genbot wrote:
Thanks sidiyaa, dr_elrifai85!
I'm from India.

Shwe thanks again!

Comin to ur questions...I dont know how representative my prep is that of a perfect one...reason; ideally i would've wanted it to be 3 to 4 months and probably then it would've been more organized. For someone starting out new i'd recommend this prep duration.
Because i was short on time and felt i did not have the patience to sit one place and study for a long time, i chose a short duration for my prep. It wasnt an easy decision.It had its risks but i was willing to trust my instincts and was relying heavily on the ability of the NBMEs to assess my level of prep.

Keeping these limitations in mind my prep was bound to be inherently a little chaotic.
Although i'd prefer startin with UW after having finished with the first read but instead i chose to begin about 10 days into my first read. The idea was to finish most of UW along with my first read so that when i took my NBME i'd have gone through most prep material. And then during my second read i'd improve on my weaknesses while not totally ignoring my strengths and also revise UW as much as possible. Plus i also wanted to do questions from other Qbanks. Basically i wanted to do as many questions as possible and importantly keep doin them as close to the exam day as possible. I felt that was very important. This perception i derived amazingly from my step2 experience. Although i did pretty well on the exam, i felt i could've done better if i'd kept doin Qs as close to the exam day as possible. During my step2 prep i stopped doin Qs about 1 month from the exam! That was basically crazy. I wasnt goin to repeat that again, and i didnt. I thought the approach paid off well; i got a better score (percentile not 3 digit score!) with a shorter prep time.

UWorld: I did all questions in timed, random, mixed mode.
This is what i'd recommend to most people, especially if u'r finished with atleast one read or maybe two; depending on what ur prep duration is and how good ur basics are when u start out.
I feel doin questions subject wise gives u a false sense of security. it tends to overestimate ur level of prep and u also miss out on getting constant practice on having to change ur thought patterns quicky, as the real exam demands.
Although i've heard people say that UW should be used mainly as a learning tool, i disagree.
I feel if u revise wrong Qs and ones u mark as high yield and pay attention to most explanations while doin Qs the first time, this should more than suffice the need for using UW as a learning tool. May be i'm wrong but from what I've seen i dont see people deriving any special advantage by doin it subject wise.
I think Kaplan is good basic learning material and when supplemented properly with UW almost assures u a good score.
Also important is assessment of ur strengths and weaknessess. This not only focusses ur prep but also helps to cut down on its duration. Both UW and NBME can be used for this purpose.
And no i didnt do 7 blocks at a time on UW. I feel that would be more helpful with step 2ck which has very drawn out question stems and where fatigue towards the end of the test can be a big factor in determining ur final score.

I also did about a 1000 qs from kaplan Qbank when i finished with UW. They were good and helped me stay in sync with the actual exam. And as i mentioned before i also managed to finish kaplan Qbook during the last 4 days. Again they provided good practice and kept me grounded with the actual exam. Overall i felt the real exam had much more clinical material than either UW or Qbank. UW patterns were definitely closer to the actual exam than Qbank. No doubt bout that.

FA i did only once. But i'd recommend atleast 2 reads to most people, especially if u feel u've forgotten some basic facts close to the exam. Its short, precise and very high yield.
Again i did FA pretty random. Read it once i had finished with the first read. Did not ally it to my Kaplan notes reading. But probably goin through it while reading similar topics from Kaplan might be more helpful. It helps u a lot with figuring out extreme high yield stuff. Knowledge which u can utilise well when u go thru Kaplan notes (and probably UW).

This is it for now...but there's lots more stuff comin...so keep checkin.