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For IMGs about to open an NBME, Step 1 or Step 2 CK. Read this before you buy, book or start your next form.
By Dr. Marish Asudani · Published
Offline, always. The online version gives you 50 questions in 75 minutes. It feels spacious, and it inflates your score by 4 to 6%. Offline, you give 10 blocks of 20 questions, 30 minutes each, which is the pace of the real exam. Take your first form only after every system is finished and a dedicated week, follow the order from NBME 26 to 33, and review every form the same day. For Step 1, only the trend on NBME 31, 32 and 33 predicts.
Read this if you want to pass Step 199% of IMGs won't do this. They buy an NBME, open it online, get a number, and book their exam on it.
My students do the opposite. It is not 1 decision, it's 7, and each one has its own guide.
So this page puts all of them in one place. Each card is short. The full detail lives in the guide each card links to. Tap a card to open it.
Tap the part you need. It opens that card.
NBMEs are the most high-yield resource we have as IMGs. They are the only thing that honestly assesses how ready you are. And there are only so many of them.
For Step 1 you get 8 to 9 forms. Every form you burn early, online, or before your content is done is a form you can't use later, when the number actually means something. Never burn an NBME on a baseline.
Online NBMEs give you 50 questions in 75 minutes. That's spacious, and in my experience it inflates your score by 4 to 6%. You book your date on a number that was never real, and you train a pace you'll never use.
30 minutes for 20 questions is 90 seconds a question. Offline trains exactly that. And the real exam has longer stems than any NBME, so if you can't move decisively at pace on an NBME, the stem length alone will cost you on exam day.
Taking NBMEs online is 1 of the canon events: the mistake almost every IMG makes. The canon events, and the fix for each →
Every form, 26 through 33, is 200 questions. Offline that is 10 blocks of 20, 30 minutes each, hard stop. That unit never changes.
The full hour-by-hour day, with the glucose plan and why you start in the morning: 24 hours of an NBME day →
Full breakdown: the 2-pass method and the 3 timers →If your first NBME goes badly before you're ready, it can destroy your confidence for weeks. So the first one has 2 conditions.
FA Foundation Anki for the dedicated weekAll 17 systems in First Aid order. Every card maps to its First Aid page, so you can keep the book open beside you.
Open FA Foundation Anki →Day 8 is NBME 27, 200 questions, exam conditions. NBME 26 stays in blocks during the week so your scored forms are preserved.
▶Before giving your first NBME, watch thisThe dedicated week and the 2-pass block method, from me.On your Vault schedule, both of my NBME videos are already tasks before your first form: how to give your first NBME, and how to solve NBME blocks. The whole dedicated week is laid out day by day.
The week before any form, day by day: the week before your NBME → · and the night before: the night before your NBME →
Full breakdown: taking your first NBME →Step 1 forms run 26 through 33, in 4 groups. Each group has something you finish before you open it, and each one hands you the syllabus for the next.
Ready means 68% or more on all 3 of NBME 31, 32 and 33, climbing, not wobbling. 67, 70, 73 is ready. 68, 67, 68 is a plateau. Only the trend predicts. 1 good form out of 3 is noise.
On the schedule, 32 and 33 are full 14-block days, the shape of the real exam. NBME 31 runs as 6 blocks during the NBME Booster Anki days, and its other 4 blocks join NBME 32 as Mock Exam 1. NBME 33 and the Free 120 make Mock Exam 2. On Step 1, the Free 120 is practice for the full day, not a predictor.
The NBME Booster Anki, before 31, 32 and 33Every form from 20 up to the last one you took, system by system. Filter Pick & Mix by form to get only the forms you need.
Open NBME Booster Anki →Same 4 phases on every question, until it's automatic:
The single habit underneath all 4: never look at the options before the whole stem. Most "silly mistakes" come from breaking it.
▶Alec Palmerton · Test-taking tips: from "stuck between 2 answers" to 260+12 minutes on the moment you're torn between 2 options. Full breakdown: the NBME MCQ Protocol → · Stop making silly mistakes →The review is the exam. Taking the blocks is only half the work. Review the same day, 24 hours maximum, while you still remember why you picked the wrong option.
On the Vault schedule, your first NBME picks 1 of 3 roads, and all 3 are planned before you give it. A low score is a known road, not a verdict.
Want a day-by-day schedule that tells you exactly what to study next? The Vault builds it around your exam date.
Get every form on my calendar →Don't throw it away. The review still applies: same day, score check first, stem only, one-liner per miss.
Just flag the score as an online score. It's 4 to 6% higher than it should be, so don't pick your exam date from it. Your next form goes offline.
Each one gets more painful with every form you take. Each one has its fix above.
The fix for all 10 in 1 line: offline, in order, stem first, reviewed the same day.
Taking your first NBME — the dedicated week and NBME 27.
The exact NBME order — 26 through 33.
The NBME MCQ Protocol — how to solve every question.
The NBME Review Protocol — same day, every form.
The week before your NBME — day by day.
24 hours of an NBME day — breaks, glucose, review.
Stop making silly mistakes — 6 steps.