NBME 2 with two months left of 2nd year (school made us take it): 214
NBME 11 with 10 days to go: 250
Actual Step 1 Score: 258/99
For any one who hasn't yet experienced on the 'joy' that is 2nd year and step 1 studying.....
I studied for 5 weeks and just used was First Aid and USMLEworld. I learned a section or two in first aid, then did (and
reviewed until I understood) all of the corresponding Uworld questions. When I took NBME 11 ten days out from step 1 I had just finished going through first aid and uworld one time. So over the next 8 days I reviewed all of the uworld questions that I got wrong or marked (which combined was about 600). Then over the last two days I just flew through first aid again to skim over everything and did some biostats uworld questions to remember those little boxes and formulas and whatever. Also for 3 days leading up to the exam, I did 1 block from the free 150 on each day and really tried to pay attention to how the questions were written. Uworld is awesome but the NBME questions are different, and I feel like I had to switch modes to adjust to NBME. I feel like the last 2 days of first aid fly through and (mostly, except for biostats) stopping uworld and getting into NBME mode (and sleeping and relaxing more) earned me those last 8 points over my predicted 250 from NBME 11.
As I went through first aid or uworld, if I didn't understand a term or concept I just googled it and wiki'd my way into enlightenment.
I tried to rewrite/take notes on stuff as little as possible. It takes up a lot of time. I didn't copy uworld notes down into first aid, instead I spent that time learning it. If I thought the question had material that I needed to come back to later, I marked it and came back to it again later, and again if I needed to.
Even just going through First aid and Uworld basically once took the whole 5 weeks with not a whole lot going on other than studying. Those two resources are more than enough. I didn't do any real dedicated boards studying during school, but during second year I listened to Goljan material and read First Aid that matched up with whatever we were doing in class, which definitely helped to understand class material.
Studying more wouldn't have netted me any more questions. And I was totally spent by the end. I don't know how you 2-3 monthers do it. You must have brains of steel.
Congrats to all! 188 = Doctor, and we all (should) know that none of us are going to remember all this random stuff in a few years (or for me it was gone in minutes
) and what will is make us great doctors is if we care about our patients and love what we end up doing! Best of luck!
