My Background: not so good. i was never serious about my studies in medical school.

If you had read my

step 1 experience you would know.
Scroll down at the end to read my step 1 experience in this post.

Materials i used:
1.kaplan notes ob/gyn, surgery, medicine.
2.MTB 2 and MTB 3 .
3.Step 2 Uworld
4.Step 3 uworld.
5.CMS all forms.
6.NBME all forms.
7.MKSAP 16.
8.Kaplan qbank only obgyn, surgery, peds and some medicine.
9.Goljan few chapters like female repro system, male repro system
10.Step 1 uworld for genetics, ethics, psych and some pathophysio portion
11.Uptodate
12. Miscellaneous : cardiology questions on learntheheart.com , blausfuss, Medscape, google for
images, BRS biostat, harrisons self assessment book.
Duration: 10 months
so with very weak background knowledge of CK subjects, i had to work really hard to build the basics ,
mug up the crazy criterias, and comprehend the mind boggling concepts.
Like any RPG, You got to have 3 things when you are preparing for steps :D
1-strength- how hard can you hit, how good you are at the studies, how hard you are willing to work for
it !!!
2. defense- how vulnerable you are? are you able to face the upcoming hurdles, the personal problems,
the failures and the frustration of not being able to reach that target mark
3. agility- how quickly can you do things eg. reading the books, memorizing the stuff, solving the
questions in time !
I took step 1 in october 2014. i started studying for ck from december 2014.
At the start, my stats were:

Strength: 9/10 because i got good score on step 1 i was quite motivated and had confidence that may be
i can do it again in step 2.
Defense: 4/10 - i get affected by things quickly, i can't study when there are any distractions, i can't
concentrate when i am having even minor blips and hitches in my life.
Agility: 4/10 - i am a slow reader, i take time to understand things. i easily forget many things easily.
Now i knew my weaknesses and i had to work on these as well. but first i decided to quickly go through
all the books to see what suits me. this is important. Dont blindly follow anyone. for eg. as much as it is
popular for ck , i hated MTB. i could not understand why people read it. but everyone has a different
taste and that is what you have to figure out for yourself.
3 months Dec to feb : i finished kaplan gyn/obs, surgery, medicine, MTB 2 ck, and jumped on to uworld.
3 months!!! quite a lot time right? well as i said i am a slow reader.
I was very confused at this moment because i could not find the stuff in uworld like criteria and
algorithms written in any books. So i decided to make my own notes as i realized that there is no bible
for ck like we have FA for step 1.
I printed out all the algorithms and charts of uworld. I extracted explanations from uworld and i printed
out that as well.
TIP : U DONT HAVE TO DO IT NOW ANYMORE because i came across dr ali's notes at the end of my
preparation i didnt study them as i had made my own notes but his notes seemed really good. So save
your time or make your own notes upto u. When i started my prep the only notes available were tiki taka
notes which i didnt find useful so i had to make my own notes.
I studied my notes. and i took my first nbme 4 and i got 254.
I thought because i got a good score in nbme i should quickly get done with ck and do CS so i can apply
for that year's match. but my visa was rejected and as i said my defense being 4/10 i sulked into silence,
and i quit my studies. i had to make a plan B and i started residency at my home country. i didnt study
anything from april 2015 till august/september.
POINT TO LEARN: stay focused. make a proper plan. do not jump to cs exam in the middle of step1 or
step 2 ck. do it before step 1 or after step 1 or after step 2 ck.
3 months october till December: I was doing pg residency training at my home country so i could not
focus properly on my studies.
I knew that i had wasted 1 year so i got to get exceptional score if i am to have any chance of being
matched(which still seems vague to me).
I finished UW CK, uptodate(online), step 3 UW, and MKSAP 16 during this time and i kept writing
anything i found interesting on my notes(those printed uw tables n charts).
Stats at this point: Strength= 7/10 i was tired, felt less confident. Defense= 4/10 i was too anxious that if
i messed up on this everything will be ruined. you can not afford to get lower score on CK than step 1
score, you have to improve. Agility: 4/10 i had not worked on time management yet.

I came to know about CMS 12 forms and before i had even started those i came to know about another
newly launched 12 forms of cms and I felt like i had wasted so much of my time on making notes and
going for the extra stuff that is not even made for ck. I was overloaded with so much information and so
many sources to study. and first read is never enough for me. Its like a quick scan , i dont remember
much when i read anything for the first time (not like those genius masterminds with photographic
memory) so doing step 3 uw and mksap 16 once felt like a time waste as i didnt remember anything . I
had 2 options either to revise all this again or to go for ck UW and keep assessing myself with CMS
forms.
TIP: Do cms forms from the begining of your preparation. there are 24 forms with 50 questions each. so
1200 questions. takes a lot of time to learn all of it.
TIP # 2 : If your exam is near and u havent done cms yet, dont be worried. find time to do cms of only
those subjects that are your weak areas and skip others.
2 months jan and march 2016: i dindt study in month of Feb.
i chose to do ck uworld and cms forms and some portion of step 3 uw. i took nbme 3 i didnt calculate
score as i was doing offline and offline score calculation is never reliable but i consider anything close to
90% as good.
Stats at this time = Strength:9/10, defense 9/10 and agility 8/10 (the key factor in my performance) .
now because i had done almost everything i knew nothing more could be done and i had to take exam. i
could not go on anymore. but i missed the date in april and i took my exam date in may.
1.5 months from april till 10th may: i did ck uworld, step 3 uworld, some cms forms revised, uwsa, and
nbme 6 and 7 .
Uworld step 2 ck : 1st pass 76%, 2nd pass 86%, 3rd pass 98%, 4th pass that was in april i didnt calculate.
MY ASSESSMENTS:
fred step 3 : 85%
fred step 2 : 91%
nbme 4 : 254 long time back
nbme 7 : 85%
nbme 6 : 92%
nbme 3 : 87%
CMS: on average 6 to 8 questions wrong in each form
UWSA: i did it offline 14 mistakes
REAL DEAL : 271 !

Exam Day: I studied till the very last minute before leaving for prometric center. exam was
unfortunately not similar to uworld. i was quite disappointed.
i had done all i could, i studied the things that aren't even made for ck but a major portion of exam like
60% of it was the stuff that i didnt study before. some of it was new topics and some of it was very
conceptual where you had to apply concepts (step 1 and doing different questions helped a lot with this
because this forces your mind to think).
I had no time issues, i marked about 10 to 15 questions in each block and i had about 8 to 10 minutes
left to review them.
WHAT YOU SHOULD DO? If you are done with step 1 then jump to uworld and stepup to medicine book.
if step 2 ck is your first exam then i think you should read goljan book or FA step 1 ( yes step 1 stuff, just
skip the mechanisms of drugs, pathology basics and immunology basics)
MEDICINE: major portion of exam. stepup to medicine is a good book. i didnt study it but i went through
it for some topics. i liked it but didnt have time to do it. MTB is not good.
Ob/Gyn: Kaplan book is good but i think uworld is enough. you can do kaplan to have some basic
concepts if you arent done with step 1.
Pediatrics: Uworld is enough.
Psychiatry: I was comfortable with this subject. but many people find it difficult so i think you should do
it well from Uworld.
Concepts will help you, Cramming the criteria of diseases will help you, and Pharmacology will help in
this subject. On a lighter note, watch woody allen movies eg. Blue jasmine, i find a lot of psychiatry in
these ;)
Ethics: do all UWorlds.
Preventive medicine: Uworld is good.
Biostats: You have to do step 1 stuff for this as well as step 2 stuff. but unfortunately i didnt get any
formula based question or any bias, p value, confidence interval etc. Mostly i got questions on data
interpretation. Anyway you should know the concepts cold in this. This will boost your score.
QBANKS: the more you do , the better it will be. Doing new questions will train your mind to use logic
and by that you can easily rule out 2 to 3 options in unheard of questions. Works like magic but
requires practice. It feels like a sixth sense when you have practiced so many questions you
spontaneously get the feeling that it cant be C , it cant be E :D
UWORLD CK: obviously
Uworld step 1: only for biostats, pyschiatry, and ethics. its always nice to work on these because they
are very very conceptual.
Uworld step 3: for the same as above. also you can do your weak areas from this one, because its always
smart thing to work on your weak areas, isnt it? ;)

CMS: i had nothing from CMS in exam but if you plan to do it , do it from the beginning of your
preparation. personally i liked old forms more. if you are short on time and still want to do it, then just
do CMS of subjects that you find yourself weak in.
Kaplan Qbank: i solved very old one that was of 2011 or 2012. many thing have changed now so i think
you should go for latest one. I remember that when in real exam i had some unusual topics and unheard
of questions, it reminded me of kaplan selfassesament i did some questions from it like 10 or 20 and
many questions were totally out of uworld. so i would prefer Kaplan qbank over cms because qbank
gives you explanation as well and personally CMS didnt suit me i didnt like its questions. dont do both,
it will waste your time.
NBMES: dont do nbme 1 and 2 . do all of others. do in the order of nbme 4 (easiest i found) then nbme
3, nbme 6 and finally nbme 7. and aim to get 90% if you doing offline or just do online if you got the
monaaayyyyyyyyyy ;)

TIPS:
Every new question helps you if you try to understand the concept. Just cramming the correct answer for
a question won't help you. Know why its right and more importantly why other options are wrong.
Knowing 'WHAT' will make you pass, Knowing 'WHY' will help you ace the exam.
How to approach new WTF questions?? RULE OUT Method. keep ruling out options that you find unlikely
to be right. u can easily cancel 2 or 3 options with this method.

If you have questions , please post in comments, I cant reply everyone in inbox. many people have
similar questions so it will help everyone and it will be easy for me also.

I also want to talk about something that i have noticed during these steps is that there is a lot of
selfishness in this world. I understand that competition is tough but nothing is achieved from
belittling others.
Be nice to people who are endeavoring to get something and talk to them the same way you do
when they become successful. Dont be like Chameleon.
It is easy to be a part of someone's happiness but if you are sad in their sadness and support
them in a difficult time you carve your name on their hearts and that is what you will be
remembered by, so let's be more understanding to each other and aim to be at a level where we
are able to help more and more people. Because that is what being a doctor means.
Good Luck for exam.
-Satish Advani, Batch 34 CMC larkana, Pakistan.

Satish Advani - CMC Pakistan - 256 step 1 journey Novemeber2014

Ill try to make this guide as helpful as possible. Whatever I write here is based on my own experience
and the experiences of top scorers I observed during my preparation.

Resources:
This is the most important part of your preparation and probably most variable also bcoz It depends on
your previous knowledge and your way of studying so u have to find out what works for you. Kaplan ,
highyield, roadmap brs etc etc the list goes on and on . important thing is to stick with one book for one
subject. If you have difficulty understanding anything google it. It will take sometime but its goin to be
worth it.
Here is the list of stuff I used, whether or not I found them helpful and what was my previous knowledge
in these subjects(on a scale of 0 to 10.
A)

Physiology: 4/10 I never read guyton or ganong in my medical school. just glanced at a review

book to but still I never found this subject too hard.

1. Kaplan notes- read the notes and watched the videos . I didnt like this book. Dragged myself
upto the renal system then decided to skip. And then started BRS
2. BRS physiology- hands down the best book for physiology. Probably somewhat difficult to
understand at first bcoz its written in a concise way but its GOLD my friends. Its questions are
important also specially the cvs and respiratory part. owe my star to this book for these systems.
B)

Anatomy: 3/10 this was my most dreaded dreaded subject. Reason #1 bcoz I had a very weak
background knowledge. No wonder I failed in this subject in my first year of med school. Never
read a single word of neuroanatomy . Reason #2 recent exam change had focused on including
more questions from anatomy .
1. Kaplan- read the notes including the neuroanatomy . but skipped the videos.
2. BRS gross anatomy- skimmed through the clinical corelations, muscles chart and pelvic
anatomy etc
3. High yield neuroanatomy- decided to use this as well bcoz at that time this book had too
much fame and I had weak knowledge abt this subject . I realize now this was a mistake bcoz
I never got time again to revise this one.
4. Anatomy Shelf notes- a good resource but only use it if u have got extra time. I never
finished it. You can not read this without first knowing the basics written in Kaplan or any
other review book.

C)

Biochemistry(including genetics and mol.bio) : 4/10 begin your study with this subject bcoz
this can turn out to be a solid base for other subjects like pharm. I had done well in this
subject(nutrition and metabolism) in my medical school but never studied genetics or molecular
biology . again! not even a single word!

1. Kaplan notes- read along with the videos. This is the only subject where Kaplan is at its best. You
dont need anything else for this.
D) Pathology: 5/10 I never studied big robbins in my medical school or anything. Totally
depended on review books and I somehow did pretty well on this one always.

1. Goljan- I studied 3rd edition in the very beginning of my prep.. like 7 months or even more before the
exam and I had forgotten everything in these 6 months and I never got time to revise this one so I dont
really think I would call it as my resource for this subject. but it is amazing book. Very important to do if
you have time.
2. Pathoma I watched the videos only. Its a really great resource. specially the way histopathology is
explained. It cant get any better than this.
E) Biostat and EPi- 0/10 this was like alien language . I never read anything about community
medicine in my medical school. By this time U might be wondering how the hell I made it through the
medical school :D but keep reading and youll wonder more.
1.Kaplan notes- okayyyy this was a good one. Read the notes and watched the videos. Found it helpful
but still I wasnt ready for this one.
2. BRS- just about a month before my exam I borrowed this book from a friend and I got to say this is a
great book I did only the biostat and epidem portions and it was great. The questions are gold . now I
was feeling pretty good about this one .
3. UW biostat and epidem review- if BRS was gold then this was Diamond. After this I felt ready to take
down these questions.
F) Microbiology 3/10 i had never studied anything about virology and fungi . I only did bacteriology
and parasitology in my medical school and passed the exams. So I had to work a bit extra for this one
also.
1-Kaplan notes- did them with the videos. And OMG! what a load of horse shit this book was. LoL!!!!
And the lady in the videos was so slow . after every sentence she takes a big deep breath like she is goin
to faint or sth. It made me feel so sleepy . this was total bullshit . only the parasitology stuff is good.
G) Immunology- 1/10 again not even a single word !! ever!!!! So extra work was required.
1-Kaplan notes- did them with the videos. The notes are very good. The videos are absolute waste of
time.
BURN OUT !!! at this point I looked back and I realized I dont remember anything at all. I had wasted
too much of my time on these big Kaplan books. And I still had Pharm and behavioural science left. So I
decided to review some subjects and start first aid asap. And you guys will feel this way as well and its
normal bcoz we all are human after all , not machines.
So instead of going any further I thought to revise what I had studies so far. I Reviewed phyiology from
brs with kaplans 700 qbank. Reviewed biochem, genetics, mol bio , biostat and imuuno. The rest of the
subjects I didnt review.
H) Pharmacology- 2/10 I didnt even know how aspirin works :/
1- FA + only the basic stuff and ANS chapters from Kaplan. This subject is all about cramming and a little
bit about understanding stuff like the bioavailability, solubility , agonists anatagonists etc etc. you can
skip Kaplan on this one. I heard the videos are good and I did try watching some of the lectures by Dr.

Raymond and I enjoyed him being obsessed with butt jokes but then I realized this was taking lot of
time so I stopped and focused on FA and UW only.
I) Behavioural science- 0/10 this was again alien language but I did know stuff like mania and
depression probably bcoz of personal experience of suffering this during my prep :p
1-kaplan notes except the dsm iv- good resource. did the notes really quickly with the videos. For dsm
iv/v I did FA only.
2- BRS- I glanced through this one on some topics like health care system in US the pay and the
insurance stuff etc
3-ethics book by C.Fischer
J) Miscellaneous stuff : these have their importance but are very vast so Im goin to try to be
specific here.
1.Webpath- amazing source but I couldnt finish it. Not too important.
2.Google images- this is pretty random but very important. Any buzz word you see google it e.g pick
bodies, clouded cornea, soap bubble appearance, birefrigent crystals , saber shin ,coffin lid stone etc etc
you wont get these buzz words. You get the description of these things in a weird way or a picture of it
so think outside the box here.
3.Wikipedia-this is again random and huge but this is important for topics that you dont understand or
stuff thats ignored by review books like kaplan (check step 1 content outline and you will have the idea
of what Im talking bout here)
And FINALLY now it was time to bring the big guns 8|. Uworld and FA.

FA- the first read took me about 3 weeks. I also made some notes from Kaplan on FA which was totally
worthless. After my first read of FA I started Uworld.

Uworld- this is like bazooka. This is the best thing to prepare from. I did this with FA , annotating along
the way. If I didnt understand anything I would google it and find out the explanation . This is important
. i didnt go through books as much as I did through the Wikipedia , Medscape and any thing on internet
I could get my hands on. An u know what I had questions on exam that are not written in these review
books. So thank you Wikipedia. I never looked back on Kaplan or any other book. FA+UW was the my
focus now.
But Before going for UW, I took nbme 7 and I didnt do well.
After UW, I did nbme 3 and was able to get a good score but it didnt matter since this form was way too
old.
So I reviewed FA again quickly and started UW 2nd time. This time I tried something different and crazy I
would say. I would do at least 7 blocks continuously and timed mode on one day and review it on next
day. sometimes I would do as many blocks as I can, back to back everyday. This way I finished UW 2nd
run in 10 days.

BURN OUT!!!!! Seems like doing UW in this crazy way wasnt such a good idea :/ I was very very tired. I
took nbme 11 and got a very decent score. I was happy but I knew that 11 is also old form and the exam
is not going to be so easy.
After all this I didnt have any energy to do FA anymore and thats when I started DIT. I used DIT as a
study companion . like a study partner. It kept me focused and I finished it with reviewing FA, with all
the annotations and notes I made.
It was Time to assess myself again and I took nbme 13 and my score droped from 11 by 7 points. I wasnt
happy obviously. I was stressed but I cudnt go on any further . took rest for few days , got my courage
back from watching avengers new movie :p and I decided to sum it all up for one last time. I did UW 3rd
time only for practice. I didnt read explanations this time. It wasnt really helpful now but anyway I
finished it in few days along with FA. Did nbme 15 and score dropped again. I seriously started doubting
myself now I couldnt understand what was wrong. May be I was just tired or may be I wasnt focusing
while reading question. I found 15 to be somewhat difficult in understanding the way its questions were
phrased. Anyways I had a 2 weeks left for my exam now and I didnt want to postpone I reviewed FA
along with Kaplan qbank for some subjects. I took 16 and score jumped a little but still it wasnt where I
thought I was.
Last 4 days before exam, I didnt study anything . it was Diwali and I was just relaxing and making myself
ready for the exam mentally. One day before the exam I reviewed biochem pathways and biostats and
all the formulas.
EXAM DAY
Monster was here and the big guns were ready . in the very first block I faced some weird ck type
questions and I thought to myself well may be the weird block is over and now the rest of the exam
would be somewhat a smooth ride. But I was wrong. In every block I had ck type questions and the wtf
anatomy questions that were out of Kaplan , out of uworld and out of any world Who gives u weird
MRIs of limb and asks to identify the muscles. This was unfair. I was like WTF is happening here. I calmed
down myself and I tried to do as best as I could. overall The questions were very long with ton of labs
and pictures. I could only spare myself 5 minutes to review the questions I had marked which ranged
from 12 to 20 in every block. Naturally I couldnt review all of my marked questions in 5 minutes.
MISTAKES
In the retrospect if I had known I would face this kind of exam
#1 I would not have spent my time on any Kaplan book except its biochemistry.
#2 I would have done all of webpath
#3 I would have saved time to do goljan
#4 Id have solved more questions
#5 Id have seen more Pictures including gross patho, derma patho, ct scans and MRI of muscles

A Friendly ADVICE to Average students like me

Know that the journey is long and nobody has smooth sail. you will make mistakes. you will make
sacrifices . you will face challenges. people may doubt you but never doubt yourself. Keep their criticism
in the head not in the heart. Sublimate those emotions and focus on your journey
Take it easy people and Goodluck