06-12-2005, 06:15 PM
Hi all,
I felt that the exam was tough, I have no idea what exactly helped me pass. I'll just tell you how I prepared. I went through all the Kaplan notes once (in 6 weeks). Then went to live lecture. Listening to the lectures were like another revision. During that time, it was very hard to revise the notes everyday of what they taught, but I did practice the chapter questions everyday. After finishing the course, I studied for another 6 weeks before taking the exam. I started trying to revise the notes once again, but I was going too slow...so I switched to doing the Kaplan Q bank (65% cumulative) and inbetween reading whatever I could. Did only one reading of Goljan pathology. Whenever I did questions, I did them in the timed mode. I took the NBME practice test 2 weeks before the exam and scored 480 in that. Also did the USMLE CD, don't remember now, but got around 40 in each block. At night while falling asleep, I used to listen to the audio lectures. Could not complete First Aid. 2-3 times in the last month, I did 350 q in 8 hour simulations to get used to the timings.
Real exam was similar to the NBME practice test, meaning same level of difficulty. And NBME questions were not similar to Q bank, I felt. It is possible to get 1 or 2 questions from either NBME and/or the CD on the actual exam, so make sure you go through them.
Thanks to everyone who gave advice while I was studying! Good luck to the rest of you! Hope there will be some kind people in the step 2 ck forum too!
I felt that the exam was tough, I have no idea what exactly helped me pass. I'll just tell you how I prepared. I went through all the Kaplan notes once (in 6 weeks). Then went to live lecture. Listening to the lectures were like another revision. During that time, it was very hard to revise the notes everyday of what they taught, but I did practice the chapter questions everyday. After finishing the course, I studied for another 6 weeks before taking the exam. I started trying to revise the notes once again, but I was going too slow...so I switched to doing the Kaplan Q bank (65% cumulative) and inbetween reading whatever I could. Did only one reading of Goljan pathology. Whenever I did questions, I did them in the timed mode. I took the NBME practice test 2 weeks before the exam and scored 480 in that. Also did the USMLE CD, don't remember now, but got around 40 in each block. At night while falling asleep, I used to listen to the audio lectures. Could not complete First Aid. 2-3 times in the last month, I did 350 q in 8 hour simulations to get used to the timings.
Real exam was similar to the NBME practice test, meaning same level of difficulty. And NBME questions were not similar to Q bank, I felt. It is possible to get 1 or 2 questions from either NBME and/or the CD on the actual exam, so make sure you go through them.
Thanks to everyone who gave advice while I was studying! Good luck to the rest of you! Hope there will be some kind people in the step 2 ck forum too!