USMLE Made Easy

The purpose of my writing this document is to do two things First, tell you what worked out for me. Second, inspire you to make it work for you. Whatever I did to match was nothing new. I did almost the same steps as all of you did. Most of this is going to be a search for you to find something different that I did. Sparing a few details here and there. The details presented in this document are a culmination of all that I saw, I heard and I learnt in the entire process. I matched into a super competitive specialty not because I had high scores but because all my coaches were the right people. I would also like to state that I look at my match as a sign of hope to everyone who was told they cannot match for any reason. My USMLE Profile: IMG decent scores, All steps Passed first attempt, Step 3 passed while in the Interview Season, 4 Observerships, 1 month research experience (volunteer) 1 US publication, Seven other publications, Book co authored chapters Volunteer experience ...

Score: 244 Status: 5th year of med school Dedicated study period: 2 Months Hi, I've been following this amazing group (step 1 preparation forum) for 2 years and I've learnt alot here. So I'd like to give something back. If you're in 1/2/3 year of Med School and interested in steps, this post is for you. Sources Used: (From most important to least ones) 1. Uworld, First Aid, Pathoma (Really all you need) 2. Sketchy Micro and Pharm (Most Underrated source!!!) 3. Randy Neill MD on youtube for Biostat 4. Shelf Notes for Anatomy 5. 100 Cases for Ethics 6. Kaplan 2014 for all other subjects (The Pathoma-like section of this post is over, here comes the Goljan like part  :p ) I've been an average student all throughout my med school. I won't bore you with the details of what exactly went down, but here's the timeline: 1st/2nd Year: I did Nothing. The only advice here for you is to do something  :p  For now, you should just focus on making good con...

Finally after 1year and 4 months of study preparation I’m sharing my study experience in this group. I was an average student during University and that cost me this long time of preparation, due to my weak basic science bases. If you are studying for this exam for more than 1 year and feeling exhausted, depressed and stressed for it I can totally understand you but please try to put those feelings aside you and keep pushing yourself toward the end. STUDY SOURCES: - Kaplan books (x3 - 1 time only kaplan books along with videos and the other 2 times along with first aid and videos) and videos (x3). Even when some people say this is not important I think they are important for building concepts if you were average student and if you read them more than one time you will realize that many of the things that Kaplan books said is on the explanation of uworld answers. - Firs Aid (x2 along with kaplan books) - Question banks: Kaplan (I highly recommend start with kaplan bank before Uwor...

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...

First of all I want to thank Allah Almighty for achieving my goal. I have been an average student in my medical years and never in a million years i thought i would even take steps let alone score 252. And typing a review was just as much unlikely for me to do ( my friends will attest to that)but just to give back to the online community which helped me so much i am writing this. Hopefully it will help someone score more and achieve their desired schedules. Sources Used (From most important to least one) 1) Uworld (For Step 1 & Biostats review) , FA 2017 ,KAPLAN NOTES 2016 2) Kaplan Videos 3) Pathoma videos and Book 4)Board and beyond videos for Biostats and epidemiology 5) 100 Cases by Conrad Fischer 6) FA express videos (All) Lets dive into how I prepared for my exams . It took me 11 months after completing my house job to prepare for them. Before I started I didn’t have enough concepts about subjects that meant i had to start from scratch. For that i started kaplan and...

 SUMMARY: - Step 2 CK (June 2017): 252. Experience can be found on the USMLE Step 2 Study Group. - Step 1 (May 2018): o Prep time: 6 months concentrated o Resources: UW + FA mainly. Selected topics from pathoma, BRS physiology, and immunology (details down below). o Assessments  NBMEs (all within 50 days from exam date)  NBME 5 offline: 21 mistakes  NBME 6 offline: 15 mistakes  NBME 7 offline: 12 mistakes  NBME 14 offline: 14 mistakes  NBME 15 offline: 14 mistakes  NBME 16 online: 255  NBME 17 online: 244  UWSA (1 week before exam, both done on same day)  UWSA 1: 269  UWSA 2: 269 o FINAL SCORE: 264 I graduated in 2016 from Palestine. I just want to remind whoever is reading this that I had done my Step 2 before Step 1, so for those who are starting with Step 1, please keep that in mind. Step 2 CK helped me tremendously with pathophysiology, pharmacology, ethics, biostats, and psychiatry. My partner and I started dedicated prep in October 2017. We ran twice (roughly...

a brief intro: I believe the ultimate goal of any   USMLE Step 1 prep should be to fully UNDERSTAND and memorize First aid and Uworld. Whatever you use down the road to achieve that is up to you.   First aid is PACKED and probably has >90% of what you need to know. But it takes alot of effort to master it and the concepts it has so never underestimate it or the time it needs. Every word in first aid can be turned into an 8 lines question. Just keep that in mind while studying.   The remaining 10% depend on your previous   knowledge, luck, your exam taking skills (how good you are with excluding wrong answers without knowing what the right answer is). My experience: I started my dedicated prep in May 2016, it took me around 1 year and 3 months. Most of which was during fifth year. May-September:   first read; approximate daily studying hours: 10. o    Kaplan   (Biochem 2014, Pharma 2010, Anatomy and Neuroanatomy 2014...

Personal statements are an important part of your application to residency programs in the United States. A personal statement is intended to complement your other qualifications by allowing you to express who you are and why you are applying to residency. This is your opportunity to discuss your passion for medicine and/or your chosen specialty, why you want to practice medicine in the United States, important milestones that have happened to you thus far, and your goals for the future. The personal statement should show what kind of person and physician you are and wish to become. The following guidelines are derived from what program directors and staff have told us they do and do not like to see in an applicant’s personal statement. ECHO Do's DO describe your passion for and commitment to medicine and patient care. Other documents in your application, such as your curriculum vitae (CV) and transcripts, may describe your education and experience in medicine thus far. ...

For all future Internal Medicine rockstars, here are my 2 cents for rocking your residency! (Warning: Looong post  :)  ) 1) ASK! ASK! ASK questions! You're not expected to know everything, and it's your seniors' job to teach you. Don't worry about feeling stupid - most if not all of your intern colleagues feel the same way that you do (and are as afraid as you are!) 2) On the first day of any rotation, ask your senior resident and your attending if they have any specific expectations for you - should you have your notes ready before rounds, etc. 3) Never let another doctor perform a procedure on your patient that you should be learning to do. By that, I mean that while it's okay to let nurses draw venous blood/start IVs in most circumstances, you should be doing your own ABGs, arterial lines, CVCs, paras/thoras, LPs whenever possible. 4) To that end, be the most accountable person on the team for your patient. You should know everything about your pati...