doc.jay
Forum Senior
Topics: 18
Posts: 81
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So glad to be finally done. I graduated in ’99 completed my PhD here in the US last year. Studied for around 3-4 months, some times full time, sometime not. Got interrupted by the CS in the middle for about a month and some part time work that I was doing. I was aiming for >235. My final score: 251 / 99.
Study materials: Kaplan S2 notes and UW
In retrospect, my first read was too superficial, I was trying to jump start my S2 study after having just completed step 1 and ended up mostly reading and flicking through the Step 2 notes the first time around. My 2nd read was little more thorough, after which I did the UW bank. Scored around 60-64%. I swear by this bank; it’s the best investment for this exam. Did some Qs from the Kaplan q book and found it to be totally useless. My advice: stay away from the Kaplan Qs. I wasn’t planning to use FA or any other review book, so I just made notes onto my Kaplan notes while doing the UW bank, and these were super helpful in the last week or so. Spent about ~10-14 d on the q bank. It’s really slow at the start, but don’t be discouraged and keep reviewing the relevant stuff from the notes.
Another amazing feature of the UW bank was the ‘mark’ function: I ended up marking about ~400-500 Qs while I was going through it the first time; I marked Qs that I thought were important and high yield. In the last couple of weeks, when I was just reviewing stuff from Kaplan, I would review these marked Qs only. This is a really simple way to review the UW bank for a 2nd time in the last 2 weeks, when you are crunched for time anyway. If you have more time, you can always select ‘all’ Qs and review the whole q bank.
Did the 3 blocks on the official CD. This is the most useless set of Qs for the Step 2: the real exam is WAY more tough (I thought) than the Qs on those 3 blocks. If anything, the last block is more indicative of the real exam. Don’t walk into the exam, thinking that it would be like the first two blocks!
My exam:
I took 5min breaks after every block and I personally swear by this method. I used this technique in my Step 1 also, and it works really well. Some blocks were easy, some tough. I had a ~65-70% IM which is probably expected; a LOT of ABGs, renal, and pulm stuff. I use to mark ~8-12 Qs in each block. It would take me ~40-45min to go from start to end. I would then spend ~10min reviewing the marked Qs and then ~5min checking the rest (this is very important too; I picked out at least 3-4 stupid mistakes in the Qs that I had not marked. So, do try and review even the unmarked ones. In my opinion, if the UW is 8 out of 10 on the difficulty scale, I though the real exam was around 7; obviously this may vary from person to person. I usually don’t like to torture myself at the end of any exam by imagining that I would fail or pass miserably. At the end of my Step 1 exam, I was content in knowing that I had done well and to my best ability. But in this exam, I had NO idea probably b/c one is too often stuck between 2 choices on most MCQs on the exam. Four weeks later, I got my score which was definitely way better than I had ever imagined.
General advice and things I may have done differently:
1. Make flash cards for factoids that are memorization-dependent e.g. gene defects, chromosome associations, gene loci, inborn errors, HTN guidelines, arrythm.
2. I said this in my step 1 experience, and I will say it again here: I am VERY glad that I didn’t fall into peer pressure and that I didn’t do NMBE or Kaplan's q bank; there are only so many months in your life that you can put on hold due to your exam. Plus, b/c of the clinical bent of Step1, the lesser the interval b/w step 1 and 2, the easier it will be to prepare for your step 2. If you studied well in med college, UW and Kaplan notes is enough!
3. Do ABGs !! I don’t know from where (!!) since UW doesn’t have to many of these Qs.
4. Do revise some stuff from your Step1 FA: immune def syn are a MUST! Also try and review the imp congenital syndromes and gene loci etc.
5. Most of the S2 exam is related to diagnosis/management and work up. So when you study, try and make mental algorithms for each condition: how to work up GI bleeds/arrythm/preterm labour etc. This really helps and is a VERY imp tool for the real exam.
6. As you go through the blocks on exam day, you WILL often realize that you’ve made stupid mistakes on previous blocks, you will end up deliberating over Qs from previous blocks, and bemoaning over some crazy Qs on the present block. Do you best to BLOCK these thoughts: they are too self destructive. I found that taking a tiny 5 min break b/w each block helped me to get some time out and to be ready to focus completely on the new block.
7. Make sure that you review the answers for each set of the Qs that you do on the Q bank. I used the following categories to classify my WRONG answers: (a) Stuff you SHOULD know but didn’t! I.e. stupid mistakes; (b) Stuff you OUGHT to know, but didn’t! fair but difficult Qs that you should be able to work out. (c) Stuff that is useless: idiotic Qs like types of polyglandular syndromes that are low yield. Basically, your goal should be to minimize the first two groups - don’t sweat over the last group. This is obviously a subjective classification, but it really helped me a lot.
Also remember that Quality matters over Quantity in doing the Q bank - don’t just rush into doing too many Qs on one day - aim for about 150-200 and make sure that you review the answers well.
This is all for now … thanks again to everyone else on the forum for their putting up their own experiences and Qs which definitely helped me in preparing my own plan of study. Good luck to you all, Feel free to send in your Qs. Perseverance is the key!! If I can do it after 7 years, so can you all. You WILL feel like killing yourself while doing the UW bank , but keep at it .. That’s the best advice I can give.!!
Got my ECFMG cert AND the score on the same day … it’s a great feeling and I am sure all of you are looking forward to this too.
Jay.
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| mazinger
Forum Guru
Topics: 46
Posts: 918
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congrats good score...
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original mazinger z
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| dr.shailu
Forum Senior
Topics: 26
Posts: 191
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congratulations jay
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| kity
Certified.............
Topics: 32
Posts: 1,064
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congratulations... for double 99... good luck for step 3!!
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| coolmavs
Forum Guru
Topics: 39
Posts: 587
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Congrats doc.jay. ALso GREAT advice. ALso, when you said that you spent 10 to 14 days on qbank, you mean UW or Kaplan? If it was UW, you managed to finish the entire bank in 10-14 days?
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| vanshita
Forum Guru
Topics: 26
Posts: 880
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Congratulation GOOD LUCK for match
great score thanks for sharing with us
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| doc-o8
Forum Elite
Topics: 32
Posts: 410
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congratulations doc.jay. ur advice is very helpful. thanx fr such a nice post.
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| vidnel
Forum Newbie
Topics: 2
Posts: 25
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congrats doc jay.. amazing score.. gud luc to u!!
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| doc_clotaire
Forum Guru
Topics: 159
Posts: 1,265
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Congradulation Jay , you made it BIG TIME
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| bax
Forum Senior
Topics: 20
Posts: 181
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congratulations
gr8 score....
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| MRMAVERICK
Forum Guru
Topics: 42
Posts: 758
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congrats great score and excellent description
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| doc.jay
Forum Senior
Topics: 18
Posts: 81
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Mazinger, dr shailu, kity, coolmavs, vinshita, doc-08, vidnel, doc_clotaire, bax, MrMaverick: thank you for the well wishes. Good luck to you all too for your exams/applications.
Coolmavs: I didn’t do the Kaplan q bank; just did the UW bank. I did about 4 blocks a day, more towards the end. Its slow at the start! Once you get used to the format of the Qs its much quicker. Good luck,
Jay
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| doc sadaf
Forum Newbie
Topics: 0
Posts: 17
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hey dr jay congrats ! did u do the kaplan dvds for any subjects?
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| doc.jay
Forum Senior
Topics: 18
Posts: 81
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doc sadaf wrote:
hey dr jay congrats ! did u do the kaplan dvds for any subjects?
No, just did the notes and UW bank. gl, Jay
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| ehsanelsaid
Forum Newbie
Topics: 7
Posts: 18
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congratulation sir for your great score..
i have one Q for you...ihave 2 months and 15 days left for my exam
i finsh studying the notes along with viedo...just watch the viedo along with notes...didnt go depth in the notes..i subscribe for 3 months in usmleworld..my problem is i solve Q better than study..i get around 65% in usmleworld for 200Q done untile now...ihave good concepts froms step1..study very hard in step1 and read the notes more than 3 times and get 91...i really want to get like you in 99 in step2..can you tell me how to maxiamz my chances to get 99 in these 75 days left..
Thanks very much
also do you think solve kaplan Q bank step2ck will help me more along with usmleworld
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| USMLEGladiator
ck, CS Finish by Feb09
Topics: 130
Posts: 476
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congrats dr jay.thanks for sharing experience.
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Be confident,do hard work,forget past failures and success is yours.......
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| doc.jay
Forum Senior
Topics: 18
Posts: 81
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usmlegladiator and ehsanelsaid: thanks !
ehsanelsaid: I cant comment on the videos since I didnt do them. Its great that you are doing well on the UW bank. Make out time to revise it for the 2nd time, but the kaplan notes are essential too. So dont do the Qs at the expense of studying from the notes. The kapln q bank is too simple, it only tests your memory and some very basic level of management, so it doesnt really prepare you for the exam which is much more difficult.
good luck, jay
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| khorshid
Forum Guru
Topics: 32
Posts: 591
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great score  , best of luck with the rest.
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| doc.jay
Forum Senior
Topics: 18
Posts: 81
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thanks khorhsid :all the best to you too, jay
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| HILFIGER
Forum Senior
Topics: 22
Posts: 195
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Congratulations jay! Is kaplan enough for IM? Did you look through CMDT or cecil? Did you get many Qs on physical examination, ECG, exact doses? Do we need to study commercial drug names?
Thanks
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| alosh_2
Forum Junior
Topics: 22
Posts: 53
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Hi docjay.
I have a month left, and i have 800 Qs left. I am worried about repeatin the questions, as reviewing the explanations is taking forever, did you go over every explanation. how much time did you spend on reviewing, say, one block of questions. and do you think one month is enuf for me to reread all the questions from UW.
Congrats BTW,
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| doc.jay
Forum Senior
Topics: 18
Posts: 81
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hilfiger: thanks ! Idid use CMDT for some acid base type topics. BUt other than that it was Kaplan notes all the way. Basically, if you think you are deficient in some thing , go look it up from a text book.
Alosh_2: thanks! I would personally advise you to do the remaining Qs and the expls. There are a lot of facts/priniciples in the expls that are imp to know. The more you do the Qs, the faster it will be for you. Aim for 4 blocks everyday and then you should be done in ~ 4days!
Good luck,
jay
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| zhoufg
Forum Senior
Topics: 15
Posts: 112
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doc. Jay: congrats for you. My exam is in a week. I was concerned about time management in the whole day. Kaplan Q book did not give the clear advice. so, I have to look for from orthers. Do you skip the tutorial? Thanks!
GL
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| doc.jay
Forum Senior
Topics: 18
Posts: 81
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zhoufg: thanks ! I 'did' the tutorial, but only rushed through it in 5 mins, just to get warmed up. That gets you 10extra mins. I took 5 mins after every block, with maybe two 10min. Just in time to swallow choclate, brufen, take a b'room break and then head back into the exam. Hint: use a pain killer prophylactically!! by the time its ~2p and you are 5-6 blocks into the exam, fatigue sets in before you know it. DONT fall into this trap since, you will end up feeling like 'you just want to end it soon' !! On the exam date, its as much a test of your stamina, as it is of your prep. gl,
Jay
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| zhoufg
Forum Senior
Topics: 15
Posts: 112
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thanks so much doc. jay! good luck for your match.
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