Is FA+pahtoma+goljan+UW enough to get >250?

My opinion: it's debatable. Another question is how much are you supplementing those 3 resources w/ your med school curriculum. There are TONS of questions on Step 1 that you won't find in any of those 3 resources. But perhaps not enough to dip you below 250. Some of those questions you can answer if you've developed good critical thinking skills.

In my opinion, yes, with UW, FA, and Pathoma, you can score 250+, and when you add Goljan into the mix, it makes it more likely. Of course, nearly everyone uses these 3 resources; it's HOW you use them that differentiates 250ers from 230ers and 240ers. Those who are just skimming and passively reading won't do as well as those who are actually retaining all the information in these books and develop robust test taking skills from really analyzing the questions they're getting right and wrong.

I scored 250+ on Step 1 w/ UWorld, FA, Pathoma. I used the Brosencephalon deck (which are just Anki cards of First Aid and Pathoma; also adds a small bit of Robbins into the mix, but not that much) to make sure I retained the information. I spent nearly 10mins per UWorld question by writing down its content into its corresponding part of First Aid. I also used Picmonic, which is basically a creative way to memorize all the pharm and micro in First Aid. The other thing I'm leaving out of the picture is that I did a ton of NBME exams to hone my test taking skills. And with my med school curriculum, I didn't really prioritize it. Like if we were in a GI and Endocrine block, I would learn all the GI and endocrine from the step 1 resources I mentioned (and hardly look at our school's stuff), and then just look at our school's syllabus shortly before the test to make sure I would pass them (I didn't destroy them, but still wouldn't do too bad on the exams). I also used some outside videos to re-review the Biochem (which I hardly saw on my Step 1), but primarily focused on what was in First Aid. I had certainly glanced at Goljan and Clinical Micro intermittently during the year, but not that seriously (it was more of a reference here or there, rather than a serious commitment).

Overall, I scored 250+ by using UW, FA, Pathoma, and using creative ways to learn them (Brosencephalon, Anki, Picmonic), and really focusing on test taking skills by really breaking down the UW questions and taking multiple NBMEs and learning from them.

I think in general, people should prioritize UW, FA, and Pathoma above all other resources, but definitely supplement them with other books like Goljan, Clinical Micro Made Simple, BRS Physio, etc, to get exposed to all the other details that can be tested on Step 1.

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Is FA+pahtoma+goljan+UW enough to get >250?