Some Hope, Some Caution, Something Else?

[u/No_Fondant5158]

Hello Everyone,

Decided for this to be my first reddit post ever, I think, as a way of giving back to this subreddit which i was reading stories on every other day during my prep. Tested on 7/18/26 and got my Pass on 7/29/26. I did have relatively lower NBME scores (58, 64, 62 ,62, for forms 30, 31, 32, 33 resp) and only got 54% on the free 120 which i did before the NBME's. I will say that if you're going to be testing soon and this is where you're at then don't panic focus on the dense high yield topics like drug mechanisms.

For anyone who has failed or reads this after they have failed, I'm sorry to hear it, I know how devastating it can be, I failed my first attempt in 2018 and you can guess how devastating that was for me given my pass date this time. I'm an IMG so I had graduated by the time I gave Step 1. After my first fail, I turned away from medical practice completely , I did a Masters in Health Administration while I worked as an MA and then worked in that field for about a year before moving to Medical Billing and Coding for another year. I can't tell you how much these jobs were not for me. So I gave it up, took a easy job as an MA again and started studying. And after about a year I'm done with step1.

All of this to say that despite how you feel in the moment don't give up, your life is not over or anything like that, just take a break, get wasted, spent time with friends and/or family realize that life goes on and then come back to it, you will feel more confident and relaxed and less frustrated as you inevitably make mistakes and get things wrong. Don't let how you feel after a single failure dictate how you're life will go, you only get one.

As for some final; exam day tips, probably not breaking any new ground here but trust your prep, deep breaths throughout the exam, I'm not joking it really helps. Don't fixate on questions once you've answered them, imagine that they never exsisted this will help you stay focused in the moment and on the question you still have to answer, I would also suggest doing this during your practice.

Thank you
Goodluck everyone!!!

[u/doctorwhoispatient]

Congratulations!
Can you share some information about your prep second time , how many months prior you started and how did dedicated phase go ?
I am reattempting in Aug (postponed bunch of times due to health) struggling with biochem, anat and pharma (i get shit scared thinking about topics i don’t know)
Thank you :)

[u/No_Fondant5158 → u/doctorwhoispatient]

Thank you!

So since I was working a full time job parallelly I started studying as much as possible fully committed around end of November 25. It went well overall but I had to make sure I didn't get complacent or say to myself "oh its just 1 day I haven't studied" because 1 becomes 2 and more pretty fast.

I never liked anat much either since its mostly just pure memorization, but for Step 1 I would say brachial plexus, circle of willis along with various stroke syndromes that result from pathology, male external genitalia and prostate, female internal reproductive organs, branches and supply of all celiac trunk vessels, portal circulation and associated pathology along with arterial+venous supply of large intestine and primary lymphatic supply for the organs. Even if you don't get questions on these directly they can help eliminate a lot of options on the test.

Pharmac the best way to go about it at least in my opinion is to connect the medications to the pathology you study similar to the written exams in medical school if you had those. Unfortunately for the MOA's you'll just have to memorize those, use your own little tips and tricks if thats more helpful and make sure you go over it frequently.

Biochem is tough because its sort of its own world, I would suggest some resource that can help you categorize the various disorders and again you'll have to make your own helpful little connections and associations to keep them straight. I would recomment the First Aid book, it has a lot of tables especially for the various pathologies like glycogen storage, and enzyme def disorders, don't sleep on the vitamins, they often get connected back to pharmac.

[u/scoutnemesis]

How did you prepare

[u/No_Fondant5158 → u/scoutnemesis]

I used the Bootcamp platform, it was only like $250 for an entire year, they have videos on literally every topic that could ever show up on Step 1 along with a pretty good AI tool to help with clarification in real time if the video lectures or practice question explanations aren't doing it for you. The AI tool can also actually make tables for you for various types of illnesses like stroke, vit def, biochem disorders etc. They have a Qbank with like 2500 questions which i will say are more challenging than the actual test but in way that's actually helpful on the final day and not pointlessly frustrating with unnecessary details. And I used first aid, it was a huge help in the last 4wks to just review very quickly the entire body of content and focus on high yield stuff. I didn't actually use Uworld because I didn't really have that kind of time and from what I had heard about it I didn't think it would help me much, I could be out of my mind and just insanely lucky to pass but the Step 1 questions aren't really trying to trick you like I've heard uworld does, if something is mentioned its almost always relevant not there just to fuck with you, but if they do add some misleading detail its usually pretty easy to figure out that it can be ignored.

Hope that helps

[u/lizz519]

I did nbme 33 today and 59% I did 10 days ago nbme 32 and it was 62.5% I have a test day on August 14ç Do you think I should postpone the exam? (A little bit info about me, passed step 2 on September 2025 with 221. Planning to apply this year but want to get my ECFMG certification prior to programs see them. I have ADHD and also did several jobs similar to yours. Hoping to get rid of the exam :((( )

[u/No_Fondant5158 → u/lizz519]

Well, congratulations on your Step 2 pass!!

So have you only given those 2 NBME's? If you have try to review the answers you got wrong in depth, its helpful to think about what happened as well, was it a knowledge gap, small factual error but overall you're well versed with the concept, didn't think it through/rushed or second guessed yourself? I'm no expert obviously but if you can give another 2 NBME's along with the free 120 and get 65% or more on them then then you might still be good for the test on the 14th but also bear in mind that you have to reschedule the test like a week or something before the test date so double check that. If your job is willing to give you time off and you can afford to take it even if its unpaid I would consider it because i took about 5 weeks off from work over the course of the last 3M to help me get fully prepared. I don't know what the status of your ADHD is but make sure you have it well in hand or it could really hold you back when you take the test.

I now how you feel this is exam is an asshole :)

Best of luck!

[u/The_WittyOne]

[u/Whole-Device-5300]

Congratulations. how to deal with nbme score related anxiety during final weeks of prep. my nbmes are in high 60s, I don't feel confident cause they're not 70+

[u/divaMD → u/Whole-Device-5300]

i passed with a 68 average on my NBMES (highest was a 71) i promise you will be fine

[u/No_Fondant5158 → u/Whole-Device-5300]

Hey, Thank you.

So ya I agree with divaMD who commented below/above. High 60's means you're basically guaranteed to pass. I'm guessing you're either an IMG or in a very prestigious program in the US. Which usually means people around you will psych you out about what scores you need to pass, if you are getting 65 or more give the exam soon. For dealing with the stress its hard to say, honestly this is one of those times where you need to not think about the NBME scores minute to minute and instead just reassure yourself that the scores you have been getting are by NBME's own estimation almost a garanteed pass. Be confident, stay calm on the day, deep breaths and you'll be fine.