first of all let me thank god and say elhamdlelah for getting this score... and then i want to thank my parents and family for all the support and good wishes during my prep period.

i studied for 4 mo and used kaplan for int med, surgery, peds and ob-gyn. i did it 3 times and supplemented them with uw.

come exam day, i was so nervous and i felt that i knew nothing and i felt the exam was too hard.
after the exam i was so depressed and couldn't get to do anything for 3 mo ... but thank god all went well

First of all congratulations. Very good score.
Can you tell us about your nbme socres

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I started out with nothing, and I still have most of it.

i did nbme 1, 1 mo before the exam,i scored 620
nbme 2, 2 weeks before the exam i scored 600.
uw world score 68%

can u please telll us wat studying materials u used?.. first aid?

for int med, surgery,psych, ob-gyn i used kaplan.
i read the materials three times:
first time, it was just like test driving a new car
second time, it was the major studying round with lots of note taking and writing them on flashcards.
the third time was just reviewing and trying to memo the info on my homemade flashcards.
during that time, i relied heavily on UW. weither i did whole exams of 43Q or when i wanted to do small quizes of 10 Q.
trust me it's a very impo resource but the thing i learned from my experience during the exam is not to expect the questions to be EXACTLY LIKE UW. the way people talk about UW, they make it seem that you'll find the exact questions in the exam.

i also used crush step 2. it's an awesome book and has a way to connect info so that you'll remember them. so my advice is, study kaplan veeeeeeeeeeeery well, solve all of uw questions, complement with crush, and most impo: on the day of exam stay cool, focused and don't be swayed by difficult questions.
as you probably know it's an exam of endurance more than pure knowledge and i wish you all the best.

Blackwolverine,
Congrats on such a great score! And thanks for sharing your studying strategies
My question for you is: Did you complete all your core rotations before giving step 2 CK? I was thinking of giving my exam without OB/GYN and Surgery (plan to just do Kaplan really well for those 2 cores and the rest of them)... what do you think?

Thanks in advance!

i'd love to get opinions on that question as well. i was hoping to take it late august when i'll be finishing off either peds or surgery. thanks!

hey i was wondering did u just use kaplan to study or did u refer to the main books also for that subject. is it enough to just study from kaplan books??

hi,
well yes i finished all my core rotations before sitting for the exam.
my advice to you is read kaplan for ob-gyn (and every other subject for that matter) veeeeeeeeeery well. i can't stress it enough.
my exam had a lot of ob-gyn questions and kaplan saved my skin many times. the other thing, keep solving questions and make uw work in your favor. i mean if u get something wrong, read the explanation very well and you'll see that when presented with a similar question, you'll solve it.
best of luck on your exam and take care.

only kaplan ... but with ob-gyn i read blueprints before it.
but kaplan was my main source of power. don't waste your time with main books. very time consuming and low yield for the exam.