My thoughts on taking CK (11/6) Before new material

I think this week (the 2nd week) of november.

Link to examples of new style questions

Link to FAQ on step 2 ck

Content outline changes

I did all of the rapid review series, the risk factor ones and a couple ones that looked good to me. If you feel like there are any areas you're weaker on do that. Most of the rapid review series are around 30 minutes, and he goes at a very good clip. I never felt like any were a waste of time.

I'd say they're all good for a review and organizing material.

"In the back of your mind."

Time management tips? I’m not sure. I’ve always been kind of a fast test taker. That doesn’t mean I always score strongly. I cross out answers I don’t think are right and then try to decide between what’s left. One of my problems going through uworld was it seeing something in the stem that was important and not having my differential wide enough in some cases.

Some questions I’d get wrong in uworld I’d see I just didn’t highlight something important and some questions I’d have the right answer crossed out.

So it was always a thing with me to train myself to slow down and approach it like trying to solve a puzzle or playing a game. Putting pieces together.

For me staying focused on the question I’d say is the biggest thing that costs me time. Sometimes the stem would remind me of a real scenario and I find myself only thinking of that as my eyes are going over the question and my hand is highlight stuff. I’d shake my head and go back and read the stem. I think this is just fatigue.

Focus on the patient in front of you. It’s a lot of reading. That’s why I started with tips for your eyes.

But I never really had a problem running out of time. The uwsa I think was I had less time per block remaining. I don’t want to say uwsa is harder, but some questions on CK are shorter. Both have lots of filler words or lots of description for normal or variations of normal.

I highlight demographics, chief complaint, PMH, medications, vitals, physical exam findings.

I always start with the bottom reading the actual question - management, diagnosis, risk factor etc.

I take a quick glance at the answers to see what style it is. Are they all pathophys or radiologic descriptions or diagnosis? Is it all anatomical MSK? All hepatobiliary? So now I have some idea of where I need to be thinking and now as I go through the whole stem I can look for those clues they leave to point you at the answer.

Now sometimes you know the diagnosis and figuring which answer description matches correctly is the part that takes time. Usually you can cross out some quickly and then I’d have to think about the others. Coming up with a diagnosis for the other descriptions is good and thinking well this would be more acute or this would be hypertensive not hypotensive.

I don’t know if any of this is helpful.

You just can’t dawdle. If you find yourself taking way too long on a question, you’re either missing something or you don’t know something. If you can find what you’re missing then you can answer and move on. If you can’t put it together, make a choice and move on.

I feel like the toughest questions generally have short stems. They are simple but the answers you have to decide between can be very close to each other. This is when it’s tricky for me to come up with one answer being better. I could come up with scenarios where both could be right and I just sit there trying to decide between two or sometimes three.

I feel like for me it usually comes down to slowing my mind down to make sure I actually see what I’m looking at, being methodical, and really forming a picture of what they’re showing you.

I never mark something and then go back later. Very seldom I go to the next one and I’m still thinking about the last one and I go back and make sure I didn’t miss whatever I’m thinking. Were vitals normal? Yes. Ok move on. Trust your instinct.

Just see what they’re asking. Pick the best answer. Move on to the next. Keep pushing forward.

My big secret is...When I know I did good I say to myself...very good. And then I start the next.

I don’t want to say it’s discipline but I do think it comes down to attitude. Just view this as something you’re doing, and now you’ve decided to do it.

Don’t get in your own way.

I had to pass CCSE before my school allows us to sit for this. It took me lots of attempts to finally pass it. Because I was not really preparing to take it. I didn’t really consider CCSE to be like actual CK prep. It was only when I started treating it seriously did I finally pass it. And when I wasn’t serious about it I wouldn’t put much time toward it. I kinda thought of it like that thing from the movie Gattaca.

CK is this big ocean we have to swim across. I was on the beach kind of just putting my toes in. Not wanting to really go in. I didn’t want to swim against the current. I didn’t really want to do it. It didn’t happen.

When I finally decided that to get through it, I actually need to try to do it, that’s when I actually was doing prep I was happy with and seeing results.

So yeah for me it was just like, do I want to pass this and graduate and move on match? Yes. Ok so let’s do that.

I don’t know what factor is slowing you down but that’s what it was like for me.

Good luck. Get lots of sleep. Don’t cram shit you know.

TL;DR - Some stems were big, some were moderate, some are short. Do them.

I am an average US IMG student from a Caribbean school. I barely passed step 1 on my third attempt. Interested in FM. There were lots of extenuating circumstances I won’t get into but there was a long gap between me sitting for step 1 and finishing preclinical classes. I’m definitely a non traditional med student.

For step 2 I did a complete first pass of uworld (avg was ~59%) NBME 6 and 8, UWSA 1 and 2 and the new 120. All were around 220. I think the CCSE when I finally passed was like 214 or so. My school required 209.

I think it depends entirely on your knowledge base and how you learn.

For me, I could read a text all day and still make mistakes with questions. For me it’s a difference between active and passive learning. Doing questions, making anki cards, and reviewing them is active learning for me. When I use a text it’s passive learning. I’m just looking at words. Uworld questions very rarely test material like that. It’s a thinking exam more than memorizing.

Uworld does a great job of showing different variations and permutations of showing how different concepts can show up.

The three big sources I used was uworld, anki, and divine. I went back and looked at some texts but really just searching through my anki library for whatever point I wanted to check ended up being more useful than a physical text.

I started with the zanki premade deck and then when prometric shutdown from the pandemic and everything got put on pause I kinda just stopped for awhile and then started back up with cheesydorian. I definitely still retained a lot from zanki, but I prefer cheesydorian overall. It is excellently organized and incorporates lots of good sources (including uworld and Emma Holliday).

If you don’t like anki that’s fine, but I think it’s a fantastic tool. Completely free, easy to use. Easy to sync between my phone tablet and desktop.

I guess I’m trying to say No, just uworld by itself isn’t enough, but I guess some people use their built in flash cards. I just think anki is easier to use.

I think you need a qbank, either uworld or amboss. And also a system to review your qbank performance.

And also some standardized assessments to give you something to focus on, work toward, but not necessarily use as a predictive tool. The consensus seems that uwsa 1 & 2 are the best predictors, so I’d take them seriously when you do them. After I passed CCSE and got my test date on Friday, I did an assessment every Friday leading up to it. SA1, 6, 8, SA2, and then I did 120 on the Tuesday of my test week. Wednesday I did uworld like normal. Thursday I did NO questions, just divine and anki and went to bed early.

I think a text is useful if you’re missing some fundamentals. But uworlds explanations go over all that stuff. If you don’t understand their explanations and need to read more I’d say that’s where a text would come in.

For example let’s say there’s a uworld question and the explanation for schizoaffective disorder being correct and you choose MDD with psychotic features and the explanation doesn’t convince you that MDD was wrong, that’s when you can go read up on schizoaffective in a text and understand the distinction better. Sometimes uworld explains it clearly, but you still aren’t understanding the nuance. (It’s psychotic symptoms in the absence of a mood disorder).

Divine intervention podcasts are also a great resource and entirely free. Using my reference text to review never felt as productive as doing my own anki cards from my uworld incorrects. When I was struggling to get past CCSE I would make notes on a legal pad about my incorrects like I did for step 1. But reviewing cards with anki worked so much better for me.

Hope that helps. Do uworld. Review uworld as you go. Rinse and repeat.