Step2CK Experience: 261
Hello, I have already taken step 1(score244).First I will tell you what I learnt from my step1 experience
• 1st read of UWorld matters a lot.
• A person needs breaks during his preparation.
• Keep rewarding yourself.
• In the end only two things matter,
A. your faith in Allah (which is reinforced by praying)
B. self confidence(which comes with hard work)
Resources:
• UW2 (very important),
• FA1 (for biostat , pharmacology and microbiology),
• UW3 (for biostat and ob/gyn),
• CMS (for peads, psychiatry, obgyn and surgery. It’s no different from Uw just
consolidates the concept)
• All uw notes (hard copy). Helps in making picture memory.
Self assessment:
UWSA 1: 252(almost 3 months before test)
NBME8: 24 mistakes out of 184 Questions (20 days back)
UWSA 2: 261(10 days back)
Real exam: 261
Overall UW percentage: 69%
Now, I will tell you my experience with each discipline tested in Ck
Internal medicine:
1
st read: I spent almost 6 months to complete first read. I did it in system wise timed mode. I
highlighted those things in uw explanation which I thought I would be needing to read in
subsequent revision. Second thing I did was, know the differentiation points between
diseases.
1
st revision: I spent almost 30days and revised my internal medicine (before I completed the
whole uw) for my university exam. During this time, I compiled the vast knowledge of
medicine and related things.
2
nd revision: After completing the whole UW, I spent almost 25 days and during this time I
learnt(using my knowledge gained in previous revision) how to pick the diagnosis using the
information given in question and without actually looking at answers because in real life
patients don’t come with options of diagnoses, instead we have to make one. Also, in this
phase I developed strategies which help in choosing correct answers
Like, for example,
• If BUN and Creatinine is given, calculate BUN/Cr ratio, ratio >20 is seen in pre renal
AKI and thus you can choose the option of giving IV fluids.
• If AST :ALT ratio is more than 2:1 , that is clue to alcoholism, we all know that but in
real life or in this exam we are not given the ratio instead we have to calculate. This
reflex comes with practice.
3
rd revision: The final one completed in 25 days alongside other subjects. I tried to remember
each and every thing during this read.
Surgery : I have seen that surgery is tested alot recently. I didn’t do it myself but I would
recommend UW3 for SURGERY
Obgyn: UW2, Uw3, CMS are enough. Plus I would recommend reading the chapter on “labor"
from Kaplan obgyn.
Peads: I found UW2 sufficient.
Psychiatry and behavioral sciences: UW2 is enough. I revised (1st time I read it in my step1
prep) BRS behavioral sciences, ethics given in this book is really helpful.
Biostat: one subject on exam I found that was not covered by all the resources I have used for
it. I did UW2, FA1, UW3 but still questions in the exam were pretty tough and I had to go with
my best guess.
Exam day: was long , still 9 hours seemed to pass quickly. Time management was not the
problem as in my last week of preparation I did 2-3 blocks per day from amboss (and only
going through explanation of wrong answers quickly). I didn’t include amboss in my resources
as I didn’t learn anything from it.
GOOD luck
Dilawar khan