USMLE Step 1 Experience (Scored 277 out of 280) – By Dr Yousef Tanas

In Today Special Blog’s post we will be sharing with out step 1 aspirants about USMLE Step 1 Experience by Egyptian Doctor. Meet Dr  Yousef Tanas A real legend who scored 277 out of 280 in USMLE Step 1 Exam. We will be sharing his full step 1 experience in his own words below:

USMLE Step1 Experience (Scored 277 out of 280) – By Dr Yousef Tanas

#USMLE Step1 Experience (277)

Dr. Yousef Tanas 💪
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Introduction:
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Hello everyone, I’m Yousef Akram Tanas, a 5th year medical student at Alexandria University,Egypt.
I’ll be sharing my step 1 prep experience. I know that step 1 is about to turn pass/fail, but I hope this write-up could be of help whether you decide to take the scored or pass/fail exam, or maybe even step 2.
First and foremost, a huge thank you to my great friend, Osama El-Zankly, who helped me tremendously throughout my dedicated period.
Alright, so let’s get started.
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Preparation period:
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My step 1 prep began in year 3, around the beginning of the pandemic. I watched a couple of videos on YouTube on how to prepare for step 1 and found this video of someone who scored 272 and kept emphasizing the importance of Qbanks.
So, I decided that I should do as many questions as possible. I didn’t have any specific plan or schedule.
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Resources:
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I began my prep with:

1️⃣-pathoma videos: Dr. Sattar is a true legend. Helped me reinforce the high-yield points and know what I should focus on when I start Qbanks.
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2️⃣-I also watched all of SketchyMicro once.
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3️⃣-Then, I started with Pastest Qbank and finished it in a month. I was doing a block of 40 questions everyday and that was it. Not a must to do this Qbank unless you have a lot of extra time.
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4️⃣-I then moved onto Becker and completed half of it. I didn’t finish it all because I noticed many mistakes in their explanations. Again, I would not recommend either Qbank as there are much better Qbanks out there that I’ll mention now.
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5️⃣-Next Qbank was Rx Qbank. I finished it in around 2 months (1 block per day). This qbank is extremely underrated. It was a brilliant resource for reinforcing high yield concepts from first aid. I highly recommend it. Again, so far,
💡(all I was doing was one block a day. )Nothing else.💡
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6️⃣-After that, I took a few old NBMEs and all were 250+.
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7️⃣-Then, I started AMBOSS a month before year 4 (which is about 4 months into my prep). I got a 3 month scholarship which was perfect for 1 block per day. And guys, this qbank is THE BEST. Yes, it’s better than UWorld IMO. My form was a mix of AMBOSS and NBMEs/free 120. I kinda regret doing this Qbank one year before my step exam.

💡I would recommend doing AMBOSS after UWorld.💡
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8️⃣-Toward the end of year 3 summer holiday, I was introduced to Anki. Initially, I thought it’d be a waste of time and energy, but then realized that it’d make life much easier to do Anking instead of reading First Aid during year 4. I started the Anking deck the first week of year 4. I was very consistent with my reviews and did approximately 100-150 new cards everyday, depending on my University schedule. The way I approached Anking was quite different. I kinda went in order, starting with (lolnotacop💡)then biochemistry, etc. I didn’t suspend by tags or anything; I literally just went in order.

💡In addition, I was still doing 1 block of 40 questions everyday. Some days I did 80 because I rushed the explanations.💡
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9️⃣-After I finished AMBOSS, I moved on to Kaplan Qbank. It was a decent Qbank, but I would recommend Rx/UW/AMBOSS over this if you don’t have time.
Finally, I began UWorld 2 months before dedicated. I was very inconsistent, however, as I had my final University exams.

💡I managed to finish 75% of the Qbank before dedicated.💡
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Second pass:
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I completed the first pass during dedicated and decided to — unfortunately — do a second pass — which was an absolute waste of time. The way I approached UW (and all Qbanks actually) was a bit different compared to most people. I rarely read the explanations. I would just read the educational objective as I felt that reading the explanations was a very passive form of learning, and it felt like reading a huge textbook during dedicated.
I believed this was counterproductive, especially since I struggle with sustaining attention. Nonetheless, my awesome friend, Osama El-Zankly, told me about this epic deck zonkoo .
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🔟— Zonkoo 💡💡— which basically has all the important points from UW explanations.
I started this deck after my first pass. Without this deck, I was literally gonna take my exam without knowing anything in the UW explanations. This deck made dedicated way easier and helped me work more efficiently.
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My dedicated period
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It was 8.5 weeks. I took half a day off every week, and studied for about 7-9 hours everyday. I didn’t have any specific plan. I would just finish my Anki reviews and do 3-5 blocks of UWorld (without reading explanations of course, which helped me finish quickly). I took 1 NBME every week.
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Self-assessment scores:
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NBMEs 5-13: 260+ (6-10 mistakes)
NBME 15: 252 (1.5 years out)
NBME 16: 250
NBME 17: 255
NBME 18: 273 (7 months out)
NBME 19: 261 (1 year out)
NBME 20: 257 (6 months out)
NBME 21: 265 (beginning of dedicated/2 months out)
NBME 22: 277 (4 mistakes)
NBME 23: 268 (10 mistakes)
NBME 24: 270 (8 mistakes)
NBME 25: 270 (7 mistakes)
NBME 26 (online): 274 (5 mistakes)
NBME 27: 277 (3 mistakes)
NBME 28: 275 (4 mistakes)
NBME 29: 275 (4 mistakes)
NBME 30: 279 (1 mistake)

As you can see, the NBMEs are also super predictive, especially the new ones.

Free 120: 96%
AMBOSS self assessment: 266 (about 9 months out).
UWorld 1st pass: 95%
UWorld 2nd pass: 100% (11 mistakes)
UWSA1: 283 (6 mistakes)
UWSA2: 283 (4 mistakes)
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Exam day:
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I was very sleepy because of my sleeping pills (which I’ll discuss later) but it helped calm me down.
I finished my blocks with 20-25 minutes remaining per block.
I marked 15-20 questions every block and had enough time to go over them.
The length of the question stems was a mix between NBMEs and AMBOSS. I’d say closest to free 120, but definitely more difficult.
I took a 5-10 minute break after every block to drink some coffee and do some push-ups. I only ate one protein bar throughout the entire exam as my appetite was virtually nonexistent. I came out of my exam believing that I had underperformed.
The exam was very tough and harder than any test I took at home. I also made 2 silly mistakes and one of them was in the free 120. There were another 5-6 questions that I wasn’t sure of.
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Some random advice:
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Start Qbanks as early as possible even if you’re scoring very low. The concepts repeat. By the time I finished UW, there were questions that I had seen for like 5 times. And many of the concepts came up on the real deal. If you had to do one thing for your entire prep, it should be Qbanks not Anki. If you have the time, do both. You’ll realize the importance of Qbanks after you take your exam.
My exam felt like a mix of NBMEs/free 120/AMBOSS but more difficult than all of them. The minutiae, the vagueness of the question stems and the answer choices were very similar to NBMEs. It was not like UWorld. Your number one priority should be the NBMEs. My exam was literally like a “hypothetical NBME 31.” Yes, it’s true UW has great explanations and will definitely help, but please do not prioritize it over NBMEs, particularly if you’re planning to do a second pass. If you have the time, however, do all the Qbanks. All of them will help for sure —

but the most helpful for me was the NBMEs. And if you do get exact repeats, it’ll be from the free 120 or NBMEs — not UW.
Also, review the free 120 very well because I got a repeat from that and answered it incorrectly (yes, that was quite painful and haunted me everyday till results day ).
There’s a lot of terrible advice I see on the internet. The worst one that’s thrown around all the time and has always infuriated me is “take your exam now if you’re scoring 250+ because of diminishing returns/forgetting stuff you learned long ago.” Now, that’s just outright garbage. It’s plain and simple: the more you put into something, the more you get out of it. When you become a physician, you won’t get stupider with time; you’ll gain more experience and knowledge — you’ll become a better physician. And this applies to most things in life. It’s straightforward. Hard work pays off.
Another piece of horrible advice is that the NBMEs are not important and UWorld is everything. I seriously don’t get how some people come to this conclusion, but anyway, I won’t delve into this any further as I’ve already discussed this. Just do both for goodness’ sake.
Lastly, if you have trouble sleeping, you gotta find a solution or go to a doctor. If you’re prescribed benzodiazepines, take it. It won’t kill you. Personally, I suffer from severe insomnia and had to take trazodone and eszopiclone the night before my exam. You gotta experiment in advance and plan with your doctor to know what’s best for you.
Thank you 🙏
Yousef Tanas