Took the exam at may 9th and got my score today. Here is my way to do it and my advices. it prob fits better to AMG.
1. I've seen people who are stressed about step 1 during the MS1 summer. Let me put it this way, unless you want to get 260+, 270+, please take a chill pill and get some real life and break (even if you want to get 260+, i believe there is a way to do so without being crazy about it during MS1 summer). Do NOT worry about it until your second year.
2. MS2 b4 dedicated: I used Rx as the main q bank with kaplan as supplemental qbank, with FA, pathoma, goljan. Rx is a good question bank, basic but well complimented with first aid. There are always goods and bads for each resource. But if it can help you learn, it's worthy. For me, i LOVE goljan, it just help me fill the gap of pathoma. Do you have to do it? No. if you don't like it, drop it. I also picked up BRS physio midway, doesn't quite help a lot since i think i have a solid background on physio and BRS physio is kinda overkill. Some flash cards (lange pharm, lippincott micro), more for unit exam studying rather than step studying. Did try picnomic and sketchy micro. Did not like it. so I did not use it. FA = all you need for micro (my best section of all), but you need to know it really well. word by word understanding, not just memorizing.
3. MS2 dedicated (5 weeks): I finished annotating first aid. I put everything that can help me understand in FA, whether it's a picture, a concept... No active memorization at this moment (but i mean i have a lot down in my brain just by finishing Rx qbank). Then i did the NBME 15, i got 226 as a baseline. Am I satisfied? No. Am I relived? kinda of. I know I am not going to fail the real deal. And I know I have a long way to go. Then I started Uworld. It felt like an Rx ver 2.0. It's doable, not as extremely hard as some people claim if you get some background studying. I did 2 blocks per day, then for whatever i feel like important, i write a note, not on FA since my FA is all filled up with info. My plan was to review these periodically. But I got lazy and end up reviewing them at the last week only once. If I can do it again, I will definitely review my uworld note over and over and stop being lazy about it. This literally takes most of my day time, other than that, i will review pharm (do it over and over, it will sticks eventually. pharm in real deal is not hard!!!) and review FA. I finished Uworld in a month and FA 1 pass in this month). throughout these weeks, during the weekend, I will do a set of practice exam, whether it's NBME or UWSA. Either one, i will try to review them, not just use them as assessment. Then last week of my dedicated, i decided not to do any exam to stress myself. So I reviewed FA another round, all NBME wrong q, uworld notes (just like another book, seriously i should review this earlier), and pharm of course.
4. b4 and during the test day: get a good sleep!!! you need it, whether it's melatonin, zzzquil, benadryl. get a good sleep!!! I actually sleep really good the night b4 because i felt like it's finally coming and no more suffering. The test day is doable if you did several practice exams under timed conditions.
So overall, FA x 2-3, pathoma x1 (didn't feel like doing it during dedicated), goljan x1 (for understanding and filling gap), flash cards (more for unit exam studying), some chapters of BRS physio
Rx: completed all, 77%
Kaplan: completed 1/2, 74%
UWorld: 77%
All times, test mode.
NBME 15 (online) as baseline: 226
UWSA 1 (1 week after uworld): 236
UWSA 2 ( 2 weeks after world): 253
NBME 7, 11, 13, 16 (offline): ~240 (the offline scale is pretty accurate when compare to the online score, offline -2~4 = online)
NBME 17 (online): 3 weeks before the real deal, 247
NBME 18 (online): 2 weeks before the real deal, 247 (the questions are harder, but scale is more generous than 17)
REAL DEAL: 253!!! really happy about it.
Some additional advices:
1. don't get obsessed with sdn, ppl here are ridiculously smart. something like 89% uworld...
2. don't follow other's plan, make yours. All I said above, if doesn't fit you, is crap.
3. if you want to get good score, you have to sacrifice. for me, it's food and walking around under the sun (I actually gained 5 lbs for being home, not moving around, and ordering oily food...)
4. Set your goal, for me, that's 240, which means I can apply to most fields if I want to.
5. Work your way to your goal.
6. Trust your NBME score and trust yourself. Take a "chill pill", and i mean it, whether it's music, call your friends... You have to de-stress. or you will burn out bad.
7. Do not overthink after the exam. This is something I think is BS: people said they feel they failed the real deal..... NO WAY. if you prep seriously, you should pass it. and you should score close to your practice score. I feel ok after the exam, however i can remember some of the marked questions and I just googled them the first day post-exam... NOT GOOD!!! just add stress. Then i started to realize there's nothing you can do... so again, take a chill pill and move on.
Alrighty, good luck guys!!!
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