Step 2 ck experience Score: 256

Step 2 ck experience
Score: 256
Exam date:23 Jan 2019
The post will be long.
Hey guys , wanted to share my ck experience with you. First I wanted to thank all people that helped me throughout the preparation. Thanks to our amazing moderator Hesham Salem for crash series, thanks to guys from crashes : Ck Ck , Nevertheless She Persisted, Keri Afaneh, Mhmd Jimmie Jr. felt like team. Special thanks to my friend and mentor Haris Kazman for support and believing in me when I didn’t believe in myself. I will make 2 posts:one about study experience and other about motivation, which for me was even more challenging.
Time preparation :10 months with 6 months dedicated
Resources:
Uw2 - main resource,did it 4 times but just 2 times was dedicated
Uw all notes - good for revision and memorization.Did it 2 times.
CMS forms - they are good, although didn’t finish them all.
UW3 - I used it for building stamina and test taking strategy, but not for information resource, for information only uworld
Amboss - I didn’t like it, used it for experiencing new questions and building stamina.
Onlinemed videos - watched 1/3 of them due to lack of time but they are good in the beginning of preparation.
Assessments
UWSA 1 -253 (3,5 month before exam )
NBME 8 -231 (2 months before exam )
UWSA 2 - 237 !!! (2 months before exam )
NBME 6 -243 ( 5 days before exam )
Fred 120 -85% ( 1 day before exam )
Overall I wouldn’t recommend to study like I did. My preparation was disorganized and messy, with a lot of mistakes and I could do it in 6 months if I had a chance.
So I started my preparation in May directly with uworld, I was doing it with study partner, it was slow, not motivating, it took almost 3-4months, this is first mistake, try to do uworld in 1-2 months, so you can retain more. After first round of uworld I decided to go through All UW notes, but quickly read it without much concentration , cause it felt overwhelming , so I started my second round of uworld timed and mixed this time, I was shocked, because it seemed that I didn’t retain much from first read. After my second round of uw I did the important thing in my preparation, I joined crashes. I wasn’t just passing by the crashes I was active member for short period of time:I used to check what system will be today, then I was reading the same system from All UW notes carefully and concentrated, making notes of things that I would probably forget and composing questions for Crash. I really recommend this cause first it is entertaining, fun, and second:by composing and answering questions you memorize much more. It took me around 1 month then I took UWSA 1, I was happy with score cause I aimed for more than 250, and was planning to give my exam in November, I did CMS (almost all forms except surgery and pediatrics, but I recommend to do all. After I did UW third time, but I was building stamina by doing 6-8 blocks daily and not reading explanations just revising tables. After that I gave NBME 8, I didn’t care about score cause I wasn’t very concentrated. 4 days before my planned exam date I took UWSA2 and I was really expecting good score but I got 237, and it devastated me, I didn’t know if I should go for exam or cancel and try to study more and get higher score . Thankfully there were people, who convinced me to keep pushing. I cancelled exam with all non pleasant fees, but it turns to be worth it. It was end of November and I felt that I have nothing to give, I was so exhausted and disappointed, I took one week off, I went for trip, enjoyed my life, then when I was back I made new plan. I did amboss for 5 days - around 600 questions from high level (I didn’t like it much, didn’t use it as study material, just for test taking strategy ) then I did UW 3 for 13 days, I really like it, was scoring 70% but also didn’t read much of explanation, just test taking strategy, after that for 20 days I did uworld 2 and I was trying to carefully read, memorize tables, and last 8 blocks I did for 1 day to mimic exam. In last week I gave NBME 6, revised my NBME 8 and UWSA2, revised UW tables and did fred test.
Exam day: Somehow I got 6 hours of sleep which I think was crucial. I didn’t feel myself tired I think because I build stamina, I did 8 blocks of UW atleast 3 times and 6 blocks maybe 4 times during my preparation. So work on that. I was on time, didn’t miss any q, I also trained myself to get used to feeling of uncertainty during solving exam questions and ability to “move on” despite of not feeling sure. I would characterize exam as confusing and uncertain, but this is all USMLE about:take decision despite of what you feel. I left exam with feeling nothing, neither good, neither bad , just uncertain but score surprise me a lot.
So I will emphasize 2 main points in my preparation: Building concepts with uw2(read it,eat it,drink it) ,all uworld notes and Crashes and Practicing questions with UW2, UW3,CMS, Amboss. And don’t ever give up, I got 19 points higher than my UWSA2, so don’t let anything discourage you)
Thanks for reading this post. Good luck everyone! I will be happy to answer your questions)