Just wanted to give some encouragement to the sub-210 step 1 test takers out there. There has been some impressive gains in the previous posts of this thread, mine is not quite so impressive, but it is a solid 30 point improvement and I am proud of it.
Step 1: 205-210
Step 2: 235-240
UW first pass (3rd year) - 61% overall
UW second pass (6 weeks of studying) - 67% overall (last 6-8 average 71%)
NBME 4 - 200 (about 3 weeks before)
NBME 6 - 225 (about 2 weeks before)
UWSA - 242 (1 week before)
NBME 7 - 223 (3 days before)
Studied for 6 weeks, about 6-8 hours solid hours each day (I can't really do much more than that).
Sources used: (this advice is probably better for those scoring below the average, not all you 250-260+ out there!)
UW - I did all questions once during third year (after each clerkship), and then reset it at the end of the year. I would highly recommend getting a yearlong subscription to UW. For the dedicated study period, I re-did everything in random blocks of 44, and then read every single explanation, even the ones that I got right. I felt reading correct explanations help reinforce knowledge and build intuition (see below), so definitely don't skimp - you already paid for the qbank so why not get the most out of it? I also started a giant spreadsheet on Google drive sorted by discipline and I typed 1 learning point for each question that I got incorrect and any learning points from the explanations of the questions I got correct (I usually didn't have too many learning points from the correct questions because I didn't want to overload the spreadsheet). Still, this sheet was massive at the end. I read through the entire sheet 2 times the 2 days before the exam.
MTB 2 - This is a great book. I went through it 1.5 times (wanted to do 2 full reads but ran out of time). If I could do it over again, I would start MTB earlier and maybe take a peek at MTB 3. In my score report, I was off to the right for medicine (thanks to MTB!) but more mediocre in the other disciplines, and I think MTB 3 may have helped.
Secrets - I read this slowly between week 3-4, and then rapidly in week 6. I don't think the last read did very much for me, honestly, but there are a lot of pearls for the mediocre test taker, so I would not skimp on this either. It's actually pretty entertaining to read since it moves so quickly from bullet point to bullet point. I would not start this too early either though because it's more of a review source on a foundation, rather than a strict foundation building text (like MTB is more of).
Kaplan Qbook - this book is not often mentioned but I actually liked it a lot. Yes, the questions are a bit esoteric at times but I felt this was a good subject-based review. I would use this in the early stages of prep when I didn't want to exhaust too many quality UW questions. I felt this was a good source to build endurance and just crank through a lot of questions - a valuable skill on test day! Also, this book is offline so I often did it in cafes or on flights/trains where there is no internet. Works great!
That's honestly it! I had step up to CK and honestly didn't even open it. Don't overwhelm yourself with too many resources.
A few other comments about the test itself (from the mediocre test taker's standpoint):
The test is long. Really long. I don't think anything can really adequately prepare you for the sheer length of the thing. You have to be on your toes the entire exam otherwise you will soon find yourself randomly guessing on 3-5 questions at the end of each block. Thus, it's almost impossible to go back and check your answers (like it was for Step 1). Therefore, your question-answering "intuition" really comes into play. It's actually really smart of NBME to make the test the way it is because at the core of it, you're being distinguished based on how often you choose the right choice in that one split second. Therefore, in order to do this you need to have a sound knowledge base and honestly just crank through as many questions as you can to build up that "gut feeling." Really, that makes all the difference in this exam.
I learned my lesson in under-prepping for step 1, but I'm proud that I recovered somewhat on Step 2. Do I hope for more? Sure! But I'm just really glad that the 6 weeks haven't been in vain - and if you have a low score on step 1, you can achieve a big improvement too.
ps. If you have access to the national percentiles on the shelf (should be sent to your medical school administrator with the summary of scores), that is probably the best predictor. My final score (slightly below national average) is pretty much what I've been getting in final shelves of the year (just south of 50th percentile).
