Whatever you’ve studied so far in your med years, to all intents and purposes, is just to obtain your desired USMLE score. Imagine you’re a few days away from taking the USMLE Step 1. Anything new you study in these last days of exam would count for a very small fraction of your USMLE Step 1 prep. Indeed there will be some people who will say it’s worthless to cram for an exam of such a size at this point in time. Even reviewing your entire USMLE Step 1 syllabus will be next to impossible in such little time. But as the old saying goes, ‘where there’s a will, there’s a way.’ Of course there are a few things you can do to surge your USMLE Step 1 scores and that’s why you are here! We’ve gathered last minute preparatory tips for USMLE Step 1 from multiple scholars who have aced the USMLE Step 1. After going through all these advices, we’ve come up with these three things on which you should devote your last days of USMLE Step 1 prep. Following are the suggestions from which you can choose whichever makes sense to you. Remember every second is precious. Use them wisely.
BUILDING YOUR PATIENCE
The USMLE Step 1 is 8 hour long which is likely to leave you exhausted. It has been a common practice among students taking the exam to get the USMLE Step 1 questions wrong. Therefore, this inevitably results in a low USMLE exam score. The underlying problem isn’t that they don’t know the material well. But the toilsome span of this exam leaves them in such a fatigued state that they are bound to make such mistakes.
So how do you deal with that? Like in sports, you strengthen your stamina by exercising, so you need to do something similar here also. You should do 6 NBME exams in a row and that also on a real-time basis, i.e. you should become habitual to sit for 8 straight hours without losing comprehension.
In that way, you’d be able to simulate the actual USMLE Step 1 test day and get accustomed to the pressure. Also, make sure you get adequate sleep in these last days of the exam. That’s because one cannot heal her body from exercising without getting a sound sleep. I would again like to emphasize that you should take these NBME tests in a row without fail. This is the best way you can gain focus and prepare well for the exams.
RETAINING THE UNRETAINABLE
Every aspirant has a set of facts she finds difficult to retain in her head during USMLE Step exams. The last few days before your test is the time when you should perform rote memorization. This is done with the intent to deal with facts you aren’t very confident about. You should read those topics again and again until the point you feel comfortable. The best way to use this rote memorization is by drawing diagrams again and again. These diagrams include flowcharts for microbiology, pathways for biochemistry and endocrine and pictures for anatomy. It would be surprising for you that how much information you can retain in a diagram.
DOING QUESTION BANKS IS THE KEY!
If you do not feel taking 8 hour long test, make sure you solve numerous USMLE sample questions. But since you’re referring to MOKSH here, here’s another free bit of advice. If you’re in the 2nd year of MBBS and are yet to take the USMLE Step 1 in the coming year, try doing question banks throughout the 2nd year and develop this habit of maintain a record for whichever question you got wrong. You have to maintain along the USMLE Step 1 subjects concerned with the question. Moreover, note down the reason you got it wrong and a justification of your own for why the correct was correct and the incorrect was incorrect.
When you’re in the last days of your dedicated Step 1 prep, refer to those records and review them over and over. This will ease your process of learning those topics you were once finding trouble studying for.
Well, this was from my side. If you can give any suggestions, do leave them in the comment section. We may add them in our future posts. So, make sure you subscribe to our blog channel so you get notified.
