About MDSteps

Built in the score reports,
not in a boardroom.

MDSteps grew out of thousands of tutoring hours, NBME post-mortems, and “why is my score stuck?” conversations. We help medical students turn their Step 1, Step 2 CK, and Step 3 prep into a clear, honest, repeatable plan, with tools that feel like working through cases and exams with a good attending at your shoulder.

NBME-style stems & pacing Score-focused analytics Tutor-written rationales Ethically-grounded guidance

Most students we meet are not “bad test takers”. They’re under-directed. Our philosophy is simple: show you exactly what’s holding your score back, give you a realistic way to fix it, and remove as much noise, guilt, and guesswork as possible.

From the MDSteps team.

Tutors, clinicians, and engineers who still read NBMEs with students every week.

What we deliver

Tools that act like a good attending: clear, honest, and practical

Realistic CCS & QBank

Step-style cases with live vitals, orders, and outcomes, plus a high-yield QBank that emphasizes reasoning and pattern recognition over mindless grind.

Guided next steps

Analytics tuned to real exam patterns, helping you decide what to review, what to ignore, and how to sequence your days so scores move instead of stall.

Tight editorial standards

Clinician-reviewed content, evidence-based updates, and explanations that respect context, nuance, and your future responsibilities as a physician.

Our story

From “I’m stuck at 55%” to “I know exactly what to do next”

MDSteps started as shared study plans, error logs, and NBME breakdowns between a small tutoring group and their students. Over time, patterns emerged: the same reasoning traps, the same blind spots, the same anxiety around flat scores and delayed exams.

Instead of building yet another massive QBank, we built tools around those real problems, pairing exam-style practice with the kind of structured feedback you usually only get in 1:1 sessions. Our goal is not to keep you on the platform forever, but to give you enough clarity and repetition that you can walk into your exam with a calm, realistic sense of “yes, I’m ready.”

See how MDSteps is different

Founder

Why I Built MDSteps

Michael

Founder • MDSteps

20+ years in healthcare management & medical education

Hi I'm Michael, the founder of MDSteps. I have spent more than 20 years in healthcare, management and medical education. Across roles that ranged from operations to teaching, I kept running into the same problem: the tools used to train future physicians were often rigorous on paper, but misaligned with how our brains actually work under pressure.

My late friend and mentor Robert Phelan — an emergency physician who cared deeply about teaching — helped shape that realization. In countless conversations about training, burnout, and responsibility, one theme kept surfacing: students weren’t failing because they didn’t care or didn’t work hard — they were failing because the systems around them treated learning like content accumulation instead of decision-making.

MDSteps grew out of that belief. It’s an attempt to honor the memory of that mentorship by building a platform that takes reasoning seriously, respects cognitive load, and treats medical students like future colleagues — not just test takers. If you’ve ever felt like you’re studying hard but your scores aren’t reflecting it, this is exactly the gap MDSteps was built to address.

I still work directly with students and remain active on Reddit. You can reach me directly at u/MDSteps — every message is read and answered personally.

Values

How we decide what to build (and what to say no to)

Clarity over drama

Every screen should lower your cognitive load, not spike your cortisol. We focus on clean workflows and explanations that actually change how you think.

Signal over noise

No vanity metrics, no “10,000 question” flexing. We care about the handful of behaviors that consistently move students’ scores and confidence.

Student-first ethics

We are explicit about limitations, share reasoning, and design with student wellbeing in mind. You are a future colleague, not just a user account.

Milestones

How we’ve grown alongside our students

Tutoring & pattern-spotting

Started as 1:1 tutoring, NBME debriefs, and shared error logs that shaped our first internal playbooks.

Core QBank & cases

Released an exam-style QBank and CCS runner built around real student pitfalls and question patterns.

Analytics & study planning

Added dashboards and planning tools that mirror how experienced tutors triage weak areas and set priorities.

Discipline-wide coverage

Expanded into Internal Medicine, Surgery, Pediatrics, OB/GYN, EM, and Psychiatry with a focus on reasoning, not rote recall.

Team

The people behind the cases and questions

Clinical Director

MD, Internal Medicine

Leads clinical accuracy and ensures our cases feel like real consults, not trivia contests.

Learning Science Lead

PhD, Education

Bakes in retrieval practice, spacing, and metacognition so your study time compounds instead of resetting daily.

Engineering Lead

Platform

Builds fast, accessible tooling that works reliably on the devices students actually use to study.

What surprised me most about MDSteps wasn’t the content, it was the clarity. For the first time I understood why my score was stuck and what to do about it. The platform feels like having a calm, experienced tutor walking you through your own thinking. It made studying feel structured instead of chaotic.

Choi Yun, MS3

Beta Tester and MDSteps Early Adapter

What students appreciate most about MDSteps

A grounded approach that cuts through noise and panic-based studying.
Explanations that teach reasoning, not just recall.
Clear next steps based on how real tutors assess progress.
A platform that feels supportive, structured, and genuinely human.

Questions, concerns, or ideas?

Whether you’re a student in crisis mode, a tutor, or faculty lead, we’re always interested in hearing what’s actually happening on the ground.

USMLE® is a joint program of the NBME® and FSMB®. MDSteps is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USMLE, NBME, or FSMB.

Built in the score reports, not in a boardroom.