Hi Friends
My exam is in 2 days.
I have taken all NBMEs offline and online
NBME 13 in February .... 207
NBME 15 in July.... 255
UWSA 1 in August... 261
NBME 17 (8 weeks ago)... 258
NBME 18 (5 weeks ago) ... 258
UWSA 2 (3 weeks ago) ... 271
NBME 16 Last week... 262
NBME 19 yesterday .... 255 (A little disappointed)
My offline NBME average is 259.4.
Any suggestions or inputs appreciated.
Target score >250.

Wonderful
Can you mention how you studied to score in that range and what helped you to change your scores from nbme 13 to 15 whenever you have time.

If you have low performance topics review them first
I am sure you must be thorough with these topics but a last day quick glance on this is recommended by my tutor and it helped me
I feel Last day quick glance was a booster to my 256. So I highly recommend
Genetics terminologies
Nutrition you can expect many questions
Rate limiting enzymes
Glycogen and Lysosomal storage diseases
Immunology cytokines
Immunodeficiencies and Immunosuppressants
Basic Bacteriology and G+ & G- classification table
Opportunistic fungal infections
Dna viruses
Hep B serology
HIV CD4 count infections
Antibiotics Mechanisms
Pathology acute and chronic inflammation
Proto oncogenes and tumor suppressor
Tumor markers
General Pharmacology formulas
Cholinergic and adrenergic receptors
CYP450 Enzyme inducers and inhibitors
Drug reactions- This is a little lengthy
Clinical trials
Diagnostic test evaluation formulas
Types of Bias
Ethical situations
Cardio formulas
Bedside Maneuvers
ECG Tracings
Microscopic changes post MI
Anti Arrhythmics classification
Lipid Lowering drugs side effects
Signalling Pathway of endocrine hormones
Cong Adrenal Hyperplasia
Thyroid and Parathyroid conditions
DKA
Diabetes Medications
Pancreas and spleen embryology
GI regulatory substances
Gastritis and Gastric Cancer
IBD
Molecular pathway of CRC
Primary and secondary hemostasis
Anemia classification
Non Hodgkins Features
Anti cancer medications Mechanism and side effects
Brachial Plexus and Lumbosacral plexus root values
Lab values in bone disorders
Epithelial Cell Junctions
Skin Cancers
Brain development
Cranial Nerves and vessel pathway Images on brain stem
Aphasia
Tracts with spinal cord lesions
Headache
Brain tumors
Visual Field defects
Anti parkinsons medications
Childhood and early onset disorders
Psych Diagnostic criteria by symptoms durations
anti psychotic medications side effects
Renal Formulas
Acidosis Alkalosis PH change causes
Nephritic Nephrotic causes and findings
Drugs targeting at different segments of nephron and SE
Emryologic derivatives CAP
Male and female reproductive hormones
childhood Milestones
Ovarian & Breast Pathology Tumors origin
Obstructive and Restrictive Lung Diseases
Lung Physical Findings
Lung Cancer complications.

Sleep well a day before exam 7 hr minimum
Meditation helps
2 Blocks 1st break
2 blocks 2nd break
1 block closed eyes and sat on my chair for 5 min
2 blocks

Try not to think about your exam performance once you are out, I know its hard but you can try to.
Its done ! You have done your best and you can’t make any changes to your answers.
So just leave everything and go for a vacation for few days and start your Step 2 prep if you haven’t done with it.
Best of Luck

Thank you so much for taking out time and writing all this.

Will write after my exam.

Hi there! How'd it go? I hope (and we all who read the forums also hope) that you had a really good exam! Please let us know how it went!

Exam was doable.
Questions were lengthy.
5 or 6 weird questions.
I still can't believe I have finished my exam.
I can recall minimum of 8 mistakes I did, maybe more.
Each day is like a week waiting for results, 28 Nov seems to me like months left.

Hi! How are you? Best of luck with your exam, I'm sure you are going to have an excellent score! I would like to ask you, how you do to make your score improve since your 1st Nbme? Im an IMG, i have been preparing for step 1 since March of this year. I did all the Kaplan Books and Videos, then I do Pathoma and Sketchy Micro. Then I started with First Aid while I was doing Kaplan Qbank, I finished Kaplan Qbank, and right know i have about 3 weeks doing Uworld, I have done only 30% of it. Today, I decided to take my first NBME, I took NBME 13 and I got 190, honestly I feel really really really devastated, depressed, frustrated because I failed it, I'm putting a lot of effort to this exam, and I only got that score! I don't know how I have to reestructure the way i was studying? What I have to do know? How much Can I improve from that score? I was planning to take the exam between February and March but honestly with the result of today I don't know what to do. Please if you can help me, I will appreciate so much. When should I Take the other Nbme, I mean how many time should I wait to take the next? How much is possible to improve in terms of Score? What should I do to improve? Thank you so much, and God bless you! Have a good night!

Hi
I am fine thanks
I am sorry to know about your NBME scores. I am still not confident enough to write down my experience until I am not having my scores handy. I joined online classes by Dr Taher in the beginning of March and his guidance was helpful for me. I completed my UW Q Bank and explanations with the online classes and took NBME in the month of July. Then I stopped doing UW for 2 months until then I was doing Kaplan Q bank USMLE Rx and Offline NBMES. I reset my UW Q Bank in October and I finished in 14 days before NBME 16.
I would recommend you to wait until your UW Q Bank is finished after that you can test yourself. Remember UW is a very important learning and testing tool so don't test yourself without finishing it. I took my first NBME after finishing the Q Bank provided by my school but there is a huge difference between the Q Bank as you can notice the difference.
I will write more about study plan and additional resources once my score is available.
Have a great day.

Yes Please share your experience after your score. We wish you all the best.
I am struggling with Neurology any advice ? I have a plan to appear for exam in April-May-June. Is it a good idea to join Dr Taher class ? Or I am late.

We hope you received your score and it was good.
It would be helpful if you share your experience when you find time.

hi hope you got your score back, and hope it was good as expected if not better! if possible, it'd be great if you could share your full experience and share some tips please!

for example how was it inside the prometric center? how did you use your break time and how similar is uworld to the real exam?

but if you could write as many details as possible it would be greatly appreciated. from how you started your prep to the dedicated period to any obstacles and finally the actual exam. thank you!

Hi Friends
Thanks all for your wishes My exam was good its 253
I am on a vacation until December 5, I will be back and share my experience and try to answer all questions.
Bye

That's really great news, we're all really happy to hear that.

When you get the time, please share as much as you can, even if you think it isn't necessary because it may help us out. Thank you again for at least sharing this much, it is definitely appreciated.

Hello Everyone
First of all I am sorry that because of some personal reasons I was not able to share my experience by December 5 as I stated.
But I am here now.
Before writing down about my experience I will say that the whole process of this journey is about revising and forgetting every time until the day you remember most of the topics. I never worked hard this way ever in my med school so I feel a lot different about my view of success.
I started preparing in December 2017 and I was a below average student by avoiding complicated story about my school I will say that our teaching curriculum in school was horrible so my basics were really poor
Sources
1. Kaplan LN in the beginning: Recommend only for Neuroanatomy, Biochemistry, Behavioral Science, Pharmacology,
2. FA with U-World annotations: Long journey for annotating U-World into FA each block sometimes can take whole day. Stick notes are the best at the beginning I was using 2017 FA and I used to add pages but I ended up writing too many extra points. So from 2018 FA I decided to add stick notes and write on it.
3. Lecture by Dr Taher : Subject wise review from the resources after each lecture.
4. BRS Behavioral Science only questions: At the beginning I finished it and did it very well but after a month I forgot most of it. This book is good for questions. Extensive and unimportant theory details which I was not ready to invest time for. This subject trouble me a lot throughout my preparation. It was difficult to figure out from where should I study to avoid mistakes.
5. BRS Anatomy: Just for questions after each chapter.
6. Pathoma in the beginning : If you have problems with basics then I recommend doing in the beginning. I skipped some of the chapters that I was good at. Like Renal and Endocrine.
7. BRS physiology after my first NBME : As I noticed a little low in my physiology performance.
Q banks
U-World /Kaplan Q bank / USMLE Rx Q bank / offline NBMES / online NBMES / UWSA 1-2
At the beginning I was weak in
Physiology
Biochemistry 
Pharmacology
Neuroanatomy
Behavioral Science Ethics. Could not find any better source to study. Borderline star in real deal.

I started with Kaplan books but it was boring except Physiology fishy fishy fishy but many physiology concepts were still lacking at the end.
Kaplan is high yield and low yield at the same time, like many unnecessary details in Immunology and Microbiology (FA is enough)
My dedicated study period started with online Skype classes with Dr Taher hands down, you never want to miss it.
Problem with any series or lectures is we forget after studying in few days and the advantage that I had was Dr Taher revised with us. The weekly question answer sessions helped me to stay in touch with the topics covered almost a month ago.
So, I reviewed every topic completed in the class with a specific resource.
Physiology
Like on the day of Physiology lectures by Dr Taher I reviewed it with BRS Physiology it broadens your horizons. The only subject that you can’t memorize and you have to be well versed with the concepts for those painful up and down arrows during exam. U-World trains you very well for such questions.
I regularly did revision on every week topics on Sunday.
Anatomy
I solved BRS anatomy questions and tables with every system and I revised it once. I revised thrice for Back, Upper Limb, Lower Limb, Head and Neck. U-World images, CT/MRI. I was always above the borderline in my assessments.
Biochemistry
Kaplan the best source. Thankfully Dr Taher mixed up Biochemistry nutrition and metabolism cycles with systems so it was absorbable.
I can’t recall how many revisions I did for Biochemistry.
I used to draw the cycles and make charts and stick it on the door. You will see few weird questions on the test day from Biochemistry.
Molecular biology: Not heavily tested, I did from Kaplan and U-World
Microbiology
FA and U-World covers most of the Micro.
The only subject I was very good at. So I did not try for any extra resource like sketchy or Kaplan.
I got some challenging questions though in exam but what can be done other than a best guess and as expected I was having highest performance in the real deal.

Immunology
Very well done by Dr Taher and you don’t need to do more than FA and U-World to review.
Pathology and Pharmacology
Pathoma is good for basics but not later because most of the pathology and some extra is covered in FA and U-World.
I feel the core of Step 1 is in Pathology and Pharmacology. I started doing well in Pathology and Pharmacology after regular revisions with Dr Taher. To force it down your throat there is nothing better than revision. U-World and FA pathology slides. I even cross checked with Goljan for pathology slides for gastro, heme/ onc and renal.
Coming to the nightmare, Ethics in behavioral science.
I still can’t figure out best resource for ethics, I did Kaplan/ 100 cases by Fisher / Khan 100 cases / BRS /Step 2 behavioral ethics, but I was still having trouble. Finally I left this subject on luck and I feel Behavioral science points that I missed were from ethics. I was afraid of ethics questions to appear on exam and to my surprise there were not too many questions but I still don’t understand why I scored close to borderline.
Biostatistics U-World / FA, Step 2 Biostatistics.
I listed my NBME performance and few more details already in my previous post on top.
A day before the test.
I was having too much anxiety and I was taking propranolol for last couple of weeks but the last day before exam It was too much difficult for me to avoid negative thoughts.
Like am I doing everything correct
What if I don’t do well and many more
I had IBS and recurrent oral ulcers possibly due to stress as I am not used to for such exams.
Taking Zolpidem helped me with anxiety and to initiate the sleep. But I was wide awake at 3 am and could not sleep. I stopped forcing myself to stay in bed after 4:30 am without a delay I left the house and ran for 40 minutes to get active, cold shower, breakfast with oats blueberries, coffee and propranolol. I packed sandwich, salad, orange juice, nuts, red bull, water and Tylenol in case needed.
I suggest to take a trial test at prometric center a week before your exam to get oriented with the environment which I regret, every time when I have to leave the room the checking was taking lot of time and my time was wasted because I have to wait in queue.

I skipped the tutorial.
I almost had a panic attack and I was nervous on my first block at the beginning as I completed almost 25 questions I felt a little calm and focused by second block, finishing 2 blocks I left the room for just 5 minutes.
I solved 2 blocks and left the room for a 10 minutes break which was almost 15 minutes by the time I returned after checking.
I solved 1 block but I was overwhelmed and I could not concentrate. I found this block to be most difficult so this time I took a 15 minutes break I offered prayer, had my lunch and red bull.
I solved 1 block and I had palpitations and I felt a little dizzy. Maybe it was red bull talking. I left the room again for 5 minutes breath fresh air and talked to myself its only one more and you are doing very well.
Last block was a bit relieving because there were only 28 questions.
As I was leaving the room and heading towards home I started thinking about some of the wrong and weird questions.
I used to think constantly about my exam and sit in a corner of the house and I was worried that what if I score low. I was frustrated and have fights at my home. My dad motivated me many times by saying that even if I get a low score he will be happy with my efforts.
I some times used to cry during night. My sister was very supportive in taking me out and trying to deviate my thoughts. Honestly, this was the time which was toughest on me throughout my journey.
I was waiting for 28 morning and as I received mail saying my result was available on OASIS. I wanted to see the results and at the same time I was afraid and didn’t have courage to open the results. My sister took over and she opened it for me I didn’t want to see at first and when she said Its 253 I was like top of the world.
Even while writing down today I feel that excitement.
I did certain mistakes at the time of my studies and that is I had interruptions between my NBMES if I get a chance to go back and change something I would avoid such distractions but I consider its still good so that I won’t repeat during my Step 2.
I am thankful to my God
Finally I am thankful to my parents, and family members without them it won’t be possible and Dr Taher, my friends and colleagues.
I write all this best to my knowledge that can be helpful to everyone.
If my experience helps in your preparation then pray and wish good for my Step 2 ck.
Have a great day.

Thank you very much for sharing in such a detail.
I started with FA without studying Kaplan is that ok ?
Dr Taher classes that you joined were that a regular or a rapid review ? As I see there are two courses on their website.

It was a regular course. I had few one on one rapid review sessions with him in my last month for my weak subjects.

Thank you for every guidance. I did attend regular lectures by Dr Taher. My exam is in August and I have completed 2 nbme practice test and that is 580/560 CBSSA
244/240. Any suggestions about nbme and self assessment of u world.