I have been a silent observer of this forum and have found it somewhat comforting to witness others who have been agonizing over the process of becoming ECFMG certified along with myself. I received my score report and was pleasantly surprised by my 247/99.

How I accomplished this was by extreme focus for 2months of nothing but sustained effort towards digesting the material day and night. I studied from 9am-ish til about 1-2am-ish daily with no days off. It was grueling but by the time my exam date rolled around I was ready to get it over with. I initially read First Aid and Boards and Wards once through like novels and used them as reference and toilet material throughout. My main focus was on the Kaplan notes which I completely devoured. Read them at least twice, if not three times. I always made notes and attempted to mentally revise each section after having read it. I did questions from CTB but found them to be too easy, especially after I signed up for Q bank and saw that there was no similarity between them. I started Qbank 1 month prior to my exam and initially scored between 70-74 and as I neared the end of my studies I was scoring between 86-92. I also did both NBME practice tests in the timed mode..as I did all questions in timed mode. I scored 630/1 and 530/2. I didn't pay attention to these forums until I after I took my exam so I was never exposed to the questions prior. I recommend that you review every question that you do regardless of whether you got it right or wrong. I learned a tremendous amount from this technique. This test is completely do-able. I had an average of 6-10 minutes left at the end of each block to review. It was tight but I was ready for the time constraint..this is key. It is simply a race that has to be trained for appropriately..and when you do so the rest just flows. Good luck.

Hey Congrats ! A job very well done. I have a Q: What was your cumulative score on UW? I too intend to devote only 2 mths. to this exam. Your hardwork and schedule is Inspirational ! Thanks....

Thanks...I actually did not use UW q's...I cannot speak on them..I felt that Kaplan Qbank was an adequate resource if used properly and thoroughly (review all Q's and take notes). I also used Qbook but not did not finish..but I found that there was some valuable info in the Question review as well. For example, there was info on the porphyrias that is not found in the Lecture notes. As well I did some quesiotns from the Brochert book and initially it was helpful to get my feet wet..but eventually you realize as one friend of mine put it "these are the feel-good questions of the year". These Q's are good for review but they don't require you to do any secondary thinking. The actual test requires for you to take that extra step in your thought process. Best representation are the NBME practice tests...do yourself a favor and don't review any of them on the forum prior to taking the test..and do them timed. I did form 1 - one week prior to testing ..and form 2 - 3days prior. Best advice is memorize Lecture notes as best as possible ..and you'll be fine. Hope this helps ..good luck.

Again, must be the 10th person I read today that has scores of 99/240+.

It's unfortunate that you are so leary of the people posting on these forums...many many people score 99/240+ on these exams...and I'm just speaking of my classmates alone. But if you chose to beleive that these are overinflated #'s, then I'm sure you will limit your possibilities and eventually your reality...hope it doesn't always suck to be you

just got my results in step 1 and i want to start for step2 ,please can any one tell the sources that i should use & approximate time for it ,am planning for 2007 match .thank you

Please refer to initial thread in regards to timeline and books...essentially all you need is Kaplan for the meat and First Aid, CTB, Google searchs, Qbank, NBME practice tests, extreme focus for 2-3 months and you can crush the test..good luck.

wHAT IS CTB

Crush the Boards--Adam Brochert--Author ..he also puts out a question book with similar title not exact..