Hello!

I wanted to share something I made when I was studying for the pass/fail STEP1. Since I didn't take a long dedicated study period and I found myself bogged down in a lot of details, I wanted to brush up on the memorization-heavy, heavily-tested topics in the days leading up to the exam. I've summarized them below. I reference some resources that Keldon uploaded from other sources, linked below as well. 

Disclaimer: These are topics customized to my weak points and things I wished I had reviewed after I took my exam, but obviously your exam may have different topics emphasized.

Orange: I would review literally the night before

Purple: general topics that are high-yield

Misc: (Keldon’s folder in the drive for reference)

• NBME Free 120 questions

• Stats sheet (thanks Reddit)

• Rapid Review in First Aid (Anki deck for this is on reddit too)

  • Antibodies

  • Vitamin/mineral deficiencies/toxicities

• HY arrows document to compare and contrast similar test results (I only looked at the ones I frequently get confused about)

Topics:

• Vitamin Deficiencies

  • Pixorize Videos & Images (found on Anki)

  • First Aid (“Biochem” or “Rapid Review”)

• Hypersensitivity Reactions

  • Dirty Medicine: Hypersensitivity Reactions

  • First Aid

• Nephrotic vs. Nephritic Syndrome

  • Dirty Medicine: Nephrotic vs. Nephritic Syndrome

  • UWorld or First Aid

• High yield anatomy

  • Anki deck 

  • UWorld practice, MSK

• Micro/Pharm

  • Sketchy Sketchy Sketchy (click through pepper deck, or the document with the images and notes)

• Primary Immunodeficiencies

  • First Aid 2021 pg. 116

• Immunology misc: Acute phase reactants, types of cells that respond in different circumstances, Hot T-bone stEAK

• Types of anemia

  • First Aid 2021 pg. 427

• High-Yield Images

  • Dirty Medicine

  • Legendary NBME Rocks Pictures.pdf

  • New NBME high-yield images.pdf

Videos:

• B&B: Inborn Errors of Metabolism

• Dirty Medicine: 

  • Trinucleotide Repeat

  • Trisomy 13, 18, 21

  • Neurocutaneous Disorders

  • Lysosomal Storage Disorders

  • Glycogen Storage Diseases

• Pathoma Chapters 1-3

Trust UWorld/Amboss, NBMEs, and all the hard work you've put into classes so far. You've got this!!!

Practice Exams:

• NBME has 7 practice exams which should be the "best" predictors of your preparedness. 

  • Some Reddit threads suggest taking them in this order: 28, 25 (difficult), 26, 27, 29, and 30. 

    • Exam 31 was added last year, not a lot of opinions on it yet. 

  • https://www.nbme.org/examinees/nbme-self-assessments/comprehensive-basic-science-self-assessment#how-to-purchase 

• Some schools (not Mayo) will require students take UWorld Self Assessment 2 two weeks before their exam. 

• Save the Free 120 exam until your last week/weekend

Practice Questions:

Highly recommend picking a question bank such as UWorld or Amboss and sticking to it, but here are some extra resources to check out: 

• B&B Videos and UWorld QIDs no duplicates: with this resource, you should be able to watch a video from Boards and Beyond, and then easily transition to completing UWorld questions based on the content covered in the video.  https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1LZweYMU5yXZIQtFl4AVpOo1-U9UQ6uRAo4mnu74Z2n4/mobilebasic

NBME Educational Assistance Award for USMLE Fee Assistance

https://nmfonline.org/scholarships/nbme-nmf-educational-assistance-award-fund/

As a part of NBME's ongoing effort to assist medical students on their path to licensure, we have opened the first application cycle for the 2025 Fee Assistance program. Medical students with demonstrated financial need are encouraged to apply for an award to be used toward the registration cost of the United States Medical Licensing Examination® (USMLE®). To help administer this program, NBME is partnering with National Medical Fellowships (NMF).

You can learn more about the program, including criteria for eligible students, on NBME's website.