hi guys
sorry for posting my exam experience very late. this is copy paste from a forum which i frequented. i gave it on 23rd august.i wrote this on same 23rd night. one of my friend mailed me to post this exam experience here too as this forum is frequented by many imgs like me. i have learned from many exam experiences from past so thought if i can be of any help.my mail id is usmlevikki@yahoo.com

hi guys
i have been a frequent forum visitor for a month or so. many exam experiences have helped me. so i am doing the same. i am very tired but cant sleep so thought of writting this. dont take any of my opinion or advise ,just because i have given exam n you have not. different things work for different people so take what is useful and leave other out.

i would start from begining. i have recently come to USA.i had given my step 1 in india. it took 5 months of serious study. by god's grace and well-wisher's blessings i passed it with 253. but i thought i am going to be late for applying so gave step2cs after coming to US. i gave it in chicago and recieved result in 6 weeks. now the big one step2ck.i studied seriously for 2-21/2 months. i had to give it early as i also have some other unfinished business to attend and i did not want to be late for application.

study material

1)kaplan dvds and notes..2002. only notes may get you in trouble as they are more like running lecture notes. all dvds are must see.i saw dvd and then went through note adding extra points in lecture in note. remember all sentences in kaplan notes are important. dvds may make you feel they are lengthy and are waste of time. nop they are not. trust me. when you will be asked what is most common cause of death in anemia patient....you will see dr. fischer screaming MI. IT IS DIFFICULT TO REMEBER THOSE SMALL POINTS IF YOU JUST READ IT.guess what usmle loves this kind of small but important stuff. those who are doing second read of kaplan know that many odd questions which we answered wrong in usmle world are already given in kaplan notes or dvd( surprise surprise). so my advise to all guys starting step2ck dont move to any q bank or book or whatever before you are through two reads of kaplan. danger for me was my noted were 2002. some stuff was old.i tried to update it. dont sweat its not much.

2) cmdt excellent book. danger you may keep on reading it. not option for me as i had to give my exam early. still i went through few topics. not a must.

3) for any disease which you could not understand

go through step1 books especially goljan.

by the way go through your microbio kaplan before you do usmleworld questions of infectious disease and you will see you will score 70-75% atleast.( surprise surprise)

go to textbooks then any other book. i got harrison and nelsson from library when i did my first read and any point which i thought not understood or may be out of date, i went through it.i dont much like obs n gynac,stat so just accepted facts

crush,mock,pretest,first aid are good books may be. i had them all but no time and i saw most things were covered in kaplan.

q banks

kaplan q bank not as good as step1

kaplan simulated: good

kaplan int medicine q bank: hard . heard good things about it. but hey no time again

usmleworld: very good

what i did was go through kaplan second read of one system and did questions of that system in timed mode. went through explanations both my right n my wrong answers. i socred 75% overall. i did not do boistat questions. no time.

why it is good for step2ck
1) it makes you practice 200o questions just like exam. the format is similar. you develop a habit of seeing key words. you develop patterns of answering questions. you form stratergies when you are short of time, how to complete block n still get most answers correct. you know that sitting continuously for2-3 blocks takes a lot out of you. you habituate.
2) it hammers certain concepts in your head. like jvp distended..huh what to look to clinch diagnosis. patient in post mi complication with hypotenaion ....look at pulse lung exam jvd murmur..you are done.

3)more then enough for eye ear skin and some other stuff like preventive med. those things where we look for a good source as kaplan does not cover it well.

dangers
1) lot of unusual stuff n crap sometimes. not much asked but hey i got one in my exam. but again that is one out of...you know.
2) score predictions based on uw.
please dont. i got 75% but i scored badly in two blocks of kaplan simulated. it is a learning tool.not for assessment. my 75% does not mean much. sometimes you can read uw as they dont have confusing options typically found in exam..is it a or b? this does not happen much in uw. sometimes you kinda able to guess.
3) doing it second time and scoring 60%. dear friends i thought there is no point in scoring second time done tests.
4) my friend who recently gave step2ck got 99 and he did not know what is usmleworld so yeah..........this is life.


nbme: near to step2ck but hey not really
i got 645 in form two. did not take form 1. but ya do take it if you want simulation to real thing.


now the big part exam.

i had same questions just 12 hours ago as you guys have. i will try to answer.

1. did i meet mr fred.
no i did not . i gave my exam in illinois usa. you know what? i called my center one day before and they said we take exam by fred only. but one of my friend advise me..go with seeing tutorials of both n i did. dont be afraid of mr fred. not difficult software. if your results will be delayed, they will be. and you cant do much about it. so dont worry. read n give the exam. thats what is in our hand.( easier said then done. i worry too ..even right now)

2.questions. hummmmmmm
they tested everything. lot of medicine peds obs n gynac . not much surgery.

in all blocks i had 2-3 questions i had no clue about. and i bet you try as much of q banks as possible , still they will have few for you in which all 4 will look correct or none of them.

any disease that i have not heard of tested :nooooooooooooooo no rare stuff. by the way if you think x linked gammaglobulinemia is unheard of n rare..no its not rare n kaplan do cover it.

in all blocks i had i guess 5-10 questions where i was like...oh i know its not these 4 but is it a or c?

how much step1 tested; more then surgery is tested i guess. i got 2 genetic question. one cell bio question. does that mean we should go with step1 reading gain. well if you can. but i dont think so. easy stuff you will remember and hard stuff you will not anyway.

length of question: only five where i had to scroll down
again length is not key but key is to pick up key words from it. i had few one liner questions too.

trick to exam is not knowing rARE THINGS. REMEMBER what are common causes of fever of unknown origing....uncommon presentations of common diseases, not uncommon diseases. like that i would advise to go in depth of common things. know them cold.

some lab value if you can remember will save your time.

dont neglect peds.

most important thing is time management. have lots of energy. be awake for last few blocks. if you sleep, you will miss a trick played by boards.

read whole question please. i had few in which one word changed the diagnosis.

i could not sleep night before. slept for 4 hours. but fortunately did not affect much( i hope). i am afraid of taking any sleeping pills before exam by the way.

ok guys. i wish you all best luck. dont aim 99. if you aim dont keep reading for it for months n months. dont give your exam too late. you all will do good. best luck. i wish you all residency of your choice. i hope no one is taking mine.

right now i want to say...whatever i have written is all due to post exam mania. ( you can see pressured speech can't you?}
sorry for all spelling and grammer mistakes.

i am worried about how i did in exam and i dont feel confident. but i am a nervous guy as always and i dont have any shame in admitting that. if you think this guy is showing off, i am sorry. i wanted to help.

good luck guys
wish me luck for my result