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Your NBME is 7 days away. This page tells you what those 7 days are for, whether it's Step 1 or Step 2 CK.
By Dr. Marish Asudani · Published
It depends on which form you're giving and your last score. Before NBME 27: 7 days at 10 hours, Sketchy Micro, FA Foundation Anki and 2 timed blocks of NBME 26 a day. After 27: above 70% nothing changes, 65 to 70% adds a 15-day Patch, below 65% adds a Rebuild. Before 31 and 32: the NBME Booster system by system. Before 33: Neil Randy and the Mehlman HY Arrows. For Step 2 CK: a full notes cycle before every form.
Most IMGs study the week before an NBME the same way, whatever form it is. Read a bit of everything, do some questions, hope. That's why the score doesn't move.
Your week depends on 2 things: which NBME you're giving, and what you scored on the last one. NBME 27 and NBME 33 are not the same job, and a 62% and a 72% don't lead to the same next week.
So below there's a tab for every form. I won't ask you anything. You find your score, and the plan is written next to it.
Everything here comes from the USMLE Vault schedule, the same plan my students follow. If you're stuck and nothing is moving, go straight to the Road to exam day on your schedule; it already knows your next form.
Tap your exam. Step 1 has a tab for every form; Step 2 CK has its own ladder of forms.
Why offline, how to set it up, and every other NBME page in one place: NBMEs offline: the complete system → · The whole order, 26 to 33: the exact NBME order →
Tap the tab that matches your next form. Each tab tells you what the week before looks like, and what to do with the score you got on the form before it.
Want a day-by-day schedule that tells you exactly what to study next? The Vault builds it around your exam date.
Get my week, built from my score →Once every system is done, you get 7 days before NBME 27. This is a 10-hour day, minimum, every day. Not 8. If you can't give it 10 hours for 1 week, your first NBME will not show what you actually know.
3 things every single day, no substitutions:
Open FA Foundation Anki: all 17 systems in 1 deckRun it in the order you studied the systems. Every card maps to its First Aid page.
Open FA Foundation Anki →Whatever is left of the 10 hours goes back into First Aid, on exactly what you missed that day. Day 8 is NBME 27: 200 questions, exam conditions.
▶Before giving your first NBME, watch this videoWatch it 5 to 6 days before your NBME. ▶How to solve NBME blocksMy video. The 2-pass method inside every block of 20. It's on your Vault schedule before NBME 27.If you study 15+ hours a day, the schedule gives you 6 days instead of 7. Full protocol: Taking your first NBME →
On the schedule, NBME 27 is your NBME 1. Your score picks 1 of 3 roads, and all 3 are planned before you give it. Find your score:
The whole road, start to finish: Week 1 to exam day → Had a bad one? The 24 hours after a bad NBME →
27 and 28 are your baseline. Whatever 27 and 28 expose is the syllabus for 29 and 30. That is their job: not to score you, but to tell you what to fix.
Open the NBME Booster Anki: every system, every formIn Pick & Mix, filter to forms 20 to 28, then go system by system.
Open NBME Booster Anki →
NBME 30 goes with 29 in the repair round: Mehlman on what 27 and 28 exposed, then both forms in blocks.
Before NBME 31, you run the NBME Booster Anki, system by system, never form by form. 3,219 cards carry an NBME 20 to 30 tag, about 460 a day across 7 days. These counts are a recommendation, not a quota. If a day is short, take your weakest systems first and leave the rest.
NBME 31 runs inside the same week. 2 offline blocks of NBME 31 a day on the last 3 Booster days, so 6 blocks. The other 4 are held back for Mock Exam 1 with NBME 32.
A real NBME Booster Anki card: the form it came from, the one-liner, and the First Aid page under it.
Start the Booster week in the Vault →
31, 32 and 33 are the 3 forms that predict. Not 1 of them. The trend across all 3. You want 68% or more on all 3, consecutively and progressively. 67, 70, 73 is readiness. 68, 67, 68 is a plateau.
How to know you're actually ready: Ready or not →
This one is non-negotiable. Right before you give NBME 32, you do the NBME Booster Anki from NBME 20 till NBME 31, every system. That is every topic the last 12 forms have tested, as one-liners, explained underneath.
How to fit all of it into the days you have: All the NBMEs in 6 days →
Open NBME Booster Anki, forms 20 to 31 →On the schedule, NBME 32 is not a normal form day. It's Mock Exam 1: NBME 32 plus the 4 held-back blocks of NBME 31, 280 questions, 14 blocks of 20. That is the exact shape of Step 1.
Offline, like every form. Same wake time as your real exam, same breakfast, same break strategy. On a 10-block NBME you use 40 to 45 minutes of breaks; the real exam is 14 blocks, so on a 14-block day the rest of the break time is still there. This is a dress rehearsal, not a quiz. The point is the 8 hours, not the score.
Hour by hour, with the break and glucose plan: 24 hours of an NBME day → · Want to rehearse a full 14-block day on questions written at real-exam length? Attempt the free Vault assessment →
After Mock Exam 1, you get 4 Mehlman days. Every day has the same 3 tasks:
On the last 2 Mehlman days you also do 1 block of NBME 33 each. The other 8 blocks wait for Mock Exam 2. Both PDFs are in the University on usmlevault.com, under Files. These 2 PDFs alone have helped several of my students gain at least 10 points on their next NBME.
▶Mehlman: how to go through the HY Arrows PDFWatch before Mehlman day 1.More on both PDFs: 2 PDFs = a 10-point jump →
The remaining 8 blocks of NBME 33 and 6 blocks of the Free 120: 14 blocks of 20, full exam-day conditions again. The Free 120 is here because it is realistic practice at exam length. On Step 1 it is not a predictor; only the trend across 31, 32 and 33 predicts.
After it, in this order:
You're ready when you're above 68% on all 3 of NBME 31, 32 and 33, climbing, and you're finishing your blocks with time left over.
NBME 34 is in. 200 more cards from the newest form are already filed into the 18 system decks, so the NBME Booster now covers forms 20 to 34 and the Free 120, 4,493 cards. What else changed in Anki →
NBME 34 is not on the schedule's ladder: the ladder runs 26 to 33. If you give it, the week before follows the same rule as every other form: the NBME Booster Anki from 20 up to the last form you took, system by system, and the form itself offline, in blocks of 20.
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, then give the USMLE Vault assessment. It's the nearest thing you'll find on the internet to the real Step 1.
How to run the Booster in the days you have: All the NBMEs in 6 days → · The Vault assessments →
Start with Assessment 2: all 14 blocks are free for every signed-in student. Run Assessment 1 in your final stretch, so the last full day you remember is a strong one.
Attempt the free Vault assessment →Step 2 CK is not Step 1 with harder questions, and the NBME ladder is different too. Find where you are:
What predicts: the trend on NBME 13, 15 and 16, and the Free 120, the most predictive test on Step 2 CK (only on Step 2; on Step 1 it's practice). What I have seen: 80% or more on the Free 120 = a good chance of 250+.
▶AJmonics · Complete Step 2 ReviewThe AJmonics half of the 3 weeks before NBME 13. YouTube playlist. ▶Divine Intervention · USMLE Step 2 CKThe Divine Intervention half of the same stretch. YouTube playlist.For Step 2 CK, the week before is the same for every form: a complete notes cycle before every single NBME. It's worth 5 to 10 points, it costs nothing but discipline, and almost nobody does it.
After each NBME, every incorrect goes into that same Revision Book, by system. By your last week, it holds every gap your forms ever showed you.
Step 2 CK has its own NBME Booster AnkiNBME 9 to 16 and the Free 120, as one-liners, system by system. Run it alongside your notes cycle before every form.
Open the Step 2 CK Booster →2 rules for the CMS forms. You review them far harder than you attempt them. And you don't touch a CMS form until UWorld is finished. On every CMS question, run the MCQ protocol. The MCQ protocol →
Every form offline, 20 questions, 30 minutes a block. Online gives you 50 questions in 75 minutes and inflates your score by 4 to 6%, so the number lies to you. Why offline → Then review it the same day: the review protocol →
Your readiness line for Step 2 CK is the one above: the trend on 13, 15 and 16, and the Free 120 at 80% or more.
Everything I used for my 254: Step 2 CK, free guide → · The full timeline: All 3 Steps in 12 months →
The 2 decks this page keeps naming open in 1 tap. Both are in the Vault.
Out of forms? The free Vault assessment →
The week before, for procrastinators — know exactly what to do, then do it.
The night before your NBME — the 1-page list.
24 hours of an NBME day — start time, breaks, glucose, review.
The exact NBME order — 26 to 33, and what each one tells you.
24 hours after a bad NBME — what to do with the score.
2 decks = a 30-point jump — FA Foundation Anki and the NBME Booster.