Second year MBBS:

Physiology:

So basically you’ve already studied some anatomy, physio, and biochem in 1st year.
If you have already done Kaplan and BRS in 1st year, good. If not, then take a few weeks and
revise the whole physiology from BRS. You can watch BnB videos alongside it for physio
topics where necessary, or even all of its physiology. Read FA along with them.

I personally did Kaplan physiology, Conrad Fischer’s lectures. I loved them. I recommend
watching the pulmonology module lectures at least. He taught it really well. Find Kaplan 2014
lectures from somewhere. I think it was 2014 lectures, not sure though.

If you have done Kaplan earlier, you can skip BnB now. If you don’t remember the concepts you
can watch the videos at a faster speed just to revise the high yield stuff (which I personally did).
About anki, you can do the physio cards, but I don’t think it’s necessary as it takes a lot of time.
You can do selective cards for sections which are hard for you to remember. The rest, just do
UWorld and Amboss questions.

Bottomline is, do physio from BRS or Kaplan. I recommend doing the BRS physio book with
Kaplan/BnB lectures, whichever you like. Just cover it from end to end. Make sure you read First
Aid either alongside every system, or at the end (the former is better). All of it shouldn’t take
more than a few weeks. At the end, start doing UWorld questions, systemwise. You can also
start doing UWorld from the start (e.g. you did CVS physio→ read FA CVS physio portion → Go
do UWorld CVS physio questions daily → have your FA alongside you and keep going back to it
whenever you have to revise a concept. FA is the best book for review of any subject!)

Anatomy:

Also do anatomy (from BnB MSK module and 100 concepts of anatomy pdf (link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qjhR4WRVaNpQFn6ksT6aCX06NERY5YAe/view?usp=sharing)),
including neuroanatomy from Dr.White’s Kaplan lectures. You can skip the rest of kaplan
anatomy, however Neuroanatomy is a must. I personally did the whole Kaplan for anatomy. It
barely took me around 2 weeks. Do the respective anki cards where necessary. I won’t
recommend doing all anatomy cards from Anking deck as they are too many. Only do the ones
that you can absolutely not remember.
Biochemistry:

Watch Dr. Turco biochem kaplan (2014), the whole book, including the genetics portion. Do
anki metabolism cards only after you have finished the whole metabolism part as the cards are
mixed, then do all the chapters from chapter 1 upto metabolism (vitamins etc) (and follow up by
anki vitamins cards (optional)), then do genetics videos+book (understanding) followed by anki
genetics cards (For memorisation. Again, this is optional, depends on your study method and
whether or not anki works for you). Do read FA alongside everyday. If you understand FA
completely, good, otherwise also watch BnB biochem alongside for better understanding (I did
them, and recommend too. Like I already said, BnB for everything!). Anki cards are optional.
Main thing is understanding and applying the knowledge through Q-banks (UWorld, Amboss)

Biochem should take you a few weeks to do it. Depends on your pace and study method.

Pathology and pharmacology:

I’d recommend that you do these two subjects together in around 3-4 months.
- For patho, watch Pathoma first, followed by its anki cards (pathoma tags), then do BnB
alongside FA. You can do anki cards “BnB tags” and “FA tags” to do the missing parts in
pathoma.
-
You might need detailed guidance on how to use anki. I have conducted 2 zoom sessions
where I have explained it in detail directly in the anki app. Follow the link.
https://youtu.be/ti9Q502jPuc?feature=shared

These 3 resources are enough for both proff and step exam. No other resource, literally, loud
and clear. But, do these well, and you know what I mean by that!

For pharm, do kaplan first (Dr. Raymon, and NOT Dr. Harris). You can watch general pharm
from Dr.Harris, but from ANS and onwards, watch Raymon’s lectures. After you finish a chapter
in kaplan, watch its respective sketchy videos, and then do the anki cards (optional – Anki cards
are based on sketchy pharm, so do not do cards right after kaplan, rather do sketchy before
starting cards).

What I personally did was, I first went through the whole Pathoma book and lectures in a few
weeks. Then I went through Kaplan pharma book and lectures in a few weeks. Then I did
sketchy pharma. At the end I started doing Anki cards and UWorld questions with FA. However,
I do not recommend this.

I would recommend first covering physio, anatomy, biochemistry. After that, start doing pathoma
lectures+book. Once you are done with one chapter, go and read its relevant FA portion, and
then do its UWorld questions. While doing UWorld, refer to FA where necessary. Keep your FA
open with you at all times. It’s a learning stage, not a testing stage, so it’s okay to have your
book open. You will be able to memorise FA really well if you follow this method. Then move on
to the next chapter in pathoma and do the same process for it. Anki cards are not necessary if
you can memorise the topics well from UWorld plus FA. Where you find it hard, do those cards.
For anki, I will recommend doing the cards AFTER you do UWorld questions. Why? Because if
you do cards in the beginning, everything seems important and new, and you will tend to feel
like you need to do all those cards. But when you first do Pathoma, FA, Uworld and everything,
many of the concepts just become easy things for you to remember conceptually, and only a few
are still there that keep bothering your brain. For that, you can do anki then. That in my opinion
is the best way. For pharma, you can start doing that after you are done with pathology. Or
instead, you can start doing it along with pathology, e.g. divide your day into two parts, in
60-70% of the time do pathology, and in the rest 30-40% time do pharmacology. If you decide to
do it this way, then let say you did CVS patho, followed by CVS pharma from Kaplan and
sketchy, and then UWorld questions.

Remember! Pathology and pharmacology is the foundation of Medicine. Put your heart and soul
into these two subjects, and if you do them well, you will find medicine and surgery very easy in
the future. Do as many questions as you can (UWorld, Amboss). Use the Amboss library. Start
learning about diagnostic tests, management etc right from the start. In the beginning it might
seem hard, but it gets interesting! Never listen to anyone who tells you it’s above your calibre– It
really is not. Be patient with your progress though. But expose yourself to high yield content
right from the start. Don’t spend too much time on reading long text books and hours and hours
of lectures. Solving questions is always better than watching lectures or reading and rereading
text.

Microbiology:

Then do microbiology. BnB videos to understand basic general micro, and then start watching
sketchy micro. Alongside, watch BnB videos for every bug, and read from FA. Follow with anki
cards if you can’t remember it without that (Lolnotacop deck). Again, anki only at the end. Micro
should take you no more than a month overall. However I would recommend that you do
microbiology with some other subjects. E.g. I would watch 2-3 new microorganisms sketchy
videos daily, and do patho/pharm in the rest of the time. Once done with bacteria, start UWorld
micro questions for bacteria, and then viruses, then parasites and so on.

Other subjects:

Then do psychiatry. BnB videos followed by reading FA, and then anki cards. That’s all. This
should take you no more than a few weeks

After that, do biostatistics and epidemiology. BnB videos followed by reading FA (and then
anki cards if necessary). Biostatistics is mainly practice– q banks. You might not understand this
subject at first, don’t worry. Watch Randy Neil videos from first to last, and again and again.
Biostatistics should take you no more than 1-2 weeks. I intend to teach biostatistics to students.
You can watch my first few lectures and hopefully i will teach the rest in the near future IA.
They’re on my youtube channel. See the link below.

After that, do ethics and communication. There is no specific famous resource for this, except
UW and a few other videos (Dirty medicine, Randy Neil etc). I recommend doing Khan 100
cases of ethics, and also Conrad Fischer 100 cases of ethics if you want to dig deeper. I did
not do any of these per se (The reason is, step 1 these days tests communication more, ethics
less. While these books are mainly on ethical scenarios. However if you do them, you will feel
very confident with these questions in all step exams in future. You have got time, do them!).
You can also watch/listen to my sessions on ethics/communication/biostats for quick
review and HY scenarios. Follow the link.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTgiIfsqeO0m8k53Uy8Gtfwjo62LV11Mj&feature=shared

That’s almost all the content you need to study for step1. You should be done with all this
somewhere in your MS-2 or MS-3. Best time for step 1 in my opinion is anytime after your
second proff. Aim for summer vacation of third year. Meanwhile, learn about research as well. I
have explained this in my video on research on my youtube channel. Will continue further soon
IA.

NBMEs (practice tests):

Now, Do NBMEs. Mainly the latest NBMEs. Do any 2-3 of them, and see how many mistakes
you make. I did them offline, and one online. For me, doing online NBME was NOT helpful at all,
so I do NOT recommend buying it. It does NOT correlate with the actual exam’s interface. UW
Self-Assessments do. Skip the NBMEs before 20, they're no more predictive.
1:15 hr for one block (50 ques). You should be making no more than 40-50 mistakes. If you
made more, don’t worry, it’s just to figure out where you stand for now. UW will polish you.

Do an NBME after every 3-4 weeks. You should at least do 3-4 nbmes before ending the whole
UW. However, don’t do any NBME in the NBME 26-31 list for now.

Towards the end of your prep, do NBME 26-30 here and there, preferably with at least 1 week
gap each, within which you work on your weak areas. You may purchase online NBME 29 or 30,
31 just to get familiar with NBME test taking interface etc, however the real exam’s interface is
more like that of UW tests and AMBOSS tests. So you can skip the online NBME. Depends on
whether you want to spend that extra money on it.

You might do AMBOSS blocks for ethics/communication/biostats/weak areas. At last, do

UWSA2 and get a good score on it (240s, 50s, 60s). Follow it up by free120 (search on google
and you’ll get the link)
You’re ready now!

Towards the end, do 5-6 blocks a day, and at least a few times, do 7-8 blocks a day to simulate
the real exam. It worked for me. I was fresh as hell in the exam by doing so much practice, as
advised by a senior whom I would definitely thank wholeheartedly.

You should be done with step1 somewhere before or after 3rd proff the latest, if you religiously
follow this timeline.

Take home points

● Do take breaks and days off. This article does not include everything I did, I might
have done more, or maybe less, but that’s almost everything you need to know. The
rest make your own plan. I did go out on hangouts almost every week, long trips,
attended family functions and everything. You do not have to kill yourself to do step 1,
or any other exam.
● Step journey is a long long thing, do not rush. Take a break if you may – and you
definitely will need to. Breathe & take it easy.
● Do not think it’s too early for you to do all that as some people might suggest.
That’s a trap. Do yourself a favour – don't get misled. You know what I mean. Do
your thing your way. Email me if you are stuck and need some direction. We can
discuss.
● Stay consistent (e.g. religiously doing UW questions/anki reviews every day). Less is
more, if done consistently.
 ● I started doing anki/UW late, for you, do it the way I recommended and get done with
step1 with a better timeline than mine.
● Do not waste time by making hand-written notes. If you have started very early
(e.g. in first/second year), add stuff into anki cards, which is beneficial in the long run.
● Use the first aid annotated if you’re reading FA on a tablet/laptop. It’s very compact
and nice to learn from.
(https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bX-vbKkva5Qp66bdA9IZoEo2tvTqJCJK/view)
● Try to learn research skills right from the start. Research is important. Stay tuned
to my youtube channel and other resources. Expose yourself to it so you can learn it
from the get go, and be able to collaborate on projects after your exam.
● USMLE is not everything. There is a world of opportunities outside of it. Stay aware
and keep applying and trying. Stay open to opportunities like exchange programs,
research opportunities, communication skills, academic conferences, hospital related
work, etc. Medicine is not just books. There are opportunities every now and then. Use
your email to your benefit. Less social media, more emailing, approaching physicians
and institutions for opportunities, collaborating with peers, teaching, working with
professional organizations. I will try to write a detailed note on this. Remind me if I
forget to do so.
● If you want to collaborate with me on some volunteer project, let me know. I plan to
write a handbook for medical students encompassing all these things. Maybe you
could contribute to it and help me accomplish this goal.

That’s all from my side, Good luck.

Do let me know if you have any queries, and whether or not this helps you and to what extent. I
would like to have your feedback. Let me know if I missed something. I prefer emailing.

Email: waleedzeb56@gmail.com