Satish Advani – USMLE Step 2 CK 271 My Background: Not so goo | Usmle step 2 experinces

Satish Advani – USMLE Step 2 CK 271
My Background:

Not so good. i was never serious about my studies in medical school. If you had read my step 1 experience you would know.

Scroll down at the end to read my step 1 experience in this post.

Materials i used:
Kaplan USMLE Step 2 CK Lecture Notes – ob/gyn, surgery, medicine.
Master The Boards Step 2CK and Master The Boards Step 3.
3.Step 2 Uworld

4.Step 3 uworld.

5.CMS all forms.

6.NBME all forms.

MKSAP
8.Kaplan qbank only obgyn, surgery, peds and some medicine.

9.Rapid Review Pathology by Edward Goljan few chapters like female repro system, male repro system

10.Step 1 uworld for genetics, ethics, psych and some pathophysio portion

11.Uptodate

Miscellaneous : cardiology questions on learntheheart.com , blausfuss, Medscape, google for images, BRS biostat, harrison’s self assessment book.
Duration:
10 months

So with very weak background knowledge of CK subjects, i had to work really hard to build the basics , mug up the crazy criterias, and comprehend the mind boggling concepts.

Like any RPG, You got to have 3 things when you are preparing for steps

1-strength- how hard can you hit, how good you are at the studies, how hard you are willing to work for it !!!

defense- how vulnerable you are? are you able to face the upcoming hurdles, the personal problems, the failures and the frustration of not being able to reach that target mark
agility- how quickly can you do things eg. reading the books, memorizing the stuff, solving the questions in time !
I took step 1 in october 2014. i started studying for ck from december 2014.

At the start, my stats were:

Strength: 9/10 because i got good score on step 1 i was quite motivated and had confidence that may be i can do it again in step 2.

Defense: 4/10 – i get affected by things quickly, i can’t study when there are any distractions, i can’t concentrate when i am having even minor blips and hitches in my life.

Agility: 4/10 – i am a slow reader, i take time to understand things. i easily forget many things easily.

Now i knew my weaknesses and i had to work on these as well. but first i decided to quickly go through all the books to see what suits me. this is important. Dont blindly follow anyone. for eg. as much as it is popular for ck , i hated MTB. i could not understand why people read it. but everyone has a different taste and that is what you have to figure out for yourself.

3 months Dec to feb : i finished Kaplan USMLE Step 2 CK Lecture Notes gyn/obs, surgery, medicine,Master The Boards Step 2CK, and jumped on to uworld. 3 months!!! quite a lot time right? well as i said i am a slow reader.

I was very confused at this moment because i could not find the stuff in uworld like criteria and algorithms written in any books. So i decided to make my own notes as i realized that there is no bible for ck like we have First Aid USMLE Step 1.

I printed out all the algorithms and charts of uworld. I extracted explanations from uworld and i printed out that as well.

TIP : U DONT HAVE TO DO IT NOW ANYMORE because i came across dr ali’s notes at the end of my preparation i didnt study them as i had made my own notes but his notes seemed really good. So save your time or make your own notes upto u. When i started my prep the only notes available were tiki taka notes which i didnt find useful so i had to make my own notes.

I studied my notes. and i took my first nbme 4 and i got 254.

I thought because i got a good score in nbme i should quickly get done with ck and do CS so i can apply for that year’s match. but my visa was rejected and as i said my defense being 4/10 i sulked into silence, and i quit my studies. i had to make a plan B and i started residency at my home country. i didnt study anything from april 2015 till august/september.

POINT TO LEARN: stay focused. make a proper plan. do not jump to cs exam in the middle of step1 or step 2 ck. do it before step 1 or after step 1 or after step 2 ck.