step 1 experiences :by Chad

I'm an IMG and I just received my score..very happy!
I thought I would give advice I wish I had been given before I started studying.For those who haven't started studying this is a rough outline of how I would prepare:
1) 3-6 months prep depending on your current level e.g. if you know pathology, pharm microbio very well then 3 months..if not then nearer 6. Probably much lesstime needed if you go to medschool in US...
2) begin by going through A rated books in first aid (BRS path, physio etc..MAKING SURE YOU UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING-pure fact learning is useless as theexam tests understanding.
3)as you go through each subject:
a)ANNOTATE FIRST AID so you understand all the facts in it clearly - first aid on its own is not enough however when you come to your last 2-4 weeks of preparation the reading first aid over and over again is the most efficientway to prepare. Yuu want to be very familiar with first aid by the last month so you can be reviewing a whole subject in FA in one day.
b)the list of topics at the beginning of each chapter in first aidis very useful and try to cover these after your first read (not all the facts they say are important are actually in FA)
c)MAKE NOTE OF SUBJECTS YOU FIND CONCEPTUALLY DIFFICULT -this will be very useful when you come to look at a subject again because you can go straight to that topic.
I'll tell you why this is so important...revising for this examis tiring and can be boring. If you go to review a subjectand you do the topics you find difficult first by the end ofthe day when you have finished these and can be doing easiersubjects. I did not actually do this..but I wish I had. You don't want to be reading about anti-cancer drugs, epilepsy management,renal pathology when your tired!
d)Make sure you are strong in the areas which FA says are important e.g. microbio, autonomic pharm, endocrinology etc etc etc
4) after your first read of each subject I would do ALL the Board Simulator/medrevu.com questions by subject (not system) to reinforce the knowledge.In my opinion these questions are excellent for teaching but are not veryuseful for exam practice as overall they are too picky. I would subscribebecause the analysis is automatic.
5) having done the medrevu bank you should analyse weak areas. Don't wastetime going over things you understand well..FOCUS ON YOUR WEAK SUBJECTS using the analysis of your questions from medrevu and the notes you madeon your first read for more specific detals in particular subject areasTHIS IS CRITICAL IF YOUR WEAK AREA IS HIGH YIELD...I found it was the same subjects and topics I would be getting wrong over and over again. DON'T SPEND TOO MUCH TIME IF THE SUBJECT IS LOW YIELD BECAUSE THERE WILLPROBABLY BE ONLY ONE QUESTION ON THE EXAM AND YOU'LL PROBABLY GET IT WRONG!To get to this point will probably take you 1-4 months depending on how fast you are/your knowledge. From this point I would now focus on FA (all areas weak and strong) anduse kaplan qbank. You should have about 2 months left to prepare.Read a couple of subjects in FA over say 3 days e.g. microbio +behavioural science then do the qbank questions. Repeat this until you have completed all subjects in FA and all questions in q bank. This should take about a month. In the last month use your qbank analysisto focus on weakness and read FA as many times as you can. In the last month you want to be able to read a whole FA subject in a day (except path maybe!)Some more general points:-learn things from a clinical perspectivve. Your path must be strong because a USMLE favourite is describe a disease and then ask about the immuno, microbio, pharm etc. If you don't know your path youwill be a bit stuck.- don't waste time finding out what was in other people's exams because they are all different..FA is a much better guide for focusing your study.-don't compare your scores to other peopples because you don't know whatstage of preparation they are. Just focus on your own study and your score WILL gradually rise to what you want it to be.- do your practice exams at least a coupple of weeks or more beforethe real thing so there is a little bit of time to rectify. I wouldaim to be getting 70% and above in realistic exam standard questions(in my opinion kaplan simulator cd/usmle cd) in the last couple of weeks Remember there is no guarantee to success but I think if you'regetting above 70% in RANDOM TESTS you should do well.- of all the subjects I think anatomy iss the least important becausepotentially it has the largest volume but it seems most people don't get that many questions which are not covered in FA. Bare in mindeveryones exam seems different and everyone seems to get 'a bomb' -mine was molecular bio..sooo many questions. If your going to skim a subject let that subject be anatomy - from what I gather this isthe least likely subect they are going to ask a lot of questions from.-webpath is useful for path questions. -don't bother looking at too many histoppath pictures because most questions with slides you can answer without the picture!BARE IN MIND.....I DID NOT PREPARE THIS WELL! This is an improved versionof how I prepared. Alter this outline if it does not suit your own studypatterns but I think the general advice will be useful i.e. UNDERSTANDFA, DO LOTS OF QUESTIONS, FOCUS ON WEAK AREAS, DON'T GIVE UP!Scores:qbank 69% (1month before) USMLE CD 39, 40, 35, Kaplan simulator CD 73% (1week before)Books:BRS Path/Physio/beh science (BRS path is the best!), Microbio made simple (excellent), lipincott biochem/pharm, Immunology (some kaplan web demo!).
FA for all subjects!
If I think of anything else I will post it...
Good luck to everyone.