How I passed USMLE Step 1 during my final year of MBBS | #yt #stepbystep #trending #medicalstudent

Ajouté : 2026-05-05

[00:00:00][music] >> Hello everyone, welcome or welcome back to my YouTube channel. I'm Shreya. I'm currently a final year MBBS student at AIIMS at Chandigarh. It would mean a lot to me if you take a moment and subscribe to my channel. This is the only way that I'll know you're liking my videos and it'll motivate me to make even more. So, if you're someone who's just starting the USMLE journey and is extremely confused about the entire process starting from the registration to the resources that you should use to the overall timeline and the common mistakes that people make, you have found exactly the right way. I will be talking about all the resources that I used, the timeline that I followed and all the common mistakes that I made that I think you should avoid. So, watch this video till the end. I'm sure it'll help you.

[00:00:44]So, for anyone who has no idea about what USMLE is, let's just start with a brief introduction. USMLE stands for United States Medical Licensing Examination, which is basically a licensing exam to practice medicine in the United States. It consists of three steps, step one, step two and step three. Step one is a pass/fail exam which I recently passed. Step two consists of a score and step three basically tests your clinical skills. In this particular video, we will be discussing how to approach step one. So, in simpler terms, step one consists of all the principles that you study in your first and second year of MBBS. It includes anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, pathology and microbiology and all of these principles are tested in integrated manner. It is an 8-hour long exam which consists of seven blocks of 40 questions each and each block is 1-hour long. You get 1-hour total of break in between blocks and you can divide it however you want. For example, I took 10-minute breaks after every block and a 15-20 minute break after my fourth block. So, it's totally up to you how you want to divide your time and you can decide that based on your own stamina and exam strategy. Now that we're done with the basic introduction about the exam, let's talk about all the resources that I used.

[00:01:55]The one holy grail for step one that you need to cover is this book right here.

[00:02:01]This is my First Aid. I read it at least six to seven times. The more number of times that you revise this book, the more you'll benefit and the more confident you'll be by attempting your exam. Being thorough with your First Aid for every single unit is literally a non-negotiable. You have to give it multiple reads. You have to understand every single line. You need to have your First Aid on your tips. Now, First Aid is definitely the gold standard and the best resource to prepare for your step one. However, it is still a review book.

[00:02:27]So, the second resource that a lot of aspirants use is Boards and Beyond. I personally would not suggest using Boards and Beyond for every single topic as it just increases the amount of work that you have to cover up. So, I kept First Aid as my main resource book and supplemented it with Boards and Beyond whenever I needed to. For example, for certain topics like metabolic alkalosis, acidosis, cystic fibrosis, which were given better in Boards and Beyond and I could not understand that well from First Aid. Following this particular approach where I was using Boards and Beyond for just some selected topics helped me save more time, gave me conceptual clarity of all my weak areas and definitely helped me become more confident and score higher in UWorld.

[00:03:01]You can obviously buy Boards and Beyond if you want to. However, all the videos are available for free on Telegram, the link of which I'll put in the description so you can go and check it out. The next two resources are my absolute favorite and I did cover them during my second year of MBBS as well.

[00:03:14]The first one being Pathoma for pathology. I mean, that man made me fall in love with pathology. He made it seem so interesting and all the concepts, all the topics are presented in such a beautiful manner and in such a way that helps you perfectly tackle all the questions that you'll get on your test day. All the images given in Pathoma are extremely high yield. I did integrate Pathoma with my First Aid. This is something that I realized very late during my preparation and as you go through your preparation, you'll also realize this that not everything needs to be annotated. You need to pick only the high yield points that you need to add from your Pathoma to your First Aid, which you will know after you do one or two blocks from UWorld. Okay, so you need to hear this very carefully. For example, there are some topics which are given very well in Pathoma but not that well in First Aid. So, I'd read them from Pathoma and First Aid and then do a UWorld block. The questions that I would get repeatedly wrong were the ones that I would note down. I would add those topics from Pathoma to my First Aid to make sure that I do not repeat those mistakes again. Doing UWorld definitely made me realize how high yield those were. This is exactly what a lot of aspirants do wrong and this is what helped me not make my First Aid too knowledge packed, especially with the topics that were very low yield. Next resource is an absolute lifesaver, especially for someone like me who struggled with micro a lot. I used Sketchy Micro with Anki decks to help me with microbiology. It definitely made UWorld way too easy for me and helped me tackle all the questions that I got even on my test day extremely smooth. So, this is how I'd go about it. I'd watch the video for every single organism one by one, approximately two to three videos every day and do 30 to 40 Anki cards. This particular strategy definitely made my micro extremely strong so you should definitely try it.

[00:04:52]I have put the link of the micro deck that I used in the description so you can go and check it out. Now, let's come to UWorld which is the main question bank for step one. A very common misconception that a lot of us have is seeing UWorld as a testing tool, which it is not. It is your main learning tool. You're supposed to integrate it with First Aid and use it to strengthen all your concepts. This is your knowledge data. You are supposed to learn from it. You're supposed to learn from all the incorrects, from all the questions. Please do not hesitate or do not get scared of starting UWorld just because you're scared of getting a low score. All of that knowledge is new. A lot of things are not mentioned in First Aid and you're supposed to cover them from UWorld only.

[00:05:32]Now that I've discussed all the resources, I'll quickly discuss the way that I approached every single system.

[00:05:36]So, first I'd start with reading First Aid. I'd cover the anatomy, physiology from First Aid, then move to Pathoma for certain topics and integrate that with First Aid. I'd then do pharma and after completing all the theory from First Aid, I would select some topics that I did not understand that well and watch B&B for those. After this was done, I'd start with UWorld. I started with 40 questions in tutor mode. I would make it a point to do 40 questions every single day no matter what. After doing the block, I'd mark all the questions that I was confused in and review all the incorrects. You need to make sure that you are reviewing every single block thoroughly. I'd go back and read First Aid multiple times for all the questions that I got wrong. During my first pass, I covered 60 to 70% of almost every single unit and for some large units like CVS and neurology, I covered 70 to 80%. I was done with a total of 80% of UWorld during my first pass, after which I reset. I started doing mixed, untimed and tutor mode blocks after I had finished three to four units. For example, after doing the renal, respiratory, cardiovascular and neurology system, I started doing mixed questions so that I stay in touch with all the information that I had learned before.

[00:06:44]Now, let's discuss the timeline that I personally followed. So, your entire preparation will be divided into two phases, the preparatory phase and the dedicated phase. During your preparatory phase, you're supposed to build a conceptual understanding of all the topics and cover the first pass of UWorld. Here's how I divided all the topics during my preparatory phase. So, I gave about four to four and a half months to all my systems and one to one and a half months to all my general principles. During my dedicated period, which was for about two to two and a half months, I proceeded with revision of every single unit one by one along with doing mixed timed blocks in non-tutor mode from UWorld. This was when I reset my UWorld.

[00:07:23]I covered 80% during my first pass as I mentioned before and during my second pass, I managed to complete around 50%.

[00:07:31]There was no fixed time for every single unit. For example, for some concept-heavy units like CVS and CNS, it would take me about seven to eight days just to get done with the theory and another four to five days to get done with UWorld. I have made a detailed PDF of my exact timelines and the exact amount of time I took per unit for both systems and general principles, the link of which I've put in the description.

[00:07:50]You can go and check it out. So, just to give you a rough idea, it takes approximately six and a half to eight and a half months for every single person to prepare for this exam. I personally took eight months to prepare for it. However, please just go on your pace. Doesn't matter how many months you take. You just need to go into the exam feeling confident. Do not look at others. There will be some people who will finish their preparation in five months, in six months. Some will take nine months and 10 months. Just go according to what you think is best for you.

[00:08:17]Now, coming to some of the common mistakes a lot of us make, the ones that I made as well. Number one being taking this exam lightly just because it is pass or fail. It is definitely not easy.

[00:08:27]It is not everyone's cup of tea and it will require you to put in a lot of hard work. The second one is delaying to start UWorld just because you're scared of getting a low score. Like I mentioned before, it does not matter, especially during your preparatory phase. You are supposed to make those mistakes and you're supposed to note down those mistakes and work on your errors. Only then would you be able to get confident when you're sitting for the actual exam.

[00:08:50]The third mistake is making your First Aid too overloaded with knowledge, so much so that it gets extremely difficult for you to revise at the end. Just like I mentioned before, please just annotate the high yield points from B&B or Pathoma into your First Aid. You will have to revise your First Aid at least five to six times to get thorough with it. Annotating every single extra point which is mentioned in B&B or Pathoma into First Aid makes your revision process way too long and secondly, wastes a lot of your time on topics that are extremely low yield. There are obviously many other mistakes that I made that led me to delay my exam slightly by two to three months. I will be discussing all of them and how I tackled them in the next video along with the NBMEs that I gave, how I improved my score in NBMEs from 58% initially to 74% at the end. Please remember, USMLE step one is not an easy journey. It won't be a perfect curve.

[00:09:38]You'll obviously have highs and lows but the important thing that you need to do is just keep going. Even if you get a low UWorld score, just analyze your mistakes and keep going. Trust me, you'll make it through. Okay, so that was it for this video. I've attached all the links that might help you with the preparation in the description and you can go and check those out. Do let me know in the comment section on which topic you'd want the next video to be.