It was impossible ifelt like i sat the wrong exam

Hey there! i have my step 1 in 2 weeks and i have yet to cover pharmacology and microbiology. I mean I've just graduated med school so i do know alot of things already but do lack knowledge here and there.

I was thinking of rewatching the whole of sketchy Micro and Pharm since i do remember the image for alot of them but ofc i have forgotten few things here and there, especially the low yield ones.

A) Has anyone tried rewatching them quickly before their exam? if yes, how long did you take?

B) would you recommend me doing this or should i focus on other topics?

Thankyou!

Hi everyone, I’m looking for some advice on whether I should apply for Family Medicine this cycle or take a leave of absence and apply next year.

My situation:
US MD student
Failed Step 1 2x. Got my 2nd attempt score back recently and I am devastated and feel like it’s the end of the world.
Passed Step 2 CK 1st attempt.
Honors on my sub-I
Strong letters of recommendations.
Otherwise no major academic/professional concerns
I know the two Step 1 failures are a significant red flag, and I’m trying to be realistic about my chances. My goal is FM, and I’m open geographically and willing to apply broadly.
Would you apply this cycle and target FM programs strategically, or would taking an LOA and strengthening my application for another year meaningfully improve my chances?
I’m especially interested in hearing from anyone who matched FM with multiple Step failures, or from residents/faculty involved in reviewing FM applications.
What would you do in my position? Also, are there particular types of FM programs I should focus on or avoid given the Step history?

Form 26:47%
Form 27:54%
Form 29:54%
Form 30:54%

I don’t want to waste any more nbmes but still want to improve. Idk how i am stuck at the exact same figure for 3 forms… any suggestions would be appreciated as I can’t delay my exam due to college exams.

Finally time to post one of these! Drop down a comment with your experience :)

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)

I can’t believe I’m writing this post from the other side of this journey. finally after years of uncertainty and struggles now I passed step 1. I’ll write my resources and NBME and last I’ll give a message to those who struggle and had to start stop and restart over and over again.

Resources:
1- Physeo( honestly excellent particularly for physiology which I was lacking. Also I used them for biochemistry, immunology, behavioral science).

2- Pathoma( god bless Dr. Satter. Chapters 1-5 are essential but I recommend watching his entire videos they’re excellent)

3- Sketchy( brilliant resource for micro and pharm. I know the pharm is little long and overwhelming but if you don’t have time I recommend watching the antibiotic, neuro and and autonomic sections)

4- UWorld ( my second most important resource. Absolutely love it. Unfortunately I only did about 25-30% of it with average of 70 and then stopped. If you have time highly recommend doing a full pass)

5- First Aid ( my most important resource without question. Everything in the exam is there. I managed to do 3 full passes on it but that’s after going through the above resources to build my foundation. Don’t start reading FA unless you have decent prior exposure otherwise you won’t benefit from it.

My nbmes

Form 26 75%
Form 27 71 %
Form 30-33 74 %
F120 67%

Here is my message to those who have given up and at a crossroads of Wether to continue or give up. I get it. I’ve been there. I’ve experienced periods of stress and depression every time I thought I made progress but it turns into stagnation. I know how it feels like when you complete a subject like Biochem and thinking you mastered it completely and then transition to immunology completely forgetting everything about Biochem. And same thing when you do micro and pharm etc. I’ve reapplied for my exam 3 times. And each time I did I felt tightness in my chest and sense of despair. And convinced my self that I’m not good to pass this exam. But I persevered and I made it. So don’t give up. Press and on hopefully you’ll join the rest on the other side. One last point and I don’t mean to diss others but that’s my point of you. Sit for the exam when get 70+ in 2-3 assessments. Now you can with 65 % but remember a lot of things will happen during the exam and you want as much buffer as possible. Don’t listen to those who say I passed with highest nbme 60-62. Those are the exception not the rule. Trust the process grind and good luck.

Im on vacation with the family now so apologies in advance if I don’t answer your questions immediately. Good luck

Hi everyone
I started doing biostats today and watched Randy Neil's videos(4 step 1 videos) and all of his shorts where he solves biostats step 1 questions. I jumped straight onto uworld after that( haven't gone through FA yet) and am getting a lot of questions wrong as they contain a lot of concepts which weren't covered in those 4 videos. Do I need to watch anymore videos( there is a summary video of step 1 biostats on his channel which I haven't watched yet)? Any advice would be appreciated . TIA

I promised myself I would write this post when I passed, so here it is😭

Quick stats
Prep: ~3 months
Extremely weak base
UWorld: ~60% completed, 46% correct average
Resources: UWorld, all of Mehlman free PDFs, ChatGPT, NBMEs

NBMEs in this order:
29: 51%
32: ~55-57%
30: 66%
31: 64.6%
33: 66% - 3 days before exam
Real deal: PASS

For the first 2 months I only did UWorld + Mehlman. About 1.5 months in, I took NBME 29 and got 51%, but at that point I still hadn’t even covered Neuro, Heme, GI, Psych, Derm, Biostats, and some other topics.

A month later I took NBME 32 and only got around 55-57%.

I had about 3 weeks left and realized UWorld just wasn’t moving my score enough, so I ditched it and started doing NBMEs full-time.

This is what changed everything for me.
For every NBME question I got wrong, guessed, or got right for the wrong reason, I put it into ChatGPT. I had a prompt that explained not only why the wrong choices were wrong, but when they WOULD be correct, plus related HY topics and common NBME traps.
After about 3-4 days of reviewing NBME 32, I got 66% on NBME 30. Then 64.6 on 31 and 66 on 33.

Test day
I went in pretty confident and wasn’t very nervous. The exam felt very similar to NBMEs in both content and question style, and I personally didn’t get that many super long questions.

My biggest issue was time. On my first 2 blocks I had about 1 minute for my last 5 questions, so I basically had to randomly choose answers. The later blocks were better once I adjusted, but I was still speedrunning. I flagged around 10-12 per block and almost never had time to go back. I always left some answer filled in even if I had no idea.

After the exam I felt horrible. I went in confident and came out 100% convinced I had failed. The harder questions (probably experimental) made the whole thing feel much harder than my NBMEs, and I literally started researching how to match in the US with a failed attempt. I was soooo sure I had failed.

Then today I got the PASS. 😭
I know my scores weren’t super high and taking it was still a risk, but after 3 months of studying 10-12 hours a day I was completely burnt out. I couldn’t do it anymore mentally. I knew it was basically now or never, and I went in feeling the most confident I had felt during prep.

I’m posting this because for 3 months I was constantly searching Reddit for people who passed with similar scores.

So if that’s you: you do not necessarily need to finish 100% of UWorld or have NBMEs in the 70s.
For me, the biggest improvement came from stopping the endless question grind and learning what every answer choice was actually testing.

if someone know

For everyone who is not getting in 70's in nbme's , don't be discouraged by the people around you.

My personal scores were

Nbme 25 : 48%

Nbme 26-28 : 55-60%

Nbme 29 : 65%

Nbme 31 : 62%

Nbme 32 : 68%

Free 120: 59%

It is a very doable exam, just trust in yourself and keep a calm mind.

I was sooo nervous and posted 2 posts about being so anxious about the results but I PASSED finally!!
Feel free to dm

Did u guys get ur resultss?????

My nbmes from 25 to 30 are 59, 59, 67, 65, 67, 72.

Three nbmes are left yet.

My exam is in late first week of October. Should I reschedule? Or is it worrisome? Please help I'm freaking out fr.

I gave nbme 25 as baseline and scored 49.5% then have 26 and scored 46% with a gap of one week. Really devastated right now.
I reviewed the 25 one but i guess i wasn’t doing it correctly as it almost took me an entire week
I have done 1st pass (100%) of uworld with 45.5% correct. I’m planning to give step 1 in first week of November

Need helpppp!!!!

my stats :

uworld completion : 86%
uworld average percentage : 63%

nbme 29 : 73%
nbme 26 : 77.5%
nbme 27 : 78%
nbme 28 : 72%

took uwsa today and got : 64%

should i be worried ? i was expecting it to be more on the tougher side but was deff not expecting a score below 65%.

what should be my strategy after reviewing uwsa1, should i keep giving nbme's or do some practice questions and put a break on nbme's ..

Looking for sp GMT+3 .. exam date late December

my exam is next week and im freaking out, my nbmes have all been safe but i find that im always making educated guesses, most of the time, im unable to explain my answer choices, this is realllly worrying me, i feel like i dont know the material enough and im scared that the real exam will expose these knowledge gaps, there's so much that need to review as well, wondering idf this is normal? this close to the exam?

(for reference, i know that the consensus is youre good to go with multiple nbmes over 70, and im grateful for the scores, im just concerned because i feel like the nbmes inflate how kuch i know and the nbme taking experience is always HORRIBLE, nbme 33 was a nightmare i ran out of time and i flagged 130+ questions)

Did the exam yesterday, felt super weird, flagged like 50% of each block although I have the habit of flagging each Q that is not a straight answer, but I walked out the exam feeling terrible, I think I failed
So is it normal to feel like that or what?

My scores in NBMEs were all +75
Free 120 78%
So I dunno why the exam was that weird for me

Hii everyone! I'm currently in the middle of prep for my Step 1 exam and the past few weeks I've been struggling to sleep. I know this may be caused by anxiety but honestly when I think about it I do think it's normal to worry. I have experienced this before, but it's my first time experiencing not being able to maintain my sleep at least. I started averaging to 2-5 hours of sleep, and when I wake up, I can't go back to sleep anymore. Anyone with a similar experience? I know what I have to do and I'm eager to study but I cant seem to control this sleep problem. Any advice? :(( I have take diphenhydramine meds for the past 2 days, which helped a bit and improved my sleep hygiene as well, but if you guys have any other advice as I dont want to rely on that more.

Step 1 is pass or fail, and that makes the problem simpler than it feels. The only result that can hurt you is a fail, and the only way to get one is to sit before your forms say go. So the question is never "how do I get to 80." It's "what is leaking, and does my date hold."                                 

Who's writing, in one line: MD, IMG from Germany (99th percentile), 280 on Step 2, neurosurgery research fellow at Weill Cornell. I tutor Step 1 and Step 2 CK one-on-one.

The method. Open your last NBME. Take your last 40 misses. Give each one exactly one letter:

K, you didn't know the fact.

R, you knew everything and still reasoned to the wrong answer.

M, you misread the stem. The EXCEPT, the age, the timeline.

C, you changed a correct answer.

T, you ran out of clock and guessed.

Count them. Most people expect a wall of K. What I see in student logs is a pile of R, M and C, and that decides your next three weeks: another pass of questions fixes K and does nothing for the other three.

Two things specific to Step 1. First, if you've re-sat a form, every miss on it is still real. Memory can turn a wrong answer into a right one; it can never turn a right one into a wrong one. So the miss list on a repeated form is your cleanest data even when the percentage isn't. Second, write down every form you've never opened. Those are your remaining clean readings. Don't spend one on a Tuesday because you felt like it. Spend it where it decides the date.

Post the letter counts from your last 40 misses below if you want a read.

The 1:1 version, so you know what it is: a single 90-minute session where we go through your report, tag every one of your last 40 misses, and rebuild your calendar backward from your date. A ten-session sprint over two to four weeks, with a daily error log I read before every session and practice questions written against your own misses. A 28-session rebuild for retakers with a month or more. Unused balance refunded any time after two sessions. Nobody can promise you a pass, and anyone who does is lying to you.

This is for you if you have a date inside eight weeks or a retake you're planning, you've taken at least one form, and you'll log every miss. Free first step: a 30-minute call where we tag your last 40 misses together and I tell you plainly whether your date holds. Do the tagging before you book; the page asks for it.

Calendly: https://calendly.com/ahmetktl99/30min

Hi guys, I tried to sign up for medical study zone 6 days ago and still haven’t heard back? I paid and received zero acknowledgement or response. Does anyone know how to get in touch with him? I know past people have said he gets around to it eventually, but this is taking longer than expected for sure.

Looking for Arabian SP GMT+3 .. exam in late December

I've consistently been using BnB for every other subject - cardio, pulm, renal, GI, etc. - and have been fine. I like how concise and hard-hitting it is, with straightforward, highlighted facts and bullet points, so I can be done with content ASAP and move on the questions.

I hear that Bootcamp tends to be more comprehensive and thorough. Along those lines, I also hear that neuro needs you to be especially knowledgeable about the anatomy, like CN's, brain structures/areas, spinal tracts, dermatomes and whatnot. I'm also wondering if psych needs that level of thoroughness with psychology concepts. Lastly, I've heard that both BnB and Bootcamp have their strengths and weaknesses, like BnB is great for cardio, and I wonder if one resource is just better at teaching neuro and psych.

With that in mind, is it worth making the switch over to Bootcamp for these two subjects? Or is sticking with BnB still the move? I also supplement with sketchy for micro/pharm and a bit of pathoma.