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99% of IMGs won't do this, and it's the simplest thing in Step 1 prep. It takes 1 page.
By Dr. Marish Asudani · Published
Pick it from your hours. 5 to 6 hours a day: 6 months away. 8 hours: 4 months. 12+ hours: 12 to 14 weeks. Then write your first NBME date 4 weeks before the exam. Finish every system to completion, keep 1 week to revise, then give NBME 27 offline.
Read this firstDon't read this unless you need to pass your Step 1.
Step 1 is a pass/fail exam, not a target-score exam. So you don't need a target score. You need a target date, and 1 honest question: do my actions allow me to get there, or not?
Here's how you set it. Take a page and draw a line down the middle.
First, understand that you need to study at least 5 to 6 hours a day.
Tap the hours you can study a day
If you can study 5 to 6 hours a day, your exam date should be 6 months away.
If you can study 8 hours a day, it needs to be 4 months away. That's about 16 weeks.
If you can study 12 or more hours a day, it can definitely be 12 to 14 weeks away. That's a tight timeline. The Vault schedule builds it, and tells you plainly that it will be an intensive schedule. Under 11 weeks, it asks you to book a call with me first.
Tap your hours above. The first NBME is the exam date minus 4 weeks. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
Pick these same hours in the Vault scheduleIt builds every single day for you: week 1, every system in order, the revision week, NBME 1, and on to exam day. You never have to work out what's next.
Build my schedule →On the right, write the date of your first NBME. It needs to be exactly 4 weeks before your exam. This is your first checkpoint.
If your first NBME is on that date, how long will you need from that NBME to the exam? That's what the 4 weeks are for: the rest of your NBMEs, the full-length days, the final week and the day before.
This page becomes your roadmap to ace and smash your Step 1. In the Vault, this checkpoint is already on your roadmap: NBME 1, and every road your score can take after it. Now you know when your first NBME is. Here's how you prepare for it.
See your first NBME on the Vault roadmapYour NBME 1 checkpoint, and what happens after it at above 70%, 65 to 70% and below 65%, laid out before you give it.
Open my roadmap →The first step is to complete all of the systems in First Aid, system by system, to the point of completion of each system. That includes all 10 organ systems and the foundational ones.
It starts with 7 to 9 days of micro and pharm: Sketchy Micro (the free PDFs are in the Vault University) and High-Yield Pharmacology. Then the systems, easy systems first, cardiovascular last. Renal, respiratory and GI are the easier ones: you begin with them, you don't skip them. Never begin with cardiovascular. Days are at 10 to 12 hours a day. In the Vault schedule, this order is placed for you, day by day, at your hours. Tap a system for its own guide:
Every system, the same way: micro and pharm from the First Aid Guide pills → the First Aid Guide, page by page → Mehlman videos → the FA Foundation Anki → UWorld with RPSR. How to study any system →
VOpen the renal FA Guide in the VaultRenal is free. Try the method on it first.Why this order, and every phase: the 16-week plan → · Each system's guide: the system guides →
Your system order, placed day by dayRenal first, cardiovascular last, every day sized to your hours, with each system's First Aid Guide, Anki and UWorld blocks in it. Free for your first 3 days.
Start my schedule →After the systems are done, based on your timeline, you should have at least 1 week before your first NBME to revise all of these chapters. On the Vault schedule, it's 7 days at 10 hours a day minimum:
Nothing new in this week. You consolidate and you recall.
Open the FA Foundation Anki for revision week17 system decks in First Aid order, the page number on every card. Run them in the order you studied the systems.
Open the deck →Then you give your first NBME, and this is how you do it. On day 8, NBME 27, offline.
After NBME 27, every day is already written. Your score picks the road: above 70%, nothing changes; 65 to 70%, a 15-day Patch; below 65%, a Rebuild and the date moves. Then 28, 29, the NBME Booster Anki, and NBME 31, 32 and 33. Only the NBME 31, 32 and 33 trend tells you you're ready: above 68% on all 3. How to know you're ready →
Want a day-by-day schedule that tells you exactly what to study next? The Vault builds it around your exam date.
Build my schedule in the Vault →
Week 1 to exam day → · The last month, day by day → · Taking your first NBME →
The 16-week plan — the 4 phases and the system order.
Week 1 to exam day — what happens at NBME 1.
When is a system actually finished? — the completion checklist.
The exact NBME order — which form, when.
3 tips to avoid failing Step 1 — the bar, the last 14 days, the 280-question day.