exams and never got anything above a 70% (Aggregate). In fact, in my final year i was
amongst the bottom third of the people who passed so yeah needless to say that i was
average at best!
Preparation:
Time:
12 months of studying
I actually took like 13.5 coz i was unable to study anything for 1.5 months after my first
read due to personal reasons
I used to study 6 days a week and usually anywhere from 6-8 hours a day in the start
eventually i took it up to 8-10 but there is that 1 day every week that you can hardly
study 4 :/
My advice is to keep 1 day of the week off for your friends and family and dont bother
with kaplans uworld or any of that stuff on that day. If you try to have a 7 days a week
routine you'll suffer a burnout every month and well that's very counterproductive!
Believe me! I've tried..
Q) What is the minimum time one needs for a 250+ in step 1?
Answer: Varies from student to student whenever your nbmes tell you 250+ you are all
set!
Q) How much time should i spend on my first and subsequent reads?
Answer: Well dont spread your subjects over a very long period of time because by the
time you get to the last, you'll forget the first and the vicious cycle will continue. I guess
a good estimate would be from 3-4 months for your first read. I know this because i took
about 5 months for my first read which i felt wasnt the right way to go
Books used:
Pathology :
Most of you will probably not believe me but the most important book for the usmle is
Pathoma! PATHOMA PATHOMA PATHOMA!
*Goljan like NUTRITION
*Urinary/rectal incontinence.
I had quite a few questions on nutrition and it is a topic that is at best, weakly covered
by pathoma. I performed quite well on nutrition though because I took educated guesses
on all the questions and managed to get them right.
Other than that Pathoma = 200 pages of high yield stuff and the lectures are wonderful.
Dr Sattar is a life saver! He will explain everything in the most simplest of ways and will
make sure it is etched somewhere in your memory when the time comes.
600 pages a lot of photos and has a lot of information other than pathology like
pharmacology, physiology, biochemistry etc.
So going through Goljan one loses track of what is high yield and what is low yield. That
being said however Goljan is the undisputed king of all pathology texts for step 1 and if
you want to take 2 extra months just for Goljan, go for it! I mean why give the step 1
early, isnt it fun to prolong your misery for another 2 months? :P
Q) Goljan vs Pathoma ?
Answer: Pathoma Pathoma Pathoma Pathoma!!!
Q) Is pathology the most heavily tested exam subject?
Answer: Yes it is! About 50%-70% of your exam will involve pathology in one way or the
other. Mine was closer to 50-60% I guess.
Pharmacology:
I used Kaplan Pharma for my first read and annotated my FA 2013 while doing my
second read. Kaplan is a good book and Dr Raymons lectures are awesome! You dont
really need anything else for pharmacology.
Q) How was pharmacology on the exam?
Answer: well, it was a mixture but I found it easier than the other subjects and not as
heavily tested as I had expected.
Q) I keep forgetting drugs what is the solution?
Answer: well there are two ways about it, you can either do a lot of pharmacology
questions I did both the Kaplan Q bank and Uworld oryou can make your own flash
cards and flowcharts. Either way active learning works best!
Q) Can I skip the general pharmacology part?
Answer: NO! General pharmacology is more conceptual than cramming thus is heavily
tested on the exam because they can twist around the concepts to mess with your head
but if you think them through they are pretty easy to answer.
Physiology:
I used Kaplan physiology here too, the book is simple enough and the lectures are great.
I do find Conrad Fischer wastes a lot of time but he helps you memorize with his stupid
dances and songs. The nephron guy is kind of annoying but if you can get over that, his
lectures are ok. Dr Kudrath kicks ass though!
Some people go for BRS and I think it saves some time so do whatever suits you.
They will ALWAYS mix it up with Pathology or Pharmacology.
We dont live in an era where they will ask you you about the value for splay or the
laplace law! That time is gone!
Answer: I havent either but that doesnt mean I WASNT tested on them :/ Honestly I
had the weirdest bugs popping up here and there
Q) So I should pick up a big fat book on bugs and memorize it?
Answer: No just go through FA with annotations from Uworld and put side notes for the
bugs that are missing in FA like Trichenella, Trichuris Trichura, etc
Anatomy:
I used Kaplan anatomy and it was enough. I mean I did get weird questions that arent
on Kaplan or FA but I used my educated guesses and got them right. This is another one
of my higher performance areas, know the spine anatomy well.
Know your crossections well and I guess Kaplan and Uworld images for CT scans Xrays
were enough for me.
Tricky subject though I had muscles that I had forgotten since my second year of med
school.
You might have to stick to your Kaplan till the end for this.
Neuroanatomy was very doable from Kaplan and Uworld so was gross anatomy.
My embryology was really tricky and I had to think really hard before attempting every
question but got them right. Histology is one subject that isnt tested very heavily on the
exam I barely remember seeing a question maybe two on that.
Q) So should I do all the limb muscles again from a big textbook?
Answer: No that would be a waste of time just know the Kaplan Anatomy Text very well
Q) Neuroanatomy scares the crap out of me what do I do?
Answer: Find a study partner go over it with them. Kaplan neuroanatomy lectures will
help a lot the guy does a decent job and I listened to them twice! I went over
neuroanatomy with a friend and aced it on the exam.
Q) I was thinking about leaving the first 150 pages of histology what do you think?
Answer: I think you are making a very smart move j ust go over the cell biology
chapter if you must and the bone chapters other than that skip it!
I skipped the entire 150 altogether!
Behavior Sciences:
As an IMG this was my Achilles heel and I did put a lot of effort into this subject before
the exam. I gave it 2 weeks the first time and about 7 days the second time. I was slow
the first time as I had some other concerns to attend. I used Kaplan Lecture Notes and
Conrads 100 cases for ethics for this i dont know about BRS or any other book since this
is what all the people around me used too.
This is especially tricky for IMGs because our ethics and those in the US are very well
different to say the least and I was always stuck between 2 options that looked right on
the exam.
I annotated my FA with all the extra info from Kaplan and found FA to be better for
DSM5.
Btw, make sure you have a general idea about the changes in DSM 5 like which diseases
have been REMOVED. Dont waste your time on those and focus the rest. Conrads 100
cases can be done in a day, I did it in 6 hours though the exam didnt have any of those
cases :/
The psychiatry portion and the sleep portion are pretty straightforward in both Kaplan
and FA so just go over them.
Also take a couple of hours to go over Medicare and Medicaid from Kaplan. The Kaplan
lectures help a lot so be sure to watch them atleast once especially the physician patient
relationshiop and the rules lecture.
Q) I am getting worried that FA is not enough for Psychiatry I think Ill stick to Kaplan is
that ok?
Answer: Yes it is but FA when annotated slightly covers everything and Id rather have
everything at one place rather than jumping between different books at the end wouldnt
you?
Q) Ive heard about people doing Step 2 Uworld for Psychiatry is that worth it?
Answer: If you have time why the hell not! Questions make a man perfect! I did it since I
wasnt very confident in this subject and found it slightly helpful but you can skip it if
you want its not an absolute essential!
Biostatistics:Perhaps my least favorite subject :P I got hammered on it in the exam
too
I used Kaplan lecture notes for this and along with that there are these 30$
uworld notes on Biostats that were wonderful for explaining a lot of my misconceptions!
Other than this a few friends of mine did the questions from High Yield Biostatistics and
said that they were very helpful and can be done in a day. So Id suggest those too if you
have time. My exam did not test NPV, PPV, SN, SP or any of those simple calculations L
I got hammered by all those stupid questions that took a concept and twisted it like a
pretzel! Then again maybe I just had a bad day with this subject :/
Uworld biostatistics does a wonderful job with the questions too! I did my biostatistics
in 2 days the first time and 1.5 days the second time did the Uworld notes in 1 day too.
Q) Anything else i can use?
Answer: Step 2 Uworld, It has 1 block of biostatistics that you can do IF YOU HAVE
TOO MUCH TIME on your hands
My Preparation
I spent a total of 5 months on my first read. Used to watch the lectures then read the
text.
During my second read I annotated my First Aid 2013 and this took me another 4
months! I reviewed my FA twice after that before the exam.
I did one extra thing during my second read I used to do questions after finishing a
subject. Uworld and sometimes from Kaplan Qbank would be my source for the
questions but I found the Kaplan Qbank to be low yield except for Genetics and Cell
Biology.
Doing Questions after finishing a subject made me have a very strong grasp on my
subjects and was a good way to go but did take a lot of time and indeed my second read
stretched over 4 months. After I realized this I stopped doing questions finished my
second read and took an online subscription of Uworld for 3 months did that till the
exam and made sure to keep annotating my FA. I booked my exam date 2 months
in advance and it was the day right after my Uworld Subscription ended. I
had a plain simple reason for doing this, I wanted to be in touch with
questions till the day before my exam and honestly my last 3 months were
all about Uworld NBMEs and UWSAs. I must have done around 6500-7000 questions
for the exam and thats the key for a 250+! Questions Questions Questions! Active
learning! I used the uworld as a learning tool didnt care if it was a 60% or a 100% all I
cared about was learning new information and clearing my concepts! I never paid much
heed to my uworld percentage that being said however, it sure is encouraging to see your
uworld performance graph to rise steadily from block 1 to the last block!