09-22-2011, 03:40 PM
Studied very irregularly. Hardly ever reading more than two hours a day. Was looking after my child and doing household chores. Had a very bad viral during exam time, couldn't sleep at all the night before and wasn;t sure if the child minder would turn up on the morning of my exam!! It was really hard times. But finally I'm done.
Materials: Just step-2 CK notes and usmleworld mcqs and ccs cases, interactive and print outs. That'all. No MTB, kaplan, NBME, nothing.
Exam Day-1: 7 mcq blocks, mostly very long questions. Physically and mentally draining. 5 office blocks and 2 inpatient/ER blocks. Few two or three liners. Mostly doable.65-70% straight answer. 20% narrow down to 2, 10% out of the world. Read last line first. I read through a very big question with cardiac murmurs of a Guatemalan immigrant for 45 seconds and then the last line was echo confirmed a Dx of MS..........what a waste of time! I wanted to kick myself. One or two anatomy nerves questions, some pathology and pharma as well. Know the basics, because they will test you indirectly. They will give you a description of polyarteritis nodosa and then ask you the Dx with the choices like, large vessel vasculitis, medium size vessel vasculitis, cancer, infection..etc. Know alternative medicines; I had two Chinese herbs!! Know all subjects; 3-4 psych and stats per block. At the end of the day, I came out tired and confused without a clue about how I might have done.
Exam day-2: 4 mcq blocks, 2 office and 2 ER. 36 questions for 45 minutes. Once again mostly doable. Then CCS 9 cases in total; 5 ER, 4 office. Few really weird ones. You'll never get all the known cases. Have a common approach to stick to. Do what you will do normally in your clinic; believe me, you'll be fine. Remember drug interactions. Have a 'Do NOT forget' list; you need to be very organized in this part. I had 4 unknown cases; just used common sense and they all improved and patients were happy, ended in 14-15 minutes. One case was very confusing, struggled all the way through 25 minutes, couldn't even diagnose, but symptomatically improved and patient was stable,,,,,then it ended. I still don't know what the hell it was :-( . At least I'm done for the time being.
WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK? GOOD, BAD OR UGLY???? I NEED YOUR INPUTS AND PRAYERS. All the best to future test takers. Hope my long post helps some of you guys. Please don't ask me for cases, I'm sorry I can't post that!!
Materials: Just step-2 CK notes and usmleworld mcqs and ccs cases, interactive and print outs. That'all. No MTB, kaplan, NBME, nothing.
Exam Day-1: 7 mcq blocks, mostly very long questions. Physically and mentally draining. 5 office blocks and 2 inpatient/ER blocks. Few two or three liners. Mostly doable.65-70% straight answer. 20% narrow down to 2, 10% out of the world. Read last line first. I read through a very big question with cardiac murmurs of a Guatemalan immigrant for 45 seconds and then the last line was echo confirmed a Dx of MS..........what a waste of time! I wanted to kick myself. One or two anatomy nerves questions, some pathology and pharma as well. Know the basics, because they will test you indirectly. They will give you a description of polyarteritis nodosa and then ask you the Dx with the choices like, large vessel vasculitis, medium size vessel vasculitis, cancer, infection..etc. Know alternative medicines; I had two Chinese herbs!! Know all subjects; 3-4 psych and stats per block. At the end of the day, I came out tired and confused without a clue about how I might have done.
Exam day-2: 4 mcq blocks, 2 office and 2 ER. 36 questions for 45 minutes. Once again mostly doable. Then CCS 9 cases in total; 5 ER, 4 office. Few really weird ones. You'll never get all the known cases. Have a common approach to stick to. Do what you will do normally in your clinic; believe me, you'll be fine. Remember drug interactions. Have a 'Do NOT forget' list; you need to be very organized in this part. I had 4 unknown cases; just used common sense and they all improved and patients were happy, ended in 14-15 minutes. One case was very confusing, struggled all the way through 25 minutes, couldn't even diagnose, but symptomatically improved and patient was stable,,,,,then it ended. I still don't know what the hell it was :-( . At least I'm done for the time being.
WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK? GOOD, BAD OR UGLY???? I NEED YOUR INPUTS AND PRAYERS. All the best to future test takers. Hope my long post helps some of you guys. Please don't ask me for cases, I'm sorry I can't post that!!
