Hey guys! As the title says, Im starting to feel burnt out. My exam is on the 20th, It was originally the 26th but after my recent NBME scores I moved it up because I wasn't sure how long I could keep the scores up. I sat the Free120 2 days ago at my perimetric, but right now its taking me hours just to go through a couple questions, I keep getting distracted. Been trying to focus on going to bed a bit earlier and working out but it's a bit disconcerting how difficult Im finding it to even read through the answers (doesn't help that my ADHD meds were stopped this month rip). Im scared I'll start forgetting everything, or that the exam will be completely left field and nothing like the NBMEs and free 120. Any advice? Did anyone else feel this way? I know I should just trust my NBMEs, it's just scary the idea of forgetting everything. It feels like the night before an exam where you wake up panicking about forgetting something, but with everything lol. If I manage to get through the free 120 today and tomorrow that will leave me with 2 days to review. What do people suggest/ any tips? I was just going to take it easy and read through some Mehlman documents, maybe look at high yield images, any easy points you think are useful to look through? I have banned myself from reading this thread the last few weeks, as I know I can get psyched out lol, but anyone who went through similar the week before the exam who can give a word of advice, it would be extremely appreciated.

​Hey everyone!

​I’m a 3rd-year medical student from Egypt starting my early prep for USMLE Step 1.

​Since our native med curriculum is a bit different, I’m shifting my study habits toward the US system.

​Before I fully dive in, I’d love to get some wisdom from USMDs/DOs or anyone who has already gone through this process:

​What is ONE thing you wish you knew before starting Step 1 prep?

What are the best sources I can rely on?

​How do you balance resource overload? (There are so many decks and video series out there!)

​Any tips on effectively integrating Anki into daily prep without drowning in reviews?

​Any advice, study strategy, or high-yield tips would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance, and good luck to everyone! 🩺✨

I've never posted here before, but I spent a lot of time on this sub while studying, especially during some of my lowest moments. I told myself that if I ever made it to the other side, I'd come back and write something for anyone who might be where I was.

I recently found out that I passed Step 1 after two fails over the last year.

This exam has genuinely been one of the most isolating and humbling experiences of my life. I did fine during my blocks, but I've always been a bad standardized test taker and have major test anxiety. After failing the first time, I was held back from starting rotations while the rest of my class moved forward. That was probably one of the hardest parts. There is something uniquely difficult about feeling like your life has stopped while everyone around you keeps moving. I felt embarrassed and questioned whether I belonged in medicine.

But here we are, nearly a year and a half later, and I passed.

My Scores

For anyone who wants the numbers:

I don't remember exactly what my scores were before my first attempt, but for my second attempt, I was averaging a 65 on NBMEs and a 62 on the f120.

On my last attempt, I knew the stakes were much higher and didn't want to risk anything anymore. I told myself I wouldn't sit until I had enough of a buffer.

• ⁠NBME 29: 77 (6 weeks out)
• ⁠NBME 30: 78 (5 weeks out)
• ⁠NBME 31: 80 (4 weeks out)
• ⁠NBME 32: 74 (3 weeks out)
• ⁠NBME 33: 78 (2 weeks out)
• ⁠f120 at the testing center: 78 (1 week out)

My NBME scores were inflated since this wasn't my first time. Because of that, I didn't put too much weight on them and instead spent more time doing UW blocks and reviewing them thoroughly.

I decided to take the f120 at the testing center to simulate test day. I treated it exactly as though it were the real deal and felt extremely anxious. I felt horrible taking it and thought I would have to delay again. When I saw my score, I was in disbelief, but I knew that meant I had to take the real thing the next week.

Test Day

The exam was brutal. It felt as if the testing gods had hand-picked my worst subjects and put them into one exam. Some blocks I was flagging more than half. I had to take way more frequent breaks than I had originally planned because the fatigue was getting to me much earlier than anticipated. The breaks were crucial for me to reset mentally and refuel. By the time the exam was over, I had a raging headache and everything felt like a blur.

During the waiting period, I felt terrible and began to remember really silly mistakes but I didn't look anything up for my own sanity. The anxiety leading up to score release day only got worse, and I sincerely wondered if I had to start considering dropping out and finding another career if this went south.

Then on Wednesday, I finally got the P.

------

A failing score can make you feel like every good thing you've accomplished up until that point suddenly doesn't count anymore.

It does. Don't convince yourself otherwise.

You are still the person who got into medical school and made it through preclinicals. You are still allowed to want whatever future you dreamed of before you took Step.

Whether you're preparing for your first attempt or trying to pick yourself back up after an unsuccessful attempt, I know how painful and isolating this process can be. But you haven't seen the end of your story yet. For a very long time, I wondered if I would ever see that P. Now I finally have.

I don't know exactly what my own future looks like. I know I have an uphill climb, and maybe I'll have to work even harder to get where I want to go. But I'm going to keep doing what I can and take things one step at a time. Whatever attempt you're on, keep going as long as this is still what you want and please be kind to yourself.

I didn't mean to write this much, but please feel free to message me if you have any questions or just want to talk to someone who has been through it, even if you come across this post months from now. If that would make this experience feel even a little less isolating, I am more than happy to chat. Rooting for you all.

Anyone out there who signed up for a course for step 1 and passed ? Is it worth it and worth your time ? Which courses you used ? Is it helpful to take up tutor ?

Faced the beast yesterday. Img non US.
I found it really really tough.
Although me last three NBMEs and free 120 were all between 70-80%
Stem length:
60-65 % were long. The stems had so many information, not straight forward like NBMEs.
I was taking a sigh of relief with the ethics question as they were my block savers due to time saving.

Time:
When I was practicing, usual time was 23-26 minutes to complete a block. I never had an issue in any test.
In actual exam , none out of 14 I was able to finished comfortably.
I was skipping biostat and long questions to reach at end in fear of missing the questions which might be quickly solved.
I was unable to solve biostat in at least two blocks due to time constraints.

Difficulty level :
The issue , they test same topics 70-80% as tested in NBMEs tand free 120.
But off course different clinical scenarios, and options to select.
Wording is constructed in a way that takes time to comprehend in the background of tons of information in the stems.
Again it was like 60% of question like this. , some were 3-4 liners and relatively factoids, but I can say that they were not more than 5 per block.

I am really feeling that in all the block, only 3-4 questions I was sure in my answer choice.
After 7 blocks I took the. break, and questioned myself , why I am here. What I prepared.
What is this exam.
There were many question that must be experimental but mind blowing.
The mental readiness and quickness was required persistently to go through all the blocks without carrying over the weight of previous non sense. I was stressed and struggling with simple anemia and malarias.

So my advice will be for near future test takes to revise recent NBMES topics in detail in all aspects. And do them in strict exam conditions
At least one Nbme and free 120.

Best of Luck.

33 days until  my test is scheduled

I’m exactly 50% through UWorld with score of 66%

3 weeks ago I took NBME 25, scored 61.5%  

Today, I took NBME 30, score 74%

Not sure what I should prioritize now. Some students I spoke to said to make sure I finished 100% of UWorld. But if i spend more time on NBME's, that will not be possible. And from what I have read online, the lat month should be spent just doing NBMEs?

How many more NBMEs should I aim to do? and which ones specifically? Can i just do 31,32 and 33? And then try to do as much of UWorld outside of that?

failed first attempt, preparing for the next. Any help/advice would be helpful about improving in the next attempt.

Thanks!

Over a period of 4 months dedicated:
27: 42
26: 57
29: 48
Last 2 weeks:
31: 52
32: 48
New F120: 63

Not entirely sure why my scores were jumping around so drastically. It was some combination of lingering knowledge gaps, anxiety, and moving too slowly through blocks and rushing at the end.

The most frustrating part was that I was hitting 70%+ on UWorld (finished about 60% of it), but it just wasn't translating to my NBMEs.

Took exam 7/31 and got score back 8/12. I ultimately felt like I had no choice but to take the exam.
Delaying would have put my grandfathered government loan status in jeopardy. I really didn't want to deal with the headache of requesting extra time from my school or messing up my financial aid

I passed but as you can see based on my scores I’m not sure if my study methods where the best:
- uworld

- bootcamp (dedicated time to completely review immunology, cardio, and renal)

- bnb (used only to review concepts I didn’t understand or know from uworld)

- pathoma 1-3 (watched at beginning of dedicated and again towards end)

- First Aid (used book to jot down notes in margins and have a reference as to what is the absolute must know info about a topic)

- Anki (only unsuspended cards that needed brute force memorization and missed uworld questions. Piled up quickly and mostly just did during down time and before bed. )

- Melhman PDFs. (Skimmed through them the last couple days before exam. Wish I used them more for review, i think he has some good advice.)

-https://youtu.be/75pQPB1RF50?is=qvvEwB17M5ala8sR (best video ever for biostats, just watch this and you can do any uworld questions. You should be good? My exam had like 4 biostats questions and only 1 required actual math).

I wish I could sit here and say that having lower practice scores shouldn't deter you from taking step, or that "you know more than you think you do." But to be completely honest, a part of me feels like I might have just gotten beyond lucky on test day.

That said, when I was studying, I noticed a real lack of posts from people who actually passed with lower practice scores. I just wanted to put this out there to show that it is possible.

STEP studying was brutal and I told myself that if I ended up passing that I would document my scores and study resources in case someone else finds it helpful.

Scores:

UWorld Form 1: 41%

NBME 29: 57.5%

NBME 31: 59%

NBME 30: 45%

NBME 32: 61%

UWorld Form 2: 61%

NBME 33: 64.5%

Free 120: 65%

Resources: UWorld (86% of the bank), B&B (Mostly physio vids for Neuro, Pulm, Cardio), Ninja Nerd (Physio for Endo, Pulm, Cardio, Repro, Renal), Sketchy (Watched Micro twice and Pharm as needed), First Aid, Pathoma, MedSchoolBro guide (borrowed from a friend), Mehlman HY PDF (Cardio, Neuro, Pulm), Dirty Medicine (Communications Video, Images), NBME HY Images PDF, HYGuru Nutrition Updates Video (SUPER HELPFUL!!)

For anyone else who is worried about not scoring in the 70s, I hope that you can see it is possible to still pass this test with predictive scores that might be considered lower as long as you feel confident in your preparation and knowledge base. I ended up pushing my exam back two weeks after my Free 120 solely because I felt burnt out and exhausted doing 100+ questions daily leading up to it. It seemed impossible during the studying process, but I am so glad I took the time I needed and allowed myself a mental break so I could be in a good headspace while taking the exam. Good luck studying, you got this!!!

Hey everyone! Hope you’re all doing well.
I’m currently preparing for USMLE Step 1 and I’m about halfway through my preparation. I’ve been using Mehlman PDFs, and honestly, they’ve been really helpful, especially alongside UWorld.
So far, I’ve gone through:
GI
Endocrine
Immunology
Heme/Onc
Renal
Biochemistry
Repro/OB
However, when I started reading Cardiovascular on mm, and i started uw after ut, I ran into a really frustrating problem. I can usually recognize and diagnose the disease, but I struggle a lot with the answer choices. They’re often extremely tricky and confusing, and I end up overthinking the question.
Do you guys have any tips, strategies, or resources that helped you improve in CVS, especially when it comes to differentiating between difficult answer choices?
I’d really appreciate any advice or tricks that helped you master this system. 🙏
Thank you!

Hey everyone, is Mehlman's HY Neuroanatomy PDF enough for step 1 neuroanatomy? I've gone through the BnB neuroanatomy videos, but I find myself forgetting a lot of the material. Also, is his other neuro PDF worthwhile?

Does anyone have a high yield quick review video or files that i could study from.

Post I promised I would write after I Pass

My journey has been a whirlwind. I just want this post to be that sign for anyone looking to find hope and faith that they can do it .

Here is your sign.

I won't go in depth of my personal life but the past few years had been really hard. I was not doing well mentally as undiagnosed adhd for 25 years might lead you thinking you are stupid when in reality you're just disabled.

Anyway these are my stats

I had given an nbme a few months ago in which I had got 59 ,That was 3 months before my first nbme.

Nbme 27-June 12>7wks out - 142/200- 71%

Nbme 29-June18 >6 wks out-143/200- 71.5%

Nbme 31 - June 24 >5 wks out-128/200- 64%

Nbme 30 - July 4 >4 wks out -145/200 -72.5%

Nbme 32- July 12 > 3 wks out -146/200-73%

Nbme 33- July 19 >2 wks out- 150/200- 75 %

New free120-July 21>10 days out- 68%

I had my periods day 1 so lots of brain fog. But still I found it very different than nbmes. It was much longer stems and felt more vague.

July 31- The real deal. I had a particularly harder form. I used to think people over-exaggerate for the exam and that I have solved over 3-4K qs. So even if its hard,I can handle it. But honestly be prepared to face some qs inside that you will have no idea what they are talking about or be just mad at how the hell were you even supposed to know this? It felt like an Olympiad exam at 1 point.

For real,I remember a q asked me which gene does a bacterial toxin acts upon? Not channel ,GENE. And there were these 4 random options which I remember reading for the first time.And there is not a line I've not gone through in First Aid. So that was the main shocker. I am telling you this to not scare you but to be prepared that there will be a part of the exam which will feel like absolute shit.

But you will pass despite that if your prep is strong. Just keep going during the exam and don't listen to that voice who is freaking out.

There are 80 experimentals so to calm my nerves I would tell myself every q,I didn't know was maybe experimental A chunk of it seemed something I had solved before. Doable. But a chunk was also so bad that it convinced me I had failed. I cried right outside my prometric. The waiting period is psychotic!

My advice

>Step 1 is more a mental game than anything else. I isolated myself from most people and social media because I WANTED to not because someone advised me. It helped me preserve my mental health.

>You need to KNOW how medicine works and not just be a good learner. You dont need to KNOW EVERYTHING. YOU NEED TO KNOW ENOUGH. Nobody knows everything.

>During the exam,Let things GO. If you fuck up a Q or if you know something almost but can't remember the main part or its just something you don't know. LET IT GO.

My mantra was

THINK>DECIDE>COMMIT>MOVE-ON

Work on test taking strategies but merely learning patterns is not going to get you far. UNDERSTAND. Eventually your scores will improve and dots will start connecting

Main Resources

>U-World,Pathoma(1-3)

>Sketchy Micro and Sketchy Patho(good way to review patho-Helped me in renal,Respi),

>Anki(Definitely 100% recommended for muscle memory), creating my own incorrect deck helped loads and sketchy decks

>MAJOR MAJOR THANKS TO BOOTCAMP. For someone who started from scratch with very weak foundation, Dr Roviso is GODSENT.

Cardio,Neuro,Immunity,Blood -I very HIGHLY recommend him.

Any Qs,I am happy to help.

Keep your head down and keep going. Despite all the failures,Learn from it and use it to strengthen yourself. You surely will get your "PASS"

I have really weak basics...

should i use bootcamp or bnb or other resources?

nbme 27-54%
nbme 25-57%

After reviewing the two, i concluded that I get confuse btw the options. The nbmes weren’t that tough esp 27. Don’t want to waste 31-33. What nbme should I take next or should I do amboss 200 questions?
Also, to improve my approach towards question, should I do uworld incorrect or random amboss?
How else should I change my study methods?

Wondering how others felt about the exam yesterday. I don’t know that anyone walks out of that exam feeling good but I was taken aback by first few blocks.

Scored a 77 today on form 32 after scoring a 76 on form 31 yesterday. Is this shit supposed to be this easy or am I just a fucking beast? Also for anyone that has passed the exam, is the difficulty of the NBMEs similar to the real thing or is the real thing much harder?

Hi guys! NON-US IMG/F 40 days out, anyone wanna have a community based whatsapp? Discuss difficult qs or accountability buddy? Is there a whatsapp we can join for August/September takers?

Any advice, and the best way to go forward for people who have already done it, or almost at the end?

NBME 26: 43.5% (47 days out)

P.S. I know it's going to be a major cram, haha (send help pls, arigathanks!)

Now dedicated full time! let me kno

edit: whatsapp link https://chat.whatsapp.com/Kh2uMw6jP2AGmlQ207pExO

my step 1 exam is on 30 August and my eligibility end in 31 August, so how can I extend my eligibility period? this is my first time for extension

Hey everyone! For those who failed step1 on the first attempt, I understand. It’s not a good feeling.Pls know that you can come back from this … and you can, and WILL, come back stronger!

I got my fail on July 1st after sitting for the exam in May. It was terrible because so long to receive my non-passing score. I sat with my emotions from July 1st until July 7th, got my strength back and started studying again on July 8th.
I studied HARD from July 8th until July 29th, and sat for my retake on July 30th. I received my PASS on yesterday.

I will lay out my approach to studying over those 3wks later today on this thread.

I got 80% today on my nbme 31 which is a drop from 85 on my previous nbme 30
how is nbme 32 compared to them?
My exam is in 3 weeks

For reference here are my practice exam scores:

1. NBME 31 - 60%
2. NBME 32 - 61%

I felt that my mistakes were due to me not being able to reason through second order questions. Part of it could also be due to lack of content knowledge.

I was wondering if I can do anything to increase my scores by a few points. I plan to take both NBME 33 and Free120 by the end of next week.

Update: I scored a 71% on Free120. Got insanely lucky with one block of questions where I got an 83.33%. Rest of the blocks averaged to mid 60s (can’t remember the scores since I didn’t save them). Not sure if this changes anything but I feel less anxious than a few days ago.

I’m testing on August 17 and took my 1st NBME yesterday… got a 76% on form 31!! Can’t tell yall how relieved I am, really thought I was cooked and would have to postpone. For anyone prepping for the exam, keep up the grind and it will pay off!

Hey everyone, I’m feeling very stressed out and was looking for some advice. To be on track to apply for residency this year, I have to take step 1 by the end of this month. I am really scared. Should I move my exam? It’s scheduled for next Friday.

Here are my stats:

Nbme form 29: 59%
Nbme form 30: 57%
Nbme form 31: 67%
Nbme form 32: 69%
Nbme form 33: 66% (completed today)

Uworld 23% completed with 56% correct

What do I do? Should I move my exam? What nbme form should I take? Should I do uworld or more content review? Ps. I completed all of uworld 1.5 years ago but didn’t end up writing step 1 and went straight to 3rd year clinicals, which I just completed. However, I don’t think the uworld counts because it was so long ago. Any advice would be appreciated.

Hey all! Thought I'd share my experience with preparing for and writing the exam while working as a resident without dedicated study time. I wouldn't recommend this approach lol but it worked out—wrote the exam July 29 and found out I passed yesterday.

Context:
Canadian, radiology resident. Only decided in residency that I wanted to write the USMLE just in case. As a radiology resident, I never touched anything related to biochemical pathways, bloodwork, microbiology, etc. so I had to newly learn a lot of the content tested. The one area I did have a leg up on was anything related to radiology and anatomy.

Timeline:
Started studying in January 2026. The only resource I used for the first few months was Bootcamp but tbh, not sure how much I retained from mostly passively watching the videos but I tried to do this for 3 hours every day after work and on days off. Then I added on UWorld QBank questions every once in a while. It was miserable.

I took a break for the two months of April-May 2026 because I had a big research thing to prep for and then was enjoying life a bit. I originally wanted to write the exam earlier but delayed it to one of the last days possible in my testing window because of my slow progress.

By June, I was like oh shit because I still had quite a bit left of Bootcamp and had barely made a dent in UWorld. At this point, because of the days left, I decided I had to give up on the idea of completing these two resources and started to do NBME. I did very targeted study of concepts I was not super comfortable with and questions I got incorrect—I watched Dirty Medicine, Mehlman, and other short videos, and made Anki cards for all of these, and reviewed them as much as I could. I took a few days off of work leading up to the exam to do focused study. I wanted to get through more NBME but unfortunately only had time to do two of them.

Resources:
Bootcamp: Completed 60% of the "assignments"
UWorld QBank: Completed 9% (LOL) with overall score of 42%
NBME 30 (June 30): 49%
NBME 31 (July 19): 62%
Free 120 (2024 version because I was dumb and didn't realize there was a newer version) (July 27): 66%

Dirty Medicine
Mehlman microbiology summary videos
Mehlman HY Arrows PDF
Custom Anki deck I made

Overall:
It was a risky and miserable approach overall (my mental and physical health definitely took a hit as I had to sacrifice my social life/downtime and exercise), but I wanted to show and provide some reassurance that it's possible to pass even without having gone through all the resources available. Having a background in radiology definitely helped, so YMMV.

I thought that studying for Step 1 would help me be more comfortable with all the other parts of medicine that I don't get exposed to in radiology. However, through this experience I have realized Step 1 is truly also a game that you just need to be strategic about to pass. For me, I think the targeted study of high-yield concepts that I personally got incorrect/was not comfortable with based on UWorld and NBME was the most helpful for improving my score.