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Ishtiaq Hussain : MY USMLE STEP 2 CK EXPERIENCE



Exam Date: 1st june
Score: 253
Prep time: 6 months
My background: I am resident Internal Medicine in my home country .Already done with step 1 last year in January. My Total preparation time was 11 months with average 3-4 hours per day study with last 1 & half month full time study with 8-10 hours per day
Sources Used:
1.Uworld ck mainly
2.Mtb 2 (only IM)
3.CMS (OBGYN,Paeds,Surgery,Psychiatry)
4.uptodate (for difficult Qs in Cms & occasionally for few topics not cleared from Uw but didn’t revise any of them )
5.uw 3 (dermatology once,paeds once)
Study Plan:
Unceratain period: First couple of months were like in confusion for me as I wasn’t able to select appropriate sources for my self.Although my class fellows who had recently taken the exam with high scores very firmly advised me to focus on uworld only but inspite of their advise I started with Mtb 2,3 & Kaplan IM. Reading a system in Kaplan book, then reading the same system in mtb 2 & 3 & annotating whatever was extra in Kaplan & mtb 3 to mtb 2. I continued this for a few systems but then soon I realized that this is wastage of time. So I
stopped this & switched to uworld. Also did Kaplan qbank for few systems.
Uworld first read: uworld first read was quite difficult as it always is. Reading different concepts,new guidelines were taking a lot of time & energy. As I was also having my residency duties along so I used to get 4 hours average per day & those 4 hours too weren’t with much focus. I used to get frustrated a lot in between because of the tough routine in ward & then giving time to my ck study daily but I continued my study anyway.So I started uw first read with mtb 2 for IM. I would study a system from mtb 2 & then solve that same system from uworld. In this way I finished IM in about 2 & half months.Paeds,OBGYN,Surgery I did only from Uw; no other source at all. These took about 1 & half months. Didnt do biostat, ENT,EYE, preventive medicine till last month of my prep.
Method of study: My method of study was to give read only without taking any notes.I used to study in pdf where I would read the whole explanation while among the answer choices explanation I highlighted the one with some new or very important points & would revise those highlighted only in the subsequent reads to save time.In the second read of uw I started copying whole explanations from pdf to Microsoft word with highlighted options as well. I did this for paeds & some systems of Internal Medicine but it was time consuming so didn’t do it for other subjects. I wasn’t very much satisfied with my method of study but didn’t have any other choice so continued like this.
Uworld 2nd read & CMS:
In second read I was quite tensed coz it was about 6th month of my prep & I was feeling like I am doing it for
the first time with very little memory of the first read. In the mean time I got a study partner who was interested in doing cms together so we started from surgery & then did paeds 2 blocks (rest did alone) & Psychiatry. we solved cms with difficult qs from uptodate as well. I never revised the stuff of uptodate. The timing of solving cms should be after 3rd or 4 th read to apply the uworld knowledge as well as to save time from searching extra sources when actually you have those explanations in uworld. This read took about 3 months. In the second read I would try to memorize the stuff & would go ahead. I took nbme 3 offline in which I got 225.I wasn’t happy with this score & got a bit frustrated but then re organized my self & started uw revision with emphasis on weak areas.
3rd Read :Again I started uw revision in offline mode
With same style, reading the explanations & highlighted options & trying to consolidate the stuff.This read was a
bit better with retention of stuff better than the previous reads & less time consumption. This read took about 2 months.
At this satage I took nbme 6 online & got 236. It was a bit encouraging but still not that good.So started revising weak areas again.
4 th read: This read was mainly focused on weak areas from last nbme & revising the whole uw.
I went for nbme 7 online which was quite difficult & again got 236.As nbme 7 underpredicts the real score so I was happy with this score.
Now I took 1 month subscription of uworld & started in timed tutor mode subject wise.I did few systems of IM & revised OBGYN, surgery, biostat ck(first & only read) & went for uwsa 1, 2 weeks before exam& got 273.This was a very good score & I was very happy with it.I
continued revising remaining uw online & took uwsa 2 after 1 week. It was hell difficult & I got extremely nervous in first block left 3 qs unattempted due to time shortage & was so scared that I was going to quit the exam but then reoraganised myself & completed the test any way with 2 more qs left unattempted. My score dropped to 248.I started Fred 150 Qs after a short break & got 87 % (13 wrong).At this stage I felt that I need another full revision of uw to stabilize my scores but due to unavoidable reasons I couldnt delay my exam any more.so in last 3 days I revised uw tables only & went for the exam.
Exam day: I had a good sleep at night so was feeling fresh in the morning. First few blocks were pretty easy & Qs were very similar to uw/uwsa 1 concept wise as well as in lenghth. Time management was good with 4-5 minutes remaining in every block.70-80% of exam was based on uw concepts while the remaining 20% was
very difficult where I used uw knowledge & did exclusion upto the best of my knowledge. Till 6 th block I was ok but after that extreme fatigue started & I was doing mistakes because of the fatigue.I did some easy mistakes ; few were from first aid step 1 & many others were from uw which were the main reason for my drop in actual exam score.Ethics Qs were very difficult, did them by exclusion & educated guesses. As I did biostate Ck only once in my whole prep so I didn’t waste time on its Qs & just quickly solved them with educated guesses. There were few Qs from First Aid 1 with calculations.
Step 1 stuff was very little & limited to few Qs only.
Recommendations:
I would recommend following:
1.There are a lot of suggestions on the forums regarding best sources for ck but In my opinion these sources are
not for everyone. Following is the order of different sources I would recommend based on target score:
 230-240 target score:uw more than enough with cms if time allows.
 240-260:A very thorough study of uw with mastering each & every concept can take u to 260.can do cms & uw 3 only after mastering uw with cms better if time is short.
 >260: master uw & then do cms,uw 3 thoroughly with Kaplan q bank if time allows.
2.take notes from uw topic wise which helps a lot in the last few days of prep.Dont substitute notes for uworld reads, they should be apart from the notes revision.
3.try to revise uw tables during different reads so that they are firmly consolidated in your brain before going to exam.
4.Do uworld along with Qs at least 4-5 times which helps in familiarizing with uworld pattern of disease presentations & really helps in time management in real exam.
5.prioritize the sources with uworld on top & keep in mind that couple of reads aren’t enough to master uworld & uworld covers most of the exam.
6. Do ethics from uw 3 & mtb 2,3…
7.Dont worry about the very difficult Qs in real exam they will not affect your score(upto 255-260) but the doable Qs from uw concepts will affect your score if you get them wrong. So focus on those moderate to difficult Qs instead of worrying about very difficult ones.
8.Usmle is a tough path with a lot of sacrifice & hard work required so patience & perseverance is key to get your desired score.
Best Of Luck To You All.
Remember Me In Your Prayers

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