took test-here's my experience w/ GOOD advice

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took test-here's my experience w/ GOOD advice

Author

10 Posts

MDplumber
Forum Newbie

Topics: 3
Posts: 4

07/20/04 - 05:39 PM

Step 2 was a difficult exam and I would have to say Kaplan Qbank is definitely much easier than the exam. I even thought that the practice NBME exam on CD was even easier than Kaplan.

If you want to best practice for the test, do USMLE WORLD, and do it well. Write down in a notebook all of your missed questions and review it again and again.

The test is proportionally balanced. I always hear this b.s. from people saying "I had so many Psych questions", or "I had so many OBGYN questions." Remember that people naturally tend to remember the "hard" questions and will skew their own thinking into the "hard" subjects as appearing more on the test. That said, the test is as balanced as it is...majority internal medicine, next majority is peds and then OBGYN.

As to the type of questions, the majority i noticed were not pathology questions but "the next step in management" or "the best diagnostic" or "the best screening" test. Focus on these aspects for study.

if you have any questions ask me. I had a tough time for this exam and I really don't know how well I did, but i'm glad its over.

genyagyn
Forum Newbie

Topics: 6
Posts: 23

07/20/04 - 06:20 PM

What was your score when you did usmleworld q?

anne
Forum Elite

Topics: 41
Posts: 348

07/20/04 - 06:36 PM

MDplumber,
Thanx for sharing your experience.Wish you all the best for the result.

mnhakeem
Forum Senior

Topics: 19
Posts: 90

07/20/04 - 06:47 PM

Dear
i hope u pass the exam i'm preparing for it . i'm immigrant and i just finished step1 .
When u did yr step2 exam, did u finish ur medical school and where????

aish
Forum Junior

Topics: 3
Posts: 74

07/20/04 - 07:00 PM

Thanks for sharing, best of luck with your result!

MDplumber
Forum Newbie

Topics: 3
Posts: 4

07/20/04 - 07:39 PM

I averaged 70% on kaplan qbank and I averaged 59% on USMLE world. I got an 82% on the practice NBME CD. The reason i took step 2 early was because I did not do as well on step 1 as i had hoped. I had one month to study because I finished my OBGYN rotation in June--I'm a 4th year now and took july off to study. 2 more weeks and I start my gen surg rotation.

As far as books, I used first aid and Secrets for step2 (which by the way is the exact same book as Crush for the Boards--written by Brochert) I just liked the Secrets version because its in a question and answer format as opposed to another boring bullet information review book. I'll be honest and say that First Aid is not a very good text because it does not discuss "next best management" or "best test to do"; it simply lists all the tests you can do. Secrets (or Crush) was an excellent book and I highly recommend that. Other than that I didnt use any other books--i just had my 3rd year clerkships to help me out. I also did shell out the extra bucks for the kaplan live lecture series which I highly recommend--very high yield and I learned a lot of concepts I would never have picked up through reading a text as well as concepts I did not learn while on the wards

best of luck. I'm off to partying tonight

doctorjha
Forum Senior

Topics: 13
Posts: 100

07/21/04 - 12:33 AM

Thanks for ur exam experience. Did you get questions from USMLEWORLD qbank? I am scoring 57% in those banks and I am following ur suggestion of writing down the mistakes. But, if the questions come that hard, I would better extend my date as I will be taking exam in a month :roll:

ampicillin
Forum Newbie

Topics: 4
Posts: 32

08/17/04 - 09:12 AM

any news on you r test yet?? I hop eyou did good.
Question: Did you get thru the entire KAplan and Usmleworld in July. If so , how many questions did you have to do per day?

Noky
Forum Newbie

Topics: 2
Posts: 17

08/22/04 - 08:58 AM

"MDplumber" wrote:
I averaged 70% on kaplan qbank and I averaged 59% on USMLE world. I got an 82% on the practice NBME CD. The reason i took step 2 early was because I did not do as well on step 1 as i had hoped. I had one month to study because I finished my OBGYN rotation in June--I'm a 4th year now and took july off to study. 2 more weeks and I start my gen surg rotation.

As far as books, I used first aid and Secrets for step2 (which by the way is the exact same book as Crush for the Boards--written by Brochert) I just liked the Secrets version because its in a question and answer format as opposed to another boring bullet information review book. I'll be honest and say that First Aid is not a very good text because it does not discuss "next best management" or "best test to do"; it simply lists all the tests you can do. Secrets (or Crush) was an excellent book and I highly recommend that. Other than that I didnt use any other books--i just had my 3rd year clerkships to help me out. I also did shell out the extra bucks for the kaplan live lecture series which I highly recommend--very high yield and I learned a lot of concepts I would never have picked up through reading a text as well as concepts I did not learn while on the wards

best of luck. I'm off to partying tonight

md plummer could you tell us how can we get the NMBE CD.
tHANKS IN ADVANCE

neelgalt
Forum Newbie

Topics: 1
Posts: 6

09/01/04 - 08:01 PM

#10

Hi!

Is CMDT necessary...? If it is and if u have a time crunch how to go about it?

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