When USMLE announced Step 1 was officially going to become a pass/fail exam, the relief medical students around the world felt was incredible. However, as one of the first test-takers to actually receive a pass/fail grade, figuring out how to study for this infamous exam proved more challenging than I anticipated. For one, almost every schedule or guide you can find online is for those who wanted to score upwards of the 99th percentile. Not to mention, most of them include studying 6-7 days a week and are a true grind for 6-8 weeks. As someone who had just gone through some of the hardest years of my life, I knew I couldn’t dream of completing any of the extreme study plans out there. So for anyone out there who might be in a similar boat – aka who definitely wants to pass but doesn’t have the capacity to give it their all – I present to you my let’s-pass-Step-1 study schedule!
— Some important context about me and where I was at mentally/physically before I started studying —
I’m not a naturally gifted test taker, at all. I get a decent amount of testing anxiety, tend to get caught up in tiny details, and can overthink my answer choices. This advice is not coming from someone who can skim a page, take a test, and ace it.
I didn’t thrive during my didactic learning. If you’re new here, you might not know that I lost my dad very suddenly and unexpectedly after starting medical school. At the time I didn’t have any capacity to replan or reorganize my school schedule so I decided the easiest thing to do was to just keep going. However, this meant that through most of my pre-clinical courses I was simply surviving. I wasn’t acing my courses, but I was passing with room to spare. I never did a single UWorld question before clerkships, and went into studying being extremely apprehensive that I didn’t know nearly enough.
I took Step 1 after completing all of my clerkships. At my school, you complete 1.5 years of didactics followed by 1 year of clinical clerkships. After that, you take Step 1, Step 2 and go on to electives. This might make my perspective and advice either highly relevant, or mostly irrelevant so please keep that in mind!
My Timeline
My total study time was about 7 weeks.
My school provided 8 dedicated weeks directly after my clinics finished, I took the first week off to relax and recoup from clinicals and took my exam on March 11th, 2022, the date my school required me to take it by.
My Resources
UWorld + NBME Practice Forms – The holy grail. You need them both regardless of how you plan on studying.
Sketchy Pharm – I watched every single antimicrobial, antineoplastic, antiarrhythmic, sympathomimetic and antisympathomimetic video and felt extremely confident in every pharm question. If you’re short on time I HIGHLY recommend focusing on these!
Sketchy Micro – Watch every video. You’ll never get a micro questions wrong and you’ll benefit a million times over the more you watch and memorize these videos. The concepts and details show up time and time again throughout medical school and the board exams are no exception.
Anking Deck – this was my Anki deck of choice. I definitely didn’t get through everything but prioritized: Zanki Biochemistry, Zanki Immunology, Zanki Pharmacology, Lolnotacop Micro, and Lolnotacop Drugs
Boards and Beyond – I used this to cover any topics I was rusty on, particularly the Neurology Rule of 4’s video!
Misc – For topics I needed extra help in understanding I went to the great land of Youtube. I share any videos I find super helpful on my Instagram under my “Step 1” highlight.
My Schedule
The Plan
Using my timeline and resources, I made a study schedule which had me study Mon-Fri from 8-5ish. I gave myself every weekend off to catch up on what I got behind on and take practice exams. If anyone is interested in this schedule you will complete all Uworld questions, read every chapter of first aid, and
The Reality
If you didn’t already complete clinicals, I would say my schedule might work out really well for you. If you did, you will probably find you need to tailor your studying towards all of the hard science information such as biochem pathways, DNA synthesis, and other topics that rarely come up in clerkships. I found that most systems pathology I simply didn’t need to review. As such, I made a TON of changes along the way and learned alot about how I was studying wrong.
- I ended up spending the first 2 weeks lightly studying and the last two weeks cramming. I find if I go too hard too quickly I burn out, but if I start light and go hard the last 7-10 days, I can maintain that endurance until the exam and finish strong.
- Instead of doing a handful of Sketchy Micro/Pharm a day, I took about 3 days to just watch them all and reviewed a little each day.
- I did not review all of my due Anki every morning. I reviewed whichever topics I was learning or struggling with and swiftly suspended any cards I didn’t need to see anymore.
- I definitely didn’t need to spend days reviewing each topic. There were many systems I felt confident in still, months after my clerkship. Whereas, it took me about 4 days to get through all of the biochemistry content. Don’t feel bad for skimming FirstAid if you know the content. Focus on what you don’t know and be confident in yourself!
- The last two weeks of studying I only did forms or specific Uworld questions on topics I was struggling with. I didn’t come close to completing the entire UWorld question bank (keep in mind I’ve already completed the entire Step 2 question bank).
Overall, I studied for about 6-7 weeks, only truly cramming the last 2 weeks, completed anywhere from 500-2000 anki cards per day, completed approx 1400 UWorld question, completed 5 NBME Forms, and passed the exam.
Final Thoughts
My approach to this exam was quality>quantity and I did’t want to hate my life while prepping. I started slow, took most weekends almost completely off, traveled and went snowboarding one weekend, continued my workout regimen and spent time with my partner and dog. At this point I definitely don’t have any regrets about how I studied, but also I’m happy to never have to study for Step 1 again!
I hope this helps a little if you’re planning your own studying. It can be daunting, but try to trust and know yourself as a student. Course correct as you need, trust your process, and take it one day at a time.
Of course if you have any questions at all leave a comment or reach out on Instagram and I’ll try to help as much as I can!
Have a beautiful day!
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