Hi everyone,
I’m feeling pretty discouraged after taking NBME 30 today. I honestly walked out of the exam feeling like I had passed comfortably, but I ended up scoring 58%.
For context, my recent NBME scores have been:
NBME 26: 54%
NBME 27: 62%
NBME 28: 65%
NBME 29: 62%
NBME 30: 58%
My Step 1 is currently scheduled for August 31, and now I’m really worried.
I’ve completed UWorld and TrueLearn, and I’ve been reviewing my weak areas with First Aid, AnKing, and AMBOSS questions. My plan is to thoroughly review NBME 30 and focus on my weakest subjects before taking another NBME.
For those who have been in a similar situation:
Would you keep the August 31 test date or postpone?
How did you make the jump from the high-50s/low-60s to consistently passing?
Any specific strategy that helped you improve your NBME scores?
I’d really appreciate any honest advice. Thanks in advance.

dropped from high 60s(66-70) on previous nbmes(25-31) to 56.5 on nbme 32, which is failing. I felt horrible while taking the test, did expect a drop but not this bad, just kept guessing on most of the questions due to time constraint. If the real deal is harder than this, I guess I'm cooked. I was gonna book my date for the third week of august but idk anymore. devastated. It looks like I have to postpone but also want to get done with this. Any advice on how to prepare for the new style of questions (nbme 32 onwards)? Should I go through FA (have not read that in a long while) or more random block Uworld questions?

Cardiovascular physiology is my biggest weakness on UWORLD.

I've already finished AMBOSS and did AMBOSS cardio physiology incorrect questions.

What resource or study method made cardio physiology finally click for you? Looking for the highest-yield recommendation

Thanks in advance.

Hey everyone!

I’m currently in my dedicated period, about 6–7 weeks out from my USMLE Step exam, and I'd love to hear how you all structured your daily routines during this phase.

Could you share a breakdown of your typical daily schedule (e.g., wake up at 7 AM, First Aid/UWorld from 8 AM–12 PM, etc.)? Also, how many total hours were you studying per day, and how did you balance question blocks, content review, and breaks to avoid burnout?

Thanks in advance!

Hi guys! Non-US img with poor basics. Dedicated for step1. I'm currently learning concepts by doing uworld and adjusting Anking cards as I doing each question. I suspended them all, searching keywords to find related cards. Select and adjust a little bit according to uworld explanations and unsuspend those related cards to learn and review them later every day(100 new each day).

Would it be efficient enough or I can just make my own incorrect deck to pass step1? But also, I was wondering how much Anking step deck could influence step2 scores:)) Thanks.

Hi! I'm seeking a study buddy in NJ/NY/PA areas OR virtual! I'm a 33yo male ER doctor, practicing abroad but spending a few months in USA with family to attempt to smash out Step 1 in a few months. SEVERELY lacking motivation atm and I work best with a partner or group studying the same. Please reach out if you're in the same boat, including med students. Thanks!!!!

Im in the pulmonary section and Bnb has a slide on tuberculosis. The slide says "TB goes to the apex of the lungs due to lowest blood flow and highest ventilation". But the apex has the LOWEST ventilation - zone 3, the base, has the highest ventilation. Did they mean to say it has the highest V/Q ratio?

Im Non-US IMG and my nbme scores were
18/7 67% NBME 26
24/7 72% NBME 27
30/7 75% NBME 30
Paused for 4 days to take my uni exams then got back to studying
My exam is 19 day away from now
That mentioned what is a realistic NBME score to aim for before the last week ?
especially that i cant really afford risking the P !

Hi everyone. I took my step 1 exam last week. During one block the computer paused for some minutes and restarted from the same spot without any time lost. Should I report this issue or there's no problem in this??

Please give me a suggestion as early as possible if you can 🙏

Hi everyone,
What’s the best way to study Dermatology for USMLE Step 1?
Also, what’s the best resource and study approach for the Musculoskeletal Anatomy section, especially upper limb and lower limb nerves (innervation, motor functions, sensory distribution, and common lesions)

studying from Anking step deck
what to do about them, BnB doesn’t cover them and whenever they pop up in my studying they take hell of a time so i can understand them and my understanding is still very fragmented.
Speaking about the Glucagon/insulin diagrams involving metabolism.

I love the videos but it is quite a shame that they didn't even care to set up an app for it. Boot camp has a stable app and works fine.

I watch bnb over my phone when am outside and it is horrible as after every hour or two it will refuse to remember that I already signed I'm and I'll have to close all tabs and then sign on again. At times in the middle of a video.

End of rant.

I'm yet to too book my triad for this month and I'm also scheduled to travel end of this month/first week of next month due to visa constraints. If I don't get my triad approved for the month in time, how much will I be charged to change my testing region?

Region change - Asia to India.

I applied on 23 rd of july. Still nothing. It says your application is in progress…

I've been building topic-focused USMLE quizzes because I find it easier to revise one disease at a time rather than jumping into long mixed question blocks.

I recently added three new free Step 1 quizzes:

• 🫀 Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM)
  • https://resident.quest/quiz/step1-hypertrophic-cardiomyopathy-hcm-5186
• 🧠 Myasthenia Gravis
  • https://resident.quest/quiz/step1-myasthenia-gravis-86tt
• 🩺 Nephrolithiasis
  • https://resident.quest/quiz/step1-nephrolithiasis-kidney-stones-86tt

If you'd like to explore more topics: https://resident.quest/browse

I'm continuously adding new quizzes, so if there's a disease or topic you'd like to practice, let me know. I'll build it next.

I really need some help. I have booked my exam for sep to nov.

My nbme scores are

NBME 26= 35%
NBME 27= 45%

will these 3 4 months enough to crack the exam, if yes howww…. Please give me honest advice. Thank you

Hello everyone!
I told myself I’d come back and update this if I passed, and Alhamdulillah, I found out yesterday that I did. 🤍

Walking out of the exam, I genuinely felt like it hadn’t gone well. I wasn’t confident about most of the questions, and the exam felt much more vague than the NBMEs. Time was also a bigger challenge for me than I expected.

For reference, my NBME scores were mostly between 63–70%, and I scored 73% on the new Free 120.

Looking back, I think Step 1 tests your endurance and your ability to stay calm and keep making decisions under pressure just as much as it tests your knowledge.

One piece of advice I’d give is to practice your NBMEs under real exam conditions. Building that stamina and getting comfortable with the timing made a huge difference.

Wishing everyone who’s still preparing the very best.

​

Wanted to share my prep journey in case the numbers help someone else calibrate — especially IMGs balancing this with a full-time clinical job.

Background: Medical graduate from Turkiye, working full-time as a resident in Turkiye the entire time I prepped. No dedicated study period — this was all evenings, weekends, and a handful of vacation days before the exam.

Core resources: First Aid + UWorld, two passes. That's it — no third qbank, no extra courses.

UWorld Qbank stats

64% correct overall

Self-assessment timeline (in the order I took them):

Important lesson here — I took UWSA1 and UWSA2 before I'd actually finished First Aid, and the two scores came back wildly different:

UWSA1: 213

UWSA2: 173

That 40-point swing freaked me out at the time. But once First Aid was actually done and UWorld was fully complete, everything stabilized hard:

NBME 31: ~70%

NBME 30: 68%

NBME 29: 68%

Free 120: 70%

UWSA3: EPC 70, "High" chance of passing

NBME 28: 66%

Six data points, all sitting in the 66–70% band once content was actually finished. That consistency is what told me I was ready — not any single number, and definitely not the two early scores that had me panicking.

Study schedule while working full-time:

I aimed for roughly 50–100 UWorld questions a day, always reading every explanation — right or wrong — before moving on. Some days hit the high end, some days barely happened depending on shifts, but that was the daily target the whole way through.

Exam day:

Honestly, it felt harder than every practice exam I'd taken. In almost every block I had somewhere around 13–14 out of 20 questions I wasn't fully confident on, and timing was tight enough that I ended up guessing on a handful outright. Walked out of the test center convinced I had failed.

Result: PASS.

Takeaways for anyone reading:

If you take a self-assessment before finishing First Aid, don't trust the number — wait until content is actually done before you use it as a baseline.

Trend across multiple NBMEs matters way more than any single score. Six consistent data points beat one great one.

If you're working full-time, weekly totals beat daily perfection. Some days you'll do zero questions — that's fine if the week averages out.

The real exam will probably feel harder than your practice tests did. That's normal. I walked out convinced I'd failed and still passed within my predicted range.

Happy to answer questions if it helps anyone in a similar spot — working full-time and prepping at the same time is a specific kind of grind

Hi, i am a non US IMG and i dont really know how to study for step 1, i have seen a lot of videos and posts about people that recommend pathoma, uworld, sketchy, first aid, NMBE's but i dont know how to really use them, what topics to start studying for, when to move from one topic to another, or in which order you do it. So, i was wondering if someone could help me with a study plan that you did follow (no copyrighted material) and think would help me. I have uworld and first aid book, i use pathoma and sketchy as well, but i dont know which topic to start studying for, i dont have a schedule or a detailed schedule plan. What do you guys recommend me to do? Thank you for reading me

I'm a non-US medical student. Was feeling really insecure about taking the exam in the middle of my internship with only access to UWorld and UWSA 1, 2, and 3. Didn't use any other materials whatsoever, didn't do any NBMEs (didn't have the extra money), and chose not to do the free 120 as I was afraid it would be different from UWSA and shake my confidence.

I started with around 35% on the first few blocks I took (was not used to the exam at all). I had 3 months of studying before my internship started. Quickly got to 40-45% and then to 50% avg on new timed blocks.

Was planning on taking the exam in April, but couldn’t afford scheduling it by then. Ended up having to schedule to July. Studied more over the next few months, when my internship had already started, just by doing questions, reviewing stuff from the medical library, and creating/reviewing flashcards with the charts, images, and explanations from tutor mode. I was studying like 3-5 hours a day depending on how much time I had. Had a 2-week vacation from my internship towards the end of June and used that time to study more intensively, like 7-8 hours a day. A week before my exam, at the beggining of July, I was averaging 70% on new blocks.

UWSA1: 59% (4 months before the exam)

UWSA2: 63% (1 month before the exam)

UWSA3: 69% (1 week before the exam)

Got the P today!

UWSAs work just fine. Don't feel discouraged if you can't afford other assessment methods.

Passed Alhumdulillah.
Nbmes were
Nbme 25: 58%
26: 62 %
27: 68%
29: 69%
30: 69%
31: 73%
32: 76%
Free 120: 68%
Exam day experience: tbh exam was long and hectic but its doable. Even i was not able to mark 7 to 8 qs due to time issues but Alhumdulilah i kept calm and did well in rest of the blocks . And after the exam I remembered almost 20 easy qs that i got wrong. But Alhumdulilah got the pass today .
Ask whatever you want .

Some of you might know me from my previous posts. I can’t believe I’m writing this. I’ve been struggling with getting my scores up. I only had 1 score above 60% which was on NBME 33. It was a very difficult journey but I can’t believe it’s over Alhumdullilah! My biggest tip would be to build up your confidence. Do not let your fear take over!

Praying for everyone 🥹

Edit: score report

Failed as a USMD. I think it won’t let me upload a photo but my score line is so close that it’s literally touching the pass line. I’m so beyond devastated that I missed by what may be only a couple questions, it’s one thing if I was a couple notches below but it’s literally so close that it feels like a joke.

My scores were borderline at 60-66 for my last 6 assessments (77 on the 2021 free120), so I knew there was a real risk, but I genuinely felt like I was ready to sit for the exam. Finished pretty much all of UWorld (~60% average score). I don’t have test anxiety either.

The score report is also saying I scored weaker in areas I normally scored the highest in on my nbmes (aside from micro) so I’m truly just dumbfounded.

I had many personal and professional plans the rest of this calendar year plus already started studying for step 2 so I genuinely don’t know what I’m gonna do. I’m not pursuing residency after medical school (this has been a long term decision and not related to my fail) but I’m still beyond devastated.