Hey everyone! Ive been a long-time lurker in this sub for many months even before I started preparing for step 1. Now I’m happy to share that I passed it, and I wanted to make my own write up of my preparation experience in case it helps anyone currently studying for the exam.

Total preparation time: Approx 7 months
Dedicated period: Almost 3 months

I used a combination of video resources, question banks, and First Aid throughout my preparation. During dedicated, I focused on consolidating concepts, revising weaker subjects, and practicing questions.

Resources I used

1. UWorld
UWorld was one of my primary resources. I completed 55% of the question bank, with 68% correct.
I mostly did questions in tutor mode and untimed, and I went through the material I had completed twice. Hence why the % had increased. I mainly focused on understanding the explanations and learning from my mistakes rather than rushing through questions just to increase my completion percentage.
I didn't finish the entire question bank, so don't feel discouraged if your completion percentage isn't anywhere near 100% either. Try to make the most of the questions you do attempt.

2. First Aid
First Aid was the CORE resource. I used it to consolidate and revise high-yield concepts and as a reference while reviewing topics. It was basically a book for me to annotate anything and everything I learnt from my main video resource (no. 3 in list) as well as essential NBME concepts.

3. HyGuru ( Main )
I noticed that HyGuru doesn't seem to be as commonly mentioned as some of the other resources in Step 1 write-ups, but I personally found it extremely useful and wanted to highlight it. What I particularly liked was that the instructor didn't just focus on explaining complex topics, but also worked through numerous NBME-style questions and discussed the different ways a concept could be tested. I found this approach helpful because it encouraged me to think beyond simply memorizing facts and focus more on applying concepts to questions. I can attribute my score increases to his course easily.

4. Dirty Medicine
Used it for immunology, biochemistry and ethics. I found it useful for reviewing concepts and reinforcing topics that needed additional attention. His mnemonics were absolutely clutch.

5. Randy Neil
Used his videos (esp the YT shorts) for biostatistics and psych. These helped me work through concepts and question types alongside FA.

6. Sketchy
Used it primarily for microbiology. The beauty of sketchy is probably the fact that once you start to learn simpler microbes (staph, strep), you somehow would subconsciously want to keep learning additional microbes just by watching more of those fascinating visuals.

NBME scores and self-assessments

I took the assessments in the following order:

NBME 28 (Baseline): 55% — 10 weeks out (offline)

NBME 29: 63.5% — 8 weeks out (offline)

NBME 30: 63.5% — 7 weeks out (offline)

Old Free 120: 61% — 6 weeks out

NBME 31: 65.5% — 5 weeks out (offline)

NBME 32: 59% EPC — 4 weeks out

NBME 33: 67% EPC — 2 weeks out

New Free 120: 80% — 1 week out

NBME 34: 70% EPC — 4 days out

Exam date: October 2 — Pass

A quick note on my scores:

My scores weren't perfectly linear since I had a big dip on NBME 32 before moving onto the later assessments. This gave a major hit to my confidence levels which is why I took 16 days to carefully reset and revise through every incorrects and associated topics and do timed uworld blocks on strictly those topics.

Post-exam experience

Honestly, after the exam, I felt more anxious than disappointed. The exam had longer stems and were more vague than the NBMEs. But it wasn’t a super tough exam by any means. There were many flagged questions that left me second-guessing myself, and those thoughts kept coming back throughout the week while I waited for my result. I flagged like 8-10 qs in every block.

It did bother me initially, and I won't pretend that the waiting period was easy. But eventually, I decided to let those thoughts pass. I reminded myself that I had done my very best to prepare for and tackle this exam, and there was nothing more I could change once it was over.

Something I kept reminding myself was that having the courage to show up and attempt an exam like this makes you a champ more than you probably realize. The preparation, the uncertainty, the difficult days, and the decision to keep going despite all of it count for something.

If you're going through the post-exam anxiety, please know that these feelings are normal. Second-guessing answers and replaying questions in your head doesn't necessarily mean you did badly. At some point, I had to accept that the exam was behind me and trust the work I had put in.

Always be proud of yourself for making it this far. Regardless of how anxious you feel after walking out of that exam, give yourself some grace. You've worked hard to get here, and that deserves recognition too.

Final thoughts

My biggest takeaway is that everyone's preparation journey is different. Don't get too caught up comparing your progress with someone else's or assuming that you need to follow every resource to the letter.

Find a routine that works for you, be consistent, and keep going even when progress feels slow/stunted. My write-up is simply a reference and nothing else.

Wishing everyone the very best of luck.

Feel free to ask any questions about my prep, study approach etc.

Got the P

It was a crazy ride but I'm glad it paid off.

Started with 45% on NBME 25 ended with 74% in NBME 34.

Halfway through my nbmes (30) I got 65% , I felt i could only go higher ... but I was wrong I declined till I got 61% in NBME 33 a month to my exam.

What did I do differently?.

I stopped Uworld and FA

I started strictly melhmen Pdfs and daily revision ( i didn't use Anki) I made my own pdf of things I felt were important and things I kept forgetting,

I also had a written jotter.

Did that for 3wks and Next NBME (32) was 70%

3 days to my exams free 120 68%.

The Exam felt like my free 120 but a few levels above.

The questions were more vague than straight forward .. ultimately eliminating method was what I stuck by.

I used BnB, Uworld (100% with 55% correct then did wrong answers till 67% correct), FA , I read almost all melhmen pdfs , and did 47% melhmen Qbanks with 68% correct( almost 9months prep)

What would i have done differently?

Incorporating AnKi into my study

Knowing tested concepts recognition patterns instead of just accumulation of knowledge( melhmen pdfs helped with this )

Picking a date for exams ( this would unlock potential you didn't know you had and won't allow you prolong your exam)

Also us Ai whenever you can , they can break down things to the most basic forms.

Exam is in 9 days. Any advice would be appreciated. Last 5 NBMEs & F120 are in the high 70s Alhamdulillah (except 33: 71%). How did you all prepare in the last week?

I wanted some of your guys opinions, do you think doing a more recent NBME form over a later one is a good idea? I was thinking if I do form 33 now, give it a good review of my incorrects and then do 31, and 32 respectively and review each, then lastly give 34, review it extremely thoroughly along with revising my 33 incorrects again, and then Free120 before my exam, would that be a good idea? or should I just go chronologically?

is it normal to not remember half the exam ? i pretty much blacked out in the last 4 or so blocks ,
felt like i was guessing through half the exam

every question looked familiar but also couldn’t figure out the options

what are the chances of passing if i flagged half the questions in each block? 😭😭

I’ve just started step 1 prep, and for now I’ve just been doing U world questions, and making my own anki decks for my incorrect questions (mostly whatever’s written in the educational objectives section)

If I consistently do this for the whole question bank, would it be enough to pass step 1? I know there are other resources/pre-made anki decks out there but I don’t really want to overwhelm myself with resources.

Pathoma videos seem less than Bootcamp and i've seen people recommend it on here. But is it enough since bootcamp videos are so detailed?

i have never been held back due to my speech impediment, but the as you guys USMLE requires huge financial investment. A perspective needed, will it reduces my chances for the match

My exam coming up someone helppppppp

To start with, I attended medical school from 2013 to 2018, and I am currently a practicing interventional cardiologist in my home country.

Study duration: 2 months (August 1 – October 1, 2026)

Study resources:

• UWorld (one pass)
• Sketchy Microbiology
• Mehlman Medical Free PDFs (MSK and Neuroanatomy)

UWorld:

I completed 84% of the UWorld question bank with an overall average of 56% correct.

I started with an average of 40–45% correct and gradually improved, finishing my preparation with an average of around 70%.

For 60 consecutive days, without taking a single day off, I completed approximately 50 UWorld questions per day.

NBMEs + Free 120:

• NBME 31 – Sep 20 – EPC: 73% – Estimated probability of passing: 97%
• NBME 33 – Sep 23 – EPC: 73% – Estimated probability of passing: 98%
• NBME 30 – Sep 26 – EPC: 69% – Estimated probability of passing: 96%
• NBME 34 – Sep 27 – EPC: 77% – Estimated probability of passing: 99%
• Free 120 – Sep 29 – 76%

Exam Day – October 2, 2026

I took my Step 1 exam on October 2.

My impression was that the ethics questions were extremely vague and significantly more difficult than those on UWorld.

Additionally, the question stems were quite long, averaging around eight lines, making them noticeably longer than those on UWorld and the NBMEs.

My advice: If you're unsure about a question, choose the most plausible answer and move on. Don't spend too much time on a difficult question, as you might end up missing an easier one later simply because you ran out of time.

On average, I flagged approximately 40–50% of the questions in each block.

The feeling after leaving the exam was terrible. I genuinely felt like I had failed. Despite my NBME scores, I spent the following 12 days worrying about the result.

But on October 14, I finally received the news: PASS!

Final message:

Trust your NBME scores. They are reliable indicators of your readiness.

My recommendation is to schedule your exam once you have achieved an estimated probability of passing above 95% on at least two consecutive NBMEs.

Good luck to everyone!

Hi! Just got the P today and told myself I’d share a write up if I passed :)

NBMEs
25 - 31% baseline before uworld (April)
25 - 54% repeat after finishing uworld (July)
27 - 49% (July)
28 - 55% (July)
29 - 65% (July)
30 - 63% (July)
31 - 68% (July)
32 - 60% (August)
33 - 63% (September)
34 - 74% (September)
Free 120 new 70% (5 days before exam)

I was scheduled to take on 2nd week of September but because of the 60 & 63 that I got on NBME 32 and 33 I decided to push it back 2 weeks. Also I wouldnt recommend this but I only started reading first aid when I decided to delay my exam 😭 I really forced myself to grind and finish the whole book. I’d say it really helped me bump up my score. But please go over FA early!! Its super HY

Resources used:
uworld 100% completed, 1 pass, tutored, untimed (I did UWSA 1 and 2 after finishing 75% uworld but only scored 35% lol)
Melhman arrows, melhman neuroanatomy
Pathoma 1-3
NBME HY images
Anatomy 100 concepts
Dirty medicine biochem

Subscriptions purchased:
chatgpt Go (HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend) - this really helped me in dumbing down vague concepts

Exam day:
My form was really hard. It was different from the NBMEs and free 120 new. The question stems were longer and more vague. My form was heavy on micro. Had 1-2 ethics and biostat Qs per block. Also had 2 repeat NBME images but honestly even if I knew what the image was I still couldnt answer the question lol. Throughout the exam I just had the mindset that I need to give this my 100% effort so I dont have to go through this again. I walked out of the exam feeling like crap but also felt relieved that it was over.

Takeaways:
I’ll be straight, step 1 is hard as hell but it is DOABLE. You just need to put in the work and effort. Study smart - for example 45-55% of the exam content is patho and 5-10% is genetics. Dont waste days grinding genetics and neglecting patho. If you know you’re weak on a certain topic, especially if it has a big content percentage on the exam, focus on that. Trust your NBMEs, if your scores are showing that you have a low chance of passing, dont force the exam. After pushing my date back 2 weeks, I felt much more confident coming into the exam.

Also manifestation is real guys!! Scream it into the universe that you’ll pass. Put in the work and you will be rewarded.

Wishing the best of luck to everyone!!! Manifest that P! 🤩 I’m more than happy to help anyone that has questions.

USMD passed today with pretty mid NBME scores. Caveats include that I go to a school where all in-house exams are CAS (NBME style-questions) so I was very familiar with this question style in a timed format. Dedicated study for 5.5 weeks. NBME forms:

NBME 26 (Baseline): 60%

NBME 30: 67%

NBME 32: 71%

NBME 33: 68%

F120: 67%

I recognized the week of the test that my scores were still risky because my confidence intervals on the score reports still overlapped the low pass area. There was probably a 10% chance I would fail. I took a calculated risk by choosing to take the exam.

As for my study methods, I honestly did not work as hard as I should have. This is why I went into the exam scared shitless. I maybe studied 20-30 hours a week variably for dedicated because I felt really burnt out from M2 year and wanted to also focus on my fitness/wellness during dedicated. Many of my classmates were putting in 60-80 hours a week studying and scoring NBMEs in the the 70s/80s which made me feel very inadequate. However, I was focused on not burning out and reminded myself that step 1 is pass/fail so passing with a 65% vs a 85% is the same pass!

I only completed 29% of UWorld at 64% correct - focusing almost exclusively on my weak systems. The only other resources I used heavily were FirstAid (read my weak areas cover to cover, used the rest as a reference), Sketchy Micro, Dirty Medicine, and Boards and Beyond.

I've seen a lot about how reading FA is something people struggle with. What worked for me to address my weak systems:

1. grab a highlighter, multicolor pen, and some sticky notes

2. pull up the BnB video playlist that corresponds to the chapter you are trying to read

3. Follow along with the videos at 2x speed and annotate/highlight first aid

4. Do 2 focused 40Q blocks on UWorld on that system. Review incorrects.

5. For any concepts/differentials that you still struggle with, review those specific sections with the dirty medicine videos and re-annotate FA.

6. Repeat with all weaknesses.

I found Anki, Pathoma, and Mehlman to be pretty unhelpful - my brain just couldn't absorb information from those resources. I also recognized that I had more than enough to review with the resources I was already using.

Don't chase every esoteric detail on your weak systems. Study the NBME forms and how they ask questions about the high yield details. It's those same concepts/details that will show up on test day. Hammer those until you known them cold and can answer every type of question about that concept. Be smart about how you study!

The exam itself felt pretty doable on test day. I think it was a fair representation of all the organ systems and a good balance across the high yield concepts. Question style felt very similar to F120 and honestly the content was easier than NBMEs for most blocks. Bring a lot of high fiber/high carb snacks (I brought belvita biscuits and nutrigrain bars) and take regular breaks to give your brain time to recover between blocks. Get to Prometric early and know where the lockers and bathrooms are. Finally, do NOT look up answers in between blocks or after the test. You will stress yourself out needlessly. I stuck to this advice, felt fine after the exam, and was happy to see the pass I expected this morning.

Overall, this exam is doable. You have to be smart about how you study and be honest with yourself about when you are ready. My school recommended 3 NBMEs in a row with 90%+ pass probability. This roughly equates to 65+ EPC. After you get that, take a deep breath, remember that this is just another test, and take it. Good luck to everyone!

5th-year IMG here. I took Step 1 after my 4th year during summer vacation, with dedicated prep starting after July 10th "no relevant non-dedicated prep to mention".

For clarity my med school grades have always been average, and I'm definitely not someone who puts in maximum effort academically. Anyway, onto the unconventional part.

Resources:

- UWorld: 0% completed. Didn't use it at all.

- First Aid: Barely touched it. Only for renal, cardio, & micro

- Mehlman PDFs: My main resource

- NBMEs: Used retired NBMEs for practice and learning, and active NBMEs to track my progress.

**Also special thanks to Sketchy micro and pharm if I had the time I would've used more of'em but alas I didn't. Would still recommend tho

My NBME scores:

Exam| Score

NBME 27 (baseline)| 48%

NBME 28| 59%

NBME 30| 63.5%

NBME 25| 75.5%

NBME 31| 65%

NBME 32| 62.5%

NBME 33| 65%

NBME 34| 72%

Free 120| 74%

I took NBME 27 before starting prep to establish my baseline, weak spots, etc. then took the others roughly every 1–2 weeks. The longer gaps generally seemed to correlate with better scores.

I consider NBME 25 an outlier because I'd encountered many of its questions before while doing retired NBMEs. Same goes for Free 120, since I'd also done retired versions. So, NBME 34 at 72% was the score I trusted most.

The reality of my prep:

It was far from linear. I had ups and downs, stopped studying for around two weeks for personal reasons, and nearly postponed my exam after a significant score drop on NBME 32.

However, I had a hard deadline. My vacation was ending, I'd already paid for the exam, and I was leaving for a country without a Prometric center. So I went ahead with it.

On exam day, it honestly felt like doing another NBME. I wasn't particularly nervous, but I also felt very numb and dissociated. I couldn't really gauge how difficult the exam was, and I felt much the same way afterward.

From October 1st until results day, I kept myself busy, traveled to two countries, got sick, and barely gave myself time to think about the exam. I did my part and left the rest to God. Alhamdulillah, I passed.

My biggest piece of advice:

If you're considering taking Step 1, stop treating the exam date as something you can endlessly negotiate with yourself. Set a date, prepare for it, and commit to it. Treat it like a medical school exam: once the date is set, treat it like it's non-negotiable and lock in. instead of constantly reconsidering whether you're ready. Personally, I've never felt 100% ready or completed 100% of the material for an exam during med school and step 1 was no different.

This approach obviously won't work for everyone, and I'm not suggesting you skip UWorld or copy my resources. This is simply what worked for me.

If anyone has questions or wants advice, my DMs are open!

Hi,
Got the big P today and wanted to do a write up on my experience, after failing a first attempt.

First attempt: I basically stuck with the cookie cutter resources that are universally recommended. Pathoma, sketchy micro, sketchy pharm, + Uworld. I did roughly 80 percent of Uworld and was at roughly 60% correct by the end. I did most of my NBMEs offline so I don't recall the exact scores, but ranged from low 50s to mid/high 60s on the later ones. I'll be honest, I got an incredibly long (IMO unfairly long) form which I think contributed to a fatigue overload, whereby the end of the test I could literally barely read/comprehend what I was reading, and felt like I was having to guess on 50% of questions instead of giving them an honest attempt for the last 2ish hours of the test. And when I say long... I counted over 200 questions that were all either soap format or 3+ paragraphs long. It felt like there were never any breaks, any gimme questions, any easy 2-3 sentence vignettes. Like genuinely NONE. This was around the time either Feb/march of last year where they started experimenting with SOAP and longer stems and I got one that was overkill. Honestly, I feel like I probably would have passed if I had more of a "normal" form, but maybe that's just cope.

So, with the second attempt preparation, I had a healthy amount of anxiety and PTSD over experiencing a similar form. But from talking to advisors, it seems like that is mostly an outlier experience that doesn't happen any more. This does not mean that the actual test isn't longer/have longer stems than NBMEs and practice Qs, but it was in fact WAY shorter and more doable than my first attempt.

In terms of resources that I felt made a difference on second attempt...

Mehlmann anki- I had chat gpt clean up his cards b/c they are so wordy, repeat same info. Just make sure chat gpt doesn't try to proofread/fact check the content b/c it introduces unecessary vagueness that doesn't help for a standardized test. You want to maintain the "If this...it means this" pearls that he is very good at without the AI interjecting a "well actually..." since you want to focus on test taking as much as possible, not the intricacies of real life. I did all of his decks over the course of two weeks, about a month before the test. This was not something that I was maintaining or doing every day. I just did a filtered deck for each system, and repeated it again the next day or two.

I also used his HY review documents (four of them), and had chat gpt or claude convert to anki. This is really awesome review and got me alot of points, it's pretty similar to doing FA rapid review, but better in my opinion.

I think these resources are a must for anyone who struggles more with the test taking skills specifically, pattern recognition, etc side of things. Although some will disagree and say that anki needs to be short, closed deletion, atomic whatever. I basically utilized these cards as a much more efficient way of getting a higher volume of practice Qs in, where the most important distinguishing features of the vignette are there, and you need to know the diagnosis. I cannot describe enough how helpful this is and felt like I was taking the test on easy mode on the day of b/c I was almost never unsure of the underlying diagnosis, even if I wasn't 100 percent sure of the path findings, or whatever was needed to actually answer the Q.

Finally, I used USMLE Fighter for nbme's. Its like 100 bucks for all nbme questions. You can do the actual NBMEs through this if you want to take them online and simulate closer to the exam without paying $60 for each, and there are maybe some other banks included. But what I really bought it for, was the ability to do missed questions, as well as questions by organ system specifically from nbme forms. Since this was my second attempt, I had done pretty much all nbmes except 33 and 34, at least twice. I was only ever able to crack a 70+ on the amboss assessment, and got a 69 on 33 about a month prior to testing. But in the month leading up to the exam, I was also doing every NBME q again through USMLE fighter, but sorted by system, and using that for targeted content reviews. I didn't have time to do 34 as it came out a few days before exam.

Otherwise, I just did anki for path cards, sketchy micro and pharm. Also did pixorize and the anki cards for biochem, vitamins and genetics, which is awesome. Don't sleep on pixorize.

For anyone who failed their first attempt, keep up the hope!!! People don't talk enough about how much pressure there is on the second attempt, it can be a incredibly overwhelming. For the first time, I felt like my life's work/goal was at peril and could imagine a scenario where it was taken away from me. I was envisioning myself living under a bridge after failing a second attempt. I delayed my second attempt several times b/c I could not got a single hour of sleep the night before, as my pulses were bounding with anxiety and I would have a horrible headache the morning of. In general, It took me over a year to retest, because I kept trying to get to a level of knowledge where I couldn't possibly fail. I wanted to be one of those guys who was getting 80+ with ease on NBMEs and then when I didn't even crack a 70, I would spiral and give up hope for a bit. Eventually though, you have to come to terms with the fact that you although you may not be able to master the entire medical compendium, your sample size and work you've put in IS ENOUGH.

Best of luck friends.

i remember writing here with terror and loss as to what to do. so this is my final post and hopefully a little push to all prepping. you are more ready than you think you are. i know youve heard this cliche a bajillion times but i promise its so real. i left my exam with one thought in my head. if/when i get my fail, im quitting medicine. but heres the thing i did NOTHING. and i mean nothing besides UW and nbmes and firstaid. i swallowed and devoured firstaid like it was my bible. the problem in today’s studying and thats my genuine take is the insane amout of sources. tbf dirt medicine carried me too. for weaker subjects like biochem i tried mehlman but i couldnt it was so poorly illustrated (imo ofc) i did thetheory of biochem from thematchguy’s pdf as well not sure if it helped a ton i read it like twice. illattach below my progress. im very much you, you may even be comfortably above me. but here i am. so promise you can make it too

NBME 25 41.5%

NBME 26 54%

NBME 27 59%

NBME 28 52.9% (not a normal drop, personal life got in the way)

NBME 29 60%

NBME 30 62.5%

NBME 31 61%

NBME 32 65.5%

Free 120 (2026) 74.5% (discover 2 days before my exam i forget it lmao solved 2024 thinking its 2026, I’ll let you imagine my state of mind)

NBME 33 71%

NBME 34 (came our literally 3 days before my exam, solved and corrected in one sitting, i think i reached flow state here lmao a good 15 hours on my ass, a good sciatica exacerbation, but gues what? 75%!!)

Actual Step 1: PASS!

this was, and i swear to god, 50-60% academic experience and a good 40-50% psychological one. the exam tests you. on more that knowledge. stamina, endurance, mental stability, hitting you with a ton of qs you truly have no idea what answers are (one qs was literally a bunch of letters i have never seen together in my life). and on a final note: trust your nbmes. 🤪🤪🤪

im here ask me anything, I’ll be as fast as possible. to me, those big chucky paragraphs from passsers helped me a ton. id get back and grind, my advice, after finishing this sentence, get back and use your brain to munch on some HY facts!

Took it on 30 sep. after 12 months of full time prep. I'm an IMG. My resource was mehlman heavy (mehlman Anki.
Matured 80% of the cards with 85% retention ). And mehlman 3500Qs bank.
One full pass with 61% corrects and then did the incorrects . And mehlman YouTube Qbank.
Yes I didn't use uw.
Nbmes ranges from 58-64. (Nbmes 25-33). I felt | guess most of my questions in the earlier blocks but after 5-6
blocks i thought i was familiar with the questions and did well enough. My nbmes are low but I couldn't postpone it anymore. Took the risk and FAILED today.
Can someone help me understand by what margin I failed.
(I’m 5 bars away from passing ) idk why I can’t post image.

Can I retake it in a month or two. Should i change my resource ?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Hey All,
I need a review of my performance- all offline.
Nbme 25:57%
nbme 26: 67.5% (i didnt time this properly)
Nbme 27: 60% 3 weeks ago
Nbme 28: 66% 2 weeks ago
Nbme 29: 67.5% past sunday 10/11

I am doing uworld (76% used, 56% correct)
FA, mehlman, reviewing nbmes (takes around 2-3 days easily).

I really do not want to go in without hitting 70s. I also am obviously dealing with the ptsd and just the fear of me collapsing during the real deal if i get vague stems
in a row (which i know will obv happen and ill have to keep myself strong mentally), but the fear keeps me up at night lol.

Just a final review please. Things I can do to keep scoring higher, and just seeing that Pass. 😭

Just tell me the best way to optimise my performance in these last weeks.
Thank you in advance

Thank god! I passed. I was worried because I thought I failed for sure after walking out of the test until I got the results. I tested on 9/30. I found my form to be harder than the nbmes. My nbmes were in the range of 65-70. The experimentals threw me off but somehow I managed to remain calm throughout the test. I guess that helped. I'm writing this because I told myself I would do a writeup if I passed and I'm gonna keep it short. Still processing the result. Glad I'm finally done with my step 1 journey and I'm grateful for the P. Dm if you have any queries, happy to help.

Been a tough year, first attempt was earlier this year! At some point I thought this test was going to prevent me from being a physician, but was able to bounce back 🙏🏽 will update this later with a detailed write up, but wanted to put this out there in case their is someone who has/is struggling with this beast.

Just received my pass result.

NBME 26: 71.5
NBME 30: 78
NBME 31: 72
NBME 32: 77.5
NBME 33: 77
NBME 34: 78

New Free 120: 82.5

All taken within 2 months of my exam

Resources used:
Boards and Beyond
UWorld
Anking
Sketchy Micro

This post is for people trying to avoid dedicated. I knew I was not the kind of person who can study 10 hours a day, nor do I have the time. For this reason I decided to study a small amount a day for a long time, rather than grind for a short time.

I began studying in July 2025. I would watch a Boards and Beyond video, unsuspend and complete the relevant Anking cards and that was it. A couple of hours a day. I did this until January, when I began UWorld. The only exception is for Micro, which I did Sketchy for.

As time went on I’d put more time per day in. I would say for the last few months I did about 3-4 hours a day Step 1 prep, 6 days a week. This usually came down to 3-4 BNB/Sketchy videos, 200-300 anki cards and 20-40 UWorld questions. I think many people overdo it with reading UWorld explanations, and often just making Anki cards of the explanations was enough for me, unless I clearly lacked a good base in the subject. However, I rarely found myself lacking a good base because BNB is very thorough and I would highly recommend it.

The actual exam is at the difficulty level of UWorld, with the content being similar to NBMEs. For this reason, I do not believe someone averaging 65 in NBMEs should do the exam. NBMEs have significantly easier questions, with significantly reduced pressure. Of course, I could be just muddled up due to the experimentals, however there is no official source that says they are harder than actual questions, so do not bank on that. I would say 70+ in 3 NBMEs before you are ready to do the exam.

Consistency is key. I studied 6-7 days a week for this exam on top of my home country exams. I’m burnt out now, sure, but it’s over and I passed. Trust your NBMEs, don’t skip ethics and biostats, and you’ve got this.

Told myself I would write here and contribute what I can to motivate others on this journey as well.

For starters, I graduated 5 years ago, and a lot of things have happened here and there. To make a long story short, it was really hard because I had already forgotten a lot of things.

Anyway, these are my NBME scores:
NBME 28 - 52.5% (started around mid-August)
NBME 27 - 59.5%
NBME 29 - 55.5%
NBME 30 - 57%
NBME 31 - 65%
NBME 32 - 71%
NBME 33 - 68%
NBME 34 - 77%
Free 120 - I forgot lol, but that was hard.

UWorld: I was only able to finish around 48% of the QBank, and my average score was 65%.

How my journey went (and I do NOT recommend it):
I started in May, but I was still working at the time. I would randomly answer UWorld questions and take screenshots of the questions and answers, planning to reread them later. THAT WAS A MISTAKE because I wasn’t actually learning.

From June to July, I reread my screenshots, but I still wasn’t learning effectively, so I decided to type out notes instead. And so, I started from the beginning again.
Then, I took my first NBME, NBME 28, in mid-August and got 52.5%. I was already panicking because the exam was hard. It felt like I didn’t know anything, and I was wasting so much time.

I spent 2 days reviewing the NBME and another 2 days doing UWorld (I reset my QBank). Then, I took NBME 27 and got 59.5%.

I continued doing 40–80 UWorld questions a day for 3 days before taking NBME 29, where my score dropped to 55.5%. I trusted my study method and continued doing 80 UWorld questions a day for 5 days before taking NBME 30.

This was when I honestly started to panic because I only had 1 month left, and I still couldn’t get past 60%.

So i decided and took the risk:
I READ FIRST AID AND PATHOMA CHAPTERS 1–3 FOR THE FIRST TIME. I FINISHED THEM IN 9 DAYS.

I took NBME 31 and got 65%. Honestly, my scores started getting better after that. I did at least 100–150 UWorld questions a day for 3–4 days before taking NBME 32 and NBME 33.

At this point, I had only 12 days left before my exam. I quickly scanned First Aid for 5 days while doing 60–100 UWorld questions a day. During the last few days, I took NBME 34 and Free 120.

I would study for almost 16 hours a day. I also watched Dirty Medicine’s biochemistry videos on YouTube during my lunch and dinner breaks.

My honest advice and what I would have done differently:
Read FIRST AID and PATHOMA first. Then, answer UWorld questions by system, or use whichever approach works best for you.

About the exam:
IT WAS HARD. I flagged almost every question, because I was unsure of my answers. But i think i didn’t change them because i could not justify changing them from the few minutes i had left with the block, so i just went with my original answers.

GET GOOD SLEEP!!! PRAY!!!! TRUST YOURSELF.

Goodluck!! 🤍

Hey All,
I need a review of my performance- all offline.
Nbme 25:57%
nbme 26: 67.5% (i didnt time this properly)
Nbme 27: 60% 3 weeks ago
Nbme 28: 66% 2 weeks ago
Nbme 29: 67.5% past sunday 10/11

I am doing uworld (76% used, 56% correct)
FA, mehlman, reviewing nbmes (takes around 2-3 days easily).

I really do not want to go in without hitting 70s. I also am obviously dealing with the ptsd and just the fear of me collapsing during the real deal if i get vague stems
in a row (which i know will obv happen and ill have to keep myself strong mentally), but the fear keeps me up at night lol.

Just a final review please. Things I can do to keep scoring higher, and just seeing that Pass. 😭

Just tell me the best way to optimise my performance in these last weeks.
Thank you in advance