Juan's Step 2 CK Thread

[Juan J. Sánchez]

Hello, fellow HBGamers!

As you may or may not know, my USMLE Step 2 CK Examination is coming up next year. The Step 2 CK or Clinical Knowledge test is one out of four tests required to practice Medicine in the US. The exam is a five-part exam which includes topics of Internal Medicine, Psychiatry, Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Pediatrics.

So far this year, I've been wasting my time instead of studying for my test. Yes, I'll admit it's mostly my parents fault with the "lets get a divorce / maybe later" attitude, which has really plummeted my mood and concentration for the last few weeks, but it's also my fault for not being man enough to accept these so-called "facts of life" and move on.

I've got everything I need to prepare for my exam. I've got the Kaplan Step 2 CK Lecture Notes, 2008-2009 edition, with their corresponding video lectures, the Kaplan Master The Boards Step 2 CK, 2nd edition, with it's corresponding Kaplan Step 2 CK High-Yield video lectures, the Kaplan Diagnostic, Pharmacology and Treatment, and Examination Flashcards, and the First Aid for the USMLE Step 2 Ck, 8th edition (which I doubt I will read), USMLEWorld Qbank and Kaplan Qbank. Overall, we're talking of nearly 3000 textbook pages, 160 hours of video lectures, and 600 flashcards, plus 5000 practice questions and several practice exams.

It's a long road, not tremendously hard, and I believe the secret is taking it all one step at a time. That's why I've created a schedule with the help of CramFighter.com (a stupendous website, may I add). I've posted the schedule for my first week of studying below.

Spoiler

Juan Jose's USMLE Step 2 CK Study Schedule
Week of 04/08/2013 - 04/14/2013
Mon, Apr. 8, 2013
High-Yield Images, Part 1 of 2, pp. 421-431
Kaplan LN Int. Medicine
High-Yield Images, Part 2 of 2, pp. 432-432
Kaplan LN Int. Medicine
Gastroenterology, Part 1 of 3, pp. 65-74
Kaplan LN Int. Medicine
Diagnostic Test Flashcards
7 flashcards
Tue, Apr. 9, 2013
Gastroenterology, Part 2 of 3, pp. 75-84
Kaplan LN Int. Medicine
Diagnostic Test Flashcards
7 flashcards
Wed, Apr. 10, 2013
Catch-up day
Thu, Apr. 11, 2013
Gastroenterology, Part 3 of 3, pp. 85-93
Kaplan LN Int. Medicine
Gastroenterology, Part 1 of 3, pp. 237-237
Master the Boards Step 2 CK
Diagnostic Test Flashcards
8 flashcards
Fri, Apr. 12, 2013
Gastroenterology, Part 2 of 3, pp. 238-247
Master the Boards Step 2 CK
Diagnostic Test Flashcards
8 flashcards
Sat, Apr. 13, 2013
Gastroenterology, Part 3 of 3, pp. 248-272
Master the Boards Step 2 CK
Endocrinology, Part 1 of 2, pp. 7-21
Kaplan LN Int. Medicine
Kaplan Qbank
49 questions
Sun, Apr. 14, 2013
Endocrinology, Part 2 of 2, pp. 22-42
Kaplan LN Int. Medicine
Endocrinology, Part 1 of 2, pp. 107-125
Master the Boards Step 2 CK
Kaplan Qbank
49 questions

To set the study mood, here's a poem by William Blake:

To see a world in a grain of sand,
and Heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in one hour.

Here's a poem by Robert Frost:

These wood are lovely, dark and deep,
but I have promises to keep,
and miles to go before I sleep.
And miles to go before I sleep.

And here's a quote by Rumi:

Only from the heart can you touch the sky.

I will probably be adding more poems and quotes as I open new chapters.

Now, I don't expect people to comment in this thread. It's really more of a personal thread to keep a record of my progress. That being said, good luck messages and support messages are always welcomed.

Until next time.

 

[united washcloth express]

You get A, or you dishonor forum

 

[bacon]

Yes. What UWE said.

 

[Venetia]

Godspeed Juan.

You are soooo much better at studying than I was.

I was always the "I sure hope I remember this shit" type who never took notes or anything

(Of course that probably wouldn't fly too far in med school!)

 

[Spoo]

i have ACTs in five days.

barely studied.

you are a better man than i.

 

[Juan J. Sánchez]

Thanks for all the support, guys.

Seven of my examination flashcards were ruined today in a tragic accident involving my book bag and a mug full of hot tea. Hilarity ensued. Now I'm trying to decipher what the remains of my flashcards say to write some electronic copies.

Also, I made pasta. I don't have a whole lot of food in my brother's apartment. I feel the pasta's missing something...

 

[Kingdom Ablaze]

You get A, or you dishonor forum

truer words have never been spoken :D

 

[Juan J. Sánchez]

Found the photos. They were in my Spam folder. Also, please don't laugh at my very girly plates. I'm aware of just how girly they are.

 

[Juan J. Sánchez]

After three very exhausting hours of reading and matching tiny bits of flashcards, I managed to recover 100% of the data written in the seven flashcards who were tragically lost in today's tea incident. Having said this, I should probably get back on schedule. I still have one hour of video lectures and 10 pages remaining. If I skip over the text, I should be able to finish by 11:00 pm. Then again, when you're reading fast there's an equally greater chance of having to read the text twice over.

Since my internet is being powered by my iPhone and my iPhone is running out of battery, this will be my last post for the day.

Here's a poem by Walt Whitman:

The soothing sanity and blitheness of completion,
The pomp and hurried contest-glare and rush are done;
Now triumph! transformation! jubilate!

I trust tomorrow shall be easier (that is, if I don't ruin another set of flashcards).

PS: Spooky, good luck with your tests. Although, having done the International Baccalaureate myself, I can honestly tell you this doesn't mean anything in the not-so-distant future. That is to say, don't get so hung up over the tests. Focus mainly on passing. I swear colleges won't look at anything else besides your SAT scores and your GPA.

 

[Juan J. Sánchez]

Hello, again, HBGamers.

Before starting, I'd like to say the post title is not a reference to Tony Montana's unforgettable quote from Scarface. In reality, it's a line borrowed from English poet Rudyard Kipling's poem If. But for the sake of classical cinema, here's the scene where Tony says a line with a very similar phrasing. Whether or not Scarface story writer Oliver Stone was making a reference to If, I'm not in a position to say. Nonetheless, the resemblance is remarkable.

Here's the scene from Scarface:

Tony: Me, I want what's coming to me.
Manny: Oh, well... what's coming to you?
Tony: The world, chico, and everything in it.

And here's If by Rudyard Kipling:

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

In any case, the poem is a nice reminder that life is finite, and so is our time as Earthly beings. This also reminds me of the Latin phrase carpe diem, which grew quite popular with the film The Dead Poets Society, and which has gained modern notoriety with the Internet variant you only live once (abbreviated as "yolo").

What the chazzers in the Internet fail to understand is that carpe diem is, too, an abbreviation of carpe diem quam minimum credula postero, which translates into "seize the day, trusting as little as possible in the future." This phrase, which has traditionally been used as an excuse to do wild, stupid thing, originally implied you should do the contrary. Seeing as the future is uncertain, you should in fact "seize the day" and do as many productive things as possible.

You know what a chazzer is? It's a pig that don't flight straight.

Here's an anecdote from yesterday. As I was cleaning my office in the Emergency Room at the end of the day, I caught a glimpse of a smiley face someone left in the brown paper that's used to cover the examination bed. Anyone could have left that message... Anyhow, I took a photo of the smiley face, but accidentally deleted it from my iPhone. I know there's a general attitude in the Internet of "pics or it didn't happen", but you'll simply have to trust me on this one.

I'm way behind in my studies, by the way. Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday. I get to leave an hour earlier, at 3:00 pm in the afternoon, so I should be able to catch up. I'm supposed to finished the Gastroenterology section by tomorrow.

Until we meet again.

 

[Juan J. Sánchez]

Totally finished reading the 20 pages of GI I had left in my Internal Medicine Lecture Notes book. Now I just need to read the chapter from the Master The Boards and watch the five and a half hours of video I have left and that's it: GI is past history.

 

[Juan J. Sánchez]

Ugh. I hate Medicine. I hate other doctors. And I hate patients. They're always taking the beauty out of things.

 

[Juan J. Sánchez]

I feel a lot better after a good night sleep.

 

[Juan J. Sánchez]

Okay, so it's now 10:30 am. I'm going to take a quick shower and start studying. Here's how I'm planning my schedule for today.

11-12: practice test
12-1: lunch
1-4: review practice test
4-6: video lectures
6-8: high-yield video lectures
8-10: master the boards
10-12: lecture notes

Now here's the schedule for tomorrow.

8-9: practice test
9-12: review practice test
12-1: lunch
1-3: lecture notes
3-5: master the boards
5-10: video lectures
10-12: high-yield video lectures

Now, it really doesn't matter that much whether I finish or not because I have a catch-up day Wednesday. So the plan is basically to do my best and drink lots of red bull.

 

[Juan J. Sánchez]

This weekend was a fiasco.

 

[Juan J. Sánchez]

Here's why I love reading Conrad Fischer's Master The Boards Step 2 CK: besides being incredibly easy to read and straight to the point, it has tiny boxes of information in the margins that say things like:

Virtual colonoscopy is never the answer for anything.

This book actually tells you, very explicitly, what the wrong answer is.

True, the book is missing a LOT of information (I mean, it's only 600 pages long), but I've estimated you can answer about 90% of questions with this book alone.

 

[Juan J. Sánchez]

What I mean to say is that when test time comes around I won't be marking virtual colonoscopy as one of my answers, and that's one question I'm not getting wrong thanks to Conrad Fischer.