Guide to usmle step 1 preparation: faisal shah jehan

GUIDE TO USMLE STEP 1 PREPARATION: FAISAL SHAH JEHAN (268 on USMLE Step 1)
This experience and guidance manual has been written by Dr. Faisal Shah Jehan (Khyber Medical College Peshawar, Pakistan). We congratulate him for his great success and hope gets even greater success in future. It is must read end-to-end !

QUICK SUMMARY:

Duration: 9 months 17 days. (June 1, 2015- March17, 2016)

Total break days: about 35 days. I used to take a day off every now and then just to refresh the mind. Study Hours: 8am-8pm (but in last month: 8am-11pm)

Material Used:

•All Kaplan 2014 Videos with Kaplan Lecture notes(LN)

•Pathoma (Most important) & Goljan for Pathology

•First Aid 2015 and 2016

Question banks:

•Kaplan Q bank (offline): during first read of Kaplan LN

•USMLE world Q bank (online): most imp source

•USMLE Rx Q bank (Only for Basic sciences not the systemic)

NBMEs:

NBME 1(offline): Score 200 Before starting preparation on June 1st, 2015

NBME 13(offline): Score 235 On September 1st, 2015

NBME 15(offline):Score 249 1st January, 2016

NBME 16(online):Score 262 10th February, 2016 (One month before exam)

NBME 17(offline):Score 270 1st March, 2016 (Two week before exam)

NBME 18(online):Score 269 10th March, 2016 (One week before exam)

EXAM DAY: 17th March, 2016

PREPARATION

After taking my final year examinations at my medical college before starting the preparation I took NBME 1 on 1st June, 2015 in which my score was 200. I set it as a baseline score. I started from Biochemistry.

PREPARATION PHASE 1:

Biochemistry: Kaplan lecture notes with the Kaplan videos. After completing the subject I revised it in 3 days and after that did the mcqs from Kaplan Q bank. I annotated the Kaplan with any important points from the videos and Kaplan q bank (especially all those questions which I got wrong). Try to learn as much from them as possible, especially genetics because on actual board exam there is a lot of genetic questions and most of them are quite difficult actually. But if you have clear concepts then you can do it.

Physiology: Kaplan lecture notes with the Kaplan videos. After completing the subject I revised it in 3 days and after that did the mcqs from Kaplan Q bank. I annotated the Kaplan with any important points from the videos and Kaplan q bank (especially all those questions which I got wrong). Please focus on CVS and pulmonary physiology. First Aid hasn’t covered them adequately and there are a lot of questions from CVS and pulmonary physiology. Try to clear your concepts and learn with arrows, graphs and charts.
Pharmacology: Kaplan lecture notes with the Kaplan videos. After completing the subject I revised it in 3 days and after that did the mcqs from Kaplan Q bank. I annotated the Kaplan with any important points from the videos and Kaplan q bank (especially all those questions which I got wrong). For pharmacology the choice is yours you can either choose to do it from Kaplan or if you don’t want to do it from Kaplan, then First Aid and Uworld are also enough for pharmacology.
Microbiology and immunology: Kaplan lecture notes with the Kaplan videos. After completing the subject I revised it in 3 days and after that did the mcqs from Kaplan Q bank. I annotated the Kaplan with any important points from the videos and Kaplan q bank (especially all those questions which I got wrong). I liked Kaplan’s micro and immunology but FA is also enough for it. Recently, they are asking questions on parasitology, so learn to recognize parasite eggs and worms. Pathology: Before starting pathology I revised biochem, physio, pharm and micro and immunology so that I had all the knowledge on hand before I start pathology and I can integrate. Remember use pathology as a tool to integrate all the knowledge of the other basic sciences you have. It is at this point when you actually gets the really essence of medicine. Pathoma with videos and annotating the book with the points from the video. Though I also read Goljan twice with it but personally now I think that I spent too much time on Goljan and the output wasn’t worth the time I spent on it.
Anatomy: Kaplan lecture notes with the Kaplan videos. After completing the subject I revised it in 3 days and after that did the mcqs from Kaplan Q bank and USMLE Rx. I annotated the Kaplan with any important points from the videos and both the question banks (especially all those questions which I got wrong). My anatomy was still a bit weak and I wasn’t able to perform as good in Anatomy as in other subjects. The questions on exam were difficult and from my perspective I guess it was a bit too much to ask. Also I have noted that recently the number of questions on anatomy has increased on exam.
Behavioral Science: Kaplan lecture notes with the Kaplan videos. For biostatistics Kaplan biostat portion + Uworld biostat + Uworld extened question of biostatics (the last two sources are the best for biostatistics) For the rest of behavioral science Kaplan and Uworld. Don’t bother wasting a lot of time on Psychiatric disorders from Kaplan. You aren’t going to understand it anyway. Uworld for Psychiatry is the best source I have ever seen for Psychiatry. MEMORIZE ITS TABLES.

PREPARATION PHASE 2

I revised the subjects from Kaplan and started Offline Uworld and USMLE Rx simultaneously. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of Uworld it is the key to understanding, learning to develop skill how to solve MCQs and time management. My first time uworld overall score was 92%.

Took NBME 15 on first January 2016 in which I scored 249. After that I revised Pathology from Pathoma in the next fifteen days and bought two months Uworld subscription on 20th January, 2016.

I kept doing uworld revising subjects from Kaplan and also now started First Aid and integrating as much as I could. I annotated almost all important points from Uworld to either Kaplan or FA. That helped me a lot.

After that I took NBME 16 online on 10th February, 2016 and scored 262(187correct out of 200). I chalked out my weak areas and focused on improving areas in which I was weak. I really improved physiology, psychiatry, biostatics and genetics.

I kept on revising from Kaplan and First Aid. After completing Uworld online once ( I already had done it once offline) then I just did questions from uworld again 11 blocks per day to increase my speed, improve my efficiency and so that I don’t get burnt out or exhausted on the actual exam.

In the last month or so I also started doing all the NBMES in backward order from NBME 12 to NBME 5. I used to do 1 block per day on skype with my friend Numan Khan. The quick discussion helped us a lot to improve and learn from each other concepts. Trust me do all the NBMEs and learn from them as much as possible. You won’t believe almost all the NBMEs test the same topics and concepts from different perspectives. So that really helps one to think like what the exam wants you to know. Even the real exam test those topics heavily from different perspectives. Try to think on each NBME question, they are there for a reason, if you found out that reason, you can ace the exam.

Please note that I always did all the blocks right from the first day in timed mode. Do learn to manage time.

On 1st March I took NBME 17 in which I scored 270 (193/200)

On 10th March I took NBME 18 online in which I scored 269(192/200)

In last 15 days or so I repeated all the Kaplan LN (read all the annotations I had made) and repeated first aid and went for the exam.

ONE DAY BEFORE EXAM DAY:

I woke up took the Fred exam. It is a complete simulation of actual exam. So doing it helps you to skip the tutorial on the exam and adds 15 minutes to your break time. I also revised anatomy looked at all the brain stem cross sections. They ask this really frequently on the exam. I slept at 10pm at night.

EXAM DAY

Make sure you are fresh, a good breakfast and try to reach the prometric at least 30 minutes before your scheduling time. Don’t forget your Identification card and permit.

I hadn’t had any issue with time management or exam day fatigue as I prepared throughout for this day. Make sure you manage your time well and you don’t get exhausted. I had enough time to answer each block. If you can solve the easy questions quickly it saves you a lot of time for the difficult questions and give you a better chance to get the difficult questions right. I used to go through and solve most of the mcqs in about 35 minutes, in remaining 25 minutes I used to think over the questions which were difficult and I had flagged them.

TAKE HOME MESSAGE

•Motivation, dedication and the quest to learn more will help you to improve and learn.

•Construct your basic concepts and fundamentals strong so that you are able to solve questions on it. Do not bother much on the number of repetitions, rather focus on clearing your concepts.

•FA and uworld are the key for everyone, this is THE LEAST YOU SHOULD KNOW. If you want to score more learn more; it’s that simple. Kaplan LN and videos, my annotations and all the question banks helped to take my score above par.

•If you ask me what helped you achieve that score? I will reply learn, revise, and integrate. •Take all the NBMEs even if offline. Trust me almost all the perspectives in which exam ask

questions are present in it.

•There will be times in which you’ll be distressed and feel like it’s not happening. Trust me that happens to everyone. It happened to me too. But then you realize that all the knowledge you learn here is not just so that you can regurgitate on exam day but will help you throughout your life in saving life of patients.

I wish you all best of luck. Hope you all do well on your exam. And do let me know how you did on your exam and how this experience helped you. I’ll be really glad to know that you performed well.