Got the P today and wanted to share for anyone considering Bootcamp for Step 1.
I always heard UWorld is the gold standard, and I’m not knocking it at all—my friends used it and did great. But it is expensive, and I just want people to know there’s a more affordable option that can still get you to a pass.
I used Bootcamp as my main resource and it worked really well for me.
I had about 5 weeks of dedicated and did very little before that. I was also working full time, but it was a unique situation where I could study during downtime, so I was still getting at least ~2 hours in during my 8-hour shift plus more when I got home.
One thing I really stuck to was the Bootcamp pass guarantee (2107+ questions with at least 57% correct = ~98% chance of passing or your money back). I hit both of those a little over a week before my exam and then kept doing more just to be safe.
My main approach was:
• 80 questions/day for most of dedicated → 120/day the last 2 weeks
• Mostly random, tutor mode (I was not great about simulating full exam conditions)
• Consistently reviewing weak areas and actually going back over what I missed
For practice exams I definitely overdid it a bit:
NBMEs 26, 28, 30, 31, 32, 33 + Bootcamp SA + AMBOSS free week + UWorld SA2
Looking back it was probably excessive, but I was honestly terrified of failing so I just kept taking more.
My scores weren’t super consistent, and my Free 120 about 1.5 weeks before my exam was actually my lowest, which really stressed me out. But the one thing I did consistently was keep doing questions every day.
Bootcamp made it really easy to identify exactly where I was weak and review it efficiently. Also the question style and stem length felt very similar to the real exam, which helped a lot on test day.
I walked out of the exam convinced I failed and spent the next two weeks thinking through worst case scenarios and how I’d explain it if I didn’t pass.
But I did! The hours between the email saying the score would be released at 11am EST and the actual drop were excruciating. Barely slept a wink.
If you’re on the fence about using Bootcamp or worried it’s not enough compared to UWorld, it was enough for me. Just be consistent and don’t let fluctuating scores freak you out, trust your average!
Good luck everyone!!!
Edit: been getting some dms and comments about anki use/other resources and I’ve replied about some of the specifics but I really attribute my pass the to the question bulk I did. (And bootcamp is awesome and so user friendly) Between my q bank and bootcamp I did 3900+ questions 🙈🙈🙈 which again might be overkill but I really think the muscle memory paid off for me on exam day. I wasn’t perfect on reviewing every single q bank set in depth but so don’t let that all sound discouraging either!
Overwhelmingly the advice I was given was to do as many practice questions as possible while still maintaining adequate review!