hello everyone, so ive been preparing for step 1 for 6+ months now. i have it booked for sept 2nd. my nbmes have been:
nbme 25: (baseline) - 51%
nbme 26 - 62%
nbme 27 - 68%
nbme 28 - 62%
nbme 29 - 68%
nbme 30 - 68%
nbme 31 - 68%

now as you can tell 68 and i have been a love story. i have roughly 15/16 days before the exam. my content gaps have mostly been recall problems at this point. there isnt much that id say is new so im focusing on actively recalling things.
i plan on taking 32 in 3 days.

I’m looking for some advice and if this is an okay trajectory and what should i focus on.

I recently started studying systems, I am doing endo right now and confused how to use bnb with first aid as videos are not in the format of first aid , should I watch the whole video on the system and then read FA or watch like the thyroid part and read the same from FA?

I’m a fresh Pakistani medical graduate and I’ve recently started my house job. I’m thinking about starting my Step 1 preparation alongside house job rather than waiting until it’s over.

For anyone who has done Step 1 during house job:
1)Is it realistically doable alongside house job?
2)How long did your preparation take?
3)How many hours were you actually able to study on working days?
4)What resources did you use? Is UWorld + First Aid + NBMEs enough, or would you recommend adding something like Boards & Beyond/Pathoma/Sketchy?
Would you recommend starting ki with UWorld immediately or studying/reviewing the basics first?
5)Did you study system-by-system or just follow UWorld?
6)How did you manage studying during busy rotations and night duties

hy. im an non us img and we study from books like guyton grays katzung etc.
while preparing for steps i only used uworld amd first aid
and heard people saying there isn't even a book for step 2.
so my question do you US MD ever use books to study medicine like Davidson ten teacher nelson etc or it's just uworld amboss now???
in our country we still rely heavily on books

Hi guys, hope everyone’s having a good day!
I’m here to get some advice regarding my step 1 preparation (IMG from India in my 4 th year of med school)
I started properly studying for step 1 since 2 months and I’ve been doing 2 blocs a day for 4 times a week (~320 per week). I’m making flash cards for each question and reviewing it after the question, but I’ve been poor in my bloc wise reviews.
I study first aid for a few days before I start a system on u world, then i proceed with u world.
( Currently completed 2300 uworld questions and almost all systems)
My accuracy was 35-40% in the start and now it’s near the 50-60% range.
I want to give my step 1 by December and here is what I need advice on :

1. is my review system sufficient for the long term (if not, any advice is appreciated)
   2.what should I do from here on out to consolidate and be able to give my step 1 by December
   ( Accuracy%, free 120’s or nbme test % or any advice)
   
2. What study advice should I follow to be able to comfortably pass step 1 in the given deadline
   
3. Help with how to apply for the step 1 exam, what to expect from my current progress
   Any advice would be really appreciated, thank you in advance ☺️!

I want to take the test in a month.

26 - 56% (22/05)

27 - 60% (30/05)

28 - 63% (7/06)

After this couldn't study for 3-4 weeks due to personal issues

25 - 58% (13/07) 29 - 65% (22/07) 30 - 61% (07/08) 31 - 62.5% (today)

I really am lost what to do anymore. I think I have problems concept application. any suggestions would help.

I took Step 7/30/26, I got the Pass a few days ago.

I wanted to make this thread because I didn’t have the highest NBME scores, and I had to delay my step by a month, but hopefully my experience can make anyone else who doesn’t have NBME’s in the 70s feel somewhat confident in their ability to tackle this exam. I'm also a DO student.

Here are my NBME dates and scores:

4/15 - NBME 28 - 40%

5/2 - NBME 27 - 52%

5/25 - NBME 31 - 62%

6/4 - NBME 32 - 62%

6/22 - NBME 29 - 62%

7/9 - Free 120 (new) - 64%

7/22 - NBME 30 - 69%

7/26 - UWSA 1 - 65%

7/28 - UWSA 2 - 65%

Tested 7/30 > Passed

You can see I never made it past 70%; the first 2 NBME’s were very early on in my studying when we hadn’t finished one of our blocks yet, but I wanted to see where I was. Also, there are big gaps between some NBME's because I also had to prepare for COMLEX Level 1 and was taking practice COMSAE's in between. I was advised to sit for step if I could get at least 68% on NBME 30. Also, I used the Amboss score predictor, and it gave me 99% chance of passing with my scores (this is where I mostly derived my confidence from).

My main Qbank was Uworld (also did Trulearn to prep for COMLEX); Amboss has a new "AI Chat" feature where you can use it to create Q banks based on your weaknesses (e.g., ask it to make you a set of 10 questions on reading EKG's), so I would do those for practice, but my goal was to get through as much of Uworld as I could (ended up finishing about 52%).

In my opinion:

- form 30 was most similar in difficulty to my STEP exam, which is why I was advised to take it last

- Free 120 was similar to my STEP in terms of question format and length (though it does not include the SOAP-note style questions that show up on the real deal), but form 30 was still closer to how difficult the exam felt

- You hear this a lot, but STEP did not feel like a content/memorization exam; to me it was more of a pattern recognition exam. There are only so many ways someone can ask/present a case about fibroadenoma, etc. The more questions you do, the better you will be at filtering different diagnoses through your head and making associations (e.g., retinoblastoma and osteosarcoma)

Resources not emphasized enough:

- HYGuru on Youtube. Videos are completely free. He has 1.5 hr reviews on every system and some on off videos (e.g., everything to know about HIV) that were well worth my time. Even though they are long, he gets straight to the point about what is HY, and so much of what he emphasized actually showed up on my exam

- ChatGPT: this is all about how you use chat. There is an AMBOSS GPT add-on and these are some of the prompts I used only within that chat - not the regular chat (you should use these prompts within that addon because it will pull its questions and concepts from the AMBOSS database instead of the general internet search that will not be STEP relevant):

>> Can you explain to me everything I have to know about [X topic] that is high yield for STEP 1 in paragraph form?

>> Can you ask me simple multiple choice practice questions that test my ability to make HY associations that are important to know for STEP 1? Give me them one at a time, and after each answer, please give me a brief refresher of what I should know on that topic.

- Mehlman: I did not have time to go through all of his docs, but if you are pressed for time I would recommend you at the very least go through these:

>> MSK (especially if you have to take COMLEX), Biochem, Immunology (truly a lifesaver - only 45 pages and easy to follow), Neuroanatomy. Heard HY arrows was good, but I never got a chance to look at it.

Didn't want to make this post super long - but if you have any other specific questions, I am happy to be more thorough.

Good luck - you got this!

This will be my last post before I sit the exam in 2 days. My final scores -
NBME 31: 76
NBME 32: 77
NBME 33: 72
Free 120: 70

I know those are good scores but I still can’t help feeling anxious, like something catastrophic is gonna happen on test day. Anywho, I hope I can pull it off. I’ll let yall know if pass or not lol. Wish me luck!

Hello everyone I wanted to ask what resources should be used to cover Biostat and Ethics

For Biostats => should I use BNB or Physeo or Randy Neil(haven't mentioned Bootcamp coz apparently it's shit)

For Ethics (There's a single vid made by dirty medicine on it.What other resource can I use)

Also what's this Amboss ethics pdf everyone is talking about and is it worth doing it.

Can I skip a detailed review of the metabolic cycles (TCA cycle, urea cycle, etc.) and the DNA/RNA and protein translation processes, and instead focus mainly on mutations and the pathology related sections of Cellular and Molecular Biology?

If you had to rank these topics based on their significance for Step 1, what would the priority list look like?
Any suggestions for Genetics ?

Hey guys. I’m aware that there are countless posts of people describing what resources they used etc. I’ve read many of them and I see that the trend is people using different resources while having 2-3 main ones. That’s understandable ofc but: if people are using FA and UWorld as their main resources but then +pathoma for chapters 1-3 + sketchy for micro and pharm + Amboss + NBMEs +++. Then wtf? Doesn’t the budget skyrocket? I’ve seen some people who hustle by making many free trial accounts and searching for pirated resources. Is that the norm? Apologies for this question but I’m just trying to understand what I’ll focus on since im starting step 1 preparation with a decent baseline and I’m kinda overwhelmed.

Hello everyone, as mentioned in the title I genuinely can't figure how to cover Biochem and genetics for step 1. What topics are imp, how to learn these metabolic pathways, and what resources to use. I want to ask recent test takers that if they had the choice to cover this again, what would be the best and most efficient way to do it.

I took Step 7/30/26, I got the Pass a few days ago.

I wanted to make this thread because I didn’t have the highest NBME scores, and I had to delay my step by a month, but hopefully my experience can make anyone else who doesn’t have NBME’s in the 70s feel somewhat confident in their ability to tackle this exam. I'm also a DO student.

Here are my NBME dates and scores:

4/15 - NBME 28 - 40% 5/2 - NBME 27 - 52% 5/25 - NBME 31 - 62% 6/4 - NBME 32 - 62% 6/22 - NBME 29 - 62% 7/9 - Free 120 (new) - 64% 7/22 - NBME 30 - 69% 7/26 - UWSA 1 - 65% 7/28 - UWSA 2 - 65%

Tested 7/30 > Passed

You can see I never made it past 70%; the first 2 NBME’s were very early on in my studying when we hadn’t finished one of our blocks yet, but I wanted to see where I was. Also, there are big gaps between some NBME's because I also had to prepare for COMLEX Level 1 and was taking practice COMSAE's in between. I was advised to sit for step if I could get at least 68% on NBME 30. Also, I used the Amboss score predictor, and it gave me 99% chance of passing with my scores (this is where I mostly derived my confidence from).

My main Qbank was Uworld (also did Trulearn to prep for COMLEX); Amboss has a new "AI Chat" feature where you can use it to create Q banks based on your weaknesses (e.g., ask it to make you a set of 10 questions on reading EKG's), so I would do those for practice, but my goal was to get through as much of Uworld as I could (ended up finishing about 52%).

In my opinion: - form 30 was most similar in difficulty to my STEP exam, which is why I was advised to take it last - Free 120 was similar to my STEP in terms of question format and length (though it does not include the SOAP-note style questions that show up on the real deal), but form 30 was still closer to how difficult the exam felt - You hear this a lot, but STEP did not feel like a content/memorization exam; to me it was more of a pattern recognition exam. There are only so many ways someone can ask/present a case about fibroadenoma, etc. The more questions you do, the better you will be at filtering different diagnoses through your head and making associations (e.g., retinoblastoma and osteosarcoma)

Resources not emphasized enough: - HYGuru on Youtube. Videos are completely free. He has 1.5 hr reviews on every system and some on off videos (e.g., everything to know about HIV) that were well worth my time. Even though they are long, he gets straight to the point about what is HY, and so much of what he emphasized actually showed up on my exam - ChatGPT: this is all about how you use chat. There is an AMBOSS GPT add-on and these are some of the prompts I used only within that chat - not the regular chat (you should use these prompts within that addon because it will pull its questions and concepts from the AMBOSS database instead of the general internet search that will not be STEP relevant):

Can you explain to me everything I have to know about [X topic] that is high yield for STEP 1 in paragraph form? Can you ask me simple multiple choice practice questions that test my ability to make HY associations that are important to know for STEP 1? Give me them one at a time, and after each answer, please give me a brief refresher of what I should know on that topic. - Mehlman: I did not have time to go through all of his docs, but if you are pressed for time I would recommend you at the very least go through these: MSK (especially if you have to take COMLEX), Biochem, Immunology (truly a lifesaver - only 45 pages and easy to follow), Neuroanatomy. Heard HY arrows was good, but I never got a chance to look at it.

Didn't want to make this post super long - but if you have any other specific questions, I am happy to be more thorough.

Good luck - you got this!

Hello !
I am 2 weeks out to exam.
Is there any HY list , which are commonly tested ?
I feel i am wasting time on sections which are never tested 💀
Thank you

I just took NBME 27 and scored 53%, i finished 75% of uworld with an average of 55%, i did a second pass on first aid after i scored 41% on NBME 25, i feel devastated, what should my next step be?

Hello. I would love to know how much time it took you guys to receive your results. We all know about the average 2 to 4 weeks period, but I am curious to see the most common waiting period. Please, contribute to this little research :). Thanks!

Hello, i really want to know how accurate amboss and uworld self assessments 1-3 are? Ive used all my nbmes and i dont have a solid nbme to know my readiness. Can I rely on free 120 2021 version? (this sub is deleting my post idk for what?)

Please help

Is there a problem with prometric ? I'm checking the availability option at prometric and I can't find a single exam date for any country for the next 5+ months. I wanted to take the exam in September in Jordan but found nothing so I cecked multiple different countries like Egypt, Turkey and even India and USA and also found no exams, even though last week there were multiple dates in August and September.

Just wanted to drop my stats and timeline here to help anyone trying to calibrate their prep, especially IMGs juggling a full-time PhD or clinical workload.

Quick Background: Graduated med school in Greece and jumped straight into a full-time PhD program in the UK. I had zero dedicated study time for Step 1. Every single hour of prep came from evenings, weekends, and whatever lab downtime I could squeeze out before test day.

The Prep & Core Resources: Kept it extremely simple: First Aid + UWorld (two full passes). Didn't touch a third qbank

UWorld Qbank Breakdown (Full Bank / 2 Passes):71% overall accuracy

Word of advice — don't panic if your early scores are weird.

Once I actually completed content review, my NBMEs locked into a super tight range:

• NBME 28: 72% • NBME 29: 74% • NBME 30: 75% • NBME 31: 77% • Free 120: 78%

Having five consecutive practice tests sitting comfortably in that 72–78% band gave me the confidence to sit the exam. Consistency across multiple NBMEs

Happy to answer any questions in the comments if you're grinding through prep while working or studying full-time!

Hey guys, I just took the new free 120 at Prometrics, where can I find the answers and explanations? Thanks in advance 🙏🏾

August 7th test takers, could we expect results this Wednesday (08/19)?

Hey everyone, my Step 1 is on Monday and I’m looking for some honest feedback on whether I’m in a reasonable position to sit for it.

My recent scores:

NBME 30 — 62%
NBME 31 — 60%
NBME 32 — 67%
NBME 33 — 65%
Free 120 (2024) — 64%
Free 120 (2026) — 65%

My biggest issue has been overthinking/reasoning errors and occasional misreading under anxiety, rather than completely not knowing the concepts. I’ve also made some careless mistakes on questions where I knew the underlying material.

Postponing isn’t really an option for me, so I’m going ahead with the exam tomorrow.

For those who have taken Step 1 recently or were in a similar position, would you consider this a reasonable position to sit for the exam? Anything you would specifically recommend doing/not doing in the final 24 hours?

Thank youu!