One resource per job, and the rule for when each one enters. Not a list of forty things. Kaplan, Boards & Beyond and Bootcamp are not on it, and that is deliberate.
For years the advice has been to add: Kaplan, Boards & Beyond, Bootcamp, another qbank, another video library. That advice is out of date, and it is expensive in the only currency that matters.
The filter I use now is one line: if it does not move your UWorld score, it is not a Step 1 resource. Everything below survives that test. Everything that failed it is in a separate list.
What it is: the spine. Every other resource on this page either explains it, tests it or repairs it.
When: from day one to the morning of the exam. How: page by page, system by system, with every extra point you learn written into the page — never into a second set of notes. One book at the end, revised once.
→ The four-reading method · all 367 changes in the 2026 edition
What it is: First Aid was written to remind, not to teach. The Guide decodes all 646 pages — what is actually tested from each page, a plain-English explanation, the best video on the internet for that exact topic already attached, and 2,534 MCQs mapped page by page.
When: every single day of the systems phase. It is your first pass. How: read the page → understand it → do that page's questions → move on. About twenty minutes.
→ What is on every page · see a real page, in full · Renal is free on usmlevault.com
What it is: ~85 organisms as visual mnemonics. The one resource I still used in residency.
When: your foundation week, before a single organ system. How: six days, roughly 20 organisms a day, video then PDF — and that day's MCQs the same night. Watch then test. Read TB, COVID, HIV, Bunyaviruses and malaria from First Aid instead.
→ The 6-day order · free Sketchy Micro PDF · same-night micro MCQs
What it is: pharm is not hard, it is disorganised. This PDF stratifies every high-yield drug by system and names the single resource that teaches each one best — so you stop sampling three videos to find the good one.
When: foundation week, then again at every new system. How: find the resource → watch it twice → read and highlight what did not survive → test. 48 to 72 hours for the whole subject.
→ The FWRT method · free HY Pharmacology PDF
What it is: the cleanest pathology teaching available, system by system.
When: during each system, before the questions. How: watch to understand, not to memorise, and annotate into First Aid as you go. Robbins comes after, not before — by then you know which parts of the chapter matter.
What it is: a learning and assessment tool, not a first-pass resource. Open it cold and you get 40%, then conclude you are the problem. You are not; the order is.
When: after 3–4 days of prep on that system. How: Read First Aid page by page → Pre-solve with page MCQs → Solve by system in tutor mode, 20 questions → Review every miss back into the First Aid page. That review is your second and third pass of the book.
Leave a system when your last two blocks hold above 65% — a score, not a date.
→ The RPSR method · when a system is actually finished
What it is: short, dense, free videos that teach how the examiner thinks rather than the answer. Plus the HY Arrows — one dense multi-system document.
When: the videos are conditional — the moment a system's UWorld drops under 65%, sort the playlist by date and watch the last three years. Above 65%, skip him. The Arrows are different: keep them open throughout, and run them hard when an NBME stops moving.
→ How to use him properly · free HY Arrows PDF
What it is: everyone thinks he is only for biostats, and almost nobody works through his full channel — which is the edge. This PDF breaks his entire library down system by system.
When: before an NBME, and again in the run-up to your exam. It is revision, not learning. Worth 5–10% on its own.
→ free Neil Randy PDF · where he sits among the free resources
What it is: the channel for a concept that refuses to land — psychiatry, ethics, biochemistry, anything.
When: early, while building. Mehlman and Neil Randy are revision resources; Dirty Medicine is a foundation one. Also: the antimicrobials video — all of antimicrobials in 90 minutes, twice (once during pharm, once in your final week).
→ How to use YouTube without rabbit-holing
Two decks, two different jobs. Neither is a 30,000-card monster.
Foundation Anki — ~2,400 cards, First Aid page by page with the page number on every card. At ~400 a day that is a full First Aid pass in 5–6 days. Run it after each system, then cumulatively before every NBME.
NBME Booster — 4,174 cards from the retired forms, system by system, never form by form. For the final stretch, when you need points rather than content.
→ Which deck, when · Pick & Mix for the cards you keep failing · get both
What it is: the only honest read on whether you are ready. You get eight forms — never burn one on a cold baseline.
How: always offline. 10 blocks of 20 questions, 30 minutes each, first pass finished by 23 minutes. Pair a form with a Free 120 and you have 14 blocks — a real exam day.
Ready means above 67–68% on NBME 31, 32 and 33, consecutively and progressively.
→ The exact order, 26 through 33 · the review protocol · the free full-length assessment
No new content. Notes, the one-liner revision book, your screenshots, the Anki you already built, and the antimicrobials video for its second watch. That is the entire list.