4th year Caribbean student, passed step 1 (first attempt, 242), haven't taken CK or CS.
Total Prep time:
7 wks
Material: MTB, IM Kaplan LN, FA for CK (Peds and OBGYN), TN (see below), CanadaQbank
I read the entire MTB book front to back in 2 wks and started doing Canadaqbank and annotated MTB anytime I came across a question I did not know or a guideline/recommendation that was specific to Canada. I would say you can easily do 100 questions per day while annotating or going over topics you are not comfortable with. I did about 8h everyday 6days/wk. Most of my days looked like this:
Start studying
at 10am (Couldn't wake up earlier), do 1 block of questions tutor, mixed. Took about 2 hrs, then I would take 2 hours to go over material from MTB--> lunch break--> pick up again
at 3pm, another block of questions for 2 hrs (doing the questions and going over the answers/annotating)--> another 2 hours of reading/memorizing. Gym/dinner/go to sleep. Wake up and repeat. I did that for about a month and a half.
My Qbank average was 74% (Tutor, mixed). I finished the qbank 1.5 wk out. I then used the last week to go over stuff in TN (Immunization, family medicine, ethics, epi biostats) and I did a SAE and scored an 87% . I wasn't too happy with that score because I had heard of people scoring in the 90s in those SAEs and barely making 300 on the real deal. It terrified me but I still took the test as I was not going to wait for another year.
The real deal:
Let me just say that the test is very psych/peds/obgyn heavy! It is
NOTevenly distributed among the different specialties tested. The reason why I emphasize this is because this was a common myth among students from my class. The test is 180 questions, 30 of which do not count. You have 4hrs to complete the test! You can take a break, but the clock will be running so keep that in mind. I did one block (which I think was my worst, had lots of vague questions and biostats) so I needed a break and then I came back and powered through 2 more blocks and took a quick redbull break and then came back for the final block. I used up my 4 hours. Tried not to change answers but with this test (unlike Step1/CK), you'll have plenty of time so you might be tempted to go back and change your answers. Please don't do that. Only go back to the questions you flagged.
Here's the breakdown:
Psych: Best resource in my opinion: FA for CK. I talked to a friend who also took the test around the same time and he seemed to recommend TN for psych specifically. I didn't do TN so I can't comment on that but the FA section for psych was more than enough along with Canada Qbank of course (Make sure you know what drugs are C/I in the geriatric population!)
Surgery: A buncha WTF questions! CanadaQbank is probably the best source for this but I also did some Kaplan, not sure if it helped at all. Questions were very specific and required some clinical experience in my opinion but luckily I only had a few surgery questions.
Medicine: Most of my questions were either on diabetes (know ur insulin therapy), hypertension, dyslipidemia, endocrine like PCOS, metabolic syndrome, thyroid, primary parathyrodism etc. no WTF's but I was always stuck between two answers. I'd say MTB did an okay job but there are many way to prepare for IM, questions are by far the best way (not necessarily CanadaQbank but thats the qbank I used)
Peds/OBGYN: Lots of vague questions, again I was able to narrow it down to 2 answers...Canadaqbank and FA forCK/MTB. Oh and read the pearls on the side in the TN sections for Peds/OBGYN
Ethics/Biostats/Epi/Population health: Fair amount of questions. Best source is Toronto Notes.
Do's:
1) Do a quick read of whatever review book you like before you start doing questions
2) Do as many questions as you can (I used Canadaqbank but I realize its not the best out there in terms of their question-asking style however, I do like the fact that they really point you in the right direction when it comes to what topics are considered HY for EE. I recommend getting a little notebook and noting down the topics that tend to reoccur in the qbank because those are the topics you will be tested on the most. I used the note book to guide my studying in the last 1 wk leading up to the test because lets face it, you won't have time to go over everything, so use that time wisely)
Don'ts:
I don't personally think the SAE was worth doing. It was straightforward compared to the exam. It did highlight my weaknesses and my strengths but it did not necessarily prepare me for the vagueness of the test. It may be worth doing before you start studying but not once you've covered more than 50% of the material.
Hope this helps, keep in mind that I have not received my score yet.
Good luck to all
