Hello everyone..so i have been reading this forum a lot throughout my prep for the exam so I figured i would share my experience. First off, I started by giving myself about 2 months to study. There was a lot of confusion whether to take a review course, or just study on my own. Everyone had different opinions but my advice is just stick to what have gotten you this far. If you feel that you can discipline yourself, then study on your own. If you feel like you need someone to teach you everything again then go for a review course. I decided to buy the kaplan lecture notes and just study on my own. I set myself up a schedule that included exactly when I would be done with a subject and when I would take the practice tests. I think making a schedule and sticking to it is one of the most important things when studying on your own. So after getting the kaplan lecture notes and signing up for Qbank, I started my prep. All i did was read through the entire lecture notes series while doing the questions on the same topic on qbank as I went along to test myself. This worked out well because the questions made me realize if I was learning the right things. Another note, please don't try to memorize every detail in those kaplan lecture notes. Just read thru them and get the general understanding of each chapter. I feel that some people get too trapped in memorizing all the little details and the Step is not about that at all. So after going through all the subjects(in about a month), I decided to review them all before I took my first NBME and I did this by simply doing QBook front to back. This reinforced everything and got me ready to take the first NBME. I did first aid front to back in about 2-3 days before I took each NBME because I believe repetition is key and this also got me to go thru FA about 5 times before I took the actual thing. So from this point on with about a month to go, I did an NBME every weekend and signed up for USMLE WORLD which I did during the week. I also agree with everyone that said USMLEWORLD is the best source for questions but these questions are harder than most questions on the actual exam. So in the final month, I didn't touch the kaplan lecture notes. All I did was UW questions along with FA. The only other outside book I used to study was Path BRS, which I think is one of the greatest books ever written. I did not listen to or have the Goljan notes because I felt that I was comfortable with what I was scoring in path. Im sure since people rave about it so much that it is worth it but I chose not to use it.

Now on to the actual exam..My first impression was that there are some really doable questions in here which I did not expect because I ,like everyone else, thought the exam was going to be impossible. But as each block ended, i realized that there are questions that are really simple to questions that are very very tough. Overall, i thought it was very similar to the NBMEs(slightly harder) so please do all 4 of those if you can. I always wondered how you are supposed to be doing on each block so just to reference I was marking anywhere between 12-16 a block. Overall, very doable exam if you study hard and appropriately for it.

Stats:
QBank avg: 78%
USMLE World avg: 77%
NBME 1: 650 (248)
NBME 2-4: 680 (253)
Kaplan simulated exam: 80%


USMLE STEP 1 SCORE: 252/99

Feel free to ask me anything. Good luck

congratulations on your REALLY deserve grade.

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Moderator: USMLE Step 1 Forums, USMLE Step 2 Forums,USMLE Step 3 Forums.

Some day I will be the next Goljan/Daugherty/fysher for IMG's all over the world.

Congrats....perfect score. Did you attend Ross?

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"I got my period while lactating." - My classmate in physio class.

Congrats that is awesome

Wow! That's a very great score! Congratulations! Enjoy some nice time off.

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You mean two months is all you took to prepare for the step one??!!!

madhuemani.