So I've been following this forum for a few weeks but I never posted but I thought that I would post my step 1 experience here for you guys. I was really nervous about the test, I almost had a real panic attack the night before but honestly the test isn't that bad. My school let out on the 21st of May so I had about 4 week to prepare. I used First Aid, UWorld bank, and a sprinkling of Kaplan here and there for supplementation. First thing I really have to say is that World questions overall are much harder than step 1. I was on my first block yesterday and was almost giddy at how much easier the Qs were. Don't get me wrong though, there are some scorchers on the test but they are used sparingly. First Aid is worth its weight in gold! I answered so many questions just with the little side bar info near the margins of the book. Word of advice, it is worth it to go over the drug side effects part of the pharm chapter in first aid, that answered at least 15 questions for me. Overall pharm is really easy too, no tricks, just straight forward and right out of first aid. I had very little physiology, seriously may 3 or 4 questions in total, which kinda sucked because I love physio. Biochem wasn't bad, I didn't have any DNA/RNA questions, just enzyme deficiencies. Path is everywhere, but so many of the questions just asked for a straight diagnosis or what would it look like histologically. I only had 2 glomerulonephritis questions. It felt like I had a lot of hematology but they were usually classic presentations with a lot of bogus choices with only 1 or 2 that made sense. All my friends said that they didn't have embryo on their test, so I didn't study it much, well that wasn't smart because I had about 5 or 6 qestions, 2 of them were asking about pharyngeal arch/pouch/groove stuff. Anatomy was good, the questions were tricky but the pics were very good. They all involved a CT/MRI/X-ray and then asked "what nerve/muscle is affected." The only thing I had to calculate was the mean of 9 separate numbers. There was a sensitivity question but the square and numbers were all set up and no calculation was needed. I also had 1 type1/type2 error Q.

For practice I did NBME 2 test, UWorld 1 and 2 tests. They are all really good practice. I thought the world tests were harder than NBME but I scored better on them, did anyone else to that too?

Sorry for the super long post but I thought you may enjoy hearing a lot about the test. I'll be happy to answer any questions. Goodluck everybody! Remember, we all have to do it, give it all you've got.

Hi Mabell

Did you take new format or old one?

I took the new format. It had 46 questions per block and the vignettes were noticeably longer. Even though they were longer you can skim over it quickly because most of it is just filler like normal BP, RR, BMI, etc. On most blocks I had plenty of time to finish and go over Qs I marked but I did almost run out of time on 2 blocks which was kinda scary.

NBME 2 3 weeks before exam 570/238
UWorld 1 2 weeks before exam 240 (don't remember the world number)
UWorld 2 1 week before exam 252 (again I don't remember the other number)

I did a lot of guessing on the world tests and I think I got really lucky. I don't know how well they correlate to the actually step 1 scores.
edited by mabell on 6/24/2010

Hey thanks! I'm not sure if I did that well on the actual exam but I hope so. I had path down very well because my school has an organ system based approach and it seems to solidify the material very well. Also I used Goljan Rapid Review throughout the year instead of Robbins...Robbins is too wordy.

hii,thx 4 tht all details which u give us.i just wan to knw tht if i will gve exam in end of july i will get aproximately same questions which u got or thy will change all questions?

Well each exam is different I think. Its possible you will get a few of the same questions, I actually had one of the questions from NBME 2 practice test on my boards. Another student taking step 1 at the same time as me at the same testing center had a different test from mine. When I was going on break I glanced over and saw he had an x-ray on his test that didn't come up on mine.

Hi,thanks for your information.i hope you get good score in your exam.
I have aquestion:
i am preparing for step 1 & i studied kaplan lectures with video for pathology with first aid.do you think is that enough for pathology?
and during exam will they give us a paper and pen or a noteboard to write on or not?I read somewhere they will give us a noteboard &market but somebody deny that.

Hey Mabell,

Congrats on being done! I wonder what it feels like, haha. I wanted to ask you for some clarification, this might be a stupid question but you wrote "First Aid is worth its weight in gold! I answered so many questions just with the little side bar info near the margins of the book." What do you mean by the little side bar info near the margins of the book? The Mnemonics? I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something. Thx, gluck with your score!

Hi,thanks for your information.i hope you get good score in your exam.
I have aquestion:
i am preparing for step 1 & i studied kaplan lectures with video for pathology with first aid.do you think is that enough for pathology?
and during exam will they give us a paper and pen or a noteboard to write on or not?I read somewhere they will give us a noteboard &market but somebody deny that.[/quote]

They gave me two note boards and two markers. I would rather have had paper and pencil because the marker wasn't fine enough to equations very easily, but I didn't really need equations for my test.

Also, I'm not sure how well the kaplan lectures are because I never used them and don't know anyone who did. First aid is great for pathology review and reinforcement but I really enjoyed rapid review pathology by Goljan.
edited by mabell on 6/28/2010

Thanks! yeah it feels great to be done. Yeah I was talking about a few of the mnemonics but also they have some tid bits of info every once in a while where the mnemonics usually are and they are very good.

Hi mabel
congrats on finishing this exam
please I need to contact you for asking about some things
my exam in 2 weeks . please I really need help
thanks

Hi mabell, you did 100% of the question in UW? and if did not, what you focus the most,,,thanks

Yes I did 100% of world. But I only did it once. Other I know did it multiple times but I thought that was a little too much. Got my score today and I was very pleased with it so World and first aid are the way to go.

Congrats mabel may I ask what is your score ?

Thank you very much....your explanation help a lot to skinning out my weaknesses and work on them, Congratulations again...