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For IMGs who finished UWorld and watched the NBME stay put.
By Dr. Marish Asudani · Published
Because UWorld is a resource that helps you understand and apply First Aid. It isn't First Aid. You still need to understand First Aid (the First Aid Guide), apply it (Mehlman) and recall it (FA Foundation Anki). And once UWorld is complete, you revise the entire First Aid from everything UWorld taught you.
Read this first"I finished UWorld. Why is my NBME still stuck?"
I hear this every week. The student did every block. Some did UWorld twice. And the NBME sits in the same place.
Their problem isn't how many blocks they did. This page is 3 jobs, 3 tools, and 2 necessities. That's it.
UWorld is a learning and assessment tool. It is not your first-pass resource, and it's not the source of the exam. 60–70% of UWorld questions are direct lines from First Aid. UWorld takes those lines and puts them inside a patient.
That makes UWorld brilliant at 2 things: it shows you whether you understood a First Aid line, and it trains you to apply it. What it can't do is make you remember the 646 pages that the NBME is drawn from. That's still on you.
Every point on your NBME comes from 3 jobs done on the same book. Each job has its own tool.
| Job | Tool | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Understand | The First Aid Guide (what it is) | Every page decoded: Focus On, ELI5, How is this tested?, and MCQs on that exact page |
| Apply | Mehlman's videos | How the exam asks each page: which clue rules an answer in, and which rules it out |
| Recall | FA Foundation Anki (how to run it) | Every high-yield line of First Aid asked back to you, with the page number on every card |
The First Aid Guide helps you understand First Aid. Mehlman helps you apply it. Anki helps you recall it. UWorld sits on top of all 3 and tests them.
Start the understand job on a free systemFirst Aid Guide · Renal: every page decoded, with MCQs on that exact page. Renal is free.
Open Renal free →The first necessity is to use UWorld to understand First Aid. Not to collect a percentage. Every question you get wrong, and every one you got right by guessing, goes back to the exact First Aid line it came from.
Do that and every UWorld block becomes another reading of First Aid. Skip it and UWorld is just a score you forget.
▶How to Solve UWorldThe solve-and-review method on video. Written version: The RPSR Method.The full RPSR method → · When a system is actually finished →
When you've completed UWorld, you're not done. Now you have to revise, recall and bind all the information you have, and consolidate it. Everything UWorld taught you is waiting in highlighted lines across the whole book. This is when you bring the whole book back.
You can't reread 646 pages in a week. You can recall all of them in 6 days:
Run the 6-day recall passThe FA Foundation Anki: 2,499 cards, First Aid page by page, the page number on every card. Opens straight into the deck.
Open the deck →Then the forms, and every one of them offline: the online version gives you 50 questions in 75 minutes and inflates your score by 4 to 6%, while offline you give 20-question blocks at the real exam's pace. NBMEs offline → · The NBME Review Protocol →
All of First Aid in 6 days, the full protocol → · The 4 readings of First Aid →
Want a day-by-day schedule that puts UWorld, the 6-day revision and your NBMEs on the right days? The Vault builds it around your exam date.
Build my schedule →
Why First Aid is not enough on its own — the other half of this page.
All of First Aid in 6 days — the revision after UWorld.
The NBME Review Protocol — what to do with every form.
Perfectionist vs repetitionist — why 5 passes beat 1 perfect one.