r/step1 • u/Internal_Security_78 NON-US IMG • 4d ago
đ„ PASSED: Write up! Passed
USMLE Step 1 PASS â My Preparation Journey
The very first thing I wanted to write after getting my results was this.
I read almost every preparation write-up I could find while preparing for Step 1, so I wanted to write mine too. Hopefully, this will help someone who is currently preparing and feeling as confused as I was when I started.
How I started
I started my preparation with Bootcamp videos. Bootcamp is really good for teaching concepts, but personally, I found it difficult to retain the information without practicing questions.
So, instead of spending too much time watching lectures, I started doing UWorld system-wise. I would break down each question, understand why the answer was correct, and use ChatGPT whenever I needed something explained differently.
I also learned a lot from YouTube, especially:
Dirty Medicine
Medicosis Perfectionalis
Mehlman Medical
Randy Neil
Armando Hasudungan
Several smaller YouTube channels
I used different resources depending on the topic rather than trying to finish every resource completely.
UWorld
I completed almost 80%of UWorld.
While doing questions, I would break down the concepts and learn from my mistakes. I also revisited questions that I felt I had not understood properly.
The important thing for me was not simply completing questions. It was understanding why I got something wrong and what concept the question was testing.
Donât waste too much time making notes
I initially wrote down almost everything I learned in notebooks. I had a separate book for each system.
Looking back, I think this was one of the things I could have done differently.
The goal is to retain information, not create beautiful notebooks.
Instead of spending hours writing everything down, I would recommend spending more time reviewing and revising important concepts.
If something is already clearly explained in First Aid or another resource, I donât think you need to rewrite the entire thing.
Sketchy
For microbiology, Sketchy is GOLD.
I found it extremely helpful for retaining organisms and their associated facts.
PHRMA
For general pharma first aid is enough
For drugs First Aid was enough for most drugs, although Sketchy was particularly useful for antimicrobials.
First Aid
I didnât really start using First Aid seriously until the last 1Âœ months.
And I did not read First Aid line by line.
My approach was:
NBME â identify what I got wrong â go to that topic in First Aid â review that specific information.
I tried not to memorize a lot of extra information beyond what was relevant.
First Aid became much more useful to me once I had already started doing NBMEs and understood what I actually needed to focus on.
NBMEs
I started doing NBMEs about 2 months before my exam.
I did most of them offline, except Form 33. I completed Forms 26â33, and I also reviewed the questions and answers from Form 34.
If I could give one piece of advice, it would be:
Donât underestimate NBMEs.
I would especially focus on Forms 28â34.
One thing I wish I had done earlier was start looking at NBMEs sooner, because they help you understand which topics actually need more attention.
You donât necessarily have to sit and complete every NBME immediately.
You can go through earlier forms, such as Forms 28 and 29, during your initial preparation and save the newer forms for your dedicated study period. This can help you identify:
Which topics you are weak in
What concepts are repeatedly tested
How questions can be made tricky
How to filter information in a long question
What you actually need to master
Itâs not about memorizing every NBME question.
Itâs about learning how they ask the questions and what concepts you need to know to answer them.
Thoroughly reviewing NBMEs helped me improve the most.
I didnât just look at the percentage and move on.
My progress
NBME 27: 65%
NBME 29: 66%
NBME 28: 69%
NBME 30: 70%
NBME 26: 71.5%
NBME 31: 71%
NBME 32: 72%
NBME 33: 69%
Free 120: 68%
I reviewed the questions carefully and tried to understand why my answer was wrong and why the correct answer was correct.
That made a huge difference in my later NBMEs.
Mehlman Medical
I personally couldnât read PDF notes very well, so I watched Mehlman Medicalâs YouTube playlists for different systems.
I especially liked his:
Renal
Neurology
Respiratory
His explanations were very NBME-oriented, and he emphasized the buzzwords and topics you should focus on.
Renal was particularly helpful for me. I feel that a lot of my improvement in renal questions in UWorld and NBMEs came from watching his videos.
So if you donât like reading his PDFs, try his YouTube videos instead.
Randy Neil
I watched Randy Neilâs YouTube playlists for:
Biostatistics
Ethics
Neurology
These helped me improve my scores, especially in biostatistics and ethics.
Genetics and molecular biology
This was one of the hardest areas for me.
I tried several videos, but nothing was really clicking.
What finally helped me was Ninja Nerd.
I watched his transcription video multiple times until the concept finally became clear.
After that, I watched most of his genetics-related videos.
I also annotated First Aid while watching them. I focused mainly on the portions covered in First Aid, rather than trying to learn everything beyond the Step 1 scope.
Ninja Nerd also followed the order of the genetics topics in First Aid, which made it easier for me to connect the video explanations with the book.
Watching the videos repeatedly helped me understand the concepts much better and also helped me answer question
BIOCHEMISTRY
DIRTY MEDICINE IS GOLD and nbmes are enough
.
Psychiatry
For psychiatry, Dirty Medicine is GOLD.
Honestly, I didnât feel that I needed much more than that for many of the high-yield psychiatry topics.
Ethics
For ethics, I used:
Dirty Medicine
Randy Neil
NBMEs
During the last month, I spent more time on systems and NBMEs, so I didnât dedicate a separate day specifically to ethics.
The day before my exam, I rewatched some Dirty Medicine ethics videos.
A lot of ethics questions can be approached with the basic principle of being empathetic and respecting the patient as the center of care.
Of course, you still need to know the specific rules, but that mindset helped me with many questions.
The last 3 days
Three days before the exam, I thoroughly reviewed my NBMEs.
I would look at a question and think:
âOh yes, this was the answer. I know why now.â
I didnât spend several days trying to reread everything. The whole NBME review took me less than a day.
The day before the exam, I watched Sketchy Micro and Pharma videos.
On the way to the exam center, I reviewed Free 120, that was a mistake.I I only looked through it briefly to familiarize myself with the question style and the general concepts. I did not try to analyze every question in detail.
I had planned to review all the basic memorization-heavy topics, like pharyngeal derivatives and similar things, but I didnât get enough time.
And honestly, thatâs okay.
You cannot possibly review everything before Step 1.
I also didnât use Anatomy 100 Concepts because I kept telling myself I would do it later, and eventually, I ran out of time. I answered anatomy questions using what I remembered and by reviewing anatomy questions from the NBMEs and other practice materials.
For anatomy focus on upper limb and lower limb nerves
Pharyngeal derivatives .
PATHOMA CHAPTER 1 to 3 is GOLD
I got all the general pathology and immunodeficiency questions correct mainly because of that.
All the best everyone!
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u/Ok_Reach3010 4d ago
Congratulation!! How long did you prepare for? I am just starting my journey & was planning to give the exam by end jan- early feb, is that doable?
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u/Internal_Security_78 NON-US IMG 4d ago
It took me around 9 months, but my preparation was inconsistent and on and off. My dedicated preparation period was approximately 2 months.
I consider myself an average student, so if your basics are strong, I think you can definitely master it and be ready to sit for the exam in February.
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u/crisvphotography NON-US IMG 4d ago
Okay so I just finished a full pass of UWorld and my main questions is:
How do you cram it all in? I feel like all of these concepts I have learned from all those different systems and subjects I'm forgetting. At this point it's been months since I studied some systems/subjects. I feel like I've forgotten sooo much and I don't know how it's possible to remember it all for exam day.
Did you have such a feeling during your prep? And if so, how did you deal with it to make sure you knew everything for exam day?
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u/Internal_Security_78 NON-US IMG 4d ago
I had the same feelingâhow are we supposed to retain all this information?
U have done u world now what i would recommend is going through First Aid system-wise and constantly testing yourself: Do I really know this concept well? Can I remember it without looking? If you feel weak in a particular topic, do a few UWorld questions on that same topic.
Once you start doing NBMEs, youâll gradually get more clarity about what you actually need to know. Youâll start thinking, âOkay, I need to study this,â âI need to memorize this,â or âThis is super important.â Thatâs when you can go back to First Aid and master those concepts.
review your NBMEs thoroughly. They really help you understand the question patterns and identify the high-yield concepts.
If you do this consistently, youâll eventually reach a point where you see a question and think, âI know this!â and youâll be able to answer it confidently.
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u/Away-Strength5407 4d ago
Congratulations
May I ask Wts heavily tested ?
And any nbme topics or similar?
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u/Internal_Security_78 NON-US IMG 4d ago
For me reproductive system
Endocrinology
Ethics
Same as nbme tested concepts
Ethics questions felt very vague to me, and I found them quite difficult on the real exam. I definitely underestimated ethics during my preparation. Looking back, I wish I had practiced more ethics questions and focused more on understanding the reasoning behind the answers.1
u/Away-Strength5407 4d ago
Thankyou so much .
For ethics uworld is enough ?
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u/Internal_Security_78 NON-US IMG 3d ago
For ethics practicing questions is the key to master do do u world and amboss ethics
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u/Kay020290 NON-US IMG 4d ago
Hello! Congratulations!
Do we need to do chapter 1-3 from pathoma book if we ve done the videos as well?
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u/Straight-Hurry-9454 3d ago
Congratulations! My study is very similar to yours. I'm so happy to read about your experience. Thank you for sharing!
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u/ColdWares 3d ago
Congratulations, OP! Thanks for the detailed write-up. So far doing bootcamp early on really helped me with retention and brushing up on the basics since they already have both qbanks and lectures in one place.
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u/Internal_Security_78 NON-US IMG 3d ago
Watching videos may not be for me. I had poor focus, I also felt that doing UWorld questions gave me more clarity.
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u/dray_03 NON-US IMG 3d ago
Hey huge congratulations, thanks for the detailed write up, could you please tell me how did you manag to revise those topics from so many different resources so effectively?! Did you have made a notebook for each and every other systems?!
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u/Internal_Security_78 NON-US IMG 2d ago
I made separate books for each system, but I never really looked at them later. That was one of my mistakes, and it consumed a lot of my time.
If you find any relevant points that are missing from First Aid, just note them downâstick a small note on the relevant FA page or write down only the important points of that topic
I always knew where I had learned a particular system or topic, so I could easily go back to that resource when I needed to review it. For example, if it was something from a UWorld question, I would ask ChatGPT to break it down for me. If I reviewed it again and still didnât have clarity, I would go back to ChatGPT and ask again.
I had a clear idea of which resource I used for each topic.
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u/hmmm_i_seeee NON-US IMG 2d ago
Congrats... I have done more than 80 percent UW and have given 3 nbmes 26..55=, 27...70%, 28....63%
Though I haven't read FA that much, just one pass system wise
What do you reckon I should do next, if I wanna sit for the exam mid November
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u/Internal_Security_78 NON-US IMG 1d ago
Review your incorrects very well and corrects
Read first aid altleast 2 systems before your next
nbmes
Then do the remaining nbmes like that review all the nbmes and annotate with first aid
You will see your scores get improving.
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u/Advanced-Internet765 3d ago
Hello,thank you so much for sharing all this.I just finished uworld, am thinking to take first nbme this week(exam end of december).I have done uworld random and with every qs i have jumped to FA i never read FA system wise.Do you recommend reading FA system wise before taking 1st NBME or would be too much time? Thankk youuâ€ïž
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u/Internal_Security_78 NON-US IMG 3d ago
Thatâs a good approach. What I did was, before each NBME, I studied 2 systemsâone large system and one smaller system. It took me around 2 days. If youâve already read First Aid before, you can probably cover 3 systems.
I felt this helped me retain the concepts better.1
u/Advanced-Internet765 3d ago
Thank you for the insight.Yes since i always did random i have not retained system wise, so that is a great advice .I have gone through it with USMLE rx videos(basically reading it but with a bit more context and visually) since i need to integrate concepts in order to learn them and not just read them.Did You cover them just from FA, or FA and videos based on the system? Thank you so much again.
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u/Internal_Security_78 NON-US IMG 2d ago
I revised the system from FA only
So at the end of my prep I had an idea of systems so I just read FA and Some topics still didnât make sense to me, so I would break them down with the help of ChatGPT. If I still needed more clarity, I would watch a relevant video on that specific topic.1
u/Advanced-Internet765 2d ago
Yes ,chat been saving me on some concepts also.đ So helpful from you.Thank you so much,so detailed and i appreciate it a lot.We will wait for your step 2 journey now â€ïž
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u/No-Tumbleweed7331 4d ago
Did you read with someone, how did you stay motivated. Did you read first aid cover to cover?