Hey group members,
Here’s my experience for USMLE step 2 CK with a score of 259. This was my first step in the USMLE journey.
•At the very beginning, I tried twice for couple of weeks to prepare efficiently for Step 2 CK, but mainly with lack of motivation, I couldn’t keep going. However, I came across this motivational group with its CRASH members, which had helped me a lot to continue and gave my exam in less than the expected period.
•My preparation was around 5 months in total, feedback and resources summarized as follow:
1.Master the board 2 : For the internal medicine subspecialties
2.Master the board 3 : For the rest of specialties/subspecialties.
3.Canada Q bank online: completed around 2000Qs, except medicine and didn’t cover all the questions in other subjects (I only did this bank, because I was preparing for MCCEE too).
4.Second read of Master the board 2 and 3 done with 100 Case in ethics of Cornard Fisher.
5.UW step 2 online: every day 1 block with taking notes and reviewing each next morning (it was the MOST helpful source during my preparation ).
6.CRASHes: those were very helpful in my preparation and it’s more like reviewing the materials more than once. The CRASH was great experience and all the members were very helpful and allowed me to review high yield topics on daily bases with collaborative discussion. A big thanks to all the CRASH members for their efforts and I wish them all the best in their upcoming exams and results.
7.Before completing UW for first time, I did my first Assessment (UWSA :249) 6 weeks before the exam and felt relaxed. I highly recommend taking your first SA, as early as possible and, when you feel happy about your preparation and relaxed like the guy(Usain Bolt) shown in the picture below. It is not a monster, remember “SA is mainly intends to address your weaknesses” in order to find the solution for each early by reviewing things in a different way. Moreover, delaying it to the last days will be useless in checking your weakness and will assess your score only.
8.One week later(5weeks before exam) , I did NBME 4 online scored 242 and I wanted to schedule after 1 week, but my friend advised me that this score was an average and with 1 month delay, the score might rise 10+ points.
9.After that, I have completed UW, reviewed some of my weak points in Canada Q bank and UW 2 and gave MCCEE around 3 weeks prior to USMLE STEP 2 CK.
10.After MCCEE, I took rest for 2 days. Then, I tried to read some topics in my weakness areas from Kaplan Qbook and UW 3 offline.
11.10 days before exam, I did my last SA, NBME 6 online and scored 246 and I wanted to postpone my exam, because there wasn’t that much of a difference from my previous SA, but one of the most motivating colleague told me that I would get higher score and I did. I have concluded that the score mainly depends on how you improve your weaknesses by appropriate utilization of the performance-feedback given from your SAs .For me the most predictive SA is UWSA.
12. In the last 10 days, I read some selected topics from First Aid for step 1 based the file “Step1 topics for CK” (very helpful and I recommend doing it early in the preparation). I reviewed biotatistics in offline UW bank and CRASH specifically made for this topic. Moreover, I did some forms of CMS(30%) with the CRASHes for CMS, which covered many principles that were deficient in UW and concentrated on topics that were weaknesses. In addition, I read chapter 17 “Basic Science of Patient Safety-Kaplan LN Step 1” in the last day of my preparation.
•The BIG DAY “day of exam”: I had good breakfast, went for prometric center 2 hours before the exam. Did 30 Qs from UW as warming up. During exam, I took break(3-7minutes) after each block and I ate some desserts with high energy and water, with one break (15 minutes) for eating launch. The exam generally doable - just believe in yourself and work on your weak areas based on your SAs.
•Finally, I have to thank each person for every contribution in this helpful group, you were my greatest help for keeping me motivated and best of luck for all members in upcoming exams.