269, only one pass of UW. How?

This is going to cut right to the chase, no yapping or blowing my own trumpet. Just to give you a background. Completed my first (random, timed) pass of UW (avg 76%) in October 2024. Took the real deal 2 months later and secured 269. First nbme 10 taken in October, got 263. Last nbme 14, two weeks before exam, got 273. Completed 40% of amboss (random, timed) with 83% average. Where were we? So my baseline average was pretty solid. The secret lies in the way I reviewed my uworld questions. Back when I did step 1, I did two passes of uworld. During the second pass, I noticed I made the same mistakes I made during the first pass. That made me realize (here comes it) I was focusing way too much on why the correct answer is correct, and NOT on why the wrong answer is wrong. That helped me develop a way to make more memorable notes that I'd go through over and over again. Here's an example. Look up QID:2389 on uworld. Here's how I made my notes. 36yF + amenorrhea for 2 months + weight gain + bilateral breast soreness + last DMPA injection 4 months ago (here I annotated "given every 3 months so maybe pregnancy has occurred) + requests a different contraceptive ---> nbsim = perform a UPT [ W.A = place copper containing IUD] (here I made an annotation "IUD would be C/I if patient pregnant by chance) Note= nbsim is next best step in management. W.A is wrong answer (i.e the answer I chose)

Here's how I would've made notes back during my step 1 prep "Weight gain, breast soreness etc can be side effects of DMPA but they can also mean patient is pregnant, so do UPT to rule that out". Kind of like UW's learning objectives.

You can see which one's more memorable. Imagine making a ton of these notes (hand written or Anki) and then going through them again and again. You'll even start dreaming about such scenarios. 22yF with amenorrhea, 65yM with chest pain, 1mB with non bilious vomiting, etc. Then whenever you solve an nbme (or the real deal), you'll already be fluent in this lingo. Then reading questions will be kinda like reading a novel (your eyes will move faster than your cursor). That leaves a ton of time for solving out the tricky questions. I completed every block 10 minutes earlier on the real deal, which allowed me to refresh before the next one. That will be all for today. I might drop another post on why cms forms are the GOAT of step 2 prep and why amboss qbank is overrated and amboss library is underrated.