Posted by Just passed from IP 141.158.8.9 on April 05, 2007 at 15:01:26:
In Reply to: How to prepare for CS exam? Please help. posted by Indian on January 28, 2007 at 09:54:53:
I took my CS exam recently in phyladelphia and I wanted to share some of my ideas and experiences. As I started to see the patients, I realized the biggest issue to overcome was anxiety and nervousness. After the first 1 or 2 cases, I kind of got my rhythm and it was better afterwards.
I was worried not to blank out on the next question given the time constraints. I kind of used the mnemonic based approach by usmlesource which helped gather a lot of data in a short time frame. I used to ask "can you tell me more about your symptoms and the SP's are usually very forthcoming with 2-4 pieces of info.
I also practiced the cases with some friends and it helped a lot. As per the patient note, I typed all my notes as it is more legible and I do not have a problem with typing. One thing I found out was that most people do not realize they can type OK. Just practice typing using some free sources like the PN generator at usmlesource or other places and see how you do.
It was not hard, probs were everyday cases. During the prep, I kind of concentrated on the system based approach and not so much about individual cases since there are many cases that do not give one diagnosis but many. In fact, that is the point of this exam. They tend to mix features so your DD is wide open. So, identify the system and go for all the symptoms of that system.
If you practice and prepare for 1 month, it is more than adequate. As for prep materials, I used FA and usmlesource.com cases. While each has their merits, the PN's in FA are good and the videos and the simplified approach at usmlesource was very good since it kind of gave a boost to my confidence.