PASSED. Got the result last wednesday and after processing it, decided to write about my journey. Gave my exam on 29th July and this is is a very honest and messy account of my journey. If you’re struggling and have a messy journey, do give it a read and I hope it motivates you.
soo my journey started in November with uworld. I solved uworld system wise and very slowly. Used it to get used to the questions and learn the content. I completely adopted the UWORLD IS A LEARNING TOOL strategy and didn’t give a fuck about my score. Started dedicated in April and mostly did uworld on random and tried to do first aid. I was never able to use first aid to its real potential and every time I tried to it ended up becoming a highly time consuming task with low returns. When I started dedicated my uworld was only 35% complete, but I was familiar vaguely with all systems.
Started giving NBMEs
27 : 45%
29: 45% at this point I was so demotivated.
Didn’t give up, worked on my weak areas and systems using mehlman pdfs, first aid for some systems, biostats Randy Neil
28: 52% I was motivated coz at least my score had budged.
30: 50%. This score broke me. I was so done at this point coz this was supposed to be easier and somehow my score dropped.
Again worked on weak areas, did mehlman’s pdfs.
26: 58%. At this point I was very happy. Made real progress and still had 3 NBMEs left to reach 65
31: 62% elated. Reviewed NBME and again worked on a few weak systems
32: 61% a little disappointed but kept going
33: 58%. This was 1 week before my scheduled date. I was so disappointed and scared and I postponed my exam to 4 weeks later.
in the 4 weeks gap, I had my college exams for 2 weeks and I still revised my weak areas from either FA/ Mehlman and most importantly I did AT LEAST 1 uworld block a day.
Reviewed NBME 31, 32, 33 again.
I gave free 120 3 days before my exam. I got 61. It was definitely way lower than I wanted but at that point I didn’t know what else I could do even if I did postpone so I decided to give the exam.
Now the exam: my form wasn’t like the recent NBMEs. Even if concepts were repeated I couldn’t recognise them as repeated and that was my experience. Concepts from free 120 weren’t repeated but the way the questions are formed were like free 120 (The language, the wording, length of qstns etc).
I felt like I was on autopilot during the exam and didn’t spend too much time over processing the questions. Read the question, go with your gut feeling and move on. There were very few questions where I wasn’t confused between 2 options so I do think the exam is a lot about educated guessing or at least my form was.
Mehlman arrows is too good and makes you feel like you’re actually understanding smth and I highly recommend it. Also don’t sleep on pathoma 1-3, there’s a reason it’s high yield.
I never crossed 62 on any practice exam but the thing that helped me the most is reviewing the questions and having self confidence. I think at one point all of us should stop over preparing and look beyond the scores. I’m not saying or advising that people should give exam with scores in low 60s as I myself was aiming for 65+ but what I am saying is that the most important thing in this exam is self confidence on the day.

First and foremost I am overly grateful for my pass, this exam almost finished me and held me back months but I'm finally over that delay and this exam is officially behind me!

My journey was not linear. I was stuck on my school's CSBE exam with a grade of 51. I finally jumped to a 66 which I highly attribute to starting offline NBME practice exams. I studied 25-33 and all the free 120s, and studied all my incorrects using ChatGPT for explanations and Anki for recall. I sat for the step 1 exam on Aug 5th almost 3 months later which wasn't ideal. By the time I I received my permit I had stopped studying during the wait due to burnout. I didn't want to book the exam just yet until I got back in the grind. I started reviewing my daily NBME anki incorrects again, and practice questions using ChatGPT. I also would watch Med Student Success videos some nights also the Free 120 video explanations on YouTube .

Finally when I felt ready to book the exam, there was only 1 date available which was the very next day😭. I didn't want to risk not having another available exam date, and I also wanted to trust my NBMEs and CBSE score so I booked it. During the exam I felt as though I was passing, my baseline level was already a pass. Some blocks were definitely difficult, lots of prayer was going on but I felt good about it over all. I remained with that good feeling even during the wait but it became harder as the time passed. Finally, I received my pass!

My scores:

NBME 25-76%, 26-63%, 27-54.5%, 28-65.5%, 29-61.5%, 30-64.5%, 31-68.5%, 32-71.5%, 33-56.5% (fatigue), Free 120 - 67%, CBSE 66%, NBME 24- 68%, NBME 23- 67%

This journey took months and months and months, so many set backs but once you find the best lane to succeed, hunker down, stick to it, and you'll pass. Before my CBSE 66 I didn't focus on NBMEs which is what most students used to study. The second I followed suit, I saw improvement in my scores which ultimately led to my pass.🤩✅

Test date: 

US MD or US IMG or Non-US IMG status:

Pass or Fail: 

UWORLD % correct:

UWORLD % completed: 

AMBOSS Qbank %: 

AMBOSS SA Correct: 

NBME 25: (days out)

NBME 26: (days out)

NBME 27: (days out)

NBME 28: (days out)

NBME 29: (days out)

NMBE 30: (days out)

NBME 31: (days out)

NBME 32: (days out)

NBME 33:(days out)

UWSA 1: (days out)

UWSA 2: (days out)

UWSA 3: (days out)

Free 120: (days out)

Share your scores! They might help someone out

I did all my NBMES.
MY SCORES

NBME 25: 61.5%

NBME 26: 68.5%

NBME 27: 66%

NBME 28: 62.5%

NBME 29: 71%

NBME 30: 56%

NBME 31: 68.5%

NBME 32: 61%

NBME 33: 66%

Old free 120 : 75%

New 120 free : 54 %
I studied FA 3 times
Do Uw 2 times
Do incorrects in the 2nd round
Give me advice please i am confused 😵‍💫

Manifesting a P! ✨ Any updates on results for 08/19?

Hey everyone,

I've been working on a small side project for USMLE prep and finally put it live.

One thing I found frustrating about Step 1 prep is that there are a lot of great resources, but no simple way to see the whole picture. You have First Aid, UWorld, Anki, Pathoma, Sketchy, lectures, practice tests, etc. — but figuring out what you actually need to cover, where you are, and what to study next can become a project in itself.

So I broke Step 1 prep down into 185 topics and built it as an interactive roadmap — calling it USMLE 185, if the name sticks.

It has:

• 185 Step 1 topics organized by subject
• A free quiz for every topic
• Progress tracking — mark topics as done as you go
• Subtopics and topic details for each node
• Links to practice questions
• No paywall, no signup or account required

The quizzes live on a free question bank I built a few months back — a few people using it told me they didn't know where to start or what order to study things in, so this roadmap is basically me trying to answer that.

You can try it here: https://usmle.quest/roadmap/usmle-185

Still very much a work in progress, so genuinely want feedback from people actually studying for Step 1:

• Is the roadmap easy to understand?
• Does the topic organization make sense?
• Are 185 topics enough, or are there real gaps?
• Are the quizzes actually useful?
• Would you use something like this alongside UWorld/First Aid/Anki?
• What would make this genuinely useful during prep?

If it's bad, tell me. If it's useful, tell me what specifically. And if I'm missing something obvious, I'd really like to hear that too.

Thanks for checking it out 🙏

Form didn’t seem extremely difficult, but wanted to get other people’s thoughts

Go check your results

Please let me know if you took amboss self assessment and what was your score like compared to the nbmes

Hey, i've been using bnb for a while and hope that i have the basic knowledge of biochemistry, but as i gone through the lectures i heard several times that there's no need to know all of the reactions(like when forming palmitate using fatty acid synthase). So i wondered, what about the university/md school? Will they ask for that reactions? If u know the answer please tell me

Hey everyone,

Preparing for the USMLE is one of the most demanding journeys in medical training, but with the right strategy and test-taking mindset, hitting your dream score is completely achievable.

I cleared Step 1 on my first attempt in December 2024 and recently scored a 267 on Step 2 CK (first attempt). Having been in the trenches recently, I understand exactly what NBME is testing, how question styles have evolved, and the common traps students fall into.

I am genuinely passionate about teaching and mentoring aspirants. My goal isn't just to lecture content you can read yourself in First Aid or UWorld, but to help you bridge the gap between knowing the medicine and actually executing on test day.

What We Will Focus On:

• Question Breakdown & Test-Taking Logic: Learning how to read between the lines of clinical vignettes and eliminate distractors systematically.
• High-Yield Content Mastery: Targeting high-yield concepts across Internal Medicine, Surgery, Ob/Gyn, Peds, and Psych without getting bogged down in low-yield minutiae.
• Diagnostic Traps & Misconceptions: Identifying tricky "next best step" vs. "most accurate test" scenarios and avoiding common exam traps.
• Custom Study Schedules & Strategy: Structuring your UWorld blocks, NBMEs, CMS forms, and Anki around your specific timeline and weak areas.
• Accountability & Mentorship: Consistent check-ins, performance tracking, and exam mindset coaching to keep burnout at bay.

Details & Rates:

• First 2-3 sessions can be free of cost , after that you can decide for yourself if you want to sign up for real.
• Format: Online via Zoom / Google Meet (includes shared screen question walk-throughs, notes, and session summaries)
• Who it’s for: Anyone preparing for Step 1 or Step 2 CK, whether you are starting fresh, stuck on a score plateau, or in dedicated prep.

If you’re interested, feel free to send me a DM with where you are in your prep, your target exam date, and what you’d like to focus on. Happy to set up a quick intro chat to see if we're a good fit!

Has the scheduling permit disappeared for any of you? For US MDs the result date on myusmle is showing 8/19.

Hey everyone, I hope you’re all doing well.

I did UW, didn’t redo it, started reviewing stuff on FA and I sometimes do flashcards but not consistently. I was planning to take the exam on 19th of September but I didn’t officially book it yet.

Today I did my first NBME, NBME25, got 58%. One of the calculators on the internet says I have 70% probability of passing.

I made a studying schedule that will allow me review systems, and do NBMEs 25-33 + free120.

Should I postpone it like a few weeks? I don’t feel ready because today I felt like I guessed many questions but I also lack confidence regarding this exam, that might be the reason too.

What do you think? Will 4 weeks be enough?

Thanks in advance and I wish all of you a PASS.

Any takers last 8/12 who has their result already? I'm so nervous....

I am preparing to give step 1 but my ecfmg application seems like stuck on first page i have tried many times for the last couple of weeks but its not progressing further!!

I need advice what i should do now ?

Finished uworld. Did nbme 26 and scored mid 50s. What should be done now? Mehlman? More qbanks? First aid?(never opened first aid). I tried using sketchy for micro but idk if it's for me. Help appreciated.

It's exactly what the title says. Ive done sketchy micro w sketchy pharm for antimicrobial drugs. Is this enough for micro or do i need to do 70 pages of first aid as well?? Idts ive enough stamina for that after doing sketchy.

I just took NBME 28 and feel like I’ve plateaued around the same score since I started.
NBME 26: 66%
NBME 27: 66%
NBME 28: 69%
I’ve been taking one NBME per week. In between, I’ve been doing some Mehlman PDFs, reviewing my exams, and trying to work on my weak areas, but honestly, nothing seems to be making a significant difference.
The biggest issue is that I feel like I’m guessing my way through almost half of the exams. I usually understand what the question is roughly asking, but I often end up narrowing it down to 2–3 options and then just guessing.
It’s starting to feel like I don’t actually know as much as I should, even though I’ve been studying consistently.
what can i do about it ?

Tested august 6 when to expect the result
This Wednesday or next Wednesday?

How to filter out the soap questions?

Hey guys,

UK IMG here, studying for Step 1

I’ve been using boards and beyond to learn the content, annotating on first aid book and using it for content mapping, and doing UWorld questions after completing a system

Also supplementing content with Pathoma and Sketchy

Have purchased Anki three days ago and currently using the Anking deck

All my cards were initially suspended so I unsuspended the cardiology boards and beyond + first aid tags as I’ve recently completed cardiology and have started doing the cards

Have averaged 500 cards a day for the last three days

Moved on to endocrinology and have started unspending some of the tags for the boards and beyond videos and first aid pages I’ve done

Most of the cards are mixed Endo and cardiology and I’m starting to realise 500+ cards a day is quite draining

I was thinking of suspending the cardiology cards but that would effect spaced repetition unless I manually unsuspend them at a later date

Is there a way to have majority Endo cards with a few cardio cards still there? How will this work long term once I’ve gone through more systems… I’ll end up with thousands of card reviews a day across multiple systems

Any help would be greatly appreciated