HEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! Finally, done with it!

Materials:
1. MTB2 and MTB3
2. UW CK
3. FA for Step 1
4. Kaplan OBGYN
5. Kaplan Peds now and then, IM occasionally. Not much used.
6. Conrad Fishcer 20 cases. Went over like 10 of them. Not that helpful. Only as a summary and
to revise.
7. Kaplan surgery. Just the cases, and the videos

Time:
Well, around 5 and a half month, but the real study was the last 3 months.

Stats:
Step 1: 250
Stratified analysis UW(timed,random,unused):77%
Overall Correct: 84%
Percentile: 94th
USWA: 263/770
NBME(offline 4)= 170/184 : 92.4% +/- 3
Free 150= 89%
Didnt take any NBME
Real score: 250!!! alhumdullilah!

Method:

-I first went over MTB2. Its okay in IM, but lacks in other disciplines highly. In retrospective, so
many things are missing from MTB2. Its not enough!

-MTB3 is nothing but a summarized edition of all the Kaplan books. It follows the same
organization of the chapters within a discipline. Its a great source for Psych, Peds, OBGYN,
Surgery. But dont rely on IM for it.

Having said that, I went over IM of MTB3 as well, and I realized some things are missing from
MTB2. In the end I realized what a mess MTB's really are. Some information in 2, some in 3. It
became so hard to focus. I just wanted to have one book like Step1 where I can consolidate all
the information, but its so hard to do that with MTB's.

What I did was keep MTB2 solely for IM, and copied all the notes from MTB3 over it (Frankly
speaking, there arent many things missing, but a few notes now and then). MTB3 I kept for all
other disciplines. Here is my breakdown for a better analysis:

For all IM, stick to MTB2

For Peds, Psych, OBGYN, Derma stick to MTB3
For emergency -> MTB2
For Ethics -> Both have almost the same info.
For Surgery -> MTB3, but if you want to review some classical cases, MTB2

You see what I mean. Its such a mess. I don't know why Conrad couldn't just make one book. It
would have been so much easier. Also, in retrospective, MTB's lack some information, and aren't
clear in some domains. I think we ought to give some other book a try. People dont usually do it
causes MTB's are tried and tested, and people have good results with them. I am not saying its a
bad book. Its just messy! And it does lack on information.

-Kaplan material. Only OBGYN to "REFER", since MTB3 is quite good, and covers everything
except Twin pregnancy, Preterm, and some other minor topics. Topics of the vulva/dating/some
other complaints are in MTB2. So you can go over MTB2 OBGYN just as a review. Not a lot,
and it wont take you much time either.
Kaplan IM: Well, I didnt use it much. Just to refer. Used it like maybe 3-4 times. Not important.
Kaplan Surgery: Is a good book. I only went over the cases, and followed the videos. It doesnt
take much time, around 2 days I guess. But that doctor is quite good. You can do them without
the videos, but I was just bored to read myself.
All the other Kaplan books like Peds/Psych you can scrap them out.

-UW: As again, the master of all the topics. What I advise is to take pictures of all the
algorithms, and just stick them around. It will reinforce all the major topics. But I think UW
lacks a bit in preventive medicine, and principles of care. Its great for OBGYN, many IM topics,
Surgery, but some of general health/disciplines, its still missing. It also lacks on the abstract
questions. You need to do more of those. I'll come to that in a while.

I organized my UW notes in a better way this time, compared to step 1, which was a mess. This
time, I arranged a book with different tags, each with different disciplines. I did blocks with
random,unused,timed questions, but then I took notes categorically, pinning the information in
the right parts of the book. This is time consuming, but it consolidates all the information into
disciplines, and helps you to see similar questions and connect the concepts. Its a great way, and
highly advise it.

I didnt take notes over MTB, since its far more time consuming. I.e find the page, in the specific
MTB, and then write on the small space!!! So, its better to get a separate notebook, split them
into major disciplines. For a few like Preventive/Toxicology, you can only write on separate
pages since you dont have many questions. But you need separate segments of the book
definitely for Neuro,Cardio,Surgery,GI,OBGYN,Peds,Resp since they are huge! My advise is to
split ALL of them into segments. You can get 2 notebook from Walmart, with 180 pages split
across 5 subjects. Divide each subject into 2 additional units, so you have like 20 segments
overall, which are quite enough I guess.

-Conrad 20 Cases: Are good as a review. They add notihng new. Its just to link all topics, and
help you in recall.

-FA. As always. My bible. I referred to it now and then. Is it worth to read all over it? NOPE!
Please dont. Its a waste of time. I did go over a few notes of UW for Step 1, but they were just
rapid skimming. It didnt help me much.

-Strategy. I did UW till 50%, then revised all of it again. Then continued till 92%, left the 4
blocks, and revised all of it again. Also revised MTB's. Then did those 4 blocks, and after that
took the UWSA. My exam was really close, so I didnt want to lower my confidence by taking an
NBME. I did offline NBME just to feel how it was. Besides, I really don't know the predictive
value of it, and not many people take it. In retrospective, I should have done an NBME. So, I
highly advise you all to take at least one NBME.

Exam:

Two words. FREAKING TOUGH! I felt it to be not a walk in the park like Step1. I mean, after
Step 1, I walked out with confidence, that I did good, and I was confident of my knowledge.
After Step 2, I went out thinking "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!!" It was such a traumatizing
experience, shatters your confidence. I felt like crap! I thought I did really really bad!

So many simple classical cases were twisted. I had Abstracts, with 3 questions, in the first block
itself. And then 3-4 more Abstract questions in the next few blocks. They are the ones that killed
me, since they were quite long, and hard! And I didn't know what they were asking. Also, I didnt
have many Step 1 questions. I wanted to have some, but I just didnt get. All my blocks were like
46 questions, with a few like 43.

But....before you get scared, and start panicking while reading my rant, let me calm you down. I
realized the feeling I had was not cause the exam was very difficult. Its because so many
questions that I saw were out of the blue! Like never heard of! They do this on purpose to break
your confidence. And they did succeed, and I screwed up some of the later blocks. And its not
only me. I researched online, and asked so many people. 80-90% of them says they felt like this.
So, there is something at work here.

Understand this, they want to put you in a corner with the worst questions ever, oh and believe
me they will! Your key is not to screw up in the later questions actually. Its not these tough
questions you should worry about, since so many are not scored. You shouldn't screw up or
change your mind on the simple questions they give you later on. The tough questions should
NOT change your judgment, and make you think that maybe this question is also twisted. You
should go with your gut feeling, apply the same concept of UW, and just go with it.

Thats actually the whole key to get through this exam. Don't panic on these out of the blue
scenarios, and twists and turns. They are just scaring you. And they give you these questions in
succession. Its like a spell of 3-4 questions that will force you to curse under your breath (I DID
) or maybe punch the screen (was about to). After this spell, you start becoming more
relaxed as questions get easier, and you see some familiar concepts. As you are getting yourself
up again, here comes again, another spell of 2-3 questions!

Its like a boxing match with 8 rounds. Every round, you will have uppercuts, like 3-4 in
succession, and then you will get in control, throw some punches, and feel happy, and in comes
again some nasty side punches directly into your guts! Its mostly in the first few blocks. The later
blocks were okay, and not that twisted. You felt more in control and was confident.

So, my advice to all of you is simple. Keep standing back up, and dont let these spells drag you
down and affect your judgement on the later cases. That is the best advice I can give you. Stick
to UW concepts, apply your gut feeling, and dont overthink! Just dont! They actually want you
to think in this way, since when you start over-thinking on a simple case, that is where the
problem arises.

Some other issues:

-Time wasnt that much of a problem. The length wasnt that long. Only abstracts were quite long.

-Type of questions: Nope, you wont see replicas of UW or the NBME. Some of the FRED type
yeah. But both UW and NBME ask question in a different way. The exam, as a whole, ask
questions in an entirely different way, though the concepts are the same. So know how the
questions of FRED are structured, to know what they want you to go after.

-You need to do something about the abstract questions, and a strategy for them. I was bad in
them and I thought I was good in biostats. But, you need to be able to know how to pull
information from a chart/data of numbers given to you. I got lost when I saw so many numbers.
My advise to you is to do them at the end since they need time. And practice some other Qbanks
to know them better.

On the contrary to what I have read on the forums, I found the abstracts to be quite tough. The
Drug adds, on the other hand, were simple and straightforward. They are actually a test of
comprehension. It reminded me of O'level English/Literature, where they give you a paragraph,
and you have to decipher it. Its all about the language actually, since so many answers are
DIRECTLY given in the drug add. You should just know how to analyze the language and pick
that information out.

-I had a few step 1 questions. Nothing you cant do. Straightforward recall, dont lose points on
them.

-Was UW enough? The burning question of the day. Well, UW is great, and there is no way to
get through without MASTERING the concepts in UW. But, in retrospective, I think its better to
do another Qbank as well. I said for step 1, UW was more than enough. I feel its not the same for
CK. It won't hurt to do additional 500 questions from some other Qbank. Kaplan seems good
enough.

With that in mind, also note. My friends who did both Qbank, ended up also in the 230-240
range. So I really dont know if it will help you increase your marks, but nonetheless it will give
you more confidence. Its a confidence building measure by doing other Qbank, not to directly
affect your knowledge. Since, maybe, you may find some similar idea during ur exam, and wont
suffer that punch!
Final Words:

Is CK the toughest exam from all the Steps? Well, to me, yeah so far. I havent tried Step 3, so it
may change my mind

Will it punch you, and make you bleed, and suffer, and cry? Oh, ROYALLY!

What should I do to counter these punches? You cant! Your job is not the current throws, but to
relax, calm down, and get back at the later questions!

Will you triumph? If you felt like me, and went through this crappy phase, I think you did fine.
Pat yourself on the back if you felt like this. That means, mostly you survived this exam! Hard
work always pays off. Always!!!

How to increase your confidence? Try to master UW concepts. Organize them, and connect
them. No point in revising MTB's again and again. PLEASE DONT! You can only raise your
confidence, and your guard, by doing some more questions. So give some other Qbank a try. Do
like 500-600 additional questions. The more you do, the more you raise your guard.

Get in that ring, and start some punching! The spell of punches will throw you off your feet, but
your job is to get back up. Rise!
__________________
GOSH!!! Hate this signature writing. Such a tiny limit of 2 lines!