Took the test on 9/14, and got my results today.
Much higher than anticipated... my hands are still shaking
Test date: 9/14
Score Release: 10/6 - 237/99
USMLE World: 60% (guestimate, since I redid the wrong Q's twice)
Kaplan Qbank: 50-60%'s
Step 1: 226/94
NBME 4: 7/19/10 - 171
NBME 2: 8/7/10 - 186
NBME 3: 8/16/10 - 194
Practice prometric test: 8/22/10 - 80%
USMLE Step 2 CK: 9/14/10 - 237/99
Started studying seriously about 2 months, averaging 8 hours for the 1st month, and 10 hours the 2nd month
I started NBME's REALLY low, like 175 prior to studying, and eventually increased to about 195 1 month prior the exam. I didn't want to admit that I didn't study along the 3rd year and feared that I would get a low score. Eventually I stopped taking NBME's altogether and decided that I would try my best and not look back.
For the 1st month, I reviewed IM only. I read Step Up to Medicine, did both UW and Kaplan, and read secrets during my free time. I reviewed by subject, reading about 3 hours per day, then qbanks for the rest of the day. First I finished the Kaplan Q's for that subject, then I moved on to UW. I started with 50's in the Kaplan Q's, but by the time I moved onto UW I usually get high 50's to low 70's. I think this really helped me because I learned from Kaplan Q's and applied my knowledge to UW Q's. In the end, I'm not sure if reading helped as much, although it cleared up most of my confusion and misunderstanding for a lot of subjects, SUTM was definitely a difficult read and was very time consuming - I would recommend reading this only during your IM rotation. Secrets, on the other hand, helped me tremendously, as it focused on high yield facts and made them easier to remember. In the end, SUTM helped with the details and Secrets made them easier to remember.
I took notes from UW only, since Kaplan had crap explanations for their qbank, and put them onto a piece of blank paper folded into half front and back. Since the pages were small and I squeezed a lot of words on them, I took them with me everywhere and reviewed whatever I wrote during the day on my bed before going to sleep. At the end I accumulated about 30 pages worth of these notes, and reviewed them the last 2 weeks.
For the 2nd month, I spent the 1st half reviewing all other subjects (surgery, peds, psych and OBGYN), and the 2nd half an overall review of everything. I used the same technique from before, except I used Kaplan surgery vignettes + secrets for surgery, FA/Secrets for Peds, FA/Secrets for Psych and Epi/biostats, and just Secrets for OBGYN since the FA version was too long. For the 2nd half, I redid all the UW incorrect's randomly x2, reviewed all my UW notes, and read secrets 2 more times.
In the end, I finished about 95% for both UW and Kaplan, read SUTM x1, Secrets x3, and memorized the high-yield tables on FA. If I were to do it again, I would switch to a more inclusive book like FA or MTB from SUTM, which I referred to many times when SUTM wasn't clear about the steps to DX and TX the pt. If I had more time to study, I would read all the Kaplan books, take notes onto FA/MTB along with notes from UW.
Test day: My test was scheduled at 12pm, so I woke up around 10, had the usual breakfast (oatmeal and fried eggs) and walked in to a familiar setting since I went to prometric just 3 weeks ago. Got a lunch bag with 2 gatorade's, some snack bars, a light chicken salad sandwich and a red bull. Before starting the test I prayed and mentally calmed myself. Gave myself a time limit for every question, read first and last 2 sentences of each question, then took a best guess. I felt the questions to be easier than either UW or Kaplan, in fact, I thought it was too easy compared to what I'm used to and thought that there must be something wrong with me. However, I just pushed on, finishing the test with actually 3-5 minutes remaining for almost every block, which is unusual because I always run out of time in UW or Kaplan. After each block I counted down the blocks remaining, but eventually stopped doing that because the test was just too long. After about 3-4 blocks, I felt time passed faster and each block ended faster. I separated the breaks with 5-5-10-20-5-5-10, and during lunch I ate, jogged 2 blocks, then attempted to nap for 10 minutes. Towards the end, I felt the answers came to me easier, and I spent less time doubting the other answers, probably because I had less mental energy to do so and was using my subconscious mind more. I was mentally fatigued by the last block, but I saved the red bull for that purpose and drank a quarter of it the last break. I walked out of the test feeling good, but it was due to the feeling of being done rather than knowing that I did well.
My word of advice for people scoring low in the beginning is to never give up. I burnt out a few times during studying, and originally scheduled the test on 8/29 but almost had a panic attack the night before so I extended it 2 weeks. If you burn out, just take a day or 2 to relax and recharge, then you're good to go for 2 more weeks
🙂 In the end, I thank God, my family and friends who supported and nourished me mentally and spiritually through my studies. There's no way I could have done this myself.
) with a review of my experiences. otherwise i'll have to wait till next wednesday
and me 
