11pkumar wrote:
Hi all,
Eventhough i regularly follow this forum, this is my first post. I took my step 2 ck on july 28 2008 and i just got my score today 99/243. I am thankful to god for giving me this score.

I thought I should write my experience and help all of those who look up to this wonderful forum for support just like I did.
First let me post my exam day experience. I slept 6 hrs peacefully the night before my exam, I didnot know how I did that but it was the first exam ever in my life where I slept so peacefully.I took the exam on 28 july 2008 and i took the afternoon slot ie 12-9 pm as that was the most comfortable time period for me.The 8 o clock slot was a pain for me.
The first two blocks were dead easy and I finished each block in half an hour.So for the two blocks together I added approximately 45 min additionally to my break time.By then I was terribly hungry and took a long lunch break around 30 min,I had a 6"subway for lunch,and some redbull.To refresh myself I was looking at some fashion magazines in the lunch break, stupid of me though(was overconfident as i did the first 2 blocks extremely well).I then went in to start my third block, it was very tough, the questions were lengthy and very confusing choices. In the stem of the question he gave clinical features of all the choices listed below, so it was very time consuming to rule out the distractors and pick the right one, This block i was running out of time and had just 2 min before i could finish the block. I was frustrated with myself and then came out to take a 8 min break, I was terribly hungry. Had some cookies, starbucks frappuccino cofee, lots of redbull and then went inside to start my 4th block. This one was doable but not as easy as the first and second ones, in the middle of the third block i started to have an headache. I finished 4th block just ten min ahead of time, went through all the questions and then came out.I immediately took a pain killer for my headache, had lots of redbull, gatorade, a banana, and some cookies again.This break again lasted for 8 min, and then I went inside dead tired as I was just half way through. Started my fourth block which was just ok, finished just in time after revising all the questions once, I started to feel nauseated, so I took a break had an ONDANSETRON, another pain killer, lots of gatorade, cookies, lots of redbull,I was scared that I would vomit in the center but luckily I didnt. after another 8 min ofbreak went in to start my 6 th block, by this time I was nearing the twilight zone, it was like a third party experience of writing the exam, I was reading and re reading the questions, I was just picking the choice in a dream like state, I didnot know if my reasoning was logical or not, just trusted my subconscious and carried on. By the end of this block I was very very hungry, so took a break and had another 6" sub,redbull and gatorade. went inside to start my seventh block, I was tired, sleepy and I was struggling to keep myself to read the questions, I picked the answers with great difficulty and struggled to finish it just in time. Then came out and took a break for all of the remaining break time. I was tired and frustrated, I just wanted to finish the exam and get home. So I went in for the last block, and this was terrible for me, I was rereading the questions almost 3- 5 times, my brain was blocked, I didnot know if I was picking the right answers or not, it was like a trance like state, I no longer felt my hands were under my control, I was just picking choices by my subconscious mind, I was struggling to keep in pace, the last two block were predominantly psychiatry and ethics. The ethics questions were the worst, I had never seen anything like that before. and I just finished revising the block 3 SECONDS AHEAD OF TIME. AND FINALLY THE EXAM WAS OVER. When I came out I was totally confused, I had no idea of how I had done my exam,I was even scared that I might fail as in the last 3 blocks I had marked almost20 question in each block. Usually I never mark more than 10 questions in any block or in the nbmes or uworld, and most of the times when I mark a question there is 60 percent chance of it being wrong, so judging by my previous experience marking 25 question a block meant I would get a bad score. Once I was done with the exam I always remembered all the mistakes that I made in the exam which kept haunting me for these four weeks untill I got my result.I am glad that I made it with this good score,I am grateful to god for showing his infinite mercy on me.

I started my preparation for step 2 ck in may 2007, and then there was lot of personal problems due to which I had start my preparation all over again in March 2008. I subscribed to the Uworld question bank and started doing it timed subject and topic wise,this made it easier for me make notes on each chapter separately in an organised manner.This was very time consuming but I personally felt it to be very useful for me. whenever I would read anything from the kaplan books or uworld I ALWAYS TRIED TO UNDERSTAND THE CONCEPTS BEHIND IT WITHOUT TRYING TO MEMORIZE STUFF.I AM BAD AT MEMORY STUFF BUT VERY GOOD AT LOGIC, SO I WOULD TRY TO FIND THE LOGIC FOR EVERTHING I READ,THIS WAS THE MOST USEFUL THING IN MY PREPARAION AND I WOULD SINCERELY ADVISE ALL THOSE PREPARAING FOR USMLE TO DO THE SAME.GUYS THIS EXAM TESTS THE CONCEPTS MORE THAN THE MEMORY STUFF.

After finishing the uworld q bank and reading the books I took my first NBME FORM 1 ON may 13 2008 and I got 570. I was happy and then again went through all the kaplan books, notes i made and did uworld for a second time(except psychiatry and surgery).I then took NBME FORM 3 on June 13 and I got only 470. I didnot get discouraged and I again studied my kaplan books and uworld 3rd time(selected topics) and then took NBME FORM 2 on june 26 and I again got 570(235). The most useful thing about NBME was that I and three other friends would take the NBME at the same time and then we discussed all the questions and answers, this way we would get 4 different opinion about one single question and each one of us would try to prove our point, this taught us a lot of things and I personally believe this was the most useful part of my preparation. In the final exam too we got lot of questions from the NBME albeight in different length. My Uworld score after the first time was 64% correct questions and 69 percentile, by the end of preparation my score was 70% correct questions and 82 percentile.

Now I was confident of my preparation and booked my slot and took the date for July 28 and gave my exam. My only suggestion is DONT BLINDLY READ THINGS, TRY TO KNOW THE REASON BEHIND EVERYTHING, MY AIM WOULD BE IF SOMEONE ELSE KNOWS WHY THIS HAS HAPPENED, THEN I TOO MUST KNOW THE REASON AND I SEARCHED THE INTERNET UNTIL I FOUND THE REASON FOR IT. That was my method of preparation and I guess it helped me in ny exam, I will be happy to answer any questions. GOOD LUCK TO EVERONE WHO IS PREPARTING FOR THE USMLE