In a little less than six months from now I will be taking the biggest test of my life: USMLE Step 1. Not only is it an 8-hour mental marathon, but also a huge deciding factor in residency applications. Residency programs typically have Step 1 score cutoffs that they do not interview below, so getting a high step 1 score is definitely favorable regardless of what specialty you choose.

USMLE Step 1 Basics:

- 7 question sets of 46 questions each; 1 hour for each question set

- 1 hour of break time total

- Much longer question stems than our med school tests & require multiple steps of reasoning/knowledge PER question

- Did I mention it’s the most important exam of my medical career?

The preparation for Step 1 begins the first day of med school. And though I didn’t  go out and start memorizing First Aid right away, I did study for all of my blocks with the intention of retaining that material. Now that it’s the second semester of MS2 I’ve been getting opinions from residents and third / fourth years into what worked best for them. Nevertheless, I know that I don’t do well when I strictly follow someone else’s study schedule - I have to make my own! This Saturday I took an NMBE practice exam that my school requires in January, and again in April to assess performance and improvement in each class. Approximately 99% of people (out of a 112 person class) fail the first practice test since no one has really studied. I got an approximate step 1 score of 164 - yes, I know scores are often “taboo” to share but I really don’t care. I’m pretty happy with my initial score because it’s better than most of my classmates and also gives me motivation to improve! Also, our school’s average is approximately an 80-100 point improvement by the time we actually take step 1 - so that’s pretty exciting!

After taking inventory of all of the resources available for step 1 studying I’ve decided to a pick a few that have worked best for me so far. (I’m not sponsored by any of these, just want to share in case it helps anyone!)

1. Firecracker*. What can be said about Firecracker besides the fact that it’s the best thing I’ve ever used for long-term memory? I’ve never been a “flashcard” person but the fact that I don’t have to make my own and everything is ready to go for me on Firecracker really drew me in. I’ve been using it pretty consistently since the end of MS1, doing approximately 50-120 questions per day. I plan on having all 2,081 topics flagged and reviewed at least a few times by mid-April, so that my "dedicated study weeks” will be strictly review.

2. Picmonic*. I love picmonic. At first I was skeptical of looking at crazy pictures with narratives and medical knowledge all in one, but this is the only way that I’ve learned all micro + pharmacology. It has also been great for biochemistry. Plus, Picmonic was actually created by students at my school so it’s even more awesome, obviously.

3. Pathoma. Besides Dr. Sattar’s extremely soothing voice (lol!), Pathoma is an incredible resource for learning important pathology and the associated physiology in an efficient, comprehensive way. I’ve used Pathoma for every block in med school and will continue to review it as I go into board studying.

4. UWorld Qbank. I just bought Qbank earlier this week and have done a few dozen questions so far. It was pretty expensive compared to the other resources but the general consensus is that it's worth it. I really like the explanations at the end of each question set. There are 2,000 questions that I plan on going through once before April. And then at least 1.5 more times before taking the test in June.

It's hard to narrow down which resources work for you but in the end I feel confident using the ones I mentioned above. The one thing no one ever mentioned was HOW EXPENSIVE all of the resources would be. I digress. I have approximately 15 weeks until my dedicated board study period begins, at which point I will become a recluse that will likely not see daylight during the weeks leading up to my test date. But until then I’m going to focus on going through the material at least once while balancing these last two blocks of the MS2 curriculum. These are the most dreaded six months for some, but I’m pretty excited. Plus, this week I'll be meeting with one of my school's "Learning Specialists"

In the next post I’ll discuss my premed/undergrad career and what I would have done differently! Till then, here's a picture of Melo - he's not really a morning person. :)

* [For you premeds out there, they now have an MCAT program!]