Here is a detailed guide for studying USMLE STEP 1

Part 1
1- You should start with Kaplan notes together with their Videos
for microbiology and Neuroanatomy it is much better to use the old 2002 videos..
for pathology there are 2 options:
Goljan material ( Audio + Slides +Lecture transcript -brief in paragraph style ) Highly recommended (avoid goljan 500 page notes they are Time Consuming overwh
elming ).
Or
Kaplan notes plus their videos .
Never both
2- Kaplan notes MCQs after the end of each chapter should be done
3- Do question from Kaplan Q book (Qbook and Kaplan notes should be done simulta
nously,subject by subject)
4- after finish all kaplan material then Directly shift to Part 2..

Part 2
It is very important that u directly shift to this part without waiting Period
success depends on doing part one in a very restricted time frame
the aim of that is not to a give a chance for entering in to the endless circuit
of memorizing and forgetting (Biggest Mistake).
here is ur status when u start this part
( remembering Big concepts but not remembering minuite details hence unable to s
olve MCQs efficiently)

what should be done in part 2

1- Study from First aid together with first aid q and answer
( First aid Q and A is optional )
first aid is much enough but weak in the following
(weak dose not mean to ignore it but rather to supplement it from Kaplan book)
-Biochemistry(However it is excellent in metabolism)
-Neurology ( Only the neuroanatomy part- need to be supplemented from Kaplan)
-Gross anatomy is enough but needs supplementation from Kaplan notes
-First aid is considered excellent in both pharma and Microbiology
-while studying pathology from first aid always refer to ( webpath Pathology ) f
or Gross Pictures ( remember only importand high yield gross pictures dont do al
l of them just take it as a reference for pics)

After reading all firsr aid (about 2 weeks)

here is your status:

(Unable to recall any information however u get familiar with the book )

2- Once finished first aid directly start Kaplan Q bank

it should be in ad junction with first aid
the questions should be taken (Subject based,Not timed,)
the whole q bank should take 45 days or more depending on how hard you study

(the best way for memorizing first aid is through MCQs so after each mcq refere
to page from where mcq was made and study the corresspoding topic in first aid)

3- By the end of this period u will be

(fully understating the basic core material needed for the exam, moreover you wi
ll be memorizing the fine details of first aid )


4-Subscribe Usmle world Q bank for 2 month
doing all questions in ad junction with first aid
questions should be done randomly ( simulating the real exam . Disadvantage of do
ing system based questions is giving wrong feeling of security and never allowin
g for testing ability to recall old facts )
most important is to always annotate important facts on margins of first aid
5-the last thing to do is scanning reading of the heavily annotated First aid on
ce ,twice and better if 3 times,how many times did i mentioned First Aid

6-Do your step 1 exam..

Wish you the best .

my score: 99/229
if you strict to the guide above, i inspect you to score higher.

Other Points to be addressed:

1-Step 1 = First aid, so delaying using this book is absolutely and totally unwi
se, keep reading it throught out the whole part 2 of study mentioned above

2- Doing thousands of low yeild MCQs is worthless, Invest your time with high qu
ality MCQs (Kaplan-WOrld) only.

3-Unlike step 2. USMLE World is not that miracle covering all exam material (imp
ossoble to cover all contents of exam in only about 2000 questions, so dont rely
much on that.USMLE world is excellent to sharpen ur knowledge and acclimatizing
u with exam atmosphere.but never enough.Instead Use both banks as means for mem
orizing first aid.

4-for max benefit from USMLE world ( dont use old versions prior to subscription
) because u are gonna use it as assessment tool as well. so if u do it before, t
hen u bias your scores.

5-Never Use extra material, Refrences or textbooks or any of thousands of materi

als on market, let your study foccused to exam.