DO’S And DON’TS FOR STEP 1 AND 2 EXAM DAY!
Maliha Azmi
Muhammad Ali Khan
Dow Medical College
Dos and DON’T of CS
Maliha Azmi
Dow Medical College | Class of 2009
A checklist on what candidates should do and not do on their step 2- cs exam
We are writing this to help you pass your Clinical Skills exam in a more organized and stress free way. During the exam, we get stressed out and tend to leave out many questions in the history. Thus, we have come up with a mnemonic for history taking. If you follow this mnemonic you will easily cover about 70 to 80% of the important points in history taking and the remaining 20% of questions will come with practice.
USMLE STEP 2
The subjects tested in step 2 are
n Medicine (Most important)
n Pediatrics
n Obstetrics and Gynecology
n Surgery
n Psychiatry
Step 2 is an exam in which the grades of Dow/Smc people generally fall as compared to step 1. I would recommend that you should attempt step 2 within 3-4 months of step 1 because a lot of background knowledge from Step 1 will still be fresh in your mind and help you in step 2.The syllabus is much shorter than Step 1 and takes less time. Like in step 1, studying smartly is the key. Beware of mistakes in Kaplan as there are a lot of minor mistakes here and there so do not take in every word of Kaplan blindly. If you suspect an obvious mistake then just double check it from another book.
What to study?
n Only Kaplan Series
n UWorld Mcqs
That’s it!!! You do not have to study anything else. I do not recommend even the DVD’s because the ones available are the old ones (2001) and a lot of recommendations have changed since then. If you really want to do DVDs then you can do Cardiology and Gynecology. I do not recommend First Aid and Kaplan Qbank for Step 2.
How to study?
As for Step 1, three reads of Kaplan is more than enough. For those who dare, two reads may also be sufficient. This time however I suggest you solve U World with the first read. Practicing UWorld with the first read will let you understand the pattern and identify high yield topics. This way when you give your second and third reads you will know what to focus on. Everyone gets whipped in U World in Step 2 so don’t worry about that. As I said before, use it as a learning tool and not for evaluation.
Dr Faraz Khan Luni,
Step 1 99 (266)
Step 2 99 (263)
Graduate of Dow Medical College,2008
Feedback by DMC Alumni
Javeria Umar
Class of 2009
Usmle Step 2- 99:-Kaplan Books, Crush the board Step 2 and USMLE world. I don’t recommend MTB (most of the people do)
Maliha Azmi
Class of 2009
Usmle Step 2- 99:-Kaplan notes and Uworld….period…That’s enough for a decent 99 if you study smart!
Here’s the Step 2 CS mail I wrote which I forward to all my junior friends. Please note that you cannot publish my last line on the internet with my name associated with it as it is illegal to ask or tell anyone about what questions/stations one got in one’s exam.
Attached are my personal notes which u can add on to as needed. Print it all out and use it as needed. If you get time go over my typed out hx and ex notes. Not sure if they’ll help you guys but they helped me a lot esp cuz i made them! 
Make sure you go through pages 11 to 13 though. It incorporates a lot of tips passed on by seniors and those generated by myself.
http://metalseinen.com/PubImages/fwdstep2cs.zip
Abdullah Khan, M.D.
Class of 2008
Aga Khan University – Medical College
