Post by Admin on May 2, 2014 2:28:38 GMT -5
This is my Experience for step 2CK 250/85
Timeline: Roughly 4 months.
Sources: Kaplan books– MTB 2Ck – MTB 3.
Qbank: UWorld
INTRO
My name is Haytham Samy, a 2009 Benha graduate, got 232 on step 1 on late sep 2011, then started to study for CK on jan 2012, went to exam on April 24th so my time line was just less than 4 months.
1st of all its highly recommended that you start study CK quickly after step 1 you, so you have like 70% of what you should know already in your pocket before going to CK books.
START
I started by reading Kaplan books rapidly finished in 1 month. Then went to uworld online next to reading MTB.
I read surgery, Ob/Gyn, Pediatrics from MTB 3 & the rest from MTB 2 CK except Polytrauma – statistics.
Polytrauma was deficient so I studied it from Kaplan surgery.
Statistics I kept doing them from Kaplan step 1 as I had made much annotation there already and I liked it there better than any other source (just a personal preference).
2ND MONTH
I did all uworld blocks as timed – mixed. I was doing bad at uworld blocks 1st got 50s even 40s sometimes so no one should worry at the start.CK is like that it's not a steady progress like step 1. It's about understanding and linking concepts so at one point your performance shoots above, when you start getting the whole picture in your mind like solving a puzzle J.
I finished Uworld CK 1st time with a 77% correct and on 86th percentile. It took me about 6 weeks.
LAST 2 MONTHS
Reading my weak chapters from MTB and sometimes had to look up in my KAPLAN books while doing less Qs a day.
After finished reading my weak chapters I took UW self assessment to see where I'm and I got 252 alhamdulilah.. It was about 5 weeks before the exam.
Then I went through the wrong and marked Qs I did a block with my wrong Qs and a block of marked Qs alternatively. And kept a little reading too.
3 weeks before the exam I took NBME4 and I got 245 alhamdulilah. I got more confident about my performance and started to do some fine tuning in the last 2 weeks.
I kept revising MTBs while doing the marked and wrong Qs, I finished my wrong Qs, but couldn't finish half of the marked Qs.
LAST FEW DAYS
I did the sample CD from the usmle.org site on the 4 days before the exams. And stopped Qs and kept reading only till the exam. I stopped everything related to study the day before about noon.
EXAM DAY
The exam day was really tough. I found the exam much harder than step 1. It needs more thinking and exhausts you more as time is really a challenge on ck, on step 1 time wasn't a problem for me at all. So keep yourself relaxed and expect a tough time, it's a test of endurance not only medical info.
Many Qs was about Preventive medicine, psychiatry and ob/gyn. So no one underestimates these sections, in particular preventive medicine it's so high yield.
Also for those who take CK before step 1, there were some Qs about basic immunology outta there, not much but were about 8-9 for my exam.
Then my results came after 3 weeks showing that Allah has granted me 250/85.
FINALLY
May Allah help us all through this journey & please feel free to ask me about any detail.
Timeline: Roughly 4 months.
Sources: Kaplan books– MTB 2Ck – MTB 3.
Qbank: UWorld
INTRO
My name is Haytham Samy, a 2009 Benha graduate, got 232 on step 1 on late sep 2011, then started to study for CK on jan 2012, went to exam on April 24th so my time line was just less than 4 months.
1st of all its highly recommended that you start study CK quickly after step 1 you, so you have like 70% of what you should know already in your pocket before going to CK books.
START
I started by reading Kaplan books rapidly finished in 1 month. Then went to uworld online next to reading MTB.
I read surgery, Ob/Gyn, Pediatrics from MTB 3 & the rest from MTB 2 CK except Polytrauma – statistics.
Polytrauma was deficient so I studied it from Kaplan surgery.
Statistics I kept doing them from Kaplan step 1 as I had made much annotation there already and I liked it there better than any other source (just a personal preference).
2ND MONTH
I did all uworld blocks as timed – mixed. I was doing bad at uworld blocks 1st got 50s even 40s sometimes so no one should worry at the start.CK is like that it's not a steady progress like step 1. It's about understanding and linking concepts so at one point your performance shoots above, when you start getting the whole picture in your mind like solving a puzzle J.
I finished Uworld CK 1st time with a 77% correct and on 86th percentile. It took me about 6 weeks.
LAST 2 MONTHS
Reading my weak chapters from MTB and sometimes had to look up in my KAPLAN books while doing less Qs a day.
After finished reading my weak chapters I took UW self assessment to see where I'm and I got 252 alhamdulilah.. It was about 5 weeks before the exam.
Then I went through the wrong and marked Qs I did a block with my wrong Qs and a block of marked Qs alternatively. And kept a little reading too.
3 weeks before the exam I took NBME4 and I got 245 alhamdulilah. I got more confident about my performance and started to do some fine tuning in the last 2 weeks.
I kept revising MTBs while doing the marked and wrong Qs, I finished my wrong Qs, but couldn't finish half of the marked Qs.
LAST FEW DAYS
I did the sample CD from the usmle.org site on the 4 days before the exams. And stopped Qs and kept reading only till the exam. I stopped everything related to study the day before about noon.
EXAM DAY
The exam day was really tough. I found the exam much harder than step 1. It needs more thinking and exhausts you more as time is really a challenge on ck, on step 1 time wasn't a problem for me at all. So keep yourself relaxed and expect a tough time, it's a test of endurance not only medical info.
Many Qs was about Preventive medicine, psychiatry and ob/gyn. So no one underestimates these sections, in particular preventive medicine it's so high yield.
Also for those who take CK before step 1, there were some Qs about basic immunology outta there, not much but were about 8-9 for my exam.
Then my results came after 3 weeks showing that Allah has granted me 250/85.
FINALLY
May Allah help us all through this journey & please feel free to ask me about any detail.