Friday, January 30, 2015

Simple Indian Dal recipe!

This post is just to help one survive outside ones home once we match in the States. This post is NOT AT ALL RELATED TO THE USMLE STEPS! It is just a survival post :P 

Now that I am done with the interview trail I thought why not start doing some electives in the kitchen with my mom being my Attending. At least that would let me take my mind off the fear of the Match. Anyways before I start about the dish a quick overview of me. I cooked a few dishes when I was in the States with my cousins who I must say are awesome chefs. My cousins cut onions with speed equal to that which one would see on a Master Chef episode. And the slices are quite thin to be frank, I was put to shame when I thought I cut fine.

So coming back to my background in the kitchen. I have been in the kitchen since a kid. Before you start thinking I am some child prodigy in the kitchen, let me tell you one thing I am a prodigy yes but not in cooking but in eating. My friends will vouch for that one I am sure! So even though I can make a few vegetable sukkas (they are really simple, trust me when I say that) quite well I thought why not try my hand at some authentic south Indian dish and what better than a good old side dish - Dal.

So when I searched for the term Indian Dal recipes on google, my subconscious told me I will try the first recipe that popped up on the search list.  To be frank turned out decently well. At least I am surviving till now to serve as testimony to it J

The original recipe can be found here



Ingredients
  • 1 cup red lentils (Dal), rinsed well (I used a steel tumbler that I had in the house)
  • 3 cm fresh ginger, sliced
  • 1 cinnamon stick (broken into pieces)
  • 1 large onion, finely chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 2 teaspoons turmeric
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
  • 1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes
  • 1/2-1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves – Did not use since I am not aiming to be a master chef :P

The instructions to be followed are pretty simple and can be broken down into 3 parts
  1. Place lentils, ginger and cinnamon in a large pan with 3 cups of cold water. (Ratio is 1 cup Dal: 3 Cups of water for people who like be want it to be quick and simple) Bring to the boil, reduce the heat to medium and simmer, stirring to prevent sticking for 10-12 minutes. Set aside.
  2. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium high heat. Add the onion and cook for 3 minutes or till it turns brown. Stir in the garlic, turmeric, cumin, garam masala and chilli flakes and cook for a further minute and add salt to taste.
  3. Add the cooked dal to the pan and mix well. Cook for a further 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat. Stir in coriander and serve hot with rice or naan bread or pappadums!



 Best of luck for both the cooking and the exams! :P

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Step 3

This post is more on the exam than on a study plan for sure since I feel that is more confusing than the study preparation itself. Basic format of the NEW exam is as follows

DAY 1
  • Total exam duration - 7 hours
  • Has 6 blocks – 42-43 questions with 60 minutes for each block.
DAY 2
  • Total exam duration 9 hours in total. Has 2 parts
  • Part 1 –
o   6 blocks with 33 questions and 45 minutes for each block.
  • Part 2 – (CCS)
o   13 case simulations with each being either 10 or 20 minutes in length.

The MAIN change according to me is in the scheduling of the exam. I mean in the new pattern you can schedule day 2 of your exam at a different date but at the SAME test centre and within 14 days.

Materials I used:

  1. OLD MTB 3
  2. USMLE world - Qbank, CCS, UWSA
  3. Archer introductory videos

The general question on everyone’s mind at the moment I think is should I read my basic science book like 1st aid for Step 1 and go through biochemistry and learn the enzymes and also to buy the new MTB 3 (I have not read it so not sure about MTB 3 new addition) My advice would be a firm NO, as I feel step 3 is basically the same as CK but they are more focused on the management aspect of the patient and how you can apply your BASIC science concepts. At least for me it wasn't like step 1 where I had to mug up a couple of enzyme names and know the deficiency of which causes what and so on and so forth. My advice would be prepare the same as you would for the old step 3 examination. In addition to the Uworld qbank do the Uworld self-assessment test and USMLE.org practice materials.

Coming to the CCS part of the exam I felt this part was my Achilles heel. I would highly recommend doing the Uworld CCS cases as many times as possible and read the explanation. Also Uworld also gives you a PDF handout for 40 to 50 cases which I think is good enough. Furthermore to help in CCS there is a person called Archer who has a course.  I recommend watching his CCS Strategies video which is 2.45 hours long which gives you a quick over view of CCS. Also do the CCS cases that USMLE has on their web site.

The difficulty of the questions were essentially according to me like Step 2 CK, but as I do not have my result I would not like to say anything for sure. Also I felt day 2 was tougher than day 1 but some guys I spoke to felt both days were easy. Any how my study time was around a month and a half technically with studies being in between interviews and Christmas festivities. At the moment as my result is unknown I cannot exactly say whether it was sufficient or not but hoping for the best.

Good luck to all who are giving it soon!

(Update 25th March 2015- Pass)


Friday, January 9, 2015

Terms you need to know during your journey!

This is going to be kind of a very general post on the common terms used in the States both in the Medical or Non-medical field.

Initially when you start your journey, you (or at least I) do get confused who is a resident or what is fellowship and so on and so forth. So here is my two piece information.

USMLE/MEDICINE RELATED
INDIA
USA
Internship/ Housemanship 
3rd/4th year medical student
PG/ Post Graduate
Resident / PGY (1,2,3)
1st year resident is called an Intern
2nd, 3rd year - Resident
4th year – Chief Resident generally
Super specialists- 
MCh, DM
Fellows, Fellowship
Lecturers/ Staff - 
Assistant, Associate, Professor
Attending -
Assistant, Associate, Professor
Super Specialists – Cardio, Neuro etc.
Sub Specialists - Cardio, Neuro etc.
NON MEDICAL
Parcel food
To go
Milk
A huge variety - 1%, 2%, Whole, Cream, Skimmed
Drive on the left side with geared vehicles
Drive on the right side with automatic vehicles
Celsius
Fahrenheit (Also there is something called as 'Feels like' meaning the ACTUAL FEEL OF THE WEATHER, It takes into account the wind speed.)
1.6 Kilometer
1 Mile

I know that most of you might know about the terms used in this post. This one goes out to the average person like me who used to get confused when I was searching for electives like what exactly comes under the purview of sub-specialties

I also had a fun time talking to the cashier about parceling food- I kept shooting all the random terms I knew like parcel, take out and what not till finally at last I said the words to go. Similarly when I went to buy milk for the first time I was overwhelmed at the variety, since back home though variety is available we generally go for whole milk or maybe skimmed if one is very health conscious. 

Moving on, when they ask what would you like to have with your coffee I was a little taken aback since in my head it is natural reflex - MILK. Thankfully my cousin was nearby and realized that I had no clue what just happened and he told me that cream is considered like milk in fast food places and so you specify the number you want. E.g. - 2 cream and 2 sugar is my standard. You can increase or decrease based on your preference. Also coffee is not like the one we have back home. So should you say you want coffee it is considered BLACK coffee, you will have to say cream along with it or you will repent your decision.


Oh and it is common courtesy to tip the waiter here 5% of the total bill. I know it is not something that most of us follow back home since it comes in the service tax of the bill, but as the saying is ‘When in Rome behave like Romans’.  I am NOT saying that you HAVE to tip 5% exactly, since we are students and we are literally living off our parent’s money but at least 1-2 dollars maybe. This is my personally opinion. I am sure most will not agree with me on this.

Should I realize that I missed out anything I will try updating this post.

Again best of luck for the journey towards USMLE!