Overview
My starting off point on dedicated was that during preclin I used almost all in house material except for some Sketchy and Robbins with occasional Anki. If you know the in house material really well, and supplement for areas you don’t know (like in my case a lot of biochem and some path), you’re already starting at a really great place. You got this <3
Resources that helped me the most and how I used them
UWorld
To preface I ended up doing 59% of the question bank, many people do more of the bank and some do less but do what is right for your studying and progress! Whenever I could during block 5 and 6 I started doing 10 questions a day + review. For review during block 5-6, I spent more time reading through the answer explanation and making 2-3 Anki cards for most questions about the essential info needed to get that question right and any other info from that question I felt was important to know, including any relevant histopath images the question provided. During dedicated I would do 80 questions a day followed by review, except on days I was doing an NBME or other studying. For review during dedicated, I made Anki cards for my incorrects/questions I got right but mostly guessed on and wrote short notes. These review cards really helped me, especially as someone who doesn’t do 1000s of Anki cards or much of premade decks! I would really study the answer explanations and compiled the charts/diagrams UWorld provided in their answer explanations. Link to doc of some HY compiled charts/diagrams. In the few days before my exam, I didn’t do many practice questions and instead did lighter review to ease my mind and take it easy on my eyes from all the screen time. I focused on reinforcing concepts I knew I wanted to see again before my exam.
NMBE CBSSAs and CBSEs
During dedicated I took 1 CBSE offered by Georgetown; the one downside is that you cannot review the questions and answers after the exam. During dedicated I took CBSSAs on Thursdays, would review half of it the day I took that CBSSA, and review the second half the next day since it would take me a while to review but I wanted to do some of the review while it was super fresh on the mind. To review, I would write notes and make Anki cards for incorrects/guesses. CBSSA standard timing doesn’t have any break time built in so it helped me build endurance, and if you want to useself-paced timing, you can do so and mimic the break times you would take on actual exam day. I recommend taking at least one CBSSA with the standard pacing on NBME website to get the fast paced environment and score report. Taking the Free 120, in person especially!!
First Aid
Whenever there was a pathology concept or other concept I didn’t really learn from the Georgetown curriculum, I would read up on it in First Aid. I found First Aid really helpful for learning/reviewing histopath images and descriptions. First Aid Fast Review is so high yield– I reviewed the mechanisms/patho section of the Fast Review (didn’t do the other sections but they are probably great) the day leading up to my exam by covering one side of the chart and filling it in myself and then checking my answers. This really helped me for Step 1 and I would highly recommend it to everyone taking the exam! Step 1 tests so heavy on mechanisms, especially for path and phys, a lot less pharm than preclin block exams.
Sketchy
I rewatched Sketchy Micro and tried to write down mechanisms Would Really Recommend Knowing The Non-Buzz Features Of Micro As Much As The Buzz Words because it felt like Step 1 really tried to stray away from micro buzz words/phrases and tested a lot of ‘lower’ yield concepts. Congrats on making it to this point!! I hope this guide helps make studying for Step 1 feel a little more manageable. I’ve outlined what worked for me during both pre-clinical and dedicated!
M1 and M2 year
I focused primarily on the GUSOM curriculum but would un-suspend AnKing cards that corresponded to lecture material. I used a mix of BK and TT decks, both of which incorporated AnKing cards. For third-party resources, I mainly used Sketchy, with occasional use of Pathoma and Bootcamp. I did the associated AnKing cards for Sketchy videos—primarily for microbiology, and to a lesser extent for pharmacology and pathology topics. For Pathoma and Bootcamp, I instead incorporated key points into my study guides for block exams. During the summer after M1, I reviewed Pathoma Chapters 1–3 (I had heard these were high-yield!) and completed the associated AnKing cards. Also, just for reassurance, I never kept up with review cards from previous blocks, so if you have thousands of reviews piling up, you’re definitely not alone, and it’s okay.
Dedicated
I studied for about 7 weeks and took my exam in late February. Going into dedicated, I felt like I had a decent foundation but still had some knowledge gaps. I knew I learned best through practice questions, writing things out, and Anki, so I built my study plan around that rather than doing a formal content review. Most days followed a similar structure: Anki in the morning, UWorld and review from late morning through the afternoon, and then more Anki, videos, or note review in the evening. I didn’t take full days off but built in shorter breaks throughout the week and tried to plan something fun in the evenings after practice tests. I typically completed 40–100 UWorld questions per day, depending on how long review took, and used timed mode to practice pacing. When reviewing, if I got a question correct and understood it, I skimmed the explanation; if I got it wrong or guessed, I carefully reviewed all answer choices, wrote down the key takeaway, what information I needed to answer it correctly, and why my answer was wrong, and then un-suspended related AnKing cards using the UWorld add-on (sometimes making my own cards as needed). If I needed more clarification, I referenced First Aid or watched Sketchy or Bootcamp videos. After reviewing, I would go back and highlight key points in my notes to reinforce the most important concepts. Oftentimes, reviewing questions would take me so long that I would have to schedule in catch-up days and not do any new UWorld questions. I ended up getting through about 70% of the UWorld question bank plus I did some of the 200 high-yield Step 1 Amboss questions in my weaker topic areas. If I had to do this over again, I would’ve tried to do more UWorld practice questions.
I completed all available CBSSAs, along with the two CBSEs provided by the school before dedicated, aiming for about one per week and reviewing each over a few days so I could still keep up with UWorld and Anki. Overall, I would strongly recommend focusing on practice questions and using them as a primary learning tool!
Good luck!! You got this!!