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alice28
02-18-2009, 02:12 PM
Hello everyone, I am done with my step 2 CK exam, and I am relieved that it is over. I took it on 17th Feb. I had started a thread regarding my final touch to the preparation over here too. Here is my exam experience:

I skipped the tutorial as soon as I saw the "end block" button on the lower right corner of my tutorial. I was happy in the end for this decision when I had only 2 minutes left from the total break time.

8 blocks seemed like never ending to me when I started doing the questions, but with every passing question, I was feeling better because the questions seemed less scary to me than step 1 (May be it was because I was less prepared at the time of step 1).

I had questions from all the fields in this order: Medicine>Pedo>Psychiatry>Gynaecology>Obstetrics>Surgery>Ethics>Biostats. Medicine Qs covered Cardio (had 5 ECGs), Endocrine (including female endo), Neurology (with lots of stroke, dementia and neuropathy questions) Rheumatolgy and Nephrology Qs mainly with less questions from other systems (was expecting a lot of GIT questions but there were merely 1-2%).

Gynae was tested more than obstetrics with lots of questions on rectocele, cystocele, breast masses and PCOS.

Pedo was asked in a predictable manner with Qs on milestones, infections, height-weight problems, and congenital problems.

Surgery was also less prevalent than I had expected. There were mostly thoracic trauma questions with pneumothorax in every 2nd trauma question.

There were few x-rays (SCFE, Tension pneumothorax, Pleural effusion, Coarctation of aorta, Pneumonia, Rib fracture, Posterior dislocation of shoulder joint,Osteosarcoma and one on congenital diaphragmatic hernia)

I had 5 ECGs-PSVT,Vent. Fib,Atrial Fib,2nd degree heart block, and STEMI.

There were few blood smears with megaloblastic anemia, CLL, Multiple myeloma, Lead intoxication)

There was one epidural hematoma CT and one on cerebellar tumor in a kid.

There were slides on goiter, lymphedema of arm after mastectomy, vaginal atrophy in a post-menopausal female.

Ethics Qs seemed quite doable, biostats was a bit difficult for me as I am not very good at it.

Questions were "mainly" about "what would be the next best step/most accurate thing to do" or the "most likely diagnosis".

I took breaks after every block for the first 4 blocks, then after 2 blocks, then again after every block. Every break turned out to be refreshing.

Overall, my exam went just Okay. When I came out of the examination hall, I was feeling that I had done it nicely..but as the time is passing, I have started worrying about the result. There were 5-6 questions that I had checked and went wrong (they were quite easy, like certain drugs but I was not so sure about which drug to use). But there were others too that went right. At this moment (a day after the exam) I feel so unsure about the exam (may be its because the questions that I found to be incorrect are worrying me as I am kinda perfectionist personality). On one hand I am thinking that there can be any number of questions that can be incorrectly attempted ( I do foolish mistakes at times), and on the other hand, I think about those questions that I had attempted correctly. These thoughts are swaying on my mind as I am taking a break for 2-3 days. Do not know what will happen. But lets hope for a good result.

Keeping my fingers crossed till I get the result!

I will start my CS preparation soon so that I can stop thinking about the exam!

Will post my score here (whatever score I get). Wish me luck guys!

Good luck to all those who are about to take CK.

zel
02-19-2009, 02:27 PM
good luck , i know u will score ,:D

alice28
02-21-2009, 06:01 AM
good luck , i know u will score ,:D
Thanks for your wishes zel! I hope I pass with a safe margin.

buttercup1882
02-21-2009, 06:10 PM
alice 98,can u please tell me where u looked up your ecgs?

alice28
02-26-2009, 09:10 AM
alice 98,can u please tell me where u looked up your ecgs?


Hi Buttercup, I checked the ECGs from internet only. What I did was type the appropriate query in google and then click on the images--it gave me many results, from which I used to choose the most elaborate ones. I also had few softwares downloaded from a site called u s m l e-t i p s (dot)blogspot(dot)com for learning the ECG basics.

Hope it helps!:)

Edit: Don't know why the name of the site didn't appear in the final post. Anyways I have updated it.

Grazie
02-26-2009, 04:28 PM
Alice,
Good luck on your results :)

dmikaila
03-02-2009, 01:12 PM
alice,

I think you worked really hard and I admire you for such perseverance. Now its time to sit back and relax...wait for the great news. You will see your hard work will have paid off! God bless.

Dmikaila

kanson
03-02-2009, 08:36 PM
alice 98,can u please tell me where u looked up your ecgs?


this link is awesome for ecg...i did extremely well on steps 1,2 and 3 ecg questions thanks to this link...

Electrocardiogram (ECG, EKG) library (http://www.ecglibrary.com/)

please share it with other students

alice28
03-11-2009, 08:13 AM
alice,

I think you worked really hard and I admire you for such perseverance. Now its time to sit back and relax...wait for the great news. You will see your hard work will have paid off! God bless.

Dmikaila
Thanks a bunch Dmikaila for your best wishes! I am eagerly waiting for my result. I hope I get it today.:decision:

Molly44
03-21-2009, 10:20 AM
Congratulations, good luck

canal
03-23-2009, 07:26 AM
can you tell me how long it took you to prepare for ck? And did you take any time off from clinical rotations? thanks

usmedipro
05-22-2009, 10:40 AM
Friends, I am new to this forum, but have been a silent observer for a while. I am an FMG( graduated more than a decade ago) and totally out of touch with medicine ever since I came to the US 10 years ago (Right now, I have a teen age girl and a helpful and affectionate hubby to take care of. At some point in my life I decided to give a serious try for USMLE and see if "I can do it too" ! I took a kaplan video lecture course 2 years ago in my home country ( b' cus , honestly it was cheaper there), just to get into track. Read all the kaplan books once there and and then once after coming back to US 3 months later. Subscribed to usmleworld step 2 q bank. My husband was taking care of the application process in the meanwhile.
Oh my goodness gracious, I never dreamt in my whole life that there would be so many hurdles in the application to go throu just because of a stupid mistake of me changing my maiden name to married name after my marriage 15years ago! That was just a routine customary thingh to do at the time of marraige regt in my country. I had my brother-in law helping back there in my home country taking care of getting me the reqired letters and transcript from my not so co-operative college. He was dilly dallied from pillar to post before he could get all those done. Can you believe , by the time I got a date for the step 2 exam ,it was more than a year and a half. So finally I got the date for May 20th 2009 scheduled.( Took kaplan course in summer of 2007)
Then started the serious prep. I went through all the usmle world q's once, got a 63% average , all timed, unused. Then, when I just had 2 months to go, subscribed for new kaplan q bank and got a 62% ave all unused timed qs. Now I had 10 more days to go. My final prep was my own notes from the q banks and the usmleworld notes from the florida guy on some site and bunch of other notes that I found from various sites for most commonly asked topics. My husband was a great help in getting me all the materials gathered.
Did nbme forum 1 and forum 2 ( forum 1 last year summer: 248, forum 2, 1 month ago 233). Did prometric practice test at the center and scored 44/46, 43/46 and 41/46 in the 3 blocks ) 2weeks before and I felt kind of ready for the test.
Finally came the day, when I actually had to give the test. Previuos night I totally could'nt sleep because of the unconcious anxiety or may be ,my brain went to the awake mood a little prematurely instead of doing it on the day of the exam only.
Luckily I wasnt feeling sleepy, thanks to the energy drinks, but a little sluggish brain activity throu the 1st 2 blocks I guess because of fear. Time ran out before i finished the 43rd q and I became panicky.I took a 5 min break to gather my senses and resumed the block 2 ,feeling slightly better. Then after block 3, a 5 min break ,again after block 5 a 20 minute lunch break, thou I hardly ate any lunch because I wasn't feeling hungry at all. 2 cans of energy drinks( 1 was Rockstar and the 1 was ace I guess, not sure) a whole snickers bar,a kellogs protein shake and water kept me going through the day. I thanked God helping me to not feel sleepy that day, thou I had a totally sleepless night.
At times during the exam, I was doughting if I was doing step 1 instead of step 2 because there were tons of pathophysiolgy and basic mechanisms of disease process rather than trt and mngt. That kind of pissed me off. Over all I think I dint manage time so good because of the too long qs in most of the blocks.There were a good number of relatively short 4-5 liners too in some blocks. 5 audiovisuals and about 6-7 picture slides-not to mention atleast 30% step 1 qs. (I didnt do my step 1 exam yet)
At the end of the day I was just elated that I am finally done with the most dreaded 1st step of the looooooong process. Though I am not very sure if I did the best I could because I sure did a bunch of silly mistakes due to lack of sleep the prevoius night or improper time mngt or whatever, I now am so releived and I am totally praying to God to give me the boost and energy to keep going in my journey by giving me high 90s score which I have been aiming to get. I desperately need that because I am an old graduate and need to keep a lot of safety margin. Hope God answers my prayers as always He would for those who believe in Him.
Friends out here, please pray for me and I wil be very grateful to you all in this forum who have been a great source of encouragement to all out here! I will post my scores once I get in about 2-3 weeks time.
From my experiance, whatever you learn , do with a thorough understanding of the pathophysiology of the most commonly asked diseases as suggested by either kaplan or usmleworld(this one is much better value for its worth). And last few days ,just concentrate on reading notes. Try to have a good sleep and lots of enery bars and drinks on the day of the exam. It is do-able. Just have to be a little exam smart in time mngt .
See you all after my scores guys! Please pray for me. I am keeping you all in my prayers each and every day! Have a wonderful day!Happy Memorial Day weekend.I am going on a mini vacation!I deserve it. Dont I ?) May God bless us all!

usmedipro
06-10-2009, 08:03 PM
Thank God!

Got my Step2 result today. Its 234/97

Very Very Very happy!!!!!!!

Didn't get any sleep night before the exam. Couldn't answer 5 questions in first block and 1 question in another block due to lack of time & panic.
Took break after the first block to recover my self. Was worried a lot after the exam.


My advise would be not to panic during the exam. Learn relaxation techniques and time management.

Preparation time: 6months + 1 year break due to application/name change issues + 4 months before exam


Practice run:
NBME1 -630 (248) - one year before exam
NBME2 - 570 (233) - one month before exam
USMLE WORLD - 63% - one year before exam
Kaplan new QB - 62% - two weeks before exam

usmedipro
06-11-2009, 09:43 AM
Thank God!

Got my Step2 result today. Its 234/97

Very Very Very happy!!!!!!!

Didn't get any sleep night before the exam. Couldn't answer 5 questions in first block and 1 question in another block due to lack of time & panic.
Took break after the first block to recover my self. Was worried a lot after the exam.


My advise would be not to panic during the exam. Learn relaxation techniques and time management.

Preparation time: 6months + 1 year break due to application/name change issues + 4 months before exam


Practice run:
NBME1 -630 (248) - one year before exam
NBME2 - 570 (233) - one month before exam
USMLE WORLD - 63% - one year before exam
Kaplan new QB - 62% - two weeks before exam

I guess,usmleworld was a great source of learning tool. I did it once online paid service fully for 4 months about more than a year ago ,then after a year's break because application did't go throu due to inadequate evidence for name change from maiden to married name( heck of a trouble getting the required Dean's letter from my college before applying again-took 1 year for the application to go throu)),did offline qs usmleworld most of them, then did kaplan new qbank once .Did kaplan books 2006 only 1-2 times(only some topics twice),but that was in 2007. In 2009 my only source of study was the qbanks and the just notes for the last couple of weeks.
Above everything, I just feel so happy that God has helped me reach this score with all my prayers and with my husband,s full support.He was a tremendous source of motivation and support for me. I hope I can do the same for my step 1 and C.S. too.
Good luck to all the nice people here struggling to reach their goal!
Beleive in God and You can do it too!