Passed cs exam today

[chirlly]

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Hi forum docs

got my result today and i passed with two stars
this is what i did
i got a first aid book, kaplan complex cases, uw subscription and csevideo
i used them all for a few weeks then i focused solely on csevideo for about a month
the first was a excellent for the cs exam, i found kaplan to be off, couldnt really follow, their cases dont really match the exam that much but what i did like is in front of the book it has a set of things to remeber that can be helpful, uw videos are ok, the sp never says anything its good for pe but not worth 60 bucks since you can get all that stuff from ct tutorial for free. csevideo matched my exam in almost every detail, i followed everything they did in each video and i passed, i passed becaues of hard work and 6 weeks prep time but i am glad i watched csevideo b/c it is the closest thing to the real exam
that s my experience and im glad to be done with the cs

good luck to everyone

 

[PokerDoc]

Congrats on passing the exam! I gotta say though, if this is what it takes to pass the exam, I may as well not go.. I plan on reading FA over 3 days lol.

 

[wAyRadikull]

Wow, thats pretty thorough. I passed CS a few months ago but I read FA about 3 times and practiced once. The night before, I quickly read through all the patient notes, which honestly was the best thing I could have done. If you've trained in US-hospitals, and have done IM/ER/FM, you will be solid.

Keep in mind that they DO NOT want you to nail the dx, they are testing how you approach each problem and whether you can account for all your findings in your patient notes. I was stumped by a few cases which were not mentioned in the FA book, but because I had gone through the cases pretty well and had a good amount of clinical experience going in, I was able to work my way through each case and almost had a good 3-5 minutes left in the end.

Also take a look at the USMLE CS website where they have sample patient notes and a brief tutorial video (which they will show you again during orientation). It helped calm my nerves a bit because it limited the amount of surprises come game day.

 

[Slevin]

Oh wow. That's intense, I worked though like 8-10 cases in First Aid for the CS and that was it. I didn't think it was that bad, I just made sure I didn't drink allot that morning to prevent me from having to go to the bathroom frequently

 

[bioteach]

That's pretty intense! Good for you! I think I skimmed First Aid CS once two days beforehand. I guess it depends on your background. Our school mimics CS exactly with our standardized patient practice, so I didn't really feel the need to practice. We'd been "practicing" since M1.

 

[OveractiveBrain]

Congrats on passing the exam! I gotta say though, if this is what it takes to pass the exam, I may as well not go.. I plan on reading FA over 3 days lol.

Do you speak english as your first language? FA CS may not be necessary (though you don't want to be that one dude who fails)

Do you speak english luently? FA CS once through and you win.

Do you speak english poorly, or are miserable a patient interaction? Consider going into pathology, you're a great fit. To get THAT residency, get FA CS and bounce cases of another person, back and forth, making sure you hit the highlights.

 

[Volga]

Congratulations! Good for you! I passed too, got my result yesterday. 🙂

 

[GCIMG]

I got my results and I passed too!
It took me 3 weeks this is what i did:
week 1
1. read first part of first aid CS to figure out the structure of the exam (there are certain things you have to do in each encounter)
2. for the actual clinical things I worked backwards-
wrote up ddx for common presentations (i thought second part of first aid was not that good so I used books from med school)
figure out what qs to ask for HPI
figure out what investigations
week 2
practice practice using the 3rd part of first aid and USMLE world paid for a practice test in New York- it was very well worth it cos you get a feel for the flow of the exam
week 3
travel to test center. i found that i was sick of practicing and was pretty confident about my Hx (I dont memorise mneumonics, but because I had to do so many in med school it was pretty solid) and Ex. So what I did was I visualised diff presenting illnesses and then how I would go through them in my head- i think i went through all of them again in 2 days (it takes about 10 min).
I hope that helps someone!

 

[medsend]

Can anyone comment on whether or not your permit disappeared within taking the test? I know there is a rumor abt if the permit disappears on CK, but I don't know if it applies to CS as well...