bigkap87
08-23-2008, 11:10 AM
For those of you who didn't do so hot on step 1 and are trying to make up ground on step 2 I am writing this for you as I was in the same boat. I scored a 216/89 on step 1 and really wanted to kill step 2 as I am applying for Anesthesia and Internal Medicine. My style of studying was kind of unorthodox but it worked for me and may or may not work for you.
I started studying the start of 3rd year core rotations. I started doing questions when I had time, a block of questions here and there. But definitely not hardcore studying. I would do only questions relevant to the rotation. For examply if I was on Ob/gyn, I would only do ob/gyn questions. I felt this helped me retain the information better and helped me for the rotation as well. I used USMLEworld and MKSAP questions at the beginning and when I finished rotations I studied for 4-5 weeks doing ONLY the new Kaplan Qbank. Honestly I would do an average of only two blocks of questions a day, but I really tried to focus on learning and the explanations. I really liked the new Qbank, I felt it was much improved from the old qbank. Much more challenging and better explanations. I took NBME 1 8 weeks or so out and scored a 246. I took NBME 2, 1-2 weeks out and scored a 248. While I was really happy with these scores I knew NBME were quite often inaccurate and was scoring in the low 60's on Qbank which equated to a 216 or so with kaplan's score estimator. I did the entire QBank once but read the explanations not only for the questions I got wrong but for the questions I was correct on as well because I felt like it was helpful. I went through about half of the incorrect answers a second time. I finished with 61% cumulative.
The exam went ok I thought. I felt like you really needed to get a good night's sleep and lots of concentration as many oof the questions were tricky and had many red herrings to try to throw you off. I received my score 2.5 weeks later and received a 250/99. Sorry for the novel, but I guess my point is small bits of studying very early was much more helpful for me than cramming for a month. Best of luck in your studies.
I started studying the start of 3rd year core rotations. I started doing questions when I had time, a block of questions here and there. But definitely not hardcore studying. I would do only questions relevant to the rotation. For examply if I was on Ob/gyn, I would only do ob/gyn questions. I felt this helped me retain the information better and helped me for the rotation as well. I used USMLEworld and MKSAP questions at the beginning and when I finished rotations I studied for 4-5 weeks doing ONLY the new Kaplan Qbank. Honestly I would do an average of only two blocks of questions a day, but I really tried to focus on learning and the explanations. I really liked the new Qbank, I felt it was much improved from the old qbank. Much more challenging and better explanations. I took NBME 1 8 weeks or so out and scored a 246. I took NBME 2, 1-2 weeks out and scored a 248. While I was really happy with these scores I knew NBME were quite often inaccurate and was scoring in the low 60's on Qbank which equated to a 216 or so with kaplan's score estimator. I did the entire QBank once but read the explanations not only for the questions I got wrong but for the questions I was correct on as well because I felt like it was helpful. I went through about half of the incorrect answers a second time. I finished with 61% cumulative.
The exam went ok I thought. I felt like you really needed to get a good night's sleep and lots of concentration as many oof the questions were tricky and had many red herrings to try to throw you off. I received my score 2.5 weeks later and received a 250/99. Sorry for the novel, but I guess my point is small bits of studying very early was much more helpful for me than cramming for a month. Best of luck in your studies.