[sanket845]

Hey friends,

I am a silent follower of this forum (and a big time fan of this forum)!!!

Today morning I got my score for step 1 which (fortunately) is 246/99.... I found this forum to be very helpful and I am here to help fellow step 1 students.... Please let me know if anybody has any kind of query related to step 1....

In general, as a guideline for preparation, I would like to remind you guys a nice adage which holds true for step 1 preparation:

"If I have to spend 10 hours chopping down the trees, I would rather spend 6 hours sharpening my Axe."

Sharpening of Axe is related to find out the proper resources and method to prepare for step 1, while chopping down trees relates to actual preparation for step 1.

The reason for addressing this is to prevent aimless wandering over low yield review books at the beginning of step 1 preparation, which happened in my case. I would suggest to spend some time in forums/blogs to find out good high yield resources before beginning actual preparation. After finding suitable high yield review books, make sure to get thorough with these books. This should be coupled with good practice of questions, and you are all set for step 1. As simple as that, believe me.

Good luck guys....
Its time to party for me right now, will get back to you as soon as possible...

 

[sunny]

Hi,
I'm appearing for step 1 in April. 20% UW remaining for me. Do u suggest me revising UW or doing Kaplan Qbank? Please tell me ur last 2 months plan. I've done Goljan Audio and RR for Path and Rest all Kaplan Lectures Notes.

Kindly help.

Thanks. And party hard. !!!

 

[appu]

Congratulations!

hello,
Congrats on the big achievement! please tell us your step1 experience in detail. How many months did you prepare? How many hours did you study? What books did you use.. etc.

 

[sanket845]

I personally went thorough only one round of USMLE WORLD, with a repeat of behavioral science (BS) questions. And I have never accessed kaplan Q bank. USMLE WORLD was the only Qbank I practised. So, it depends in your case. I had a cumulative of 66% in UWORLD. But, I made sure to be as thorough as possible with my first round. So, if you are doing good in UWORLD, then you probably don't need another Qbanks.

In nutshell,
U WORLD + good review books covers it all...

 

[wimzie]

Congrats..... such a great score u got....... all the best for the next one

 

[sanket845]

My journey was bit long as I was simultaneously pursuing MPH. I started in March, 2011. But in april I had finals for MPH (15 days off step 1). Meanwhile, in between preparation I had to go to India for 2 months (May/June). Then started again in July. But, then again, I had month off in August.
September onwards, I was completely into step 1 preparation (with just few days off). Finally gave exam on feb. 3. Exam was overall doable, with some mistakes which I recalled after exam. These mistakes haunted me like hell for these 3 weeks.

Average hours per day - about 8 to 10 max

My review books:
Kaplan all books (except anatomy) - Thrice
Goljan RR without audios - Thrice (got star in patho)
High Yield Neuroanatomy - Thrice (got star in neuro)
High Yield Gross anat - once (I referred back into it for some topics and review its images twice)
I skipped histo from kaplan.
First aid - Micro/Immuno/Anat -twice. Rest all topics from FA- only once (I used it as a quick review four days before my exam)

Question practice:
Mainly U WORLD - cumulative 66% - 71st percentile or so...
Did some pre test patho questions in beginning of prep (useless)
Did wiki test questions in beginning (again useless)

 

[sanket845]

Sorry I was referring to March, 2010 instead to march, 2011.

 

[sanket845]

Thanks Wimzie!!!

 

[heights]

Congrats on your awesome score, and thanks for sharing your experience! All the best for the future, go party hard

 

[Amenah]

congrats ..great score good luck for next steps.
:happy:

 

[Zilzal]

congratulations for the great score
wish you all the best in the coming exams..
now go celebrate like a mad grimlin

 

[sanket845]

Thanks Heights, Amenah, & Zilzal...

 

[dr_ram]

congratulations. excellent score.
good luck for your future. cheers.

 

[dr_sherani]

Big congrats sanket.i am also waiting for result.This period is so kind of depressing.Made some very very easy mistakes. :toosad: .Dont know what happened in exam,nor could revise marked questions.Feeling like in hell.What was your reaction after exam? And you got enough time for each block? as my questions were too long to finish in time

 

[LatinGeorge]

FIRST OF ALL... THANKS!!
thanks for taking the time to write this!
its almost like reading some chapters in some step 1 books/ but better... real

read ur thread.. and got some concepts.. here is my summary can u help me..

could u check it out.. and let me know what u think.

Order first
Anatomy
Physiology
Biochemestry
Start Kaplan Q bank for the 3 above
Micro/inmuno
path
Kaplan for the above
pharm
behavorial


Anatomy
kaplan notes 09-10 plus DVD
HY neuroanatomy
kaplan Q book
annotate from the begining to FA
Do some CT MRI ANGIOS

Physio
Kaplan plus DVD
Dont know about BRS physio??? what do u think
Annotate FA
Kaplan k book..

Biochemestry
Kaplan plus DVD
Fa
Dont know if i should read HY mole bio ... 1999 edition?? what do u think

Micro
kaplan plus DVD
annotate in FA
CMMR dont know about these, read lots of posts about this but also read about kaplan.. so dont know if i should u this or kaplan what do u think?

Path (most important)
Goljan RR plus Audio
dont know if i should read at least 1 time kaplan and see its dvd some say barone is great as well.. what do u think
FA of course
what do u think robbins review path???
webpath

pharm
kaplan plus dvd
fa
flashcards kaplan

behavioral (im an IMG)
kaplan plus dvd
BRS .. what do u think?
conrad fischer book 100 cases
kaplan q book


Kaplan Q bank
while reading for the 1 and 2 time

USMLE world i hear its gold standard
so i want to do 100% of all Q

Doctors in trainning for the last 15 days.. what do u think



for what i read in your thread i think im getting to much resources.. do u think i should cut some away ?
i want to ace.. i want a university program of an affiliated program for IM

thanks

about the time ... dont know i guess 6 months

 

[sanket845]

Well Thanks Dr. Ram, Dr. Sherani....

Dear Dr. Sherani,
Well, regarding exam, I felt it was doable compared to U WORLD, some questions were pretty weird though. And regarding time, I always used to be fast test taker (in assessment exams & UWORLD time/mixed). So I had about 1 hour of total time left out after finishing the last block. After giving exam, when I thought about it, I could only recall my mistakes (about 5 to 10 in total). So I stopped thinking about my exam. And these 3 weeks were more stressful than actual preparation, especially yesterday.
Hope this helps. Please let me know if you have more questions.

 

[sibb]

congrats

congrats..you did a great job..can you plz tell us where did you do your cts ,angiograms from?
and second when did you first start your FA

i am on second reading of kaplan series..have done dvds though..

please please do advise what should i do now ..
i would appreciate your input

oh enjoy and party hard !!!!!!!!!!!!!1

 

[dr_sherani]

Thanks sanket.Yup.I also for now remember about 8 to 12 mistakes(some very easy) and these are killing me each day ) .Tried suppression as defence mechanism ,but not working in my case :scared:
Any way ,enjoy and party time for you.

 

[sanket845]

Dear LatinGeorge,
Your plan seems to be pretty good. If you can realistically achieve this, you will definitely end up getting good scores. Trust me.

For Anatomy, your plan seems to be pretty good.

For Physiology, I have no idea about BRS physio. But I think that kaplan lecture notes + videos would suffice.

For Biochem, I would recommend you to use HY molecular biology. Although, I didn't do this, I would suggest that if you have time then go for it because questions are somewhat vague in molecular biology.

For Micro, there isn't any need for DVDs. Because FA + Kaplan + CMMRS is more than enough. So, instead of listening DVDs go for CMMRS. CMMRS is very interesting and high yield book. Go through it just for once, at least.

For Patho, Goljan is God (at least for me). If your base is good, there is no need for audios. Because listening to audios, and going through book will at least take one month. 2nd revision abt 15 days and 3rd one will take about 7 days. But if you will go through them, I would guarantee that you will end up getting a star in patho.

For BS, we IMGs are lacking somewhere. I don't know where but I did only kaplan BS. If you have time go for BRS. I have heard that its a nice book. And do plentiful of questions.

And for DIT, I don't think so there is any need for it, especially after going through above mentioned resources. Keep it simple. Otherwise things might jumble up. Because any defect you'll have in any review book will be covered in USMLE WORLD.

Getting thorough with few resources is much more beneficial than looking here and there for information.
And one final piece of advice, make sure you understand something when you are reading in the first place. If you don't understand them at first place, then you'll never get time to understand it again.

Good luck my friend,
Wish you all the best for preparation!!

 

[Mondoshawan]

Congratulations! :happy:

..and thanks for the detailed answers about your studying!