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anan54446797 - all messages by user

Accuracy

hi adma....sorry to hear that; i will not try to point what you did wrong but i really wanna help you because my situation with step 1 was so similar to yours.....here is my advice: 18 months preparation is way too much; you will have to do it in a very condensed time(4-6 months but studying 10-14 hours a day, 7 days a week); i will give you some tips and it might help you.....forget about what just happend; keep your head up and move forward(i got an 79/195 for step 1 which is not a great score but i knew i have to work extra hard on CK to get a better score) step 1: pay thh exam fee and choose june/july/august as the period when you wanna take the exam step 2: go through all kaplan books in maximum 4-6 weeks(do about 1 book per week and don't look at video's anymore) step 3: after going through kaplan books, do the kaplan qbook(850 questions which can be done in maximum 2 weeks, aka by doing at least 2 tests per day and reading ALL the explanations given for right and wrong questions; again 10-14 hours a day of study) step 4: buy usmlerx for 1 month; you get 2500+ questions which are not as hard as kaplan qbank or uw qbank but will make you very confortable about how to approach questions; by now you should be able to do 3-4 tests per day because you will see how your procentage of right questions will keep rising comparing to kaplan qbook; in this way you will be able to fill a lot of gaps in your knowledge; 2500+ questions can be done at least one time in less than a month(depending on how much time you still have from your subscribtion, look one more time on your weak areas and do the wrong question) step 5: buy kaplan qbank for 1 month; you get 2200 questions which should be done at least 2 times in 1 month(you will see how confident you will be and at this time and some of the questions will seem to be ridicuously simple); after going once through all teh questions take an NBME(take form 5 or 6 but not 7).....if you are happy with the score, take the sooner date available on prometric and go to the exam and in mean time take NBME 7; if you don't like the score, buy UW for another month(the only problem with UW is, since you already bought it now, innevitably you will see some questions from your previously subscribtion and that's the reason why i did not sugest you to buy it at step 5-i suggest kaplan); in this month you will just built more and more confidence and getting 100% ready for the real deal; after going once through the uw questions, take NBME 7; i am pretty sure that at this time you will get a decent score(above 200 which will give you enough peace for the real exam); from NBME 7 until exam day do uw questions(second, third view, wrong ones, etc)....ideea is to do something EVERYDAY until the day before exam; at this time you can take the free NBME just to keep you in the shape for the next day: a 75% and above is a good index that you will pass the exam. if you do what i just wrote above, i am pretty confident that you will get a good score and summer time will be happy time....you might ask why to do so many questions? i did not do so many for step 1 and i burned myself; as many as you do, better it will be on the real exam.....is all about practice, practice, practice..... i hope my advice will help you.....don't look back and don't regret anything. look forward and try to improve what you did wrong in your first attempt....i wish you gook luck and all the best and in the summer i wanna hear you scream when you will get yor score from usmle....cheers!

February 18, 2011 10:30

question....

i have a question guys....when we are doing the patient note, do we have to write patient name or it is already written? if it's not written, is it enough if we write for example 33 year old man come with and not writing his name? thanks to anybody who can help.....

February 20, 2011 16:16

Fa cases enough???

are the 40 cases from the FA book enough to pass CS? i mean going once through all, then practice with a friend all of them and maybe will have some time to go one more time through them.....i also have kaplan cs book from 2009 which have another 30 cases....should i try to go 2 times through those too or will be enough FA cases??? please guys, exam is in about 3 weeks and i really need your advice...thanks!!

February 22, 2011 08:31

well...got my score

[quote=sugu51037677]hey, firstly I would like to congratulate u for ur intense hard work and ur determination that kept u gng and made u reach ur dreams. I want to ask u that I too got low score in step 1, and i gave my step 2 ck so I want to ask that low score of step 1 will it matter to us or not and what else should i do to improve my CV. Since you are in US you could tell me better, and I don't have any of my known there do please help me if possible.[/quote] hi....thanks for your words; regarding your question....YES, low score will indeed affect our chances for a residency position but depends very much what do you want: if you don't care that much what programm and where you will get it, a low step 1 score might not be that bad(i'm talking about family medicine, internal medicine or pediathrics in places where not too many AMG are applying); if you wanna get a competitive programm, then a low score will pull me/you down a lot; i heard that next to scores, a very important characteristic is USCE(US clinical experience).....probably this is what i have to do since i am in us(after i will finish with CS, i will try to get observerships and if possible even externerships); logic, those USCE should give me/us some LOR's(letters of recommandation) which will help us; at this moment i have no USCE or LOR's.....so, from my point of view i need so badly some observerships/externerships+LOR's cause otherwise i might not get any kind of residency in july 2012..... bottom line: try to get good LOR's(from your country or from US) and have clinical experience somehow; i think with those 2 our chances will improve.....otherwise, at least from my prespective, i will not be able to match in march next year :(

March 01, 2011 15:35

qns 2

[quote=kuloth]A 15-year-old girl is brought to the physician because of a 1-week history of vaginal discharge and a 2-day history of sore throat and white spots in her mouth. She has had recurrent candidal infections of the skin and mucous membranes since childhood. She has a 2-year history of type 1 diabetes mellitus and a 1-year history of autoimmune thyroiditis. Medications include insulin and levothyroxine. Examination shows oral candidiasis. Pelvic examination shows a thick white vaginal discharge. Microscopic examination shows budding yeast. Which of the following is the most likely mechanism of her recurrent candidal infections? A ) Autoimmune destruction of the thymus B ) Blunting of the inflammatory response from complement deficiency C ) Deficiency in anticandidal antibodies D ) Impaired cell-mediated immunity E ) Inability of macrophage to present candidal antigen[/quote] i think the correct answer is D....

March 04, 2011 09:51

T-cell positive and negative selection

i will try to explain this topic in a very simple way....in a normal body, a MHC complex on a cell surface will be checked everytime when a T cell is arround; normally this check should be very bright: T cell will bind to that MHC for a very short time(or better said with low affinity), 'checks' if the MHC is normal(aka, opposite to what T cell has on it's surface) and then T cell will leave the cell alive and move forward and check another cells; now,when T cells are produced this process from above should be the same but not all the T cells have this capacity; general speaking there are 2 options: 1.T cell does not bind to MHC at all-those T cell will be destroyed from the start 2.T cell will bind to a MHC complex; now here we have 2 options here: a.T cell binds 'lightly' to MHC(meaning has low afinity).....this is the normal stuff and because this T cells are normal, they will survive; for this reason those T cells are said to aquire a positive selection(meaning they will survive) b.T cells binds 'too tight' to MHC complex....this is abnormal and even though those cells are binding to MHC, because they are binding to tight(high affinity) are not normal and as a consequence they will be destroy; from this point of view those cells get the negative selection(meaning they don't survive) i hope this will help you.....good luck!

March 09, 2011 13:18

uw sa score...

hi zama...i will tell my story; initially i wanted to take my Ck before christmas; arround december 14th i took NBME 4 and got an 350(they estimate an 195 in real exam) and i decided to postpone my exam for 1 month; during the coming month i did 2000+ questions(qbooks where i score constantly above 75% questions right) and on january 19th i took UW SA(scored 520/222) and on january 20th i did free NBME(almost 82% right); ck score was 99/230; none of the SA exams predict me that: NBME was under but was done 1 and a half month before;UW gave me also an underestimate score; from this point of view both SA underpredict my real score.....if i would be you i would do more questions(FA Q&A, kaplan qbook, NMS for step 2 CK,lange series)....if you constantly score above 75%, i think you are ready for the exam; why i am saying this? your NBME is 200(11 points above 189.....NBME gives a +/- 10 points!!!keep this in mind) and your UW SA is 233(it is well known that UW overpredicts real score sometimes even with 30 points!!!!)..... from my point of view: scoring above 200 on NBME means you got pretty much all the informations need it for the exam; i think you need more questions....give yourself another 3-5 weeks and solve as many questions as you can(at this time you should be able to do 2000-3000 questions in this period)....after this take at least one more SA(1-2 NBME's, another UW SA, qbooks which have SA exams, etc).....if you get similar scores at this time, most likely that will be your score on real exam too.... i hope this will help you....good luck!

March 09, 2011 13:33

pls help to solve my problem !!!

i will help you with the first question....on the second one i have some ideea but not very much, so i don't wanna post something wrong so....for the first question: before starting my explanation, you should MEMORIZE a few things....in a group like this one there are 3 characteristics: mean, median and mode; a SD means something 'away' from mean.....question is how much? away from mean by +/- 1 SD are 68% from the group, +/- 2 SD are 95% of the group and 3SD are 99.7% of the group(you must remember this numbers) for your case; your group has 200 people; in order to be eligible for a membership, that specific person must have the score 2SD above mean which mean he/she should be in those above 95%(aka 5%).....the tricky part here is that 5% with a 2 SD deviation are 'compose' from 2.5% which are above 2 SD and 2.5% which are bellow 2 SD; this question is asking about those people who are above 2 SD; so, the answer to your question is 2.5% of 200 are having an IQ above 2 SD which means 5 people will have this score and this should be your answer(in the same matter 2.5% are 2 SD bellow mean which means 5 people will score 2SD bellow mean). i hope this will help you....good luck!

March 14, 2011 09:07

nbme form 1 questions...please answer them

for the first question: there is no doubt this is elderly abuse....management for this is next(i hope i remember well): 1.treat the pt for any injuries he/she might have(bruises,bleeding,etc) 2.look for possible complications(internal bleeding,broken bones,etc) by doing CT/MRI,xrays,etc 3.notice social services for abuse; from this point i think your correct answer is C. in the history taking we should ask the pt about abuse.....i think we never should confront the family for abuse(here i am not 100% sure...sorry) for the second question: from the description given this is most likely pulmonary TB....under the microscope TB is a granuloma with caseous necrosis(as long as i know for the step 1 caseous granuloma means TB; in real life could be other etilogies but for the exam caseous necrosis means TB).....from this point of view your correct answer is B.

March 15, 2011 09:11

Rinne Test

i will try to explain in a very simple way and i hope this will help you... so....we have 2 types of 'hearing': 1.through air conduction(AC): external-media-internal ear and then reaches CN 8 2.through bone conduction(BC): mastoid process-temporal bone-reaches CN 8; in a normal patient AC>BC and this is a normal Rinne test; if somebody has a hearing deficit, the problem could be anywhere from external to internal ear or could affect CN 8; if we 'split' the problem in this 2 situations, than it is easy to understand how Rinne test will be: a.problem with the AC.....this means anywhere from external ear to internal ear but with a NORMAL CN 8!!! in this situation the sound which reaches CN 8 is smaller than a normal one through AC but the patient has a normal BC(BC 'skips' all the AC pathway); from this point of view it is quite logic that BC should be greater than AC which means an abnormal Rinne test; b.normal AC but CN 8 is affected.....this means the AC will carry a normal sound but the brain will not receive the same ammount of informations because CN 8 is affected; from this point of wiev AC is normal; next: BC is also normal but because CN 8 can't deliver the right ammount of sound received through BC, the brain will not 'hear' normal; so, BC is also normal; from what i said first: if AC>BC, this is a normal Rinne test; this is the case where nerve deafness or sensorineuronal deafness occure and if you understand what i just wrote, you will figure it out why in ANY CN 8 pathology, a Rinne test will be normal(AC>BC) but in a AC problem with a normal CN8, Rinne test is abnormal(BC>AC).... I hope this will help you....good luck!

March 28, 2011 13:47

how long usually does it take for the result...?

you will get the result starting with 27th of april until may 25th(you will get it in one wednesday in this interval)...check the next official link: http://www.usmle.org/examinations/step2/step2cs_reporting.html

March 28, 2011 13:50

well....got my CS result

april 27th.....a very happy day for me cause i received my CS exam report: I PASS!!!! it was my first attempt and in 2 weeks i'll get my ECFMG certification.... i prepare for about 5-6 weeks(totally were about 2 months but i took off 2 weeks vacantion right after taking CK exam and another week when i found out my CK result); i used kaplan book for the explanations on how to do a history, PE and how to do a patient note(in my opinion the best book for the theory) which i read it 2 times; for the cases i used FA(much more better that kaplan cases) and i did minicases 2 times, 3 times the 41 cases(one time i did them by doing the patient note too; i used the online practice tool to see how i can manage the time) and one time i did them with my wife; i took the exam at the chicago center on march 17th; i stayed at o'hare garden hotel which is less than 10 minutes of walk from the center. i really wanna say thank you to my wife who was so kind to help me by being my patient, big thank you to my mother in law who was here for my entire CK and CS preparation, thank you L. and K. for helping me with the advices and the tools needed for my exam and last but not least thank you to my son who is always in my mind. thank you GOD for giving me strenght and power to achive this! i wish all of you good luck and all the best. cherrs! edited by anan54446797 on 4/27/2011

April 27, 2011 13:12

Score report

your score will be sent to you on a certain period of time and only on a wednesday; i don't know when you took the exam but check the next link....it should answer your question: http://www.usmle.org/examinations/step2/step2cs_reporting.html look on the left column and see when you took your exam.....then on the middle and right column they say when the score starts to be released....i hope this helps you....good luck!

May 03, 2011 08:48

My Step 3 Score

[quote=AkAk65946855]I read - FA , Crush, Kaplan and MTB Solved- Lange Qbook Kaplan Qbook Kaplan Online Qbank UW online Q bank My Advice- MTB+ Kaplan Qbank+ UW Qbank. Rest is upto you. Lange Qbook>Crush>=Kaplan>Kaplan Qbook> FA[/quote] i have a question.....you said lange qbook; i don't know if it's the same one but i have 'Lange Q&A USMLE step 3' by Donald A. Briscoe.....is this the same book with what you are recomanding or you have another one; if are the same, how good is this book? i am kinda between 2 books and really don't know which one to do(the other one is NMS but i don't remember the author).....thanks for your help.

May 03, 2011 12:50

plz help

go into your account and choose to extend the eligibility period....you will pay a 50$ fee and they will extend this period to june-july-august; if in those extra 3 months you will not be able to take the exam, you will loose the exam fee(those 740$); if you don't take the exam now in may or if you don't extend the eligibility period, you will also lose those 740$....i wish this will help you.....good luck! edited by anan54446797 on 5/25/2011

May 25, 2011 21:49

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