usmle helper

7/30/2019 usmle helper

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hi guys...it's been a long and rough road for me reaching this moment but at theend itmade me so happy; i own this forum a lot and since today i receive myscore, it's time togive it back maybe will help other guys like me.here is my story:after struggling badly on step 1(got an 79/195), i decided to try adifferentapproach to what i did for step 1: i read all the kaplan books+MTB and

nothingelse(no FA) and then i bought 2 months of uw; i went twice to all theq's(what i did is imarked every single q when i did it at first wiev; after finishing allthe q's, i rewiev all themarked ones which was the entire qbank but what was niceis that once i wiev a mark q,that specific q was 'deleted' from the marked ones;so, in this way i knew that i did all theq's at least 2 times); after doing all the q'stwice, i did one more time the psychiatry(myweakest subject overall) and thewrong q's;after my first pass through uw q's i took NBME 4(mid december): i gotan 350/195;i wasso scared and depressed so i postpone my exam one monthlater.after nbme, i finish mysecond rewiev from uw and then i choose to go withmore q's; at that time somebodyrecommend MTB for step 3.so i bought it andstart to read it and in the mean time doingmore q's; i read probably about 60% of the MTB and then i focused only on q's: i did2009 kaplan qbook(fantastic book-icould say very close to uw but unfortunatelly hasonly 850 q's), FA Q&A(another

1000 q's) and Lange usmle step 2(i did about 200 q's).january 21st was the exam;2 days before i took UW SA-got an 520/222 and 1 day beforei did the freeNBME/Usmle CD-got an almost 82% q's right overall; today, february 9th igot myscore: 99/230; i know this is not the best 99, but at least it's a 99; i am sohappy;probably this was my only way of increasing a little bit the chances to getan internalmedicine residency position(i am aware of the step 1 score butunfortunatelly there isnothing what i can do).for those of you who are in the sameboat like me, my adivice might help you: sincegraduating for a while, having a kidand not being an A student, i was realistic to what ican get from this exam; in myopinion if you can do what i did, there is high chances youwill get an score likemine: read all kaplan books at least 1 time(i read them once but imade a bunch of flash cards-whenever i had time, i was keep reading from them)+MTBfor step 3after finishing kaplan books(i don't know anything about MTB for step 2)step 2: dokaplan qbook(not qbank!).it's a fantastic book(do it right after you finishreadingkaplan books and MTB)step 3: do the first aid Q&A-it's a book with 1000 q's;70%of the q's are subject wise andat the end there are 8 simulated tests;(i will post atthe end all my procentages and scores)step 4: buy usmleworld.make sure yougo at least 1 time through all the q's(my opiniongo 2-3 times) and read everysingle time the right and wrong answers. if you have enoughmoney you can buykaplan qbank too; my budget was tight so i prefered to go to themedical librarywhere i got some q's books for free.step 5: take an NBME.if you are happy withthe score, go to exam; if not do more q's(inmy plan was to do another 2000 q'sfrom 'review for usmle step 2 ck' and Lange);unfortunatelly i had no more time todo them because my day exam was close.in my opinion: if you go 2-3 timesthrough kaplan books, read all the UW q's at least 2 times with or without buying kaplan qbank, doing kaplan qbook and FAQ&A(obviouslyreading all the explanations from those books too), you havealmost 5000 first time q's; if in general you score above 75% from the books andabove 60-65% in UW/Kaplan qbank,there are very good chances you can achievean 99.my preparation time:i study for about 5 months(first 2 months very poorlyand only during the night-maybe an3-4 hours/day because during the day i had totake care of my son; starting with end of october, my mother in law came to USand helped us a lot: she took care of my son so icould study during the day;starting with the end of october, i study minimum 10 hours aday with an averageof 12-13 hours a day; i only took off 2 days for thanksgiving, 2 daysfor christmasand 2 days for new years eve when, for those holidays, the library wasclosed).myscores and procentages:UW qbank: 55% first time and a 46 percentile(this

numbers are not very accurate becausei can't remember them but i am prettysure i was under 60% overall and less than 50percentile); after second time i was



arround 67% correct and about 75 percentile(i wouldnot count the second reviewfor any kind of score aproximation!!! you will remember some q's and the resultwill be false)FA Q&A: subjects only: 76.06%; simulated tests only: 75%; overall:75.67%Kaplan qbook: subjects only: 72%(no simulation exam in the book)LangeQ&A usmle step 2 ck: 75%(i only did about 200 questions from the SAexams);NBME 4: 350 which they extimate an 195 on real exam(this was done

after i went oncethrough the UW q's+reading the kaplan books and nothing else);this was the reason whyi postpone my exam(i took the NBME mid december)UWSA: 520/222 done 2 days before exam(january 19th)Free NBME/Usmle CD:81.75%(37,37,35,3) one day before examexam date: january 21streal deal:99/230 received on february 9th(i am soooooo happy )at the end i really wannasay thank you to everybody who helped me in this forum;thanks to my wife, to mymother in law who helped me a lot and the last but not leastthanks to my son whowas always in my mind(he really inspired me). Thank you GODfor giving mestrenght and power to achieve this;with HIM next to me everything ispossible!step2 CS is next(mid march) and hopefully will pass it first time. if you have anyq's,please post them or send me an PM; i'll do all the best to help with sugestionsregardingstep 2 CK. Cheers!Edited by anatomie on 02/09/11 - 12:14 PM ...hi guys...it's been a long and rough road for me reaching this moment but at theend itmade me so happy; i own this forum a lot and since today i receive myscore, it's time togive it back maybe will help other guys like me.here is my story:after struggling badly on step 1(got an 79/195), i decided to try adifferentapproach to what i did for step 1: i read all the kaplan books+MTB andnothingelse(no FA) and then i bought 2 months of uw; i went twice to all theq's(what i did is imarked every single q when i did it at first wiev; after finishing allthe q's, i rewiev all themarked ones which was the entire qbank but what was niceis that once i wiev a mark q,that specific q was 'deleted' from the marked ones;so, in this way i knew that i did all theq's at least 2 times); after doing all the q'stwice, i did one more time the psychiatry(myweakest subject overall) and thewrong q's;after my first pass through uw q's i took NBME 4(mid december): i gotan 350/195;i wasso scared and depressed so i postpone my exam one monthlater.after nbme, i finish mysecond rewiev from uw and then i choose to go withmore q's; at that time somebodyrecommend MTB for step 3.so i bought it andstart to read it and in the mean time doingmore q's; i read probably about 60% of the MTB and then i focused only on q's: i did2009 kaplan qbook(fantastic book-icould say very close to uw but unfortunatelly hasonly 850 q's), FA Q&A(another1000 q's) and Lange usmle step 2(i did about 200 q's).january 21st was the exam;2 days before i took UW SA-got an 520/222 and 1 day beforei did the freeNBME/Usmle CD-got an almost 82% q's right overall; today, february 9th igot myscore: 99/230; i know this is not the best 99, but at least it's a 99; i am sohappy;probably this was my only way of increasing a little bit the chances to getan internalmedicine residency position(i am aware of the step 1 score butunfortunatelly there isnothing what i can do).for those of you who are in the same

boat like me, my adivice might help you: sincegraduating for a while, having a kidand not being an A student, i was realistic to what ican get from this exam; in myopinion if you can do what i did, there is high chances youwill get an score likemine: read all kaplan books at least 1 time(i read them once but imade a bunch of flash cards-whenever i had time, i was keep reading from them)+MTBfor step 3after finishing kaplan books(i don't know anything about MTB for step 2)step 2: dokaplan qbook(not qbank!).it's a fantastic book(do it right after you finishreadingkaplan books and MTB)step 3: do the first aid Q&A-it's a book with 1000 q's;70%of the q's are subject wise andat the end there are 8 simulated tests;(i will post atthe end all my procentages and scores)step 4: buy usmleworld.make sure yougo at least 1 time through all the q's(my opiniongo 2-3 times) and read everysingle time the right and wrong answers. if you have enoughmoney you can buykaplan qbank too; my budget was tight so i prefered to go to themedical library

where i got some q's books for free.step 5: take an NBME.if you are happy withthe score, go to exam; if not do more q's(inmy plan was to do another 2000 q's



from 'review for usmle step 2 ck' and Lange);unfortunatelly i had no more time todo them because my day exam was close.in my opinion: if you go 2-3 timesthrough kaplan books, read all the UW q's at least 2

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