My terrible USMLE Step 2 CS Experience

[drivenby]

First of all let me say thank you for all the support i got here , thank you guys for your patience and encouraging words .

Today i received my score and i PASSED! , 1st attempt .

To tell you all the truth i was SURE i failed .

I took my test on Atlanta (great center btw and great patients , Atlanta Country Inn south is literally the frontyard of the center) 3 months ago and i had this terrible feeling i failed.

Im a IMG so i studied a lot , aprox 6 weeks , using only First Aid . I did all the big cases at least twice and we did a lot of made up cases using the mini cases .

I encourage everyone to learn every single mini case and think what kind of questions would you do to reach THAT diagnosis . Dont improvise the day of the exam! , this is what SAVED [email protected] .

Last and not least you should organize the Physical examination by Chief complaint . For example : If i had a Neuro case , i had a sequence memorized to do the complete Neuro in the fastest time possible. Same thing for cardio , same thing for Mental illness , etc.

I practiced that during the last few days and i think it helped me a lot since i ask a lot of random useless questions .

The day of the exam was terrible

I never got particularly nervous but i forgot some key things :
I didnt counsel in all the cases , i didnt ask how the problem was affecting the patient , i didnt ask to any of my patients if they had any other questions .

My advice would be : counsel INSTANTLY! , ask if they have any questions while putting the gloves/washing and ask how the problem is affecting them at the beginning of the case .

I ran out of time in at least 8 out of the 12 cases . This is pretty serious **** , i made lots of terrible CIS errors and i STILL MANAGED TO PASS (only thing i had borderline was my CIS )

Other mistakes : i failed to do critical PE maneuvers in at least 3 cases , i failed to 'counsel' a patient miserably (i think she was legit mad at me by the end) , i forgot to write some stuff in my PNs , missed at least 3-4 diagnosis but probably got close enough.


I dont regret studying for 6 weeks and i advise all IMGs to do so btw . Better be safe than sorry , this exam is harder than ever.

All the cases i encountered were in some form or similar form in the First Aid book .

IF anyone has any other questions ill be glad to answer them! .

[nsesereso]

First of all congratulations

Did you use any other book apart from FA.

[drivenby]

i read part of the Kaplan Complex cases book 1 or 2 days before the exam , not really the cases themselves just some guidelines they had . Its more IMG friendly than the FA , but i like the format of the FA cases more than the Kaplan book .

Did it help? im not sure , i dont think it hurt .

For most people i think The FA is enough .

[water]

Congratulations on passing!! Can you suggest a way we can practice/study the mini cases giving an example?

[drivenby]

Originally Posted by water

Congratulations on passing!! Can you suggest a way we can practice/study the mini cases giving an example?

After you master the big cases, you should have an idea about how they work.

What my friends and I did was take a chief complaint : for example headache, and change it up using the information from the short mini case.

Instead of doing a migraine case like in the big case, we did cluster or meningitis, or S.A. H.

We did the same thing all the common chief complaints and even changed the wording a bit, so that one would have ti improvise.

[currentofinjury]

Congratulations!! I have to retake this test and I was thinking of Atlanta, but I heard SPs there are mostly black people with a difficult accent. Is this true??

[emad]

Originally Posted by drivenby

First of all let me say thank you for all the support i got here , thank you guys for your patience and encouraging words .

Today i received my score and i PASSED! , 1st attempt .

To tell you all the truth i was SURE i failed .

I took my test on Atlanta (great center btw and great patients , Atlanta Country Inn south is literally the frontyard of the center) 3 months ago and i had this terrible feeling i failed.

Im a IMG so i studied a lot , aprox 6 weeks , using only First Aid . I did all the big cases at least twice and we did a lot of made up cases using the mini cases .

I encourage everyone to learn every single mini case and think what kind of questions would you do to reach THAT diagnosis . Dont improvise the day of the exam! , this is what SAVED [email protected] .

Last and not least you should organize the Physical examination by Chief complaint . For example : If i had a Neuro case , i had a sequence memorized to do the complete Neuro in the fastest time possible. Same thing for cardio , same thing for Mental illness , etc.

I practiced that during the last few days and i think it helped me a lot since i ask a lot of random useless questions .

The day of the exam was terrible

I never got particularly nervous but i forgot some key things :
I didnt counsel in all the cases , i didnt ask how the problem was affecting the patient , i didnt ask to any of my patients if they had any other questions .

My advice would be : counsel INSTANTLY! , ask if they have any questions while putting the gloves/washing and ask how the problem is affecting them at the beginning of the case .

I ran out of time in at least 8 out of the 12 cases . This is pretty serious **** , i made lots of terrible CIS errors and i STILL MANAGED TO PASS (only thing i had borderline was my CIS )

Other mistakes : i failed to do critical PE maneuvers in at least 3 cases , i failed to 'counsel' a patient miserably (i think she was legit mad at me by the end) , i forgot to write some stuff in my PNs , missed at least 3-4 diagnosis but probably got close enough.


I dont regret studying for 6 weeks and i advise all IMGs to do so btw . Better be safe than sorry , this exam is harder than ever.

All the cases i encountered were in some form or similar form in the First Aid book .

IF anyone has any other questions ill be glad to answer them! .

I Got my exam in philadelphia from 19 July And till now I didnt recieved the reuselt

[drivenby]

Originally Posted by currentofinjury

Congratulations!! I have to retake this test and I was thinking of Atlanta, but I heard SPs there are mostly black people with a difficult accent. Is this true??

My English is pretty good but from what I recall, only 1 sp had a difficult accent.

You gotta keep in mind these guys are actors, they know it's a test.

On the streets is different, there's a really weird accent in Atlanta indeed.