MY STORY: This is my first post ever. I've read a lot of the advice in numerous posts. I appreciate everyone's advice. I took Step 1 several months ago (for the first time) & scored 172/71 (first time test taker). I studied for 1 month during the Pass Program & then I took an additional month to study on my own upon completing the Pass Program. By the way, yes I was saddened/hurt/f'ed-up/angry when I received my score (but I dont want to re-hash that entire experience)

SOURCES I USED: First Aid was my main source. However, I pretty much looked up 85% of the info in other sources (i.e. BRS Path, Kaplan Path, Robbins, BRS Physio, Lippincotts Biochem, etc.) just for clarification or an understanding. Whatever I thought was important from the Pass Program, I added into my notes/FA. But I didn't use PASS notes as a main source because I found wayyyyy tooo many errors (I hear he recently completed a new edition of his notes......maybe he corrected the errors). I did 1 month of questions (completed 80% of QBank & scored 62%). I pretty much neglected Embryo, Histo, & Anatomy (covered only what was in the pass program, which wasn't a whole lot, and covered some of that stuff in QBank). By the way, those of you wondering about "PP Clues", I did not feel they were all over my exam. They're helpful to some degree, but no, they were not all over my exam.

MY QUESTIONS TO YOU:
1. Where can I get NBME style q's or those retired q's (not the CD) that everyone keeps talking about? If it's in one of these download areas.........I tried that...........it didn't work..........what version do I need of the Adobe Acrobat Reader for that?

2. What are some other sources for questions other than QBank? I hear Web Path is pretty good. Are there any other QBanks that you would STRONGLY recommend (I hear doing tons of questions can be a huge help)?

3. I checked out the Tommy HY Facts - and they look like they're pretty good to me. Has anyone gone over these Facts and did they find them beneficial for their exam?

MY THOUGHTS ON MY EXAM:
Try not to get too rattled when you start block 1. When you're nervous, Block 1 can mess you up even if the questions dont seem that hard (which is what I felt happened to me). Also, if you can, try to get more than 3 hrs of sleep before this exam (I can never sleep before exams). It might be a good idea to take breaks too (I took 1 break; 8-10 minutes for lunch; I have a big problem sitting still). My exam covered mainly PATH/PHYSIO, PHARM, MICRO, ETHICS/STATS, IMMUNO, BEHAVIORAL, BIOCHEM, NEURO, ANATOMY/EMBRYO/HISTO (in that order). I wasn't too worried about Gross/Embryo/Histo & I guessed right on that. I was pissed about Biochem b/c it felt like I only got like 10 questions on that (and several of those included Nutrition questions). I counted Ethics/Stats as a separate category. The ethics q's are a pain in the ***. They dont make it easy. I felt the NBME q's (CD & $45 ones) were much more representive of the style of q's that you will see on the exam as compared to QBank. However, QBank is the best question source that I know of & I did find it to be helpful in solidifying information.

This thread was probably too long & boring (my apologies). If anyone would like to chime in on anything I have said - I am all ears.

hi,
I am sorry to hear that you have failed. I am also studying for my second attempt and have added the pass program to my material. I would suggest that you go online on ebay and search under usmle step 1 and you will find a lot of people sellling step one matieral. I purchased some cds that were good from this site and contained a lot of practise questions. I really like the rapid review questions and bss questions. Also you might want to get a hold of some material from goljan and review his stuff. Other than that your score is really close, so just work hard and stay focused. Good luck