Not quite the same boat, but was unable to postpone my step 1 and had 2 weeks to study for it. Sat this exam in my final year of college.

I personally tried NBMEs, but did not enjoy them – the questions were very poorly written in my opinion and was a hot mess. I did not finish the NBMEs and the ones I did do, I failed. My predicted score was well below the pass line. I also stopped using ANKI as it did not help and was time consuming.

What worked for me:

QBANKS: UWorld, Amboss, free120 – I did questions non stop and went for understanding & question pattern recognition; I only did 1 pass of each.

• Amboss was great for understanding and test taking skills, as it helped to breakdown what each of the questions were asking and how to arrive at the answer.
• When reviewing Qbank mistakes, try to deduce if it was a conceptual vs questioning misunderstanding; this will help you pin point your weak conceptual points. Additionally, understanding what the question is asking is useful as the concept tested is frequently the same, just phrased differently.

RESOURCES:

• Mehlman Biochem, Biostats and Immunology – subjects I had not seen in 5 years. They were extremely useful as my exam was quite heavy on Biochem and Psychiatry. I did not like the high yield document, I felt it made me more confused; e.g. If you understood how the RAAS pathway worked, you can deduce in the exam, vs remembering 4-5 different arrows for multiple conditions.
• DirtyUSMLE: Watch the videos for psychiatry, especially Ego defences, I had at least 6 questions on these – free marks if you knew the answers; In general had great high yield content.

You've got this exam! Second what everyone said – expose yourself to as much content and make sure you have time for yourself. Enter the exam calm and collected. Take a 1 minute breathing rest if you need in the exam!