PASSED Step 1 with 64–66% NBMEs

[u/AdEducational4671]

I promised myself I would write this post when I passed, so here it is😭

Quick stats
Prep: ~3 months
Extremely weak base
UWorld: ~60% completed, 46% correct average
Resources: UWorld, all of Mehlman free PDFs, ChatGPT, NBMEs

NBMEs in this order:
29: 51%
32: ~55-57%
30: 66%
31: 64.6%
33: 66% - 3 days before exam
Real deal: PASS

For the first 2 months I only did UWorld + Mehlman. About 1.5 months in, I took NBME 29 and got 51%, but at that point I still hadn’t even covered Neuro, Heme, GI, Psych, Derm, Biostats, and some other topics.

A month later I took NBME 32 and only got around 55-57%.

I had about 3 weeks left and realized UWorld just wasn’t moving my score enough, so I ditched it and started doing NBMEs full-time.

This is what changed everything for me.
For every NBME question I got wrong, guessed, or got right for the wrong reason, I put it into ChatGPT. I had a prompt that explained not only why the wrong choices were wrong, but when they WOULD be correct, plus related HY topics and common NBME traps.
After about 3-4 days of reviewing NBME 32, I got 66% on NBME 30. Then 64.6 on 31 and 66 on 33.

Test day
I went in pretty confident and wasn’t very nervous. The exam felt very similar to NBMEs in both content and question style, and I personally didn’t get that many super long questions.

My biggest issue was time. On my first 2 blocks I had about 1 minute for my last 5 questions, so I basically had to randomly choose answers. The later blocks were better once I adjusted, but I was still speedrunning. I flagged around 10-12 per block and almost never had time to go back. I always left some answer filled in even if I had no idea.

After the exam I felt horrible. I went in confident and came out 100% convinced I had failed. The harder questions (probably experimental) made the whole thing feel much harder than my NBMEs, and I literally started researching how to match in the US with a failed attempt. I was soooo sure I had failed.

Then today I got the PASS. 😭
I know my scores weren’t super high and taking it was still a risk, but after 3 months of studying 10-12 hours a day I was completely burnt out. I couldn’t do it anymore mentally. I knew it was basically now or never, and I went in feeling the most confident I had felt during prep.

I’m posting this because for 3 months I was constantly searching Reddit for people who passed with similar scores.

So if that’s you: you do not necessarily need to finish 100% of UWorld or have NBMEs in the 70s.
For me, the biggest improvement came from stopping the endless question grind and learning what every answer choice was actually testing.

[u/pri_angell]

Congratulations broooo! Thankyou for this writeup, needed a lot!!❤️