If anyone has ever told you that step 2 CK is easier than step 1, that information is inaccurate by all means, and you have to trust them on your own risk, period. Moreover yes!! my wishes will be with that person, even no number of wishes will save him from his disappointment after looking at the exam questions at Prometric.
My take on the exam
- The exam will leave you speechless, the difficulty level is 9/10. It’s better to know this before rather than knowing when you’re taking the exam. So be mentally prepared.
- Performance on exam day is important, if I was mentally prepared as I told in the first point, I would have scored 260 (I am very happy with my score).
- Take a break after every block, wash your face, take a part of your chocolate and some protein bar to get energized for an hour block. Energy drinks and water are vital parts of your exam day. Take your hand towel with you at the Prometric.
- Don’t get burned out in the last phase of your preparation, keep normal routine in the last days. I did extensive study during that time and you won’t believe on exam day I was so exhausted that I didn’t want to be there for 9 hours.
- People who’re getting speed issues– Do try to read questions as fast as you can. You’ll get this habit with time and don’t spend time on minor details, in the final exam if they have given you a 7 lined question- out of 7, 4 lines will be unnecessary stupid detail, your work is to find necessary 3 lines to answer that question. Start reading a question from the first line unlike step 1 where we started from last.
- “If you’re reading a question twice, you’re wasting your time” This isn’t a hard and fast rule, but I would highly recommend you try this, I applied this and my speed was improved but if you’re reading twice even then it’s fine provided you’re reading fast.
- Don’t spend a lot of time over UWorld, minor details- they won’t ask, you just need to know the basic concept of the question, but it’s just very hard to apply. I knew this before even then I used to spend 15 minutes over an explanation and after 2-3 days, I used to forget the minor details I’ve learned.
- For those whose scores ain’t improving It’s all about “Highly Condensed Study” This rule applies to step 1 and CK both. Revise over and over again, whatever you’ve studied in the last month or 15 days or whatsoever. Because we tend to forget what we’ve studied before. We get very limited time in the exam, so we can’t think much over there, so whatever you studied- has to be on your tips, fresh in memory.
- Don’t understand concepts only, memorize them too.
- Keep heart sounds, abstract, etc lengthy questions for last, if you ain’t confident enough in such kind of questions.
- Don’t spend your money on NBMEs.
- Take Step 1 before CK, even if you’re a final year medical student, lots of information is needed from step 1 basic core. Be practical. Denial won’t lead you anywhere, but reality will. My Step 1- 249
- Always read all the options, quickly rule out every other choice.
- In the final exam no one can be sure that this is the right answer, so learn to exclude options. It’s more or less about your best guess.
- Keep a smart SP always, no one can understand you and from what you’re going through, we all need a support system.
Resources
UWorld ( first pass with incorrect questions, the second time- 80% done with just rapid looking at incorrect questions without explanations)
First Aid Step 1(last month)- I was so good in FA during step 1, so just went through quickly. I would recommend keeping FA on the side always while doing UWorld. It will help you to meet the unmet points.
Assessments
UWSA1- 241 (3 months before)
NBME 7- 220 (1.5 months before)
Free120- 87% (8 days before)
UWSA2- 255 (7 days before)
Importance of All UWorld Notes-
I annotated extra points from online UWorld, revised those notes, tables in last week before the exam. There isn’t a drawback I guess, but I got 1 question directly from one table that I wouldn’t have studied if I did online UWorld because the time taken by online UWorld revision is much more than the revision of tables directly from those notes.
Moreover, if you have less time, just go through the tables/algorithms of notes, don’t read the text.
Importance of CMS-
I don’t know they helped or not, but I did form 5,6 for Internal Medicine, Surgery, Neurology. But I didn’t remember what I’ve studied in the last 2 weeks before the exam from CMS, so I would recommend that you can do CMS for 2 reasons, either you will revise quickly before the exam or you won’t expect to remember anything as you’re doing for the sake of practice more questions.
Importance of NBME 6,7,8-
Don’t do online, just do offline- all the 3 NBMEs. Follow this advice and you will thank me later.
Exam day experience
Lots of ECGs, heart sounds.
Sometimes ECG is for distraction, they’ve asked something else and will give you normal ECG, you’ll spend a half minute in detecting that it’s the normal one and at the last, they’ve asked something different and it’s annoying, I know.
2 abstract questions- one was in the first block, I marked unknowingly, that was too hard to solve, second was in the last block- that was easy. I wasn’t even good at doing those type of questions, but I did the last one because the pattern was like 3rd-4th standard kids English paragraph questions, they gave me the abstract and asked the questions whose answer was hidden in that abstract, so had to find it where.
So don’t worry, if I did that, you can do it.
Best Tip
You won’t have time to overthink, or even think, mark the option you have seen somewhere in UWorld or something is known to you, that must be the right option. Don’t go for complicated ones.
Exam made me so uncomfortable and made me think that I should have extended and all things, so it’s normal, but it’s too hard to believe.
Mistakes I did
- Took 9 months for prep, I was slow, 4-5 months are enough if you’re doing right and smart things.
- Didn’t revise All UWorld notes tables throughout the preparation. I started in the end.
- Got burned out in last days, don’t ever do that, if people are saying save your energy for the big day, apply that, don’t make other people’s mistakes, life isn’t that bigger. Surrounded by so much negativity, keep your surrounding people good and supportive If you find someone who is negative or brings you down in any way, just leave that space because that isn’t yours.
- Took NBME 7, discouraged me or we can positively take that, I started studying more, but that was under some kinda pressure, so don’t take NBME 7 seriously, if your personality is like to take everything seriously- then don’t ever take that,
Things I would do if I start all over again
In last month, I’ll do the whole UWorld again, not with explanation only with educational objectives and questions.
Thank you and good luck
The Med Kid 
How many hours per day for the 5 months study plan
Thank you
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I love your website and want repost your experience on my website.
TheMedGoals.com
And i will share your website too
Contact me asap l.
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Hey Susan. I believe in quality rather than quantity, and everyone has a unique style. So I’m not the best person to answer the hours per day.
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Hi,
Thank you for your amazing recommendations. They were very helpful. I have issues with time, either in time for studying and time for tests. For study, I try to use your recommendations to study the important parts of the World question explanation and get the main concept. But could you please tell me what should I do for answers the question in real exam? Most of the time I can not answer all 40 questions of Uworld block in one hour and I can not answer the last 3-4 questions because as you know, the question stems are very long and I am slow. Also I am going to take the step-2 CK in late March and still not finished the first round. (around 80% finished). What should I do in upcoming 75 days?
Thank you so much for your help.
Best
Hamid
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