)
Made my own Anki cards with easy-to-forget information from the above sources
I tried parts of various other sources (Firecracker, UWorld Biostats review, Secrets, HY Neuroanatomy, etc.) throughout M1 and M2 that were not helpful to my performance on Step 1.
If I had to do it again, I would use the same resources that I used and add a few things:
- Personal anki cards beginning in M-1
- “Rapid Review Pathology” by Goljan or BRS Pathology during M-2
- Kaplan videos for weak subjects throughout M-1 and M-2 (for me: biochemistry, neuroanatomy, behavioral sciences)
- Kaplan and USMLE-Rx questions during M-2 along with coursework
I took COMLEX before USMLE, and I did some questions in combank and read Savarese for the 3 days before COMLEX. I did very little COMLEX-specific prep and focused exclusively on the USMLE (except for the 3 days preceding the COMLEX). I scored well on the OMM COMAT a couple months before COMLEX, so I wasn’t too worried. In retrospect, I should have done more Neuroanatomy prep, as that was a glaring weakness during Level 1.
COMSAE E =
518 (3 months out)
COMLEX Level 1
>650
UWorld 1st pass avg =
64%
UWorld 2nd pass avg =
81%
NBME 12 =
224 (9 weeks out, beginning of dedicated)
NBME 13 =
230 (8 weeks out)
NBME 15 =
234 (7 weeks out)
NBME 16 =
234 (6 weeks out)
NBME 18 =
241 (3 weeks out)
UWSA 1 =
251 (3 weeks out)
UWSA 2 =
251 (2 weeks out)
NBME 17 =
256 (1.5 weeks out)
USMLE Step 1
>260
