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262- My Strategy

29K views 95 replies 59 participants last post by  pnlitt 
#1 ·
First of all this forum has been amazing and has helped me a lot and I met a lot of nice folks here who were always ready to help.

Background: IMG, March 2013 grad
Prep time : 3 months
Hours/day: 10 hours average
Materials: KLN with vids, Goljan with audio, FA, UWORLD, Google images:D, Wikipedia

Choice of residency wanted : surgery and only surgery

I did not to anything extra than what ive mentioned. What I did differently was :
Repeated kln without videos 2months out, went through images of important topics eg MS ... Images included MRI , ct xrays histology, EM of specific cells. Whatever I thought was important I would go beyond kaplan and FA, but not too many topics... I tried to understand everything and memorize very little. Somethings that you have to memorize are mostly pharma and little physio.
Also be prepared to handle graphs beyond what you see in kln and Fa but be prepared with the graphs in them as well....

My Uworld cumulative 1st time 75%
NBME 13 1 month out (without uworld) 242
UWSA 2 weeks out 263 , 265
NBME 15 1 week out 261

That's it guys ... Its that simple and trust me you dont need to be a genius to score 260 ... But you need to want it bad like i did and push yourself beyond what you think you are capable of.
If you have questions do write them on the forums ill be happy to help and please for the benefit of others try not to pm me just put it on this forum:D

Ps. I would wanna thank the moderators of this forum you guys do a wonderful job and also my friends here vinaya jd dr.kg, vita86 kovach and wish them all the best for their step 1
 
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#3 ·
This is a Great, fantastic, amazing score!!!wow! congratulations!!!And you studied for only 3 months, scoring so high :O
I followed you because I recently (2 days ago)took NBME13 and I also scored 242. In NBME 7, 240. What did you do in your last weeks? Only FA? I have only 2 weeks left. I want to take NBME15 next week to see if I've improved a little. i Don't feel ready and my dream is a score close to 250!but I don't know if it's possible for me!:( Was you exam similar to NBME15? More or less difficult than NBMEs?
 
#5 ·
Congratulations!

That is a dream score, needless to say! Many congratulations!.

Just a quick question, how did you manage that jump from NBME 13 to 15? That was pretty significant. What did you do special?

P.S. Go out and get sloshed first, you can reply later, haha.
 
#11 ·
That is a dream score, needless to say! Many congratulations!.

Just a quick question, how did you manage that jump from NBME 13 to 15? That was pretty significant. What did you do special?

P.S. Go out and get sloshed first, you can reply later, haha.
Nothing special ... Did the uworld in between ... But when i reviewed my incorrect questions i realised that i had made blunders on nbme 13 so in nbme 15 i really concentrated throughout the paper.
 
#15 ·
I would like to ask u about how much it takes u for each material to be done from it ??? what u would recommend me to do regarding the Q`s banks ? should I solve them after finishing each material or at the end ?
Im a fast reader so i get done with things fast. As far as your qbanks are concerned you can do them once you finish the entire thing like me or do them after each subject... Its a personal choice.
 
#17 ·
Hey..first of all congratulations for the amazing score..keep it up.
I just wanted to ask that did you watch the kaplan videos??
Im a slow reader so i watch the videos n read the notes simultaneously..but sometimes i feel i waste a lot of time..
What do you recommend?
 
#20 ·
Some questions

Congratulations :)))) I am promoted to 3rd year in my medical school in egypt next September ,, I wanna ask you what is the best time to take usmle step 1 ,, and is there any problems if I only study from Kaplan ,, what is the ideal amount of time to be fully prepared to such exam ,, thnx and good luck in your career :)
 
#29 ·
Congratulations :)))) I am promoted to 3rd year in my medical school in egypt next September ,, I wanna ask you what is the best time to take usmle step 1 ,, and is there any problems if I only study from Kaplan ,, what is the ideal amount of time to be fully prepared to such exam ,, thnx and good luck in your career :)
I cant answer that cause it depends on individual... Sme people take a 1 yr... Yu will know when ur ready so take the exam then Happy-2
 
#21 ·
congratulations

First of all congratulations .. amazing score..ur story is such a booster cuz I was fretting today only how to start my prep.. doing internship so not getting enough time.. wanna ask how to start.. kaplan with or without videos.. and wat subject videos not to miss out atall..
 
#30 ·
First of all congratulations .. amazing score..ur story is such a booster cuz I was fretting today only how to start my prep.. doing internship so not getting enough time.. wanna ask how to start.. kaplan with or without videos.. and wat subject videos not to miss out atall..
Kaplan with videos.... That how you should start. I dint do a few of them like end and path and a few here and there
 
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#31 ·
congratulations on the amazing score mashaAllah ,, I wanted to ask u plz did u cover ALL Kaplan notes and videos for all subjects, and if so how much time did it take you to cover them ? thanks :)
No whichever video i thought was a waste of time and felt he was telling me what i knew i skipped
 
#25 ·
First of all this forum has been amazing and has helped me a lot and I met a lot of nice folks here who were always ready to help...
Congratulations, aman_j! I'm truly glad about your score. I've started studying for the usmle step 1 but my major challenge is time. How can I balance my much-occupied time as a house officer with studies? Sticking to my timetable has proven to be herculean and it's quite discouraging :(
Any advice that could help?
 
#32 ·
I was not working while prepping for step 1 so I dont know but now im working and i find it a challenge to study along with work.... Dont know but i will find a way and tell you:D
 
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#35 ·
Congratulations !

Thats a very good score and u have done ur prep in just 3 months..so i am wondering have u done a little bit of prep in parallel to ur medschool curiculum or entirely now ? I am planning to start my prep in med school (2nd yr now) in hope that it might save time later when i give my exam after grad..will this workout ? Advice please
 
#41 ·
Thats a very good score and u have done ur prep in just 3 months..so i am wondering have u done a little bit of prep in parallel to ur medschool curiculum or entirely now ? I am planning to start my prep in med school (2nd yr now) in hope that it might save time later when i give my exam after grad..will this workout ? Advice please
I just used the forum on and off in med school but i concentrated on what they taught in school . I was focused on learning and not scoring.... Scores are imp but for me knowledge is what I chase:D. If you have time why not, start early and save time later.
 
#39 ·
First of all this forum has been amazing and has helped me a lot and I met a lot of nice folks here who were always ready to help.

Background: IMG, March 2013 grad
Prep time : 3 months
Hours/day: 10 hours average
Materials: KLN with vids, Goljan with audio, FA, UWORLD, Google images:D, Wikipedia

Choice of residency wanted : surgery and only surgery

I did not to anything extra than what ive mentioned. What I did differently was :
Repeated kln without videos 2months out, went through images of important topics eg MS ... Images included MRI , ct xrays histology, EM of specific cells. Whatever I thought was important I would go beyond kaplan and FA, but not too many topics... I tried to understand everything and memorize very little. Somethings that you have to memorize are mostly pharma and little physio.
Also be prepared to handle graphs beyond what you see in kln and Fa but be prepared with the graphs in them as well....

My Uworld cumulative 1st time 75%
NBME 13 1 month out (without uworld) 242
UWSA 2 weeks out 263 , 265
NBME 15 1 week out 261

That's it guys ... Its that simple and trust me you dont need to be a genius to score 260 ... But you need to want it bad like i did and push yourself beyond what you think you are capable of.
If you have questions do write them on the forums ill be happy to help and please for the benefit of others try not to pm me just put it on this forum:D

Ps. I would wanna thank the moderators of this forum you guys do a wonderful job and also my friends here vinaya jd dr.kg, vita86 kovach and wish them all the best for their step 1
:) what a score...and thanks man, we always believed in you and you will be an inspiration for us.
i will be statisfied with 250, work+prep for step1 is really hard..
 
#45 ·
Just go through FA biochemistry , take a note of cycles enzymes etc ... There are minor details in each cycle you may have to learn... From my exp actual exam bchem is simpler... Also conc on diseases in genetics. My random score was between 70 to 80%.
 
#44 ·
Great score! Congratulations...
Send me a pm and we can talk a little about surgical electives if you are interested.
One quick question: I am still having the problem that I try to memorize everything. Can you mostly recall everything you learned or did you just recognize the correct answer when doing questions. Hope you know what I mean.
 
#46 ·
Dont worry about the memory part... The best thing about usmle is that the answer is in front of you and when you go through the options you will recognise it... Know the concepts well:D. Ive graduated so im not eligble for electives will try and get hands on in some uni though
 
#47 ·
Congrats on the GREAT score!!


I was just wondering I'm like roughly at 215 right now (I'm assuming)...I'm going to re-take nbme 7 tomorrow and see.. But my exam is in 2 weeks.

I've gone through UW once and done another 400 questions a second time (random, not incorrects). But going through these questions I noticed some questions that I'm sure I knew before, I don't anymore and was thinking of forgoing UW and just focusing on FA and NBMEs and pathoma my last two weeks. I have extensive UW notes in my fa from my first pass..
My exam is Sept 6th. I can't postpone the exam without having to take a leave of absence and everyone discourages this very much because I'm a 2nd year Carib student.

I would REALLY, REALLY appreciate any advice you or anyone else can provide!
Thanks so much.
 
#48 ·
Congrats on the GREAT score!!

I was just wondering I'm like roughly at 215 right now (I'm assuming)...I'm going to re-take nbme 7 tomorrow and see.. But my exam is in 2 weeks.

I've gone through UW once and done another 400 questions a second time (random, not incorrects). But going through these questions I noticed some questions that I'm sure I knew before, I don't anymore and was thinking of forgoing UW and just focusing on FA and NBMEs and pathoma my last two weeks. I have extensive UW notes in my fa from my first pass..
My exam is Sept 6th. I can't postpone the exam without having to take a leave of absence and everyone discourages this very much because I'm a 2nd year Carib student.

I would REALLY, REALLY appreciate any advice you or anyone else can provide!
Thanks so much.
What do you mean by retake the nbme 7.. Why dont you take a fresh nbme... That will tell you where you stand... Ofcourse revise fa and pathoma... During my prep even i felt that i already knew most of the questions so i did only incorrect. Take the nbme and decide on taking step 1 based on that.
 
#52 ·
My neurology was very strong so kln with fa was enough for me. If you are able to answer questions of neurology in nbme then you should be fine elsr try hy neuroanat.
 
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