I was so mad after the exam that I wrote something to post here and I thought it might calm me down a little bit, then I realized everybody in this page has to take this test anyway and let’s talk on a helpful way instead of discouraging people. It’s true that this not a fair test; it’s unfair because it’s supposed to be about the management of the patients but half of it is just about making you fall in a “trap”! You know the answer and they know that you know the answer yet they create the test in a way to trap you. Let’s say day one is a disaster in a way that it’s just step I and II plus lots of statistics questions. Drug ads are almost one in each block of day one and each has 2-3 questions. Unless you are a supper fast reader, I don’t know any other way to practice them. You need 8-9 minutes extra to do these and it’s almost impossible to read the whole two pages of the ad and see what they are questioning. By the way, the drug ads in UW are very easy compare to real exam.
During my practice I came to the point that I was able to manage my time easily. Yet in the exam I realized that I ran out of time almost always (in first day) the way that I had to rush the last 10 questions! Once I looked at the timer on my screen and I saw with my own eyes that it went from 37 to 35!! Although there is no other clock in the room that you can check the time and nobody has the gut to look at the timer for a long time to see if the timer is really counting down the seconds in my opinion it was running faster than real seconds.
If you are a resident in internal medicine, surgery, emergency medicine… Day two should be a piece of cake for you. If you are in pathology (especially if you are an older graduate), get ready for another challenge on the second day, you need to pretty much practice both MCQs and CCS. Day two overall is much better than day one though. If you are an IMG and just took step II, then don’t waste your time, take step III ASAP.

salam/cheers

can u please advice regarding day 1 strategy i m only using mtb3 and uworld... i did step2 ck in 2010 ,, didnt get visa for 4 years. kindly advice. best of luck for ur result.

I read mtb and used Kaplan QB as well as UW QB but in my opinion the questions in first day were far more fundamental than any of these resources. Unless you have a solid knowledge of what receptor is drug X working on, or what disease is affecting receptor X... I don't know where you can find the answer. You may consider to review FA for step I and II though if you think you have time.

Thanks. I took the CK yesterday and will begin studying for Step 3 in a few weeks.