Knowing which specialty you are interested in can be helpful to determine how high your step 1 score should be to avoid having trouble getting interviews.
You have to decide which score you pretend to get, or at least the minimum score so all your effort makes sense, and how much time you can and want to invest for that quest. This may be the most important step to make your study plan. This way you can more effectively evaluate your progress during the process and predict more accurately when you are going to be ready to take the exam. I personally didn’t do this, but I would definitely do it had I prepare this exam again. If you can avoid getting frustrated by an almost certain low score, it can give you really useful information about where you are starting to study from and maybe which specific areas deserve the most of your attention. Next, I will summarize in a list the best pieces of advice I found over the internet and some others that I could come up with during the study process:įirstly, it is a good idea to take an initial diagnostic test (it could be Kaplan’s Diagnostic Test, which comes with the 12 months subscription, or USMLE World’s Self Assesment 1 and/or 2). I personally followed the ZumZum Method (the single best study plan that I found most suited for me) and couldn’t keep up with it, but it was the base from which I ended up making my own plan, with some additional improvisation, for what I will be always grateful with Dr. This is important to know to avoid getting frustrated halfway when we can’t watch all Kaplan videos, read First Aid 4 times or repeat the whole USMLE World bank. These “keys” are widely spread through the internet in many sites and forums, including this one, of course, but I will try to simplify and summarize them here to make things easier for those aiming to this tough but perfectly possible target.īefore telling which set of books and other materials I did use, I’d like to highlight that our goal is not to use a lot of different materials or to end up reading some books over and over some X number of times (eg: First Aid) but to get the highest mark as possible in the real exam, and we can achieve that in more than one single way. I got my score a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to share the methods I used, basically because reading other’s people advice and experiences was tremendously helpful for my preparation and I would like to do the same for others.įirst of all, I think that it’s important to know that we might be very different people with different thoughts, styles, weaknesses, strengths, prejudices, academic preparation, time available and even different IQs, but there are some general concepts and “rules” that I consider that can be useful for everyone trying to get a high score in step 1. Hi everybody! My name is Nicolas, I graduated last year in Argentina and spent it studying for the step 1.