Step 2 CS.....No more than Common Sense......

Hello Folks....
As I m done with CS, I shall give u guys a brief description of how to face the CS examination.

Choice of the Exam center

It is no more than a matter of convenience. I thought of going to Houston. But, could not get the date and so, gave my exam in Chicago. I took the exam on 2nd July , 2008.

What is the material that is all required ?

All you need for the CS preparation is USMLE world notes and the First aid for CS books and nothing else.

CS and the Importance of Study partner

It is (in my opinion ) is very necessary to have a study partner. Choose ur study partner carefully and start ur preparation. Get in touch with the guys who have cleared the exams to get the tips.
If you dont have a study partner, find them online and you can interact with them with VOIP services like yahoo, gtalk..etc etc.

Duration of Study

This is the most tricky part. But, let me put it this way-
CS is basically a easy exam. It tests your practical knowledge and at the same time your skill of Communication. So, when it comes to the practical part, it wont be much touch for u guys as u should ve passed ur final year practicals.
So, the thing that matters most for us is the " Communication Skills"
Hence, the period of study varies. I shall give the rough estimate for ur study time. These are my personal opinions and disregard them if you feel they are rubbish.

1 week - You should be too smart for that. But, honestly, It can be done. your English should be very good such that you dont need to put even a second on ur communicatin skills.

2 Weeks - This is a modest decision. and 2 weeks is more than enough (provided you did not forget the basic concepts that you learned in the UG.

1 month- When you think, you are not good at communication skills, you can allocate one month for the prep. It makes sense.....

> 45 days - I think, for a genuine preparation is too much for CS exam.

Importance of Patient Notes

This is one of the points I think, many of us forget. I know two of my seniors who are very good candidates failing in this part of the exam. So, my suggestion is - Go for printing out the empty patient note forms and practice writing with a blunt tip pen for every case u complete.
P.S- Dont forget to get it evaluated by ur partner and if possible, with a CS passed guy...

Learn how to' act ':

Yes.. this is one of the most overlooked things....When we guys know that the SPs are not the real patients and that they are feigning their suffering, we tend not to show empathy. This is one important thing that you guys should check for. Dont you ever Smile when the SP gives a symptom.

"Intro"- the pivotal element for doing it good.:

Introducing urself to the SPs is one important thing that will eventually have its impact in the subsequent session with him.
A good intro after knocking the door is a key element that could make the matter.

Last name , is it so necessary ???

One of the most 'unstressed' aspect in the prep......when we guys look at the name of the SP where his first name will be simple (like Jack, robert, Kacy....) and the Last name will be complicated (like , Bassingtwaithe, Hennsheiner, ...), we tend to call them with their first name,....
Dont make that mistake....always address with the " Last Name"

Timing:

The crucial component for ur success. Practice with timers. Make sure that when the 10 min bell rings, you should be washing ur hands. If not, hurry up and go to General examination.

Finishing the Case. Is is so important when we did the case very nicely so far ??

Yes. Finishing off the case is the most important thing you should not forget. NEVER..Ever leave the case unfinished.....I reiterate...Finish off the case at any cost.
It is in ur closing statement, that carries a lot of weightage.

Hand washing:

This is a tricky aspect. You can use glooves instead. But, if you decide to go with ur hands only..here are the tips:
Put soap only on one hand and dont you ever start bringing out the lather. Just put the hand (even before rubbing the other hand ) under the water and when the soap is runoff by the water, now, pretend you have rubbed the hand.
This technique will save u around 15 seconds. The soap is very sticky and once u go for washing ur hands genuinely, u ll ve unnecessary time waste.
Pull down a tissue and close the tap with it and throw it away.
Now, pull another tissue and wipe off ur hands.
P.S- You can include some questions even when u are washing ur hands.

I think, you can find the other tips in the material. I just stressed those which u dont find conventionally.....

My Step 2 CK preparation

Geared up with the 99 I got in step 1, I started my preparation for the step 2 CK. I had just 2 and half month of time with me (after which I got to leave India and join my Masters in Univ of Findlay,US). So, I thought that I could give my best shot with less time is by doing more bits rather than reading lot of material.

Kaplan Lecture notes

as usually, it is a customary for all of us to start our preparation with Kaplan lecture notes. I started off with Psychiatry (though may seem unconventional, I choose it as i am in fresh touch with Behavioral science). It hardly took me two days for that.
Now, I began Obs-Gyn and it too barely took anytime. Later, I went for Peds , then surgery and finally medicine.
So, it hardly took, 15 days for me to read all the Kaplan stuff.

Bits or MCQs

I started doing Kaplan Blocks and Q book. And as per me, doing Medicine Q book is a good idea.
Surgery kaplan notes by itself is a bitbank and my suggestion regarding surgery preparation - Be thorough with every page of surgery Kaplan notes. coz, it is not that tough to be perfect with it and more over it is very important.
Treat Kaplan Qbank and Q book as learning tools and never estimate yourself with the score you get in it.

Spend around 15-20 days with these and now start UW.

USMLE WORLD (also called with the pet name UW)

This is the most essential part of your step 2 preparation. It is a must before you attempt USMLE.
There are two ways that it is being done
One way is to subscribe it for one month and the otherway is to subscribe it for 45 days.

One month subscription (I did this way)..
I ve started UW by doing 2 blocks a day. Though I had the overambitious plan of doing three or four blocks a day, I could not do that.
So, a reasonable option would be doing 2 blocks a day and revising it as and then, writing down the unknown points (which occupied an entire notebook of mine).

45 Day subscription.

This is what i heard some 99ers did. They did the UW , 2-3 blocks a day , studied the matter and did not write down the unknown points. After finishing it off for the first time, they start doing it again from start till end.
and it is up to you to choose which to opt for. I feel that I should have done the second way (after giving my exam).

UW, shatters our confidence much

Yes, with the scores i got initially, I was very intimidated. But, I could somehow pull up my scores to 67 %(74 percentile). So, dont be worried with the range of score you get in it.


NBME

I took NBME form 2 and got 241(99) in it. I took it before one week of the main exam. My advise before taking NBME is to be prepared as if you were taking the main exam. Getting a good NBME score will boost up ur confidence levels for sure.

And Finally on May 6th , I took the exam.


My Exam

I felt as if I were doing UW once again but, this time there are 8 blocks. I took break after doing two blocks and one more break after finishing 3rd and 4th block. After that, I started taking breaks after I finish a block.
I took with me a bottle of Glucose bottle, some chocolates, some bread-jam , and water.
I got my result on 28th of May when I am in US and it is 241(99) which is the same score as in my NBME. And when I compared the performance charts given in both the score sheets, to my amazement, they are almost alike.

Preparation for my Step 1

Hey all.....

I have got my first step score - 99. Let me tell you how my preparation for the first step went.....
Here is a brief description of my preparation for my first step. I have followed advices from my seniors and customized them to my needs.
I am posting this because, anyone who is starting their preparation would find it very much confusing regarding their plan of action.

" Dont make delay in starting the preparation"

" Your step 1 preparation should not be more than Five months"

" The only books that you have to go through are - Kaplan reviews ".

First reading

Now that you have settled in some place for ur step preparation, start the first reading. It is quite possible to complete the first reading in one month or at the maximum of one and a half month.

Regarding the order of reading the books,first start Anatomy. You can complete it very easily and you get some confidence. Then go for Physiology. Then pharmacology and Pathology.

Now comes ur first rough road. Start Behavioral science. Go for kaplan tapes when you are reading the Epidemiology and biostatistics. Read Behavioral science carefully and spare a considerable amount of time to understand the concepts. Excepting a few topics,most of the topics can be easily understood.

Now, start Biochemistry. I suggest you to spend the maximum possible time when you start biochemistry. I say this because, if you don't go through it in detail or read it superficially, the USMLE exam is gonna take you to task. A in depth understanding of concepts of Molecular biology is a MUST.
By now, you must have had come to an end of the first reading. Dont you let it go beyond one and half month.



Second reading

Now that you have completed your first reading, start the second reading. You now have a brief idea on what is what in step one preparation. So, the order of the sequence is up to you in this second reading.

But , this is the time when you have to start doing Bits.
After reading a subject do the bits for that subject immediately. Kaplan online qustion bank is the apt choice at this moment.

Kaplan is providing a free trial of 15 days access to its q bank. You can make use of it. Some may have an of line version of the Kaplan Qbank (called Kaplan blocks). I have given the link below. Register yourself and have fun.

Kaplan two week q bank trial

you can complete the second reading along with the bits in two months straight. Many advise to go for even Kaplan Q book along with the second reading.


USMLE World

Now,you have come to a pretty confident stage of going for USMLE world online question bank. Dont you dare to attempt USMLE world before you have "atleast two readings".
USMLE question bank is an absolute requirement for you to go to exam with confidence.

The Q- bank should be subscribed online and it costs a 100$ ( which is worth its cost). The questions in it are presented to you in the same way as that of the main exam.
Here is the link to USMLE world Question bank

USMLE World- online q bank . Step 1

Installation instructions- Take care that you dont have any screen capture softwares in your system. The software detects such programs and shuts down.
You will have to install a Java program on your desktop. You choose your user ID an password. You cant copy any of the slides. So, dont go for such tricks.

HOW TO DO THE USMLE WORLD BLOCKS

Allocate atleast 25 dsys for USMLE world. For the first 10 dsys, do, the bits subject wise. Do, half of the bits in each subject and save the remaining half for the next ten days so that you can do "CUMULATIVE" blocks which would boost your confidence.
In the next ten days do the cumulative blocks.
If your preparation is good enough, you ll get past 35 corrects per each block.

Write down those point which you find you dont know.
Do the same even when you are doing the Kaplan blocks.
Now you have 20- 30 dsys with you.
Revise the bits which you have written when doing the kaplan and USMLE blocks and give an online assesment test called NBME form 2 ( there are four forms and do which ever form is better for you. But, I am advised a form 2 )
Here is the link to that form 2

NBME Self assesment examination

This NBME assesment gives you an idea of how your preparation is.
When you are confident, go for your examination without changing the date.

The final preparation

Now you have come to the final part of the preparation. YOu can easily complete revision in 12 to 15 days. and spend a couple of days for revising the bits you have written.
Go to the exam with confidence.
Dont read anything on the day and the day before exam. It really makes you tensed. I have faced the same situation. I left reading on the evening before the exam date and had fun playing.