Yes, I’m done! Now for the recap:
When I took Step 1, people made fun of me for taking a practice drive to the testing center. Well, I should’ve done that this time around! I left my place around 7:25 and made it all the way to the second to last turn with no difficulty. Then I made a right instead of a left and that took me a mile out of the way before I could turn around. But, I remained calm, eventually made a U-turn and made it to the parking garage with about 4 minutes to spare. Then I get to the parking garage and see that parking is $10 a day! I’m thinking, “I already paid $1025 for this test and they couldn’t cover the parking fee!” However, once I made it upstairs, the first thing that the secretary asked for after my ID was my parking ticket to validate it. From that point forward, I was candidate #13, which sounds like an unlucky number, but we were also on the 13th floor so I figured that was a lucky coincidence.
Each of us is assigned a number, given a badge with the corresponding number to pin on our shoulder and our lapel. We are then taken to the break room which has cubbies and desks with our assigned number. You have to lock everything in the cubby room, but are allowed to keep snacks or lip gloss at your desk. The door is locked; we take a seat and the orientation begins.
Here’s how the day went:
8AM – Start Time
Orientation video and remarks
Encounters #1-5
Lunch (30 minutes, provided sandwiches, salad, fruit, cookies, and beverages)
Encounters #6-9
Break (15 minutes, cookies and beverages still displayed)
Encounters #10-12
Test Day Survey
3PM – End Time
Overall, I felt that the day went pretty quickly. We had 15 minutes for the history, physical, and patient education/counseling. Then we had 10 minutes for the patient note, and I was so happy we could do it on the computer since I can type faster than I write, didn’t have to worry about legibility, and I could delete!
As for my mistakes: I only ran out of time with one patient, and I had to speed through my closure as the proctor opened the door for me to exit. This was right after lunch, so beware of the food coma! There was another patient where I did the Neuro exam (sensation, motor strength, DTRs, etc), but somehow only did CNII, forgetting the rest of the cranial nerves! There was 1 patient (the first) that I totally forgot to ask about medications and allergies. There was one that I asked about allergies, but forgot to write in the note (and noticed as I was proofreading right when I had to press “submit”). Otherwise, I felt that I did a good job of eliciting a history, doing the proper physical exam, answering the challenging question, educating the patient, and closing successfully. The patient note was not too bad and there was only 1 where I could not come up with a 5th differential diagnosis. Usually it was broad enough to be able to come up with 5 differentials and 5 workups. Hopefully these mistakes didn’t cost me a “PASS.” I’ll keep you posted.
I felt that the CPX exam was very good preparation for the types of cases and to get practice with the timing of the H&P and practicing the patient note. I thought that the First Aid for the USMLE Step 2 CS was definitely a great resource for preparation. The book did a great job of pointing out the key questions need to get a maximum number of checkmarks. It was also accurate with the “Challenging Question” portion of the practice cases, which was useful to have practiced beforehand. Well, I’m happy I am done. Now I need to start getting ready for Step 2 CK!
