Finally passed my usmle cs exam

[Macrophage]

Hi friends my preparation for usmle cs was around 30days and today i have passed my cs with good performance. I was in the usa so i gave my cs as my first exam and going to take step-1 soon

I gave my exam in Houston in the morning session during the month of November. The cases are all routine and expected but i think what we need is practice and without practice we may feel anxious and may shake before patient and it happened for me only in first case and later i was ok and went smooth

I am not supossed to reveal usmle cs cases as per instructions i got from proctors. I think there is no need to know cases and we should know all common cases.

Studied 15days seriously and 15-20days spend with live and skype partner so that you can feel ok. Actually i thought of giving exam after 45days preparation because i was not confident while exam preparation but don't do that

Take some 30-45days which is enough and practice a lot with sp. The thing you should know for usmle exam is managing time and with in limited time we should make patient feel good and comfortable. speak slow and clear as everyone says and don't forget to see orientation material of usmle website and you will be shown same video at center on the day of exam

my usmle cs exam preparation source was First aid cs cases,UW subscription but not used in total and few cse videos which i saw along with my friend and this useful usmle cs notes

UW is ok but not compulsory and some examinations in uw are not per protocol so be aware. make sue of youtube free videos and some samples here and there and i saw some links provided by usmleforums4u website here.

After exam i felt happy as well sad and forgot my sleep for few days and today i was tensed before results but finally god blessings was there with me. some consider usmle cs live courses and i will tell that if you have financial support you can go for usmle cs live courses for your exam preparation. It is also worth but money is what we need for that.

I got above border line to high performance in all things but in SEP i got borderline and in Interview skills am just touched at border.

Thank you all for blessings and feel free to ask me any questions you have. am in hurry and still in euphoria so sorry for that..i may forgot some things to post here..please ask me if you need any help

passing cs is doable but practice for 30-45day is must and should.

[Brainteaser]

congrats for passing toughest and luckiest exam to pass. Can you tell me how many cases you did and how many hours you read daily. Shall we need to complete all UW cases to get confidence..am planning to take it soon

[USMLE Forums4u]

Mostly IMG's without proper USA clinical experience , need around 5 to 7 weeks for usmle cs preparation. Yes but you need study partner live and online. Most of the students used to say that FA cases,Kaplan and UW are enough but at the same time if you can bear you can go with some online/live usmle cs courses. Live courses are expensive compared to online courses which are affordable.


Please vote in the poll on Best USMLE CS Center in the view of usmle students

[Macrophage]

congrats for passing toughest and luckiest exam to pass. Can you tell me how many cases you did and how many hours you read daily. Shall we need to complete all UW cases to get confidence..am planning to take it soon

What i felt during and after usmle cs preparation was, practicing number is cases is important for practice but more important is practicing system wise cases than blindly doing all cases.

For example, CVS,CVS,Resp,GIT,Pediatric,MSK,Gynec and Obst. model sample cases are crucial. Be perfect in all systems taking some cases from each system. UW and Kaplan no ned to cover all cases but just have a look which are not there in FA.

Focus on few materials but repeatly do them live. you can watch some videos to get a feel and mimic them and later do them naturally and it can be possible after a lot of pratice.thanks

[Brainteaser]

Thanks a lot for explaining nicely. I will try to finish FA cases along with mnemonics and then start practicing soon . I think i should focus more on system wise sample cases. you gave me some great tip today,god bless you macro

[USMLE Made Easy]

@Macrophage

Congrats...Can you please tell us about your exam closures and counselling. Did you counselled in the middle while taking history or at the end along with closures.

@others...Have a look at usmle cs experience of a student who passed from Chicago and anyone who registered at "usmleforums4u" can vote here in a poll about Best usmle cs center

[Macrophage]

congrats for passing toughest and luckiest exam to pass. Can you tell me how many cases you did and how many hours you read daily. Shall we need to complete all UW cases to get confidence..am planning to take it soon

Thank you.It is a good idea to memorize all DD's(workups usually follow them)and all important history part according to the case. Mnemonics play a crucial role and you will realize this during exam. PAMHUGFOSS is must for all cases. Once you are comfortable with all important cases ,start doing live/online practice with study partner.good luck

Congrats...Can you please tell us about your exam closures and counselling. Did you counselled in the middle while taking history or at the end along with closures.

I did counseling during history part itself and i prefer this method. By doing this we can make sure that we get grades from SP on the spot and also there won't be any chance to forget as in the case if we do counseling during closure.

So better do counseling whenever SP tell anything about heavy smoking/binge alcohol intake/STD's etc and don't take any chance to miss and forget this moment to grab your points. But it's entirely optional as some students feel better to do counseling at the end with closure.

[targetMD]

Congratulations macrophage for passing cs exam. i was in the same boat,passed my cs exam before usmle step-1 and now in the beginning of my step-1 preparation. I will contact you soon.thanks

[Dr.Divyareddy]

congrats for passing cs exam,i have some questions for you,am from india

Should i take any live course or self study with partners is enough...what do you say?
Can we able to get SP accent easily?
Can we complete our case in 15min?
Which is good source for cs ? UW or Kaplan or FA

thanks

[Macrophage]

congrats for passing cs exam,i have some questions for you,am from india

Should i take any live course or self study with partners is enough...what do you say?
Can we able to get SP accent easily?
Can we complete our case in 15min?
Which is good source for cs ? UW or Kaplan or FA

thanks

If you can afford you may take cs live course. But many pass cs without any live course(but online cs course is affordable). Its an individual choice. Its up to you

We can understand SP most of the time. If you don't just ask them to repeat again ( chances of missing crucial info,so better request them to repeat if you don't understand any sentence)

We can complete in 15min if you ask questions specific to that case. Practice before exam each and every case and manage them to finish with in 15min.

Good source for CS according to me is FA.

All the best

[Macrophage]

I used this notes for my usmle cs exam. I got this from my friend. I hope this notes can help you for exam. Thanks to students who created that cs notes.

I used FA,UW and some other videos along with this notes

[Phrozen]

I used this notes for my usmle cs exam. I got this from my friend. I hope this notes can help you for exam. Thanks to students who created that cs notes.

I used FA,UW and some other videos along with this notes

Thanks man!!

[Brainteaser]

Thanks a lot for your help...

[tootsie]

Thanks for those notes. I just recently took CS and I made so many mistakes that I doubt I'll pass. Wish I would've had these notes. Thanks a lot.

Cheers!

[USMLE Forums4u]

Thanks for those notes. I just recently took CS and I made so many mistakes that I doubt I'll pass. Wish I would've had these notes. Thanks a lot.

Cheers!

We wish you all the best for your cs results. Please share your usmle cs experience here in a separate thread so that other students can learn from your experience. Hope you will pass with flying colors. Mistakes are common in cs exam but we should make sure that too many mistakes are not done. Thanks

[tootsie]

I will write my experience soon. To be honest, I feel horrible post exam.

I hate the fact that I looked into too many sources without concentrating mostly on the "bible" FA for CS.

The exam was extremely easy. I didn't do so good because I forgot many questions to ask and in my case it's not because of lack of practice (even though I didn't practice much) but because even if I memorized a script for each and every encounter, at the end of the day i'm bound to do what I mostly know what to do- IMPROVISE!

At this point, all I am certain about is that I washed my hands and that my English is impeccable (born and raised in US). Other than that, I don't think I smiled as much as people say to smile....I feel awkward showing so much teeth to a "sick" person.

I don't know whether the SP's liked me, but I certainly liked them. Not one of them was in a bad mood or dry as other people mention. They were for the most part very cooperative....I only had one difficult SP who rambled from the start (I think my role was to stop her, however I don't know how to cut a person off for the life of me).

I never once practiced a patient note. My patient notes were horrible. I grouped everything together as one big paragraph to save space and I think the people reading it surely will be bothered by that.

I wish I would've payed a course- not to teach me what I needed to know, but for me to get the feel of the exam. I don't want to take the test again...certainly I do believe that I failed...but if I were to do it again, I know now what to concentrate on-- FA!

I do hope that I passed but I highly doubt it with the number of mistakes that I made. Mostly forgetting----forgetting to ask certain questions, forgetting to do some physical exam maneuvers, forgetting to write on the PN what I did do inside, forgetting to counsel, forgetting, forgetting, forgetting, forgetting.

It's easy to remember the little stuff like draping, washing hands, heck...even remembering the footrest was easy.

Don't panic. It's an easy test. Don't take it too light, though. Don't make the mistake of not listening to the people here in the forum....when they said FA was enough...FA was and is enough.

[USMLE Forums4u]

I will write my experience soon. To be honest, I feel horrible post exam.

I hate the fact that I looked into too many sources without concentrating mostly on the "bible" FA for CS.

The exam was extremely easy. I didn't do so good because I forgot many questions to ask and in my case it's not because of lack of practice (even though I didn't practice much) but because even if I memorized a script for each and every encounter, at the end of the day i'm bound to do what I mostly know what to do- IMPROVISE!

At this point, all I am certain about is that I washed my hands and that my English is impeccable (born and raised in US). Other than that, I don't think I smiled as much as people say to smile....I feel awkward showing so much teeth to a "sick" person.

I don't know whether the SP's liked me, but I certainly liked them. Not one of them was in a bad mood or dry as other people mention. They were for the most part very cooperative....I only had one difficult SP who rambled from the start (I think my role was to stop her, however I don't know how to cut a person off for the life of me).

I never once practiced a patient note. My patient notes were horrible. I grouped everything together as one big paragraph to save space and I think the people reading it surely will be bothered by that.

I wish I would've payed a course- not to teach me what I needed to know, but for me to get the feel of the exam. I don't want to take the test again...certainly I do believe that I failed...but if I were to do it again, I know now what to concentrate on-- FA!

I do hope that I passed but I highly doubt it with the number of mistakes that I made. Mostly forgetting----forgetting to ask certain questions, forgetting to do some physical exam maneuvers, forgetting to write on the PN what I did do inside, forgetting to counsel, forgetting, forgetting, forgetting, forgetting.

It's easy to remember the little stuff like draping, washing hands, heck...even remembering the footrest was easy.

Don't panic. It's an easy test. Don't take it too light, though. Don't make the mistake of not listening to the people here in the forum....when they said FA was enough...FA was and is enough.

Thank you for your suggestions. Yes its really frustrating to have mistakes and later worrying about results and againits really sucks to wait for results. Most people experience this one and regarding PN i think its a good idea to type in a bullet style. CS is a type of exam which easy to pass and also easy to fail and its really difficult to guess outcome until the day of results. So better we need to balance the exam with out having too many mistakes above threshold level. All the best and we are eager to see your detailed experience

[viv26]

Thanks for the post. I cant open the usmle cs notes as it is asking for a password.

what should i search for on you-tube? is it cs practicevideos?? any suggestions?thank u.

[USMLE Forums4u]

Regarding USMLE CS Notes we are not facing any such problem requesting for password. I think you need to update to your latest Adobe version to vaoid this poblem.

Coming to usmle cs videos, Yes you just search in youtube with " usmle cs videos" to get good number of FREE usmle cs stuff and you can also Check here for FREE USMLE CS Videos

[viv26]

wow..thank u soo much.....

[usmlesteps99]

I used this notes for my usmle cs exam. I got this from my friend. I hope this notes can help you for exam. Thanks to students who created that cs notes. I used FA,UW and some other videos along with this notes

Thank you for detailed experience. useful cs notes for me before my exam. Can you advice me on time needed to spent on PE part of cs exam..will 3 minutes be enough except for Neuro cases...i also believe that heart & lungs examination is must for all cases..what you say?

[dubu]

Yea must according to first aid? Do you also ask for colonoscopy and papsmear and mamogram in all eligible cases? Macrophage what you say?o

[Macrophage]

Yea must according to first aid? Do you also ask for colonoscopy and papsmear and mamogram in all eligible cases? Macrophage what you say?

Colonoscopy is not needed in all cases except for middle -old age patients with some symptoms. They can be ordered in certain casesfor workup .For example in a DD of Colon cancer, GI Bleeding etc.

Papsmear is not needed in all cases except Females with 20-55 age range only for screening purpose every 2-3 years in sexually active women. For example HPV infection/STD's suspecting Cervical cancer. Risk factor can be polygamous females.

Mamogram can be adviced in females where patient mother died of Breast cancer( Family H/O breast cancer)

So ask what is needed in cases but not in all cases.

thks

[dubu]

i think we should ask all women above 50 have you had a colonoscopy? If not advice, and all young women with multiple sexual partners like have you had a papsmear?, and all women above 50 like have you had a mamogram screening? ?is that true

[Macrophage]

i think we should ask all women above 50 have you had a colonoscopy? If not advice, and all young women with multiple sexual partners like have you had a papsmear?, and all women above 50 like have you had a mamogram screening? ?is that true

Exactly...that is needed and can be useful for counseling as well in ages mentioned above and with patients with certain risk factors. But what i told in above post was to order workup/investigations in certain cases and dont forget to tell patient that you are ordering for certain things ( Example:colonoscopy).

[Macrophage]

In Abdominal examination do the following sequence...Always tell the patient what you are doing and use transition sentences.

Inspection (quick)
Auscultation (for bowel sounds)
Percussion
Palpation (start from painless area)

Palpation should not be done unnecessarily but just do without causing inconvenience to sp during the exam. they will express pain easily even if you touch the painful part, if the case demands so better do smoothly.