Skip to main content

Abu Baker Sheikh.My Step 2 CK Experience: 246




Total preparation time:  Almost 3 months
Started my prep 20nd Dec and gave my exam on 9th March

·         I started my prep with Step 2 UW system wise and MTB 2. I use to read a system from MTB 2 really quick and use to do Questions from Step 2 UW. At the end of the day MTB 2 didn’t help a lot I made notes from Step 2 UW and it took me about 4 weeks to complete my first cycle of Step 2 UW. I used Step 2 UW as a learning tool and I would say it was my primary book because I made quite a few notes out of that Q bank.
·         Then in next 7 days I went through my UW notes try to get the concepts and memorize stuff.
·         Then I did random Question Step 2 UW again and surprisingly it took me only 14 days to complete my second cycle of Step 2 UW.
·         I gave my first NBME right after I completed my Step 2 UW twice, I gave NBME 6 got 260 online. It was an easy NBME but I thought it was a good start and a right choice of NBME to give as it build my confidence
·         After giving NBME and doing Step 2 UW twice I identify my weak areas and decided to work on that
·         I bought Step 3 UW and went through the Qs of my weak subjects there were about 1500 Qs and I did about half of the Q bank and one thing I will recommend when doing step 3 UW just be smart try to annotate only relevant stuff on your notes only make notes of those Qs that you think is really relevant to your CK and trust me step 3 UW really help me a lot in clearing quite a few concepts that were very vague in step 2 UW and it strengthen my psych biostats and ethics part too.
·         While I was doing step 3 UW I was doing CMS questions simultaneously of my weak subjects I did psych, obs gyne and surgery questions only. Although CMS question stems are not that good but overall the concepts which they deliver really helps you. I use to verify the answers by using up to date as we all know CMS answers are bit out dated and some of them contradicts the current guidelines and that really helped.
·         Well after doing this I gave my UWSA form 1 I got 254 and felt confident so I schedule the date for my exam in next 10 days.
·         So in last 10 days I stick to my notes which I made out of step 2 UW , step 3 UW and CMS questions
·         Gave my UWSA form 2 got 262 5 days before exam
·         And 2 days before exam I gave NBME 7 and got 248 which was my closest predictor.
EXAM DAY:
I was nervous I live in Lubbock Texas but got my centre in Amarillo it was about 2 hrs drive in the morning so I couldn’t get enough sleep due to anxiety.
The Exam I thought was a mixture of UWSA form 1 and form 2. Stems were not that lengthy to be very honest
There were Questions testing step 1 knowledge like pathophysiology, histology and psych.
My exam had a lot of ethics Qs, psych Qs, a lot of gyne obs and surgery I use to search for IM Questions :P
Overall I thought exam was hard it was not that simple but it was very much doable there was no timing issue for me although I missed abstract Questions just because I couldn’t get what they were talking about.
I had 318 Qs in total. In last block I was exhausted made some blunders and after giving my exam I thought I will get score in early 230s.
The only thing If I could have done more was to read my F.A of step 1 once before starting for CK preparatiom. I gave my step 1 in august last year so was having bit of issue with recall.
Also one more advice when you start to hit your desire target score in nbmes/uwsa just feel confident and schedule your exam you’ll be fine for sure. On exam day it’s all about confidence.
This is my experience and these are all suggestions for you guys choose what’s suits your nature and integrate that in your part of study plan and best of luck to everyone. This group really helped me a lot I made my own study plan choosing what suits me after reading through all the amazing people who were kind enough to share their experiences.
And If you need any help or I missed any Question feel free to contact I’m always there to help and respond because I have been through the same journey and I know how it feels and I hope all of us match in our desire field of residency this coming year and remember me in your prayers.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

RESIDENCY INTERVIEW EVALUATION FORM

I have attached a sample evaluation form that is used to evaluate applicants during an interview. You can score a theoretical maximum of 120 points. Let’s discuss it in detail: 1) USMLE Scores (2 to 10 points): After you get the interview, your scores do matter but not to the same extent as interview skills! You can score 10 points provided you have great scores which correspond to >=245 on step 1 and >=253 on CK. Step 3 is not mentioned on the form and its importance varies depending on the specialty that you are applying and the program. For e.g. Psychiatry places a great weightage on step 3 while IM is not that rigid about step 3. 2) Medical Knowledge (other than USMLE scores) (0 to 10 points): When you are asked any clinical question, this is where your clinical experience will help you. A person who has strong clinical experience will nail this section vs. a person who does not have clinical experience will not be able to create an impression in this section. 3) Me...
Post a Comment
Read more

MY Step 2 CK Experience 284 Medhat Farwati

Dear (future) Doctors, I am Medhat Farwati, a Syrian graduate from Aleppo University, Faculty of Medicine. Hereby I share with you my experience with Step 2 CK. 1. Score: 284 2. Self-assessments: UWSA 1: 273 (2 months out) UWSA 2: 276 ( 1 week out) NBME 7: 277 (1 week out) NBME 8: 280 (3 days out) 3. Preparation time: After I was done with Step 1, I moved to the US as a postdoctoral research fellow. As such, I realized it is going to be challenging to navigate my research du ties, US rotations, Step 2 CS exam, and Step 2 CK preparation. Collectively, the actual preparation time for CK was 12 months with an average studying time ranging from 4 hours a day for the first 10 months to 8 hours a day for the last 2 months prior to my exam. 4. Materials used: UW Step 2 CK (x3) UW Step 3 (x2) Kaplan Q bank (x1) Internal Medicine Essentials Q bank De Virgilio (surgery textbook) Up to date and Medscape Google, YouTube, and Siri 😊 UW Step 2: Your baseline. Most people preparing for CK rega...
1 comment
Read more

Step 1-238

Hello guys, I want to share my experience as a gratitude for all the people that shared their step 1 journey before .For me all the stories posted in this group gave me strength to continue and became my guidelines in a process from I didn’t know anything about.  Started with Kaplan lecture notes except for pathology. Then I watched all Kaplan 2014 videos except for pathology. Then I did Pathoma and gave my first FA read along with DIT videos, it made it easier to digest the book. Then I solved Usmle Rx and jumped straight to Uworld , first pass timed random mode score 62 % and after that I made it second time 85%. I felt confident with the knowledge I had but not with my test taking skills because I made online nbme 15 with a score of 213 and a lot of silly mistakes so I decided to do Kaplan qbank timed random mode( score 77%). I felt is very strong in anatomy and physiology concepts. After that I started to make more nbmes and I realize that my weakness was test taking skill...
1 comment
Read more