Nbme Cbse Remembered Questions 32
Mirthe Luria
I felt fine going into test day. Not 100% ready for the real exam, thankful that this exam was a practice test, but also nervous because of our experience with comp for the Step 1. (Want to read about our multiple trials and errors for NBME comp for Step 1? Click here).
My first two question blocks were on the easier side. I felt like I knew the majority of the answers with some questions here and there I was not sure about. I was finishing the blocks with plenty of time. Then I took my 10-minute break after block two. Denzel said he felt like he was having a bad test day and that his first two blocks were hard. I figured maybe his second half would be easier and mine might be harder.
The plan was to go on a short trip to Texas the following day while we waited for our results, but when we got home, Denzel was so disappointed that we almost cancelled the trip. Instead, we spontaneously decided to leave right away and switched our tickets to that evening.
Contrary to how we felt on test day, we both passed and did well. Jeez, you just never know with these exams. The worse you feel, the better you do. I wonder why that is? All I know, is that effective studying and preparation ahead of time always wins.
The most effective way to prepare for these exams is to study throughout rotations for shelf exams and to be involved as much as possible in rotations. It is easier to remember presentations, next best steps, and treatment options you have seen in actual patients.
Having a strong foundation made studying for this exam much easier. I remembered most of the material, so I only had to strengthen my knowledge instead of build from the ground up, which I felt like I had to do a lot of for the USMLE Step 1 and its preliminary exam.
We completed third year in December and decided to schedule our preliminary comp exam for the Step 2 CK on February 10. We had an elective scheduled for January and planned to take both February and March off as dedicated study months for the Step 2 CK comp, the actual USMLE Step 2 CK exam, and the Kaplan Practice CS exam.
During January I was able to study only 1-2 hours a day due to my busy elective schedule. I studied 3-4 hours on the weekends. Once my elective ended, we had about 8 full days to study before the exam. What we did to prepare was simple:
This is the simple study plan we followed for the comp. Most importantly, we had a set study schedule just as we did for Step 1. This helped us stay on track for our quickly approaching test day.
Now it is time for us to prepare for and to take our real deal USMLE Step 2 CK exam. Of course, the first thing I did when I found out we passed was create a detailed schedule for our dedicated study period. Our plan is to schedule our exam for the end of March which gives us about 6 weeks total of dedicated study time. We plan to use the same resources: UWorld, Online Med Ed, Emma Holliday and NBME practice exams and UWorld Self Assessments.
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