Hello everybody,
This forum has been very helpful in my step 1 preparation and i would like to do my bit by contributing my experience with step 1.
DISCLAIMER: these are just my personal opinions, every individual is different!!
Duration of preparation : 6 months
Hours of study: first 3 months i was working full time so could give only 2-3 hours on weekdays and 6-7 hours on weekends. after that i wasnt working, so could give 6-7 hours everyday
Resources used: Kaplan lecture notes
Kaplan videos for anat, pharma, physio,behavioural
HY neuroanat( a must read)
HY biostats
FA
UW Qbank (2 months)
Kaplan Qbank (1 month)
i didnt do goljan, other HY books
How I studied:
In the first go, i did kaplan lecture notes and videos only for the subjects i mentioned.
My take on videos: They take a lot of time, not very helpful in actually solving questions, but they definitely break the monotony of reading step 1 subjects which might be very boring sometimes. Try to do behavioural videos, they do help.
After that i gave a reading of FA, of which i didnt retain anything!!
After that i started the second round of kaplan LN and made notes of some topics like nerve lesions and endocrine physio etc. in anatomy and physiology in a notebook bcz these two subjects scared me a lot.
I then took a 2 month subscription of UW , did it for 1 month but then i felt that some topics are much more stressed and some almost skipped in UW..although i must add that the topics UW covers are indeed THE MOST IMPORTANT!! So i subscribed to kaplan qbank.
The deal with kaplan qbank is that it definitely has a lot of good explanations, but somehow i didnt find real exam questions on that pattern. But the two good things about Kaplan Qbank were: it gives references to FA in every question, so u keep opening and memorising FA which otherwise is a herculean task to do. Secondly, it strenghthens ur KLN concepts. I would say that if you have a lot of time, do kaplan qbank first along with reading Kaplan notes..they can strenghthen ur base but dont expect them to be anywhere near the real exam as UW. I also took the kaplan diagnostic exam and 2 sim exams that come with the subscription. again they are not similar in any way to real exam but sim exam help to build stamina for 7 hours of the real exam.
So after the kaplan qbank, i still had one month of UW.. i made a notebook from UW qbank for important topics( i will give a list in the end)
UWSA: UWSA questions are a little weird and offbeat as compared to the uw qbank as well as the real exam. I gave the first one before starting the qbank( approx 2 months before exam) and got 260
i gave the UWSA 2 1 week before exam and got 265
i gave both bcz i had bought the comprehensive package which included both of them, but i strongly advise if u subscribe to the qbank only just do uwsa1..uwsa 2 is a waste of time and money.
NBME: Here comes the shocker..i didnt take any NBMEs. It might sound foolish and i wouldnt advise anyone of u to do the same.. my reasons for not doing NBME:
1) i did UWSAs as assessment, they overpredict, but they do giv u an idea of what score range u should expect
2) the fact that the test costs 50$ and doesnt even provide right answers for which u hav to google or ask other ppl on forums just didn make me feel good
3) I couldnt take the test any later than i did for personal reasons, so getting a bad score on NBME would shake my confidence
But, again, i would say DO TAKE NBMEs bcz its better to know where you are to give the test your best shot.
MY SCORES:
UW QBANK AVERAGE: 80%
Kaplan Qbank AVERAGE: 83%
kaplan diagnostic test: 83%
kaplan sim1 : 81%
kaplan sim2 : 84%
UWSA 1: 260
UWSA 2: 265
STEP 1 SCORE: 250
THE EXAM: (have copied this from my exam experience post)
micro, pharma, patho was pretty straightforward
anatomyne point i want to stress which nobody told me is that anatomy was heavily tested on my exam..n i didnt do very well on that cz i just read kaplan. so if u are earlier on in ur prep, do read high yield gross anatomy,
i read hy neuro which was sufficient.
behaviour science: as expected was very very bad, no source helped significantly, q were very vague, just made my best guess n moved on
physio: they give a lot of questions in which they describe a hypothetical experiment n then ask u which parameter will increase etc..some r easy, some not.
biochem: not many questions, i read it in a lot of detail, but there werent many q. but every form is different, u might get more questions.
audiovisual questions: 2 ecg, 2 heart sounds n lots of CTs , n pathology gross n microscopy images.
1 ecg n 1 heart sound was difficult, the other was easy, ct questions were ok except 2,3 weird q.pathology was simple.
first two blocks were tough n i was nervous also,,after that i synced with the exam n was more comfortable.
the challenge: i felt the real challenge was to manage time, keep ur senses intact for 8 hours, n to steer ur way to the alike looking options,these guys do a very good job to make confusing options, where u even falter at a topic u very well know.
SOME MISTAKES I MADE:
1) Reading anatomy from KLN.. i gave a look to HY anatomy, but with 1 month to go for the exam, i didn read it, but i have heard its a very good book. Anatomy questions were very difficult and i felt UW and FA dont do much justice to the subject.
2) Should have given an NBME, i took a risk..
FINAL TIPS:
1) Be confident: Use forums and other ppl's advice as a way to boost ur morale and not repeating the same mistakes, but only u know urself the best. Dont let somebody's high or low scores or anything affect ur prep or confidence in a negative way.
2)Read FA as many times as possible, i did it like 5-6 times. It may be packed with information thats monotonous or difficult to memorise, but i found it really useful for fast recall on the real exam.
3) the exam tests a lot of images: whenever u r studying look at the images given along with especially neuroanat or gross anatomy, pathology, micro, histology , physio,even pharma graphs.
4) the exam is not easy, but its definitely doable, but u hav to get your base right, they frame questions in ways where superficial knowledge just wont help.
LIST OF IMPORTANT TOPICS:
1)anemias
2)vitamins
3)glomerulonephritis
4)vasculitis
5)renal failure types
6) hepatitis
7)collagen vascular diseases
8)platelet disorders
9)neurocutaneous and MEN syndromes
10)acid base disturbances
Not a comprehensive list, just some topics coming to my mind right now.
Wishing everyone all the best and great step 1 scores
This forum has been very helpful in my step 1 preparation and i would like to do my bit by contributing my experience with step 1.
DISCLAIMER: these are just my personal opinions, every individual is different!!
Duration of preparation : 6 months
Hours of study: first 3 months i was working full time so could give only 2-3 hours on weekdays and 6-7 hours on weekends. after that i wasnt working, so could give 6-7 hours everyday
Resources used: Kaplan lecture notes
Kaplan videos for anat, pharma, physio,behavioural
HY neuroanat( a must read)
HY biostats
FA
UW Qbank (2 months)
Kaplan Qbank (1 month)
i didnt do goljan, other HY books
How I studied:
In the first go, i did kaplan lecture notes and videos only for the subjects i mentioned.
My take on videos: They take a lot of time, not very helpful in actually solving questions, but they definitely break the monotony of reading step 1 subjects which might be very boring sometimes. Try to do behavioural videos, they do help.
After that i gave a reading of FA, of which i didnt retain anything!!
After that i started the second round of kaplan LN and made notes of some topics like nerve lesions and endocrine physio etc. in anatomy and physiology in a notebook bcz these two subjects scared me a lot.
I then took a 2 month subscription of UW , did it for 1 month but then i felt that some topics are much more stressed and some almost skipped in UW..although i must add that the topics UW covers are indeed THE MOST IMPORTANT!! So i subscribed to kaplan qbank.
The deal with kaplan qbank is that it definitely has a lot of good explanations, but somehow i didnt find real exam questions on that pattern. But the two good things about Kaplan Qbank were: it gives references to FA in every question, so u keep opening and memorising FA which otherwise is a herculean task to do. Secondly, it strenghthens ur KLN concepts. I would say that if you have a lot of time, do kaplan qbank first along with reading Kaplan notes..they can strenghthen ur base but dont expect them to be anywhere near the real exam as UW. I also took the kaplan diagnostic exam and 2 sim exams that come with the subscription. again they are not similar in any way to real exam but sim exam help to build stamina for 7 hours of the real exam.
So after the kaplan qbank, i still had one month of UW.. i made a notebook from UW qbank for important topics( i will give a list in the end)
UWSA: UWSA questions are a little weird and offbeat as compared to the uw qbank as well as the real exam. I gave the first one before starting the qbank( approx 2 months before exam) and got 260
i gave the UWSA 2 1 week before exam and got 265
i gave both bcz i had bought the comprehensive package which included both of them, but i strongly advise if u subscribe to the qbank only just do uwsa1..uwsa 2 is a waste of time and money.
NBME: Here comes the shocker..i didnt take any NBMEs. It might sound foolish and i wouldnt advise anyone of u to do the same.. my reasons for not doing NBME:
1) i did UWSAs as assessment, they overpredict, but they do giv u an idea of what score range u should expect
2) the fact that the test costs 50$ and doesnt even provide right answers for which u hav to google or ask other ppl on forums just didn make me feel good
3) I couldnt take the test any later than i did for personal reasons, so getting a bad score on NBME would shake my confidence
But, again, i would say DO TAKE NBMEs bcz its better to know where you are to give the test your best shot.
MY SCORES:
UW QBANK AVERAGE: 80%
Kaplan Qbank AVERAGE: 83%
kaplan diagnostic test: 83%
kaplan sim1 : 81%
kaplan sim2 : 84%
UWSA 1: 260
UWSA 2: 265
STEP 1 SCORE: 250
THE EXAM: (have copied this from my exam experience post)
micro, pharma, patho was pretty straightforward
anatomyne point i want to stress which nobody told me is that anatomy was heavily tested on my exam..n i didnt do very well on that cz i just read kaplan. so if u are earlier on in ur prep, do read high yield gross anatomy,
i read hy neuro which was sufficient.
behaviour science: as expected was very very bad, no source helped significantly, q were very vague, just made my best guess n moved on
physio: they give a lot of questions in which they describe a hypothetical experiment n then ask u which parameter will increase etc..some r easy, some not.
biochem: not many questions, i read it in a lot of detail, but there werent many q. but every form is different, u might get more questions.
audiovisual questions: 2 ecg, 2 heart sounds n lots of CTs , n pathology gross n microscopy images.
1 ecg n 1 heart sound was difficult, the other was easy, ct questions were ok except 2,3 weird q.pathology was simple.
first two blocks were tough n i was nervous also,,after that i synced with the exam n was more comfortable.
the challenge: i felt the real challenge was to manage time, keep ur senses intact for 8 hours, n to steer ur way to the alike looking options,these guys do a very good job to make confusing options, where u even falter at a topic u very well know.
SOME MISTAKES I MADE:
1) Reading anatomy from KLN.. i gave a look to HY anatomy, but with 1 month to go for the exam, i didn read it, but i have heard its a very good book. Anatomy questions were very difficult and i felt UW and FA dont do much justice to the subject.
2) Should have given an NBME, i took a risk..
FINAL TIPS:
1) Be confident: Use forums and other ppl's advice as a way to boost ur morale and not repeating the same mistakes, but only u know urself the best. Dont let somebody's high or low scores or anything affect ur prep or confidence in a negative way.
2)Read FA as many times as possible, i did it like 5-6 times. It may be packed with information thats monotonous or difficult to memorise, but i found it really useful for fast recall on the real exam.
3) the exam tests a lot of images: whenever u r studying look at the images given along with especially neuroanat or gross anatomy, pathology, micro, histology , physio,even pharma graphs.
4) the exam is not easy, but its definitely doable, but u hav to get your base right, they frame questions in ways where superficial knowledge just wont help.
LIST OF IMPORTANT TOPICS:
1)anemias
2)vitamins
3)glomerulonephritis
4)vasculitis
5)renal failure types
6) hepatitis
7)collagen vascular diseases
8)platelet disorders
9)neurocutaneous and MEN syndromes
10)acid base disturbances
Not a comprehensive list, just some topics coming to my mind right now.
Wishing everyone all the best and great step 1 scores