I am not a classroom person. I never went to lecture M1 and M2 years and I studied alone in my apartment for boards. So take that into account when reading the rest of this.
You should definitely study as hard as you can for Step 1. Nobody ever regrets studying too much and your score is really one of the few objective external measures of your competence residencies will see. Your score can end up being either a large liability or asset depending on how you do. Even if you’re planning on going into a noncompetetive field, a good score is always a nice thing to have under your belt.
That being said, by far the best resource for Step 1 is First Aid. You’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone that will tell you otherwise. It’s hard to believe, but when you take the test, it will really seem that many of the answers to your questions will have been lifted right out of that book. If you memorize that book and nothing else, you can probably break 230.
Definitely know it word for word. This is more important than anything else.
You should find one good source and stick to it for each subject. Here’s what worked for me.
In terms of questions, the most representative ones are the 100 NBME practice questions that are around on the Internet. Kaplan Qbank and practice tests are good, but harder than the real thing and ask many more “zebra” questions. Board Simulator and Underground Clinical Vignettes were a waste of time for me and are not representative of the test.
The last thing I’d say is that you should definitely know the common stuff like CHF, HTN, DM, and asthma in detail as it felt like they asked many random and obscure questions about these subjects.
Read more USMLE tips.
Alpha Omega Alpha
http://www2.uic.edu/stud_orgs/hon/aoa/