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kingsofke
Forum Guru Topics: 25 Posts: 716 |
Hi this post is solely the views of its author , if you dont like listening to others opinion or stories or just some plain bragging i advise you to hit the back button. If you are too bored to do anything else then lets continue. (BEAWRE! This post is all about me and is full of narcissim, I have to let it out now and then. ) I gave step1 more than 4 months back and after some time wasting i started planning about step2, I remeber at that time , that uncertainity i had as i found out people have such varied opinion about this step and esp. that kaplan is not highly appreciated as was used to for step1 (incl. people who were a kaplaner in step1 had reserved opinion) So in short i made a long list of options from various consultations and then ended up buying everything kaplan plus usmle world offcourse. (i am a kaplaner through and through and highly believe in these books, no i am not advertising for them ;the difference being i am not getting paid for what i am saying ) I started around the time my step1 result was sent and that took a lot of my attention and i tore up my first schedule.I have changed my startegy and book selections and when to do what, so much that i cannot even mention them all here. I will try to give here a summary of how i went along my prep and what i think about material i used. If this is something that interest you then read ahead, otherwise man why you havent hit the back button yet. I started with SURGERY cause i had heard it was easy and i was good in it and i was waiting for the result. ( But i ended up doing it first in all my of my readings.Kinda gave me flow to get into medicine ). I started with kaplan book and immediately loved it. I read it in a way that i combined the 2 halfs. I will read a topic or 2 from notes and then read the sceniaros from the second half. same way i did in 2nd reading. ( This is the thing about kaplan that few people understand. The way the surgery is written is the way kaplan should be remembered. you know by then end of my prep in both steps when i was reading , each line or each point i would read, it would click in my mind an image of a question and i would think this point will be asked in some kind of a hidden way and then i will look for a point which will definitely be there to tell me the awnser (as cornard says if they want you to awnser they will have to tell you) so i will say i would look for this condition or this background or this lab finiding or this in history to awnser this point and if not then that awnser and i keep on going through every page like that and sometime i even stop and then revise in my mind all of last 4-5 topics reasoning if this then this if not then this and in my last reading i am even combining subjects into this discusssion with myself thinking if this then this and as in paeds if then this but if pregnant then this but if this then surgical option. I have no idea if you will understand my gibberish but i was just kinda feeling like writing it. ) After finishing Kaplan book i tried to listen to surgery lectures but pastana but was too slow and monotonous for me so just couldnt. ( either listen to him while doing your first reading alongside or not listen to him at all ) I had bought the pretest series too. So i started doing it too. It had so much new information not given by kaplan so i started writing it down on my kaplan as concise points.( After the exam i looked at it and quite a few points actually helped me in exam but on the whole dont be overwhelmed by all that info if you can handle it go ahead otherwise just skip this book or even whole set or pretest series ). I then started doing surgery from UsmleWorld. (yes, i had already decided that i would do UW in first reading as everybody said there is so much more in it and its not just learning tool ; although i found out thats not so, i compare it very much to step1 qbank of kaplan, i think upto 85 % of questions can easily be found in kaplan books but then there are 15% questions which has no info at all in kaplan but then these questions are not highly tested ie low yield, thats just my personal opinion cause by then end of my prep when i actually had memorised my kaplans there was just this much info i had to go through addidionally from UW) ( so do UW in first reading or second reading it doesent matter much, only thing is in first reading you woudl be writing down so much form UW to make notes and you will found out later on that much of it was in kaplan though in a dispersed way ) ( my suggestion do it in 2nd reading ). (it took me like a week or may be more but i think 5 days are enough plus 2 for UW ) so i started with MEDICINE the way i did it i had bought step3 lecture notes now so i would read a chapter and then i would listen to its lecture and then i would read it from step3 notes ( which is just a collection of cases, dont cover whole of a chapter, has almost the same material as in step2 notes word by word copy pasted, a bit new stuff here and there but it gave me a new prespective on certain things and it was kind of quick revision through the chapter about imp. stuff ) and then i would do its UW , I skipped pretest of medicine. So i went chapter by chapter slow at first till after my result and then i took a long break of like a week to celebrate and then again i started and slowly picked pace. ( what i think of time is GI 3d, Endo 3d, Rheum 3d, Preventive and Emergency med 2d, Cardio 5d, Hemat 3d, ID 3d, Pulmo 3d, Renal 3d and Neuro 3d. This time assumes you are doing all the stuff i did and still you can save some days if you are fast and not lazy, it took around the same time as i wrote cause i slowed down many times. ) (lectures of medicine you can skip GI, emergency, pulmo, and you can skip infectious and hematology too if hard pressed for time, hey i love cornard too but theres not much there Never skip are cardio and nephrology ) I did dermatology from First aid (only thing i did from there , ijust had it photocopied,) and then i listened to derma lecture along with kaplan notes , added the missing points on to FA notes and did UW , (i highly recommend derma from FA) (and do look at THE common skin lesions, there were a couple in my exam .Actually if your derma lecture video quality is fine thats the best way , i had it so poor i switched off my monitor ) So its been like 1m and 10d of prep by now. I started with Paeds and was doing it like medicine , got bored with lectures by the time general paeds was over and system started. So then on just the book. Afterwards i did step 3 lecture notes and the UW ( it took me 8 days ) I started OBS from kaplan ,listening to lectures after reading every 2 chapters or so, did step3 notes and then UW and i did pretest OBS. (guys dont do obs pretest not needed BUT YOU MUST look at sonograms asked in pretes test 1 . I actually had a sonogram which i could only interpret cause i had seen a similar one in the pretest otherwise it would have been impossible. ( i actually wrote down imp. points of those 12 or so sonos and drew picture where necessary, onto my book, of what to look for in a sono. believe you me i got one very similar to what i drew one. ) ( no i dont want you to go and start looking for sonos of ongyn in atlases. I only got one and you might not get even one ) ( It took me 4 days for Obs) I started gynae and did it in the same way, ( i know while listening to gynae lectures you would be feeling like killing your self but bear with him and trust me you wont get a single question wrong, isnt this worth the patience ) (took me 4 days )( i didnt do gynae section from pretest and so have no idea) Finally on to Psychiatry , i read and then listened just like i was doing earlier. (actually i just listened to alina for fun sake , i had good grasp of psych from step1 already BUT guys if you are getting your questions wrong then listen to her she can teach ). finished it with step3 notes and UW (no pretest this time either, i was getting sick of first reading and i wanted to be over with ) I read epidemiology section and listened to daughtary ( actually i had already listened to the same lectures in step1 so i skipped most of it , there was not much new stuff in this section for me. I didnt even revised it last time before i went to exam, i already did similar stuff like 4 times in step1 ) This brings us to the end of first reading. I was done with kaplan notes for both step2 and 3 and UW and some pretest ( which i, thanks god, transferred onto my notes , what i didnt i never looked at again ) and i listened to whatever i wanted to. ITs been a bit more than 2 months since i started including like 10-12 days i totally wasted and many i wasted partially.I started doing step2 qbook in this reading ( just for question solving skills and timing , this book is quite easy and do it in what ever reading you feel like doing it and if you are not getting many questions wrong then write down the few new points onto your kaplan , i didnt do it and repented cause i couldnt revise it before exam) From now on the prep was very smooth , precise , concentrated. so i will write it in similar way. ( i started crossing out the points, in UW , i found out is there some where in kaplan somehwere , so that my UW notes started getting thinner and concise, I underlined highly selected points from step3 notes this time, which were definitely not in step2 notes (very few) ) Surgery 3 days, whole of kaplan in same way (mixing) and revising UW notes, finished it with step2 qbook Meidicine GI 1d, Endo 1d, Rheum 1d, Preventive and emergency 1d, (plus one day for some lag, its not precisely 1 day ok) Cardio 1-1/2d, Hemat. 1d, ID 1-1/2d, pulm + nephro + neuro 4d, derma+optholmolgy(kaplan) 1 d Qbook 2d Paeds 5d with kaplan notes 2,3 UW and qbook went for a break for 3 days (unavoidable, recommend against it highly. Take a break after completing a reading but NOT between it except for first reading offcourse ) OBGYN 5d with kaplan notes2,3 UW and qbook Psych and epid. 2d same , finished up some remaining things in UW in another day. Started doing NMS Review ( a book with 5 tests , they are ok, not good questions but good learning stuff , i did 3 and thought will finish it up later but couldnt, and couldnt even revise what i undrlined in it , again try to note it down on the book in some way ) ( took me 2 days ) took a break of a day for Eid. did AL REVIEW for Paeds ( one day ) ( i do revised it once more afterwards but not before exam itself though i wanted to but couldnt, i have very mixed feelings about this book , i dont know if you are desperate as i was to improve your paeds then do it anyway ) I FIRST ASSESSMENT OF MYSELF AFTER SUCH LONG TIME. Its not something you all will be familiar with but in my cohort (my old classfellows ) it is very in and we do have some idea of its correlation with real exam from others experiences and some seniors too. I am talking about Kaplan Simulated Exam (2002 edition). It has 8 blocks of 50 each. Very similar to real exam in question format and content tested and many things. Although there is no strong correlation to it exist. (i do have some idea about it, if you are going to do it ,mail me and i would tell you what i know) I did its first four blocks and sastisfied with my performance left the other 4 blocks for later to judge my improvement after 3rd reading and befoer going for NBME. (guys i highly recommend doing it, if for no other reason then that it has such a nice analysis system, it can tell you so much about your question solving that you can never learn in any other was , not even NBME , which actually doesnot even try to do that and as for subject weakness ,it give quite similar analysis to NBME) ( idont know if its sold anymore or any newer one is there, but its moving around so ask around, ) I started doing kaplan step3 qbank did it for next 2 days but then left it like after 4 blocks ( not totally pertinent to step2 ck , mostly the same stuff but what they asked is much deeper in scope to what you will be asked in step 2, i dont recommend doing it at all) I am done with my 2 readings now , I prepared a plan for a reading to revise in 25 days. Its mainly the kaplan books and my very concise notes of UW and step3 notes and nothing else. I planned doing kaplan step 3 qbook this time along with but only did surgery test and one med, probably ( this book is again in ,in my cohort, and highly appreciated and recommended for step2 , mainly for its beautiful explanations they say. I dont know it enough but i do know that if you are serious about your question soving skills and improving time management this is the book for you at this time, do the tests timed and you will build a real good stamina and speed, unforunately i didnt do it) I started with my reading and then i was going fast, faster then my time table,and in my vanity i ended up doing something i would never do otherwise ( i am cautious and thorough man) I skipped step3qbook, i skipped doing NMS, i skipped revising al review for paeds. But i very thoropughly revise my kaplan and UW (no comprise there, ever) So i finished a week earlier then my plan and i did this readin in 17 days, i did the rest of 4 blocks from kaplan simulated ( i had improved by a siginificant amount , like i wanted ) and then i gave my NBME form 1 ( there is enough said about it already, yes it is the best representative of real exam as for correlation of scores , i am waiting for my score so cannot say , i do hope that its that strong as people say as i did good in it ) I had booked date for 2 weeks afer my planned reading ends, now i rebooked it for a week earlier ( scoring good in NBME i thought i was as ready as i can be and i highly believe in staying concise and concentrated and doing revisions in as short time as possible helps me remember things more) I had 13 days to revise every thing once again, i tried my best to be thorough and do as much as i can. And then it was time. I took last day off ( another custom of my cohort, i did the same in step1 ) I watched movie, went out , talked with family. blah blah. Slept at 10 and woke up next day at 7 30. I will make a separate post of the exam itself. For the ones who just want to read that. Andi will post that in exam experience sections. I dedicate this post to the people who were there for me and help me get through , guys i couldnt have done it without you. So i dedicate it to you LisaM, Sobia, Lucky . And i pray may you people get the best score possible and more. Thank you so much i am highly obliged. p.s. If there are still question left ( which i highly doubt ) then drop me a PM or if you just want to say Hi drop me one. Kings and Queens All at K.E. Kingsofke
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Doc2378
| Forum Guru  Topics: 46 Posts: 678
Thanks, mate...very informative, as always. Appreciate it! Wish you a wonderful score (I know you will get one!)
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aimhigh
| Forum Senior Topics: 22 Posts: 148
Wow, you are indeed king of k.e. Thank you very much for your story. Good luck with your score. I am sure that you will get a >260 score. Some questions here: 1) you mentioned B&W in your log book, how did you use it in the course of your preparation? 2) Did you only use kaplan notes and UW in the last month? How about FA? 3) If I have to choose either kaplan step 2 qbook or step 3 qbook, which one would you recommend? I hope that I would not overwhelm you with my questions  . Thak you very much in advance! God bless you!!!
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cyra
| Forum Guru  Topics: 29 Posts: 843
Thankyou kingsofke!!very detailed and am sure will prove to be of great help to all of us! Hope you get an awesome score!!Good luck!
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kingsofke
| Forum Guru Topics: 25 Posts: 716
Thank you for appreciation, you all are always nice. To aim99(is this high enough): 1) you mentioned B&W in your log book, how did you use it in the course of your preparation? yeah i did bought this book, but you didnt saw it in my post cause i didnt saw it in my prep either. Actually I prefer revising something from kaplan itself, its good if you are pressed for time and want to revise imp. stuff only. Just like the FA is step1 i didnt use that much either. 2) Did you only use kaplan notes and UW in the last month? How about FA? actually yes, excepty for itsy bitsy things i mentioned. I do had a lot written on my kaplan books by then from lectures and pretest and someother places. 3) If I have to choose either kaplan step 2 qbook or step 3 qbook, which one would you recommend? Kaplan Step 2 qbook (it is for step2ck , this first then anything else)
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aimhigh
| Forum Senior Topics: 22 Posts: 148
Hi, king of ke. Thank you very much for your kind reply! Hehehe...I like your good sense of humor. Good luck with everything!!
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motivated2
| Forum Senior Topics: 5 Posts: 157
GOOD LUCK W/ YOUR SCORE KINGSOFKE... I can take narcissism but not sarcasm... your story is more of the former but Thanks for sharing your exam prep... Again.. GL to you!!
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gv5
| Forum Senior Topics: 28 Posts: 178
that was a great post,very detailed,it should be of great help to pple preparing for step2....i ve a few questions it would be great if u could answer them. 1. i ve just started my prep how many months would be ok for prep keeping in mind match 2007,latest by which i shld take the exam. 2. can i solve qbook after each subject in my first read,then revise all subjects and do uw for one month.what do u suggest 3 any other question sources such as bprints which pple keep talking abt.what do u feel is it needed to be done thank u very much.plz reply
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infliximab
| Forum Elite Topics: 22 Posts: 320
thanks for the encouragement, trully appreciated, presently doing my 2nd reading and kaplan q bank wish u the best on ur score
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kingsofke
| Forum Guru Topics: 25 Posts: 716
Thank you so much all 1. i ve just started my prep how many months would be ok for prep keeping in mind match 2007,latest by which i shld take the exam. ? Try to have your scores of both step1 and 2 before you start applying in september, (better is to be ecfmg certified then but at least the scores to get more interviews ,which by the way you can still get with just step1 score but would be much less i think) ( better yet ask somebody else cause i am really not good at these things , i am in the process my self) 2. can i solve qbook after each subject in my first read,then revise all subjects and do uw for one month.what do u suggest ? It seems fine to me, yeah sure go ahead if you think its fine for you. 3 any other question sources such as bprints which pple keep talking abt.what do u feel is it needed to be done ? What i had already said in post is all that i know. comeon man how much longer should the post had been for you not to ask this question. just kidding.
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sobia naeem
| Forum Elite Topics: 30 Posts: 303
hi king.nice loooong post!i was just looking over my nbme report and wondering how do i improve preventive medicine and principles of care...other than the preventive medicine chp in kaplan medicine...what else??? lets see u answer that  !!plus what is the score correlation to kaplan simulated exam Edited by sobia naeem on Feb 18, 2006 - 12:23 AM
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kingsofke
| Forum Guru Topics: 25 Posts: 716
hehehee , not longer than our log book, aye ! Well sobia i really dont know what to say i just did what you did and i had no problem in them (2 stars with no bars) in NBME and i only recall one difficult question from preventive . As per kaplan simulated i will tell you my classfellows scores and guess for your self ( in kaplan --- in real exam ; 66 --- 85, 70 --- 90, 74 --- 93, 74 --- 97, ) well and I gave it in 2 separate sections ( 4 blocks each time, first time 81 and next time 86 ) hope it helps.
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karusmle
| Forum Junior Topics: 309 Posts: 1028
hi king , thank u for such an awesome thing .,this will help many ,and u deserve everything ,thank u once again and hope to see my friend breaking the records in step 2 ck.........99 is ur pass mark and breaking the records all that matters for u man .........i m gonna try to wrk out ur plan and hope it works for me ......
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karusmle
| Forum Junior Topics: 309 Posts: 1028
hi king , thank u for such an awesome thing .,this will help many ,and u deserve everything ,thank u once again and hope to see my friend breaking the records in step 2 ck.........99 is ur pass mark and breaking the records all that matters for u man .........i m gonna try to wrk out ur plan and hope it works for me ......
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gv5
| Forum Senior Topics: 28 Posts: 178
thanks for the prompt reply.all the best for a great score,also do tell us abt how u plan to go abt doing cs and other stuff for match 2007
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karusmle
| Forum Junior Topics: 309 Posts: 1028
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUDDY................................... 
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3535
| Forum Elite Topics: 25 Posts: 332
all the best. i am really confused. Will solving UW topicwise deprive u from the speed-practice for the real exam (compared to doing mixed UW). i have really learnt good info from ur post.please answer soon. 
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kingsofke
| Forum Guru Topics: 25 Posts: 716
thank you so much all. to 3535: I have no idea, i had UW in books form (got them from somewhere) i dont know, sorry.
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LisaM
| Forum Elite Topics: 16 Posts: 321
Kingsofke, Great post. Lots of useful information in there to help anyone starting out their preparation, looking for inspiration or to modify their prep plan. Personally, I cant thank you enough for all the guidance and help during my preparation. I hope a simple "thank you" will suffice. Thank you for answering all my questions- from the mundane (Q:what is a foundary worker expected to develop? A: Asbestosis) to the esoteric (Q: What is the mechanism of murmur in HOCM? A: An eloquent explanation of the Venturi Phenomenon- went way over my head, but sure helped me remember the type of murmur and maneuvers that go with HOCM). Thanks also for your encouragement and patience with the "lesser mortals" as someone put it which is usually absent in a real genuis such as yourself. You are a real king in my books!
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amygdalaa
| Forum Elite  Topics: 24 Posts: 399
So informative! Thanks and good luck to you!
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