sarika
Forum Guru
Topics: 195
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| | 04/06/07 - 01:06 AM
2 of 2 forum leaders found this post helpful
| #1 |
Its just my personal experience and impression of this exam so many wouldnt agree with me and thats okay.
When i started preparing for this exam i was reading posts that exam is getting harder and more difficult each passing day. Ofcourse i was confused. I gave myself unrealistic timeline of 3 months. As i have a toddler who is home all day, only time i used to get to study alone was at night for 4-5 hrs. My first advice DONT SET UNREALISTIC GOALS THEY ONLY BRING YOU DOWN.
So i started my first reading with kaplan notes 2004-2005 which took about 40 days. After that i did questions from UW (which i had in book format) and scored between 55-60 but these scores mean nothing as it wasnt timed or mixed. I would do questions during the day and read during the night. Pretty soon i realized i knew nothing. I stopped doing questions and started second reading of KAplan notes with doing UW only after i finish one subject. But this time around, i also started adding notes from UW and KAplan to my FIRSTAID.( just 2 - 3 word sentences not paragraphs) After that i took NBME 2 and scored 440. I was depressed as this was the time i had decided to take the exam. I postponed and read Kaplan notes again but now with concentration and an intent to memorize key facts. Ii did kaplan QBOOK scored around 70%. Thinking i'm ready, i took NBME form 3 and scored 460. I felt so awful i almost gave up the dream of scoring high, thinking with a child running around you all day, its impossible! I postponed again.
People started posting that exam questions are much longer now so i decided to take kaplan qbank to practice time management. Since i hadnt done any QBANk online, it was a very good experience and i would mostly finish my blocks 10 min before time. (always 46 q's mixed timed mode. i was scoring around 74-85). I would do two blocks at night, straight from 9-11 and then took small notes from them and added to my firstaid. I had set the date for feb 28th but panicked in the end and Finally took my exam on march 6th. In the last 10 days, i read that added firstaid almost 3 times.
Exam seemed pretty straight forward to me. Questions were longer than step 1 but it was expected. ALthough i realized later on, longer questions were usually due to lab values and X-RAys rather than paragraphs. To compensate those, i had many many shorter 3-4 liners so time management wasnt a big problem. Mind starts to shut down towards the end so try to practice doing QBANKS back to back.
Mistakes i made during both steps were
1.I kept on flipping pages thinking i was doing my FIRST READING. Well thats just a waste of time. Read with the mindset that you are reading it for the LAST TIME. Try to memorize Key FACTS otherwise you will be just going round and round in circles wasting precious time.
2. NBME score:Happened to me twice so i can positively tell you this. In both steps my NBMe score was less than my actual score (step 1 nbme form2: 470, nbme form4: 470, ACTUAL EXAM score was 92) .Step 2 Nbme form2: 440, NBME form3: 470 but actual score is 94. Why...well i CONSOLIDATED my studies in the last 10-15 days...kept revising FIRSTAID again and again!
I always had problem with memorizing things, but if something has a logic i have no problem with that. And that was my weak area. Once i covered that i was okay!
3. They definitely ask common stuff in detail. Know everything about them and how to differentiate one from another. Dont waste time on rare diseases complicated questions but you must know your basics! Read pathophysiology and immunology from firstaid step 1. Screening tests were asked again and again. No biostats so dont waste time on probability and Confidence interval stuff.( i had a question about confidence interval in 8th block. i laughed at it marked choice c and moved on)
4.Remember when someone describes an exam as easy or hard, it not only depends upon their preparation but more importantly EXPECTATIONS! I am an average student so i expected i will be 100% sure about half of the exam and will leave the rest on educated guess. When a very Bright student takes this exam, they probably expect they would be sure about 90% of the exam and sometimes they are not and they say exam was difficult. So the difficulty of the exam is relative.
Again this was just my personal opinion. Goodluck to all of you. Feel free to ask anything!
Edited by sarika on 04/06/07 - 01:20 AM
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| doctor_80
Forum Senior
Topics: 7
Posts: 36
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Hi Sarika,
Thanx a million for such a nice discription of step 2 monster. I am going through same feelings and uncertainity that you have mentioned.
I will really appreciate if you could let me know what to do in last 2 weeks before exam .
Thanks and wish U all the best for residency.
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| docnikki
Forum Guru
Topics: 93
Posts: 680
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Dear sarika Many many Congratulations for the awesome score!!!
this is the best exam experience I have ever read. I can imagine myself as you and doing the same. I really wanted a piece of advise that now adays Im asking everyone.
I have done UW once subj wise and not aalways timed and made notes which I later revised 3 times. My exam is in may 31st, I feel I have time to do kaplan q bank online..which Im going to buy today to practice time management. wanted to ask..shall I do q bank mixed or subj wise( we learn more in subj wise but get real exam practice with mixed..) I want to make best use of online Q abnk and my time since both are equally costly. I also want to review my kaplan stuff this month..so will it be ok if I go subj by subj in kaplan notes and do mixed quest every night from q bank or subj by subj in q bank also? I also wanted to repeat all the UW quest later maybe in May 1st week and ofcourse thats going to be mixed quest timed mode as thats going to be close to my exam. Im panicking alot as to how to use online Q bank ..how many days it will take..
plz do aadvise.
thanks alot.
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| mano
Forum Senior
Topics: 25
Posts: 92
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sarika, thank you for the experience and congrats on the excellent scores. how long did u take for thw whole preocess? my exam is early may and i dont feel ready at all. i just did kaplan 2nd time ( still doing it) havent read fa and in the last stages of finishing uw untimed and mixed. i am taking notes which takes a long time. what do i do?
how long will fa take to go over? thanks in advance.
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| jamdoc
Forum Elite
Topics: 30
Posts: 244
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thanks a lot for sharing ur experience.can u pls tell me how useful is first aid in stp2.lot of people say its not good as for stp1?
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| snowdrops
Forum Senior
Topics: 5
Posts: 135
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Hi, sarika:
Can you tell me if it is necessary to do Qbank? I finished UW, I am not sure whether or not I should subscribe Kaplan Qbank to practice time-management skill. Please give me some advice.
Thank you!
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| ing
Forum Guru
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Posts: 435
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thanks Sarika. All the best.
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Never give up!!
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| mitty
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Thank you sarika for taking time to give us this valuable advice.And I wish you all the best!!
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He will make it happen.
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| sarika
Forum Guru
Topics: 195
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hi everyone thanks .
to doctor_80: in the last 10 days i started with reading educational objectives from UW but after 2days i stopped doin it and concentrated only on firstaid.
to docnikki: in my opinion, you should do it mixed, timed and two back to back. this will prepare you best for the exam.
to:mano i started studying 15th sept 06 but then FASTING month started so got slowed down and then in oct took a trip out of state so that also disrupted the schedule. so i would say all in all it was atleast 4.5 months. Ten days would be fine for firstaid.
to jamdoc: I think firstaid's new edition is pretty good. Firstaid saved me twice so i would recommend firstaid to everyone. but ofcourse it depends on your own style of studying.
to snowdrops: If you have done Usmleworld online, mixed and timed then i guess KAPLAN QBANK is not an absolute must. But if you have extra time and money, then go for it.
Goodluck everyone. We will pray for your success!
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| snowdrops
Forum Senior
Topics: 5
Posts: 135
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Thank you for your advice, sarika!
Best wish for your next exam!
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| Dr.Luck
Forum Senior
Topics: 12
Posts: 225
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hey sarika...awesome girl!!!....CONGRATS!!! 
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| Shaina
Forum Elite
Topics: 23
Posts: 239
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Sarika,thanks alot for wonderful feeling i needed that,it looks so simple to think from ur way.GL
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| docnikki
Forum Guru
Topics: 93
Posts: 680
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thanks sarika. thanks alot.
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| asha kamat
Forum Senior
Topics: 12
Posts: 101
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Good luck to you in your future endeavor, and thanks for posting your experience.
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| npas
Forum Senior
Topics: 8
Posts: 198
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hi Sarika..U have given some real good advices..thanku very much..all the best for ur future
npas
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| spitmetal
Forum Guru
Topics: 25
Posts: 635
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really nice post THANKS 
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NEVER REGRET IF U DID YOUR BEST--"THE PEOPLE WHO CAN'T DO SOMETHING WILL KEEP SAYING THAT YOU CAN'T DO IT.....BUT REMEMBER YOU CAN DO IT!!" by Dr. Luck a member of this forum
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| spitmetal
Forum Guru
Topics: 25
Posts: 635
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sarika when u are done with cs please post your experience
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NEVER REGRET IF U DID YOUR BEST--"THE PEOPLE WHO CAN'T DO SOMETHING WILL KEEP SAYING THAT YOU CAN'T DO IT.....BUT REMEMBER YOU CAN DO IT!!" by Dr. Luck a member of this forum
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| neuroblastoma
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Thanks Sarika
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| drgeneration
Forum Newbie
Topics: 7
Posts: 34
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hi sarika,
congratulations! could you please suggest where to buy kaplan notes?
thanks very much
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| nadiabarati
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thanks a lot sarika. To me you are a hero. Being a mother and still managed to get high scores in a short time!!! Wish you the best in every aspect of your life. I really like to know more about First Aid. It was like a miracle for step 1. But unfortunately people underestimate and even ignore it for step 2?! So I didn't buy it and rather I bought crush for step 2!
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| sarika
Forum Guru
Topics: 195
Posts: 1,200
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hi drdegeneration: i bought kaplan notes from paksitan. it was an 2004-2005 version. But i think you can buy it used on ebay or if you know how to download stuff from bittorrent or emule that will work too. just download it get a printer and make your own notes. this will take time but will be cheaper. Goodluck!
Hi nadia: thankyou so much. About firstaid, to be honest with you i didnt buy it either.. I downloaded it from emule..(huge file)...then i read it on my PC and liked it so took a print out. It helped me alot. Goodluck
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| dr.Dove
Forum Senior
Topics: 33
Posts: 118
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How much biostats was in the exam?? Thanks....Good Luck to you.
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| spitmetal
Forum Guru
Topics: 25
Posts: 635
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somebody told me that the kaplan lecture notes are the abstract of the kaplan videos is that true??
PLEASE reply
because i dont want to buy the videos and find out that i wasted my money
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NEVER REGRET IF U DID YOUR BEST--"THE PEOPLE WHO CAN'T DO SOMETHING WILL KEEP SAYING THAT YOU CAN'T DO IT.....BUT REMEMBER YOU CAN DO IT!!" by Dr. Luck a member of this forum
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| doc_clotaire
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Topics: 159
Posts: 1,241
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Congradulation Sarika !
I agree Big Time about what the last paragraph in your post . That 's true !
Good Luck with the match and God bless you
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| USMLEGladiator
Forum Elite
Topics: 76
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congrats sarika.u deserved this good score.
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scores are just up to how high we aim and of course the amount of effort and time we put into it
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