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Out of forms, out of weeks, or both? This is for IMGs with NBME 32 or exam day coming and no time to give every old form.
By Dr. Marish Asudani · Published
Use the NBME Booster: every topic from forms 20 to 34 and the Free 120 as a tutored one-liner, 4,493 cards, filed by system. Run it system by system, never form by form, finishing each system first. Before NBME 32, do forms 20 to 31. Out of forms and still in the 60s? Do 20 to 33, then the USMLE Vault assessment.
You can't retake 14 NBMEs. You don't have the forms, and you don't have the weeks. But you can study every one of them.
The NBME writers retire forms. They don't retire logic. The concepts tested on forms 30 and 31 already appeared on 20 to 25: new vignette, same trap. So the exam you're about to take has, in substance, already been published.
You don't need to give every old form. You need every topic they tested. Here's how my students get all of them in 6 days.
Every NBME, form by form, was gone through topic by topic. Every topic was written as a one-liner and sorted into its system. The one-liner is not a summary. It is the thing the exam asks you.
FA Foundation Anki teaches you the book. The Booster teaches you the exam. Why you need both →
▶USMLE Vault videosMy playlist of USMLE Vault videos. ▶How to do Anki from the FA GuideMy video on running FA Foundation Anki from the FA Guide. The Booster is in the same Anki section of the Vault.
A real Booster card: the form it came from (NBME 22), the one-liner, the explanation, and the First Aid page it maps to.
Open the NBME Booster AnkiEvery topic from forms 20 to 34 and the Free 120, each one explained underneath. It opens on the first card.
Open NBME Booster Anki →
Every student has to do the NBME Booster. Right before giving NBME 32, you do NBME 20 till NBME 31, every system, to completion.
The same rule works before any form: every form from 20 up to the last one you attempted, system by system. Took NBME 28 last week and NBME 29 is next week? Booster 20 to 28.
On Pick & Mix you can filter by NBME form, so you only get the forms you need.
And NBME 32 itself goes offline, like every form: 20 questions in 30 minutes, the real exam's pace. Online (50 in 75 minutes) inflates your score by 4 to 6%. Why offline → · The week before NBME 32 →
2 rules. You go system by system, never form by form, because the same system across every form at once is where the repeats show themselves. And you finish a system before you open the next one.
The full Booster week on the schedule is 7 days. At 12+ hours a day it condenses to 6, split like this. About 540 cards a day:
On your Vault schedule, the Booster days are already laid out, day by day, with each system's deck 1 tap away. These counts are a recommendation, not a quota. If a day runs short, take the systems you're weakest in first and leave the rest for the next morning. Fewer than 12 hours a day? Use the 7-day split: the Booster week, 7 days →
The 200 NBME 34 cards are not part of this run. Before any form, you run 20 up to the last form you took, and 34 is the newest.
Want a day-by-day schedule that tells you exactly what to study next? The Vault builds it around your exam date.
Put the 6 days on my calendar →If you've exhausted all of your NBMEs, your exam is coming up, and you're still stuck in the 60s, do the NBME Booster Anki from 20 till 33, and then give the USMLE Vault assessment. It is the nearest thing you'll find on the internet to a Step 1 exam.
Why it beats another NBME at this point: an NBME is half an exam. It can measure your knowledge, but it can't train 8 hours of stamina, timing and decision fatigue. The Vault assessment does, and its report tells you which 2 systems to rebuild before your date.
Which one? Start with Assessment 2: all 14 blocks, all 280 questions, free for every signed-in student. Then run Assessment 1 in your final stretch, so the last full day you remember is a strong one.
Start the free Vault assessment14 blocks of 20, 280 questions, stems at real-exam length, then a system-by-system breakdown and an honest verdict. Assessment 2 is free for every signed-in student.
Start the free assessment →More on both: The Vault assessments → · and when the score says you're ready: Ready or not →
Where this fits in the whole plan: the NBME Booster → · the exact NBME order → · Tutored and Timed mode →
The week before NBME 32 — Booster, then Mock Exam 1.
Which Anki deck, when — Foundation vs Booster.
Stuck at 62–65% — the Booster is move 3.
2 PDFs = a 10-point jump — what goes next to the Booster before 32 and 33.