Hello people...i am an img graduated in december 2012..below I'm going to briefly mention my step 1 journey..hope it helps.
I started in feb 2013...first 2 months I went over Kaplan lecture notes and videos except for patho for which I did pathoma...I made sure I understood each and everything in the video lectures...although I kept forgetting stuff I was quick to realize that the exam was mostly about concepts so I moved on...next 2 months I read Kaplan notes and pathoma without the videos..to further enhance my concepts I did usmle Rx subject wise after each subject I read...
I then gave first aid a read in 14 days. Next 10 days till the end of June I did Kaplan q bank. I basically ran through it and managed to get around 40-50% of it done...
in July I started uworld and managed to get it done in 22 days (78% aggregate) and made annotations off it on my fa... After uworld I gave nbme 11 and scored 252...gave another read of fa in 12 days and read genetics from Kaplan and saw neuro videos again after which I gave nbme 12 and scored 252...I went through some of my uworld again in next 8 days after which I gave nbme 7 and got 257 and uwsa 1 and got 263 both on the same day...gave a 3rd read of fa in 6 days and gave nbme 13 ( 257) and uwsa2 ( more than 265) after that on the same day. Next day I gave nbme 15 and scored 257 again ( lol I know I was super consistent in my nbmes)...last 3 days I just went over fa high yield topics or concepts that i thought needed reinforcement...the day before my exam I just relaxed mostly, watched some football, went out with a friend to get some snacks...I tried to sleep early but i couldnt sleep properly due to the expected anxiety . Had a 6 7 hour sleep in pieces.
Exam was trickier than most nbmes but doable. I marked any question I had a doubt on so I ended up marking 20 to 25 a block....I thought genetics and behavioral sciences had more wtf type questions but genetics was solvable if one had done their kaplans right...the rest all subjects were fair game...
Timeline:
Nbme 11 ( 5 weeks out) : 252
Nbme 12 ( 3 weeks out) : 252
Nbme 7 ( 2 weeks out): 257 and uwsa1: 263
Nbme 13 ( 1 week out): 257 and uwsa2: >265
Nbme 15: (6 days out): 257
Usmle step 1: 267
I know I leveled up from my nbmes but I owe it mostly to the fact that in the exam I was much more focused and perhaps the pressure got the best out of me....
my advice to anyone looking ahead to tame this beast would be to simply make concepts from whatever tools you decide to use for your prep. I think kaplan video lectures do that job in the best possible manner and then you have fa which gives you all you need to know for the exam but without the concepts , so I would recommend doing lectures. I know some would argue that uworld does a fine job in making you understand conceptual stuff but the problem is that while the kaplans give u everything in sequence the qbanks albeit awesome study tools don't give u things in a proper sequence which leaves u a bit confused at the end of the day since the exam content is so vast...just my opinion. However doing as many questions as possible is also key since they help reinforce stuff over and over again and in different scenarios. VERY IMPORTANT!!!!
I tried not to write a whole notebook,lol, so if anyone has any specific questions regarding the prep material or anything I would be glad to help out to my best ability...many people will tell you many different ways to go by your prep but as doctors its a part of our training to use our own judgment as to what's best at the end of the day.
-limits begin where the vision ends-
I started in feb 2013...first 2 months I went over Kaplan lecture notes and videos except for patho for which I did pathoma...I made sure I understood each and everything in the video lectures...although I kept forgetting stuff I was quick to realize that the exam was mostly about concepts so I moved on...next 2 months I read Kaplan notes and pathoma without the videos..to further enhance my concepts I did usmle Rx subject wise after each subject I read...
I then gave first aid a read in 14 days. Next 10 days till the end of June I did Kaplan q bank. I basically ran through it and managed to get around 40-50% of it done...
in July I started uworld and managed to get it done in 22 days (78% aggregate) and made annotations off it on my fa... After uworld I gave nbme 11 and scored 252...gave another read of fa in 12 days and read genetics from Kaplan and saw neuro videos again after which I gave nbme 12 and scored 252...I went through some of my uworld again in next 8 days after which I gave nbme 7 and got 257 and uwsa 1 and got 263 both on the same day...gave a 3rd read of fa in 6 days and gave nbme 13 ( 257) and uwsa2 ( more than 265) after that on the same day. Next day I gave nbme 15 and scored 257 again ( lol I know I was super consistent in my nbmes)...last 3 days I just went over fa high yield topics or concepts that i thought needed reinforcement...the day before my exam I just relaxed mostly, watched some football, went out with a friend to get some snacks...I tried to sleep early but i couldnt sleep properly due to the expected anxiety . Had a 6 7 hour sleep in pieces.
Exam was trickier than most nbmes but doable. I marked any question I had a doubt on so I ended up marking 20 to 25 a block....I thought genetics and behavioral sciences had more wtf type questions but genetics was solvable if one had done their kaplans right...the rest all subjects were fair game...
Timeline:
Nbme 11 ( 5 weeks out) : 252
Nbme 12 ( 3 weeks out) : 252
Nbme 7 ( 2 weeks out): 257 and uwsa1: 263
Nbme 13 ( 1 week out): 257 and uwsa2: >265
Nbme 15: (6 days out): 257
Usmle step 1: 267
I know I leveled up from my nbmes but I owe it mostly to the fact that in the exam I was much more focused and perhaps the pressure got the best out of me....
my advice to anyone looking ahead to tame this beast would be to simply make concepts from whatever tools you decide to use for your prep. I think kaplan video lectures do that job in the best possible manner and then you have fa which gives you all you need to know for the exam but without the concepts , so I would recommend doing lectures. I know some would argue that uworld does a fine job in making you understand conceptual stuff but the problem is that while the kaplans give u everything in sequence the qbanks albeit awesome study tools don't give u things in a proper sequence which leaves u a bit confused at the end of the day since the exam content is so vast...just my opinion. However doing as many questions as possible is also key since they help reinforce stuff over and over again and in different scenarios. VERY IMPORTANT!!!!
I tried not to write a whole notebook,lol, so if anyone has any specific questions regarding the prep material or anything I would be glad to help out to my best ability...many people will tell you many different ways to go by your prep but as doctors its a part of our training to use our own judgment as to what's best at the end of the day.
-limits begin where the vision ends-