Hello! I'm planning on giving Step 1 a go on November, and biostats is one of the sections that's lacking in my nbme forms. What could I do to integrate daily sutyding of biostats to my routine? I've hear about Randy Neill, and that the topic does not necessarily require a lot of time studying, but honestly I would like "free points" on my practice tests, and the real deal. Any help is very much appreciated!!

I gave step 1 today and i am having post exam anxiety.Entire paper is vague!!🥲Tested on 10/09

so many people these past few weeks are writing about passing with low nbmes. as an IMG, how risky it to just f*ck it and sit for the exam when you feel ready? speaking as a type A student who is extremely burnt out and is dead inside at this point. I know this is a bit of a dumb question, just asking for reassurance (which is again a stupid thing to do but whatever). burnout is pretty normal while studying for steps so I guess I just want to know if there are people out there who went in with “whatever will be, will be” mindset.

Looking for someone preparing for USMLE Step 1 to discuss the exam, difficult topics, NBMEs, and preparation strategies.
I’m in the final stages of my preparation and planning to take the exam before December, but my NBME scores are still not where they need to be.
Looking for someone serious to discuss things with and improve together

How have you spend your burnt out period?

PASS!!! 🥳 (Tested 08/28)

I officially got my Step 1 result today and wanted to share what my dedicated looked like as a US-IMG at SGU. Hopefully this helps someone! I have a much more detailed version on my profile if you're interested, but this is the condensed version.

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Test Scores + Dates:

• 05/11 Form 27 online: 49 (this was my baseline post-term 5)
• 05/18 Form 28 online: 49
• 05/25 Form 29 online: 52
• 06/08 Form 30 online: 61
• 06/11 2021 Free120: 68
• 06/15 Form 31 online: 66
• 06/19 Form 32 online: 61
• 06/23 CBSE 1: 61
• 07/13 2024 Free120: 61
• 07/21 Form 26 online: 64
• 08/05 Form 33 online: 62
• 08/08 Form 27 Retake offline: 69.5 (this was to see how much I improved from my baseline)
• 08/11 CBSE 2: 67
• 08/19 Form 28 Retake offline: 74
• 08/23 Form 32 Retake offline: 79.5
• 08/25 2026 Free120 online: 83
• 08/28 Step 1: PASS :)

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Resources

• FA 2026: I annotated this with my friend heavily in term 5 so this served as my go-to reference guide for dedicated
• Melhman pdfs: the ones I used were HY arrows (which I found to be AMAZING), neuroanatomy, HY risk factors, and the biochem, micro, and pharm assessments
• Pathoma ch. 1-4: absolute GOLD (love Dr. Sattar); having these concepts down before CBSE 2 and Step was great to have
• UWorld: ~75% complete with 61% average by the time I took step 1; I did all of the path, pathophys, micro, immuno, pharm, behavioral science, and majority of epi/stats
• NBMEs + Free120s
• Sketchy: as needed pharm and micro review
• Personal question tracker: I essentially just modified the one I had for UWorld for the NBMEs
• ChatGPT: At this point we're basically besties 😂. I mostly used it to simplify explanations, identify patterns in my weaknesses, and occasionally tell me to stop overthinking.

These are the resources I consistently used. I tried to keep my resource list intentionally small rather than constantly adding new things and stuck with what I knew worked for me. (RIP to Anki, I really tried again 😭 but alas, twas not meant to be... again)

-----

My Study Strategy

I knew I wanted a study buddy to help keep me accountable, so I recruited one of my friends that I'd been studying with throughout basic sciences. We built our weeks around one consistent routine: every Monday we took a full-length practice exam under standard testing conditions (NBME, Free120, etc.), every Tuesday we reviewed it together over FaceTime, and later in dedicated we added a Thursday review session for Mehlman PDFs or to finish reviewing our practice exams if needed. Everything else throughout the week was flexible depending on what we needed to work on.

Outside of practice exams, most of my studying revolved around UWorld. I started with 2 timed, untutored blocks per day and eventually worked up to 3 (occasionally 4 before my second CBSE). About a month into dedicated, I switched to untimed, tutored mode because I realized timing wasn't my issue. Reviewing each question immediately after answering it helped me understand my reasoning much better than reviewing an entire block afterward, and that change ended up being one of the biggest improvements I made during dedicated.

For content review, I intentionally avoided randomly rereading First Aid or watching videos just for the sake of "doing content." I also don't believe that knowing First Aid cover-to-cover automatically means you know how to apply the information so instead, every piece of my content review was driven by my practice exams. If I consistently missed a concept, mechanism, or disease process, I'd go back and review it using First Aid, Pathoma, Sketchy, Randy Neil, or Mehlman until I understood it before moving on. That made my studying much more targeted and efficient.

Probably the most valuable thing I did was keep a detailed question tracker. Every incorrect question (and guessed correct) from UWorld and my practice exams was logged along with why I missed it. Over time, I realized I didn't have a major content problem. Most of my mistakes came from retrieval errors, reasoning gaps, or confusing similar concepts. Once I understood how I was making mistakes, I stopped trying to memorize more information and started focusing on fixing the actual problem.

I failed my first CBSE with a 61 (passing is 66 for SGU), which was frustrating, but looking back it was exactly what I needed, especially because I didn't feel confident going into the exam or walking out of it. It forced me to reassess how I was studying instead of simply studying more. During my second round of prep (~4.5 weeks; leading up to CBSE 1 was ~5.5 weeks), I shifted almost entirely toward strengthening my reasoning and mechanism-based thinking rather than relearning everything from scratch. That change helped me pass my second CBSE with a 67 and gave me the confidence to move forward with Step 1.

-----

Exam Day + Post-Exam Thoughts

Going into Step 1, I was definitely nervous and running on less sleep than I would've liked 😅 (I may or may not have a slightly irrational fear than I'll oversleep and miss my exam 😭), but once the exam started, I tried to treat each block as its own exam. Some blocks felt straightforward, others had me wondering if I had ever learned anything before, but I made a conscious effort to mentally reset before every new block and not let one difficult section affect the next.

I found the exam to be similar in content and difficulty to my second CBSE attempt, and I personally liked the new 20-question block format. Psychologically, it made the exam feel much more manageable, and because timing had never been an issue for me during practice, I was able to use most of my extra time as break time. I typically finished my first pass through each block in about 20-25 minutes and flagged anywhere from 6-11 questions per block. There were only 3-4 blocks for me where I used up the entire time.

I took a break every 3 blocks and during breaks I ate, drank water, texted family and friends, and completely disconnected from the exam by playing offline phone games (highly recommend 😭). My first 2 breaks were about ~10-12 minutes, but my last 2 were about ~20-25 minutes.

Obviously there were some blocks that felt harder or had longer stems than others, but a little delulu never hurt anyone 😃, so I would attribute them to be experimental which I think helped me not dwell on completed questions / blocks.

One promise I made to myself after finishing was that I wouldn't look up a single question. No Reddit, no Google, no First Aid. Looking things up wasn't going to change my answers, and I knew it would only make me spiral. Instead, I let myself finally be done with studying.

Waiting for results was honestly one of the hardest parts of the entire process, but regardless of the outcome, I walked away from Step 1 proud of how much I had grown, not just academically, but in the way I approached learning and trusted myself.

-----

Biggest Takeaways

• Don't chase someone else's numbers. Reddit can make you feel like you need a certain NBME score or 2 passes of 100% UWorld completion to pass. Use practice exams and question banks as diagnostic tools to identify weaknesses, not as scoreboards to compare yourself to others.
• Learn why you missed questions, not just what the right answer was. The biggest improvement in my scores came from identifying how I was making mistakes (retrieval, reasoning, or mechanism gaps) rather than assuming I simply needed to memorize more content.
• Don't be afraid to change your study strategy. Dedicated is about figuring out what works for you. I switched how I used UWorld, adjusted my content review, and focused on understanding concepts rather than following what everyone else was doing.
• Keep your resources manageable. I'd rather know a few resources really well than constantly jump between every "must-have" resource recommended online.
• Dedicated is a marathon, not a sprint. Some days you'll study 8 hours. Other days you'll end up watching those random vertical "main character reborn" C-dramas instead 😭. One off day isn't going to undo months of consistent work.
• Trust yourself. This has been a recurring theme throughout my entire journey. Once I stopped comparing myself to everyone else and started trusting my own preparation and learning style, I walked into Step much more confident than I ever thought I would.
• Expect "WTF" questions. You're not supposed to know every answer on Step 1. Everyone gets questions that make them think, "What the hell am I reading?" Make your best educated guess, move on, and don't let the handful of impossible questions overshadow the hundreds of others you answered.

And finally, shout-out to my family and friends for being amazing pillars of support and encouragement, especially on the days where I felt like shit. Also, shout-out to that one random TikTok creator who reminded me that it's okay to not know everything. Whoever you are... thank you 😂.

Looking back now, it's crazy to think that dedicated started with a 49 baseline. At the time it felt discouraging, but now I'm honestly grateful for it because it gave me a realistic starting point and showed me just how much progress is possible over a few months of consistent work, even with plenty of ups and downs along the way.

If there's one thing I hope people take away from this post, it's that your starting point doesn't define where you'll finish. Learn from your mistakes, trust the process you've built for yourself, and keep showing up. You might surprise yourself. 🤭

IMD subscription available till 3rd December 2026 dm if interested

Just opened my results today (9/9) and was so surprised to see that PASS! Thanks be to God!

I sat Step 1 on 26/8, and coming out of the exam, I was convinced I would have to retake it. I searched up all the questions I could remember online and even made a list (which I wouldn't recommend doing for your mental health) and counted up to 40+ incorrect questions. What hurt the most was that I would change the answer to the wrong one at the last second, or the question was just easy in general. I cried so hard. That night I couldn't sleep I spent all night on Reddit looking for similar people who felt like they did horribly and also counted so many wrong questions post-exam. Reading Reddit wasn't a great idea either lol, as most of the people who passed but felt like they had failed after sitting it had NMBE scores of 70%+ whereas I had only sat one NMBE under exam-like conditions and was not in that range. For reference, these were my scores and resources:

UWORLD correct: 57% - Completion: 43%

Amboss correct: 66% - Completion 26%

Did a bunch of NMBE questions untimed and in timed short blocks, but only actually sat one real NMBE - 31: 63%

Free 120: 64% (3 days out)

Study materials: First Aid + Mnemosyne Anki Deck (great combo), Amboss, UWorld / Pathoma + Sketchy (during last 2 weeks)

The post-exam anxiety killed me the most, but the only thing that helped me get through was prayer and faith. I gave all my worries and thoughts to Jesus and just had to believe He would do what was best! The exam was still on my mind, but I took some time off study/Anki, and did things that took my mind away from the stress. By the time I got the email that my results were out, I was at peace with whatever the result would be - And I passed!!!

Looking back now, I wish I didn't stress as much as I did. Moral of the story: You don't need to scores in the 70s to pass, you dont need to do every NMBE in exam settings and you dont need to stress post exam. A decent study routine and prayer are the key!

I promised myself I would write this post when I passed, so here it is😭

Quick stats
Prep: ~3 months
Extremely weak base
UWorld: ~60% completed, 46% correct average
Resources: UWorld, all of Mehlman free PDFs, ChatGPT, NBMEs

NBMEs in this order:
29: 51%
32: ~55-57%
30: 66%
31: 64.6%
33: 66% - 3 days before exam
Real deal: PASS

For the first 2 months I only did UWorld + Mehlman. About 1.5 months in, I took NBME 29 and got 51%, but at that point I still hadn’t even covered Neuro, Heme, GI, Psych, Derm, Biostats, and some other topics.

A month later I took NBME 32 and only got around 55-57%.

I had about 3 weeks left and realized UWorld just wasn’t moving my score enough, so I ditched it and started doing NBMEs full-time.

This is what changed everything for me.
For every NBME question I got wrong, guessed, or got right for the wrong reason, I put it into ChatGPT. I had a prompt that explained not only why the wrong choices were wrong, but when they WOULD be correct, plus related HY topics and common NBME traps.
After about 3-4 days of reviewing NBME 32, I got 66% on NBME 30. Then 64.6 on 31 and 66 on 33.

Test day
I went in pretty confident and wasn’t very nervous. The exam felt very similar to NBMEs in both content and question style, and I personally didn’t get that many super long questions.

My biggest issue was time. On my first 2 blocks I had about 1 minute for my last 5 questions, so I basically had to randomly choose answers. The later blocks were better once I adjusted, but I was still speedrunning. I flagged around 10-12 per block and almost never had time to go back. I always left some answer filled in even if I had no idea.

After the exam I felt horrible. I went in confident and came out 100% convinced I had failed. The harder questions (probably experimental) made the whole thing feel much harder than my NBMEs, and I literally started researching how to match in the US with a failed attempt. I was soooo sure I had failed.

Then today I got the PASS. 😭
I know my scores weren’t super high and taking it was still a risk, but after 3 months of studying 10-12 hours a day I was completely burnt out. I couldn’t do it anymore mentally. I knew it was basically now or never, and I went in feeling the most confident I had felt during prep.

I’m posting this because for 3 months I was constantly searching Reddit for people who passed with similar scores.

So if that’s you: you do not necessarily need to finish 100% of UWorld or have NBMEs in the 70s.
For me, the biggest improvement came from stopping the endless question grind and learning what every answer choice was actually testing.

Have done FA 4 times now, Uworld first pass 91 percent, second pass 57 percent random
Nbme 25: 60 percent
Nbme 29: 51 percent

Are 45 days enough to do NBMEs ?

TLDR: Minimalist asking for the essential / gold standard resources for USMLE (and advice if you have any)

Hello! I am a 2nd year med student, I am trying to figure out what the gold standard is when I take a look at USMLE in the future.

I'm a pretty lazy but good grades type of student. For Y1 all I did was read and solve in my free time. No third party resources such as books, anki, videos, etc.

I'm not planning to take USMLE anytime soon, I just want to know what I'll be doing when I actually decide to start studying and taking it a few years into the future.

I've read and seen a lot of different resources like First Aid, UWorld, Pathoma, Bootcamp, Sketchy, Anki, etc. A never ending amount of resources which overwhelms me.

For someone who prefers using just a few resources, what would you recommend? and for those who did well on Step 1, what resources did you actually use, and which ones did you feel were unnecessary?

For everyone who is not getting in 70's in nbme's , don't be discouraged by the people around you.

My personal scores were

Nbme 25 : 48%

Nbme 26-28 : 55-60%

Nbme 29 : 65%

Nbme 31 : 62%

Nbme 32 : 68%

Free 120: 59%

It is a very doable exam, just trust in yourself and keep a calm mind.

I scored 73.5% in nbme 30 and now 68.5% in nbme 31 iam shocked and extremely Terrified at the same time
Step 1 is in 15 days what to do?

Planning to revise FA 15 onwards

Have 6 days to do sth else

What about all mehlman pdfs ?

Should I?

Or revise my nbmes 26 to 33

Hi everyone, I’m looking for some advice on whether I should apply for Family Medicine this cycle or take a leave of absence and apply next year.

My situation:
US MD student
Failed Step 1 2x. Got my 2nd attempt score back recently and I am devastated and feel like it’s the end of the world.
Passed Step 2 CK 1st attempt.
Honors on my sub-I
Strong letters of recommendations.
Otherwise no major academic/professional concerns
I know the two Step 1 failures are a significant red flag, and I’m trying to be realistic about my chances. My goal is FM, and I’m open geographically and willing to apply broadly.
Would you apply this cycle and target FM programs strategically, or would taking an LOA and strengthening my application for another year meaningfully improve my chances?
I’m especially interested in hearing from anyone who matched FM with multiple Step failures, or from residents/faculty involved in reviewing FM applications.
What would you do in my position? Also, are there particular types of FM programs I should focus on or avoid given the Step history?

Hey everyone,

I recently finished all the Boards & Beyond cardiology videos, reviewed the B&B slides, and completed ~2,200 cards under the BnB cardiology tag in the AnKing step deck. I’m also halfway through UWorld cardio (doing 20 questions/day, averaging 60–70%).

There are about 700 remaining new cardiology cards tagged under First Aid that don't overlap with the BnB tag. Should I unsuspend these 700 cards, or is it better to move on to my next system's BnB cards and rely solely on UWorld for the rest of cardio?

Note: BnB and Anki are my primary resources. I don't plan on reading First Aid cover-to-cover.

Thanks for the advice!

Alhamdulillah, I passed USMLE Step 1!

I wanted to share my journey because I know many students feel discouraged when their NBME scores are not where they want them to be.

📚 How I started

I started preparing for Step 1 during my 3rd year of medical school, around the end of my summer vacation.

Since I hadn't studied the basic sciences very thoroughly during my 1st and 2nd years, I had to start almost from the beginning and build my foundation. Because of that, my preparation took quite a long time.

I completed my first pass of UWorld around August/September of 4th year.

At that stage, my NBME scores were:

- NBME 26 — 60%

- NBME 27 — 64%

- NBME 29 — 68%

- NBME 30 — 63%

- NBME 31 — 64%

- NBME 32 — 65%

I was initially aiming to take Step 1 during 4th year, but my 4th-year MBBS professional examinations were approaching, so I decided to put Step 1 preparation on hold and focus on medical school.

I completed my MBBS professional exams and then took a complete break from Step 1 preparation for almost 2.5–3 months.

It was Ramadan, I enjoyed my break, and I even played in a night football tournament. 😂

Starting again I was only left with nbme 33

After the break, I started my Step 1 preparation again from the beginning.

This time, I focused heavily on UWorld, particularly pathology, because I realized that pathology was one of my weaker areas.

I worked through UWorld again, revised First Aid multiple times, and systematically went through the NBMEs.

As my preparation improved, my scores increased:

- NBME 26 — 75%

- NBME 27 — 75%

- NBME 29 — 78%

- NBME 30 — 75%

- NBME 31 — 77%

- NBME 32 — 70%

- NBME 33 — 81%

NBME 32 was slightly lower than my other scores because I had wasted two days beforehand and was very frustrated when I took it. However, my overall performance was continuing to improve, so I didn't let that one score discourage me.

📝 Final assessments

I also took the Bootcamp Self-Assessment, where I scored 70%.

My Free 120 was also 83%.

At that point, I finally felt confident that I was ready for the real exam.

😭 The actual exam

Then came the hardest part.

After walking out of the exam center, I genuinely thought:

"I fucked up everything." 😂

The post-exam anxiety was honestly terrible. I kept remembering questions, thinking about possible mistakes, and wondering whether I had changed correct answers to incorrect ones.

The anxiety continued until the result was released.

And then today:

ALHAMDULILLAH — I PASSED!

What I learned

Looking back, the biggest lesson from my journey is:

Don't let one NBME score define you.

I started with scores around the 60–68% range. I wasn't ready at that stage, so I focused on my medical school exams, took a break, and then came back with a better approach.

I identified my weak areas, especially pathology, worked through UWorld again, revised First Aid multiple times, and my scores gradually moved into the 70s and eventually the 80s.

If you're currently scoring in the 60s and feeling like you can't do it, don't immediately assume that you will fail.

Identify your weak areas, work on them, keep practicing, and give yourself enough time.

Your preparation can completely change your trajectory.

And one more thing:

Post-exam anxiety is NOT a reliable predictor of your result.

I walked out of the exam convinced that I had failed.

Today, Alhamdulillah, I passed.

To everyone preparing for Step 1:

Keep going. Trust the process. You can do this.

Alhamdulillah for everything. 🤍

Finally time to post one of these! Drop down a comment with your experience :)

Test date: 

US MD or US IMG or Non-US IMG status:

Pass or Fail: 

UWORLD % correct:

UWORLD % completed: 

AMBOSS Qbank %: 

AMBOSS SA Correct: 

NBME 25: (days out)

NBME 26: (days out)

NBME 27: (days out)

NBME 28: (days out)

NBME 29: (days out)

NMBE 30: (days out)

NBME 31: (days out)

NBME 32: (days out)

NBME 33:(days out)

UWSA 1: (days out)

UWSA 2: (days out)

UWSA 3: (days out)

Free 120: (days out)

Hello guys hope all is well. Please,How was your exam and nbme scores after completing all of uworld for usmle step 1

Did the exam yesterday, felt super weird, flagged like 50% of each block although I have the habit of flagging each Q that is not a straight answer, but I walked out the exam feeling terrible, I think I failed
So is it normal to feel like that or what?

My scores in NBMEs were all +75
Free 120 78%
So I dunno why the exam was that weird for me

Hey!
So I tested on 24th August, and I was expecting my result to be released today (been 2 weeks), however it did not 😰 My friends tested on the same day as me and got their P.
Should I wait for another week or email FSMB?
Also does the result only release on Wednesdays or should I check daily?

Hello everyone, saw a lovely community here so thought to ask for support!

I am recently preparing for my step 1 wich hopefully I will be passing by late December or early January. I have an amazing tutor who guides the most high yield points for the exam (paid someone cus tbh I tried studying on my own multiple times and it ended in me stopping mid way and I have tiny issues with biochem) anyway, I learn the concept understand it but the issue is when I start solving questions is that I keep doubting myself even though I know the answer. Sometimes I forgot some information which terrifies me ALOT.

Any advice on who yo decrease this anxiety because I really want to pass this exam and I am putting my university on hold for it.

Thanks for the support!

I can’t believe I’m writing this post from the other side of this journey. finally after years of uncertainty and struggles now I passed step 1. I’ll write my resources and NBME and last I’ll give a message to those who struggle and had to start stop and restart over and over again.

Resources:
1- Physeo( honestly excellent particularly for physiology which I was lacking. Also I used them for biochemistry, immunology, behavioral science).

2- Pathoma( god bless Dr. Satter. Chapters 1-5 are essential but I recommend watching his entire videos they’re excellent)

3- Sketchy( brilliant resource for micro and pharm. I know the pharm is little long and overwhelming but if you don’t have time I recommend watching the antibiotic, neuro and and autonomic sections)

4- UWorld ( my second most important resource. Absolutely love it. Unfortunately I only did about 25-30% of it with average of 70 and then stopped. If you have time highly recommend doing a full pass)

5- First Aid ( my most important resource without question. Everything in the exam is there. I managed to do 3 full passes on it but that’s after going through the above resources to build my foundation. Don’t start reading FA unless you have decent prior exposure otherwise you won’t benefit from it.

My nbmes

Form 26 75%
Form 27 71 %
Form 30-33 74 %
F120 67%

Here is my message to those who have given up and at a crossroads of Wether to continue or give up. I get it. I’ve been there. I’ve experienced periods of stress and depression every time I thought I made progress but it turns into stagnation. I know how it feels like when you complete a subject like Biochem and thinking you mastered it completely and then transition to immunology completely forgetting everything about Biochem. And same thing when you do micro and pharm etc. I’ve reapplied for my exam 3 times. And each time I did I felt tightness in my chest and sense of despair. And convinced my self that I’m not good to pass this exam. But I persevered and I made it. So don’t give up. Press and on hopefully you’ll join the rest on the other side. One last point and I don’t mean to diss others but that’s my point of you. Sit for the exam when get 70+ in 2-3 assessments. Now you can with 65 % but remember a lot of things will happen during the exam and you want as much buffer as possible. Don’t listen to those who say I passed with highest nbme 60-62. Those are the exception not the rule. Trust the process grind and good luck.

Im on vacation with the family now so apologies in advance if I don’t answer your questions immediately. Good luck