dara_bc2002
Forum Junior
Topics: 5
Posts: 90
| | 01/23/08 - 01:18 PM
1 of 1 forum leaders found this post helpful
| #1 |
Hello friends ! I got my result today after 5 grueling weeks and it is 95/231 ! I am extatic ! I still can't believe it !
I'm trying to help people who are looking for studying techniques and that is why I post this here , apart from the previous topic that I posted right after the exam which is here http://www.prep4usmle.com/forum/thread/65894/
I begin by saying that in the summer of 2006 I failed Step 1 . I had already signed up for an observership , so even thoug I failed I had to go on . I did the observership , got some good letters of recommandation , and because I was in the States for that anyway ...I also took CS . I passed the CS from the first attempt . I got some courage back and decided to move past my Step 1 failure and to still pursue the American Dream . By that time I had already finished med school .
I decided to stay home and not get a job , and dedicate all my time to the Steps , recognizing the fact that it would probably be the most important and difficult thing of my life . I couldn't get myself to look at the Step 1 books again , so I decided to take CK first and I still have to retake Step 1 .
I took Step 2 CK in Dec of 2007 ...so overall my total prep time was over a year , full time .
Because I was so afraid of failing again , I made it a point to master everything in Kaplan Lecture Notes . I am not one to memorize things easily , so what I did was study one book from kaplan , then reading the same material from FA , then reading the same material from Step 2 Secrets , then doing the questions alloted to that material from Kaplan Qbank tutor mode , then doing those questions from UW tutor mode .
Only after I did all that would I feel I have covered all the basis and I would be confident enough to move to the next book . As you can imagine , it was great as a learning method but it ate tremendous amounts of time and money ( I did all the questions online ...so if you add up , i bought around 6 months of Kaplan Qbank , and even more for UW ) .
After I finished all the books this way ( Kaplan videos ---watched them all , Kaplan lectures plus everything else ) , I concentrated only on questions . So for the next 3 months I did UW one more time ... ALL of it timed random mixed ! , and also some questions from Mock exam ( but they didn't help as much ) .
I would start studying around 9 am and finish around 7 pm . When I was only doing questions , my best speed was doing 3 tests timed and random , and then looking over the answers /per day .
What I learned after taking this exam is that the actual notes help , but are not nearly as important as the question banks .If I were to do it all over again , I would change the way I studied . I would spend way less time on the books and more time doing questions .
In November I took the NBMEs ... and Form 1 said 580 , and Form 2 said 600 .... so their prediction was exact .
Form 3 I only looked over the downloaded version . It was great that I took the time to look for the right answers on this forum , because in the exam I had quite a few NBME-like questions ... about 10 . I mean they tested the exact same information . The style of the questions was almost 100 % the one in the NBMEs and UW . There are no better tools to prepare . But it's enough .
I had plenty of extra time at the end of each block ...but then again , if you have read my exam experience you know that I was in an enormous hurry to finish because I was afraid I might fall asleep in front of the monitor . It's a very long exam , extremely exhausting . I never drank a sip of water or ate anytthing during the whole thing , took a break every 2 blocks .
My answering technique was to mark the answer that seemed most obvious . I forced myself to not think there must be a catch or a trap in the questions . Most questions seemed extremely " horses " and no zebras . No weird syndromes , no weird medications or management . The only questionable ones were the ethics questions , and again , all I could do was make an educated guess .
You are not going to find the exact same question in UW , but you can bet the information is either in the question stem or in the right/wrong answers in UW . Ohh I forgot to say I also did Kaplan Ethics book and I thought it was exactly what I need it . It's a great book !
Thanks to the imense help from my husband , our family , our friends and this forum , it was a loooong year ..but I made it !
Good luck to you now !
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| hir
Forum Elite
Topics: 2
Posts: 345
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hey gr8 summary...... thank u so much!!!!!! congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! have fun!!!!!!!!!
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| drkhuls
Forum Newbie
Topics: 4
Posts: 20
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congrats dear 
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| azirikani
Forum Senior
Topics: 48
Posts: 154
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Congratulations....all stress is over finally,
you did a good job....  .your wait ends up with great happiness .
Good luck.
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| smalley
Forum Elite
Topics: 51
Posts: 285
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hey congratulations
ur hard work an determination paid off
thanks for posting ur exp
gl for step1
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But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint-Isaiah 40:31
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| hanialkhadher
Forum Elite
Topics: 16
Posts: 256
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Congratulations , i told you there is a merciful god will not let you down
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"أقرأ بأسم ربك الذي خلق,خلق الأنسان من علق,أقرأ و ربك الأكرم, الذي علم بالقلم,علم الأنسان ما لم يعلم"
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| dara_bc2002
Forum Junior
Topics: 5
Posts: 90
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You DID tell me ! Thank you everyone!
Good luck and lots of faith to everyone who has to take the exam !
Feel free to ask anything if I can help .
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| docsuccess
Forum Newbie
Topics: 2
Posts: 30
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Congratulations dara_bc2002!!!
You really earned this score!
& Most importantly your story is what people like me need to keep our hope alive that we can do it too.
I failed step 2ck in October 2007 and also learning everything over slowly becasue afraid to mess it up again!
Good Luck & Thanks for the Inspiring Story!
God Bless You.
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| anujaise
Forum Newbie
Topics: 6
Posts: 28
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wow Great score.Conrats dara_bc2002.I read ur earlier post and I was eager to know about ur results.I am sooo Happy for you.My exam in 2 weeks.Can you give me any suggestions .What did you do in the last 2 weeks before exam?I finished UW.i did NBME FORM 1 4 WEEKS before score 440.Form 2 last week score 590.I dont know if it is by chance or i really improved.My UW was 58.But last 10 exams timed random are 68 to 71.Thank you dara
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| gr8doc
Forum Senior
Topics: 8
Posts: 210
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Congrats , Gr8 score. GL for step 1. I am sure your methodical approach will be really helpful again.
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| USMLEGladiator
Forum Guru
Topics: 109
Posts: 383
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congrats.thx 4 sharing
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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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| dara_bc2002
Forum Junior
Topics: 5
Posts: 90
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Hi anujaise !
The last run i had of UW was an average 71 % so it sounds like you're doing just fine ! In the last 2 weeks I looked up on this forum NBME Form 3 and its right answers and it helped because I had questions from all foms of NBME .
Also , while doing UW I had 2 notebooks of notes that I made and i read those twice ...which took about one week . I didn't read any new material .
Just tried to fix some of the stuff that was more short time memory ...for example intoxications and antidotes , drugs side effects , normal stages of child development , the sleep stages , types of incontinence. These are things that wouldn't stick to memory so easily and everyone knows those are things they are going to ask for sure .
And that's about it . Didn't do much of anything else .
Loads of Good Luck and calm !
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| Mydream
Forum Elite
Topics: 10
Posts: 331
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Thanks for sharing ur experience !! and Congrats to u....may u score high in step 1 too !!
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"your results in life are always directly proportional to the amount of effort and hard-work that you put in"
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| m_nt
Forum Newbie
Topics: 1
Posts: 6
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Hey dara_bc2002, congrads on u'r score, i jusy need one help from u, do u still have the real ans. to nbme forms, if so can u please post them here or mail me at " m_nt@hotmail.com" ? thank u...
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| USMLEGladiator
Forum Guru
Topics: 109
Posts: 383
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WHICH KAP DVDS u recommend.?how much time for dvds?r they worth the tme?thx
___________________
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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| anujaise
Forum Newbie
Topics: 6
Posts: 28
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Thanks Dara.You are very helpful.Good Luck for Step 1.I am sure you can repeat the same score or even more in the next exam.God will always help us.Sometimes it may take some time.All the Best once again.
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| USMLEGladiator
Forum Guru
Topics: 109
Posts: 383
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hi dara,
i like ur technic.one chap from kap notes----then fa,secrets----then videos---then kap q bank----then uw .my q is this way how u made time table for first reading.im finding difficult makin study schedule by this method.pls help.gud luck for st1
Edited by USMLEGladiator on 01/25/08 - 08:44 PM
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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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| dara_bc2002
Forum Junior
Topics: 5
Posts: 90
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That's exactly the trap with the way I studied for CK gladiator ! It took enormous time ... about 8 months . But at the end of those 8 months I had done all the books and all the qbanks once . After that I only repeated the questions .
This time around I will do things differently for Step 1 because I'll try to make it in 6 months . So this time around I will do all the books first and then all the questions .
I had no timeline for CK . After failing Step 1 I just said I will take as much time as I would need , because I was afraid . Now that I saw that it can be done and I'm just not out of the league of USMLE , I'll try to do it faster for the next one .
I can't say which videos I can recommend because it's easier to say which I wouldn't recommend . I wouldn't do Surgery again probably , maybe even the Pediatrics . That's only if you don't have enough time ...because if you do have time , I found it extremely helpful to hear from a teacher what I was about to read ...they would highlight the important things . I would do them all again .
It helped not to read alone and try to make sense of the darkness in my mind , and this way ...you go through the notes twice - once with the teacher and once when you read on your own .
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| sadiq naveed
Forum Guru
Topics: 51
Posts: 544
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congrats.can u share ur score in downloaded version of nbme
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man of unknown principles
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| dara_bc2002
Forum Junior
Topics: 5
Posts: 90
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I only used NBME 1 and 2 for assessment . Form 3 I only looked up all the questions and answers ...didn't test myself with it .
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| nany
Forum Guru
Topics: 14
Posts: 968
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congratulations ....,and Best Of Luck For step-1
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" You Are Limited Only By What You Think "
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| lucky_doc
Forum Junior
Topics: 18
Posts: 45
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Hi Dara,
Your story is very inspiring. Wow all the hard work paid off. Thanks for sharing the info. Best of luck on step1. One thing for sure there is no short cut in learning medicine!!!!!
Best of luck!!!!!
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| XY
Forum Newbie
Topics: 0
Posts: 3
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Hi, Dara
Congratulations!
I would to get Kaplan step2 notes, it seems very important like everybody mentioned. Is it six books with yellow surface and title as 'KAPLAN USMLE STEP 2 CK LECTURE NOTES, Psychiatry, Epidemiology and Ethics, Pediatrics, Surgery, Internal Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Qbook (Paperback)
by kaplan medical (Author)'. thank you!
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| dara_bc2002
Forum Junior
Topics: 5
Posts: 90
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I'm not sure about the color of the surface , but those are the correct titles so you must be right
Good luck !
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| samusa
Forum Newbie
Topics: 3
Posts: 18
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Many congratulations Dara, you did it!!!!! Best of luck on the rest
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