Hello all!
Long time creeper of SDN and finally decided to sign up because I felt obligated to post this. Background history: I am an IMG and recently took Step 1 after a 10 week dedicated period of studying and received my score last Wednesday. I was a slightly above average student overall but started medical school a little rocky. I almost failed my first exam of first semester. After much improvement, I ended second year near the top of my class.
After all the help and advice that everyone (including SDN) gave, I was thankful but also frustrated because no one really shared their exact study plan for their dedicated (they probably just didn't have one). I was always told UFAP, sketchy, etc. and I would be thinking (when? in what order? how much per day? how close to your exam?) I ended up documenting a day by day study plan of what I did for the 8 weeks from eyes open until eyes closed (mostly because I wanted to be able to look back and see what I did from the previous week, but now I thought that maybe someone would find it useful).
I ended up taking all of the online NBMEs and was scoring in the low 230s; however, contrary to popular belief, I felt and still feel that NBMEs aren't a completely accurate gauge of what you will score on test day. I ended up scoring >20 points above my NBME average. Strangely enough, USWAs were by far the most predictive.
My scores for each practice exam are as follows:
NBME 12 (8w out): 212
UWSA 1 (4w out): 245
NBME 15 (2w out): 230
NBME 18 (2w out): 232
NBME 3 (1w out): ~227
NBME 5 (1w out): ~230
UWSA 2 (1w out): 243
NBME 16 (4d out): 232
NBME 17 (3d out): 227
NBME 13 (2d out): 230
Actual: 248
As you can see, NBMEs weren't really predictive at all for me. I always believed that it didn't matter what scores you were getting on practice exams because it all comes down to which test they administer to you on exam day. Attached is my 10w study plan. It will be confusing when you look at it at first so I am happy to answer any questions. Before I began my dedicated I had already made it through UWorld once before our school's comprehensive exam. I felt this was CRITICAL to freeing up time, letting me add in Kaplan, and allowing for a quicker second/third pass of UWorld. Quick rundown of what I did every day for 10w:
730am-noon: Read a section of first aid. (24p immuno FA, etc). I took my time for this and wanted to grab all the little details that I missed the first time through because I heard that they loved the little FA details on step, and they did.
Noon-1pm: Lunch while watching one video of DIT (bottom line of the schedule, if it says "micro 25-29", I watched DIT micro 25 at lunch while eating). It's amazing how much we can accomplish in the time that is usually wasted.
1pm-9pm: 5 blocks of UWorld random/timed or 5 blocks of Kaplan (depending on the week, it's in the schedule). I'd also sneak in some dinner sometime around 5pm. Hungry=brain shuts down.
9pm-10pm: Gym. I went 4-5x a week and I felt this was absolutely critical for doing well. Sound body = sound mind.
1030pm-1130pm: 4 videos of DIT on 2x while laying in bed. Once again, time that was previously wasted was now being used to run through a pretty decent review.
1130pm-7am: Sleep.
I only used DIT during the times I usually wouldn't be doing anything- lunch and winding down before bed. I began substituting DIT in for Netflix during 2nd year. Just by doing this, I made 3 passes of DIT. I think it helped tremendously. Some people are indifferent to those guys, but hey, it's not like I sacrificed studying another resource to do it.
UWorld is obviously king. Know it cold before moving onto less reputable banks.
I did Kaplan and it was good IMO. Some people may say "Kaplan is so low yield, knit-picky, etc" but my reply would be "how do you know? Have you seen all the Step1 questions?". On test day Kaplan ended up earning me at least 5 points I can think of which I probably wouldn't have gotten otherwise.
SKETCHY FTW. I loved sketchy and know every picture like the back of my hand. I started using it beginning second year and can honestly say i'll remember those pictures forever. Those stories are gold and those guys are geniuses. *applauds*
Last but not least- I firmly believe optimism is absolutely necessary to do well on Step 1. Envision the score you want and work towards it every day. A lot of you are probably thinking "this guy got lucky" and you are 100% correct; however, not for a single second did I ever believe I would score less than a 245, even after practice tests where I would get a 227. Truly believe in yourself and it will happen. I guarantee it.
I went to bed each night knowing I gave it my all and there was nothing else I could have done. This also gave me peace on test day and the confidence in my preparation. This was key.
I'll say it again- believe in yourself and give it your all. It's a short period of sacrifice to achieve everything you've every wanted. Leave it all out there.
I probably won't be logging on too much but hopefully at least one person finds my schedule helpful. If you have any questions i'll try to answer them but it may take a little bit. Please be patient with me. lol
Good luck,
Reticuloman
