USMLE World Scores and Step II Scores

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Originally Posted by sineapse

Thanks all, that's reassuring. I didn't do too bad in world (72%, 75% last 5 blocks) and would be happy with that prediction! I did take a month after I did that to read through Step Up and Secrets.

Probably just a bit of post exam nerves. Will post my score when I get it

As long as you remember the material from the qbank, you should be in the 240+ zone no probs, thats my opinion, for what it may be worth.

Cheers all

Literally finished CK and now started on my final med school exams living the dream!!

I don't think you had to add "literally". Would've expected better from an Englishman.

Originally Posted by turkeyjerky

I don't think you had to add "literally". Would've expected better from an Englishman.

Haha

Boo! I probably have a really bad memory or something and can't retain anything I learn =( I'm getting bad scores on Uworld (like 55% although have to admit I haven't been reading at it with other things going on in my life, just doing questions on tutor mode) but have about 2 months before the test. Still lots of time for improvement?

Originally Posted by footcloud

Boo! I probably have a really bad memory or something and can't retain anything I learn =( I'm getting bad scores on Uworld (like 55% although have to admit I haven't been reading at it with other things going on in my life, just doing questions on tutor mode) but have about 2 months before the test. Still lots of time for improvement?

Yes, i'd say in 2 months for CK you could jump 70+ points. Most people study 2-3 weeks (while on rotation) and jump 20+ points.

I notice many people writing either Step Up To Medicine or Step Up To Step 2. If I already have Step Up To Medicine and I'm using it during my medicine rotation (last rotation of 3rd year, a month before I plan to take Step 2) is it worth just sticking to it? Or should I get Step Up To Step 2?

Got Step 2CK back today, thought I would add another datapoint to the graph.

World Average (timed unused completed) 72%

Score: 257/86

congratulations, that is a really good score.

Originally Posted by drbluedevil401

congratulations, that is a really good score.

Thanks Glad to get it out of the way. Be nice to get my social life back after I finish off my med school exams!

that's a nice score.. congratulations and enjoy!!!!!

yes, social lives are inversely proportional to board scores. Anyways, party up now, you have earned it.

hello again... former step1 thread fellows. For those of you that took the exam, did you find FA and/or Kaplan enough for Ob/Gyn and Peds?

Originally Posted by coralis

hello again... former step1 thread fellows. For those of you that took the exam, did you find FA and/or Kaplan enough for Ob/Gyn and Peds?

Step up to Step 2 and Secrets was my combination. Was fine for the exam.

Originally Posted by coralis

hello again... former step1 thread fellows. For those of you that took the exam, did you find FA and/or Kaplan enough for Ob/Gyn and Peds?

Kaplan in my opinion was overkill for Peds, way too much information, unless you feel you didnt learn enough in clinics. I just used the peds section from MTB step 3. Kaplan OBGYN is fairly short and reasonable, although you would be ok with the obgyn/ section of MTB. I didnt use FA, so cant comment on it.

Originally Posted by sineapse

Got Step 2CK back today, thought I would add another datapoint to the graph.

World Average (timed unused completed) 72%

Score: 257/86

Great score! Congrats.. Couldn't find your Step 2 CK experience post. Please forward me if you have one.

Originally Posted by indsha008

Great score! Congrats.. Couldn't find your Step 2 CK experience post. Please forward me if you have one.

Thanks

I didn't write one I don't think, so here goes:

Background: Year 5 medical student in the UK (IMG) Sat Step 1 in Sept 2011 after studying during my holidays between 4th and 5th year. Sat CK early March 2012. Done very well in med school to date.

Materials: Step up to Step 2 (SUS2)
USMLE Step 2CK Secrets
USMLE World
USPSTF A&B Recommendations

All of these materials were highly recommended on this forum, for which I am grateful.

Just before christmas, I read the first 100 pages of SUS2 casually, just to get to grips with the format of the book. Also updated it with the DIT errata.
So in my two week christmas break, did USMLE World full time, in timed unused random mode. Did about three blocks per day, annotating into SUS2. Found this very useful and was much more 'enjoyable' than Step 1, I felt I was actually learning something. The difficulty and question length were spot on for me, very much like the actual test.

After this period, I read SUS2 every night after hospital and all day on the weekends (was doing surgery and then EM ) and went over it carefully. Gave myself 2 weeks to read through this.

After this I started straight onto Secrets, which was an excellent book I thought. Not enough to use as a core study textbook, but nice to fill in the blanks. 2 weeks as above.

Sat the the test on the Monday. Was a long, boring slog to be honest. 9 hours is just inhumane! Thought I had finished the test and one more block popped up, could have wept. The questions were not super easy I thought, there were loads of gimme questions that I felt a third year here could have answered but also lots of difficult or challenging questions that were not in any of my prep materials. I thought there were more per test block as the blocks advanced, but that could just be fatigue talking. Maybe like 10 questions per block I was flagging.

I think the key to doing this is exam reasonably well is having a good core understanding of medicine. This exam tests the whole package and you need to almost be instinctively clicking things. So do well in your in course shelfs, study hard doing your rotations and when it comes to test time you will just be polishing things up, rather than having to learn them first hand. As an IMG, I think my main problems were learning the different workup protocols e.g.

NG tube first line for upper GI bleed?
CT head protocols after head injury
Vaccination schedules
Different drug treatment recs

and of course, everything being in the wrong units () meant I spent a lot of time on that damned normal values page in the exam.

Best of luck

Just got my score back for my Step2CK.
I'm a senior medstudent from a EU medschool / EU citizen

Preparation 10 weeks, but most of the work was done in the last 2 weeks

Step 1 score: 270

Books: MTB2, MTB3, read Kaplan LN once, Step2 Secrets (VERY high yield)
Qbanks:
UW (1st, unused, random): 81%
Kaplan (did only cca 40%): 76%
NBME2 (8 wks out): 253
NBME4 (3wks out): 258
UWSA (1 wk before the test): 265/800

REAL DEAL: 264

Key to those exams is understanding and applying your knowledge. For the Step 2 CK exam, the most important thing is doing OK during your rotations. You cannot learn clinical medicine in a few weeks by reading review books.

Anyway, more than happy with what I got.

Hope it helps, if you have any Q, let me know

Good luck to ya all

Hey all,

Just hoping to get some insights on the prep process. I've read through a few pages and this is what I gather.

Just a bit of information about me. I'm a US allopathic student. I plan on using 4 weeks of studying during a light clerkship + 2-3 weeks of dedicated study time. I've been HPing all of my clerkships. I took the cores IM and Surg in the fall, so it has been a few months since I've had it. However, since my other clerkships really draw from those fields, I think my foundation is still there. I scored a 216 on Step 1 and I really need to kill Step 2. My plan is to use UWorld + Step 2 Secrets.

My other SUPPLEMENTAL resources will be Step Up to Medicine, NMS Surgery, Case Files ObGyn, Pretest Peds. I'll only use these as reference as needed.

What do you guys think? Do you have any better supplemental resources that you recommend? Would Master the Boards make a better go to resource?

Thanks!!

I recently received my Step 2 CK score and wanted to share my study strategy. I scored in the 260s on the Step 1 and consider myself a strong clinical student earning honors in most of my clerkships. My shelf scores were in the mid-high 80s on average.

Study Plan: I took 3 weeks dedicated to study for the exam at the end of my radiology interview season. I used Step up to Medicine as my primary study source spending about a week with it. I spent a couple of days reviewing the Peds, OB/GYN, and Psych chapters of First Aid and the Pestana Review. For the next week and a half, I reviewed USMLE World full time. I would do 200 questions in the AM and review in the evening with annotation into the relevant sections of my study books. I spent my last four days quickly reviewing SUTM and the UWorld annotations.

Practice Tests:
Pre-studying NBME 3: 242
After initial round studying NBME 4: 256
UWorld Self Assessment one week before exam: 263
NBME 2 and Free 150 3 days before exam: 268, 84%

Overall, I felt the exam was fair and felt easier than Step 1 with less esoteric facts. Felt somewhat heavy in OB. I marked about 5 questions per block which I was unsure about. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I scored in the 270s, higher than any of my practice tests!

Congrats on your great score.

.

I took exam today..
I didn't feel like it is really tough.
People claiming that questions are too long are just scaring the people around.
There were too many 3-4 line questions there.
Everything was from MTB and UW.
3-4 blocks were tough, had to mark 5-6 questions.
There were like 10 questions about which I didn't have any idea.
Exam was doable.
I had NBME-4 230, UWSA-245
Lets see how much I get in real deal...

Do you guys have any idea, when people taking exam on Friday get their result?? 3rd or 4th Wednesday????

My experience was very similar to the above poster's:

I also took my exam recently (~1wk) and I didn't feel it was very tough at all either.
The questions felt of UW length, give or take a few lines. I don't remember many 3-4 line questions but there were certainly many questions that were shorter than the average UW length.

All I did was UW and reading certain specific topics from FA CK/Step Up/Wikipedia/Medscape over 2 months. 1-2 blocks of UW per day. I had good prep from Step 1 and did well on all my clinicals. I'm a non-US IMG. I finished each block with about 15 minutes left (!!!), so I had ample time to go back and re-check every single question, though I changed very few answers. Certainly there were some tricky questions but it felt a lot fairer than Step 1 (more reasoning in CK vs. more memorization of specific details in Step 1).

Also felt the exam was perfectly doable. I'm glad I only paid for the two months of UW and UWSA, it was more than enough. Will eventually post back in about 2 weeks with my score.

nitpick, you should expect to get the scores on the third Wednesday.

More info at:
http://www.usmle-forums.com/general-...m-results.html

Took CK on March 26 and got my scores back this week.
Resources:
Med:Kaplan
Surg: NMS casebook
ObGyn: Blueprints
Paeds: Kaplan
Did most of those text along with my clinical rotations. Used MTB2 for psych and to review those subjects.
UW(Unused, timed, random): 74% (100% completed)
Did UWSA 2 days before my exam just so it didnt go to waste(despite knowing that a poor score could really demoralize you) - 252
Actual exam seemed alot easier than UW.. I had only one block with several long stems. All other blocks were full of 3 liner questions.
Final CK score: 251

Got my score a few weeks ago but I'd forgotten to post about it

Background: Non-US IMG from a not-too-great Carib school, took CK 3 months after Step 1 (253), but actual prep was about 8-9 weeks of light studying. Did very well in my clinicals when I was still in school, and I continue to read a lot of medical articles and just generally try and stay up to date.

Things I did or used:
- UW over 2 months, averaged a very steady 74% from day 1 (unused timed 44q blocks, about 1 block/day avg). 95% completed
- went over random chapters in FA and Step Up with special attention to peds and OB/GYN (my weak areas)
- Borrowed MTB-CK the day before the test and skimmed it for a bit, read the OB, GYN and peds chapters
- MKSAP audio over a long period of time, even before I took Step 1. I feel this has really helped my overall knowledge and understanding of IM, and I feel it definitely helped for CK although it is overkill - it's for IM boards!
- I fully attribute my surgical knowledge to Surgical Recall audio which I listened to in 3rd year but I still remember a lot of it
- FA Q&A for CK - probably didn't help much, but before paying for UW I did maybe around 300 questions from this book just to start getting the feel of CK content. The book isn't great but I feel it was OK for starting out because the questions are pretty easy and straightforward.


Final UW avg 74%

UWSA - 5 days before 261
NBME 4 - 4 days before 251
Final score low 270-275 (for a bit of anonymity...?)

I would say there was a bit of luck in my score because I was expecting somewhere around a 260! Thanks to everyone who contributes to these threads.

Originally Posted by defcon8

Took CK on March 26 and got my scores back this week.
Resources:
Med:Kaplan
Surg: NMS casebook
ObGyn: Blueprints
Paeds: Kaplan
Did most of those text along with my clinical rotations. Used MTB2 for psych and to review those subjects.
UW(Unused, timed, random): 74% (100% completed)
Did UWSA 2 days before my exam just so it didnt go to waste(despite knowing that a poor score could really demoralize you) - 252
Actual exam seemed alot easier than UW.. I had only one block with several long stems. All other blocks were full of 3 liner questions.
Final CK score: 251

Congratulations on your score. I noticed you didn't mention a text for Psychiatry. Was FA your only source for that? And how did you prepare for Biostats? Would really appreciate your input on this one. Exam is soon and I am think I only have time for FA for Psych and Biostats. Any advice is appreciated.

Do you guys think its better to do Uworld by Section (IM, Peds, Psych), or just do it all random for your dedicated month of Step II review? I did about 50% of the IM questions during cores, all of the ob, psych... gonna do the peds and surgery sections before I start the dedicated 3-4 weeks of Step2 studying.

Do you guys think its better to do a block then go over it, do another block, then go over it or just do like 4 blocks in the morning and spend rest of the day reviewing them?

Originally Posted by dolor21

Do you guys think its better to do Uworld by Section (IM, Peds, Psych), or just do it all random for your dedicated month of Step II review? I did about 50% of the IM questions during cores, all of the ob, psych... gonna do the peds and surgery sections before I start the dedicated 3-4 weeks of Step2 studying.

Do you guys think its better to do a block then go over it, do another block, then go over it or just do like 4 blocks in the morning and spend rest of the day reviewing them?

Always better to do it randomized and timed especially as you get closer to the exam.. If you could do non-UW questions based on subject until you feel comfortable doing randomized questions, that might be a better option than to use UW by subject (provided you have sufficient time). Personally, I prefer doing blocks back to back while I am focusing then review them afterwards

Originally Posted by NoWayOut

Congratulations on your score. I noticed you didn't mention a text for Psychiatry. Was FA your only source for that? And how did you prepare for Biostats? Would really appreciate your input on this one. Exam is soon and I am think I only have time for FA for Psych and Biostats. Any advice is appreciated.

All I used for psych was MTB/FA and UW and got a star, so I would say that those resources are sufficient. Biostats questions need practice more than anything else if you think that is a weak area for you, I did well in that section, but dont think UW is sufficient.

Originally Posted by defcon8

All I used for psych was MTB/FA and UW and got a star, so I would say that those resources are sufficient. Biostats questions need practice more than anything else if you think that is a weak area for you, I did well in that section, but dont think UW is sufficient.

How do you get a star?

dumb question, but how up to date is the plotted graph that's attached?

Originally Posted by Transposony

How do you get a star?

Outstanding performance in a tested subject. Usually you get it for an outstandingly good performance, but I saw someone's report with a star at the other end for an outstandingly poor performance :S

Originally Posted by DrWhoDat

dumb question, but how up to date is the plotted graph that's attached?

what graph?

Originally Posted by quique2

My experience was very similar to the above poster's:

I also took my exam recently (~1wk) and I didn't feel it was very tough at all either.
The questions felt of UW length, give or take a few lines. I don't remember many 3-4 line questions but there were certainly many questions that were shorter than the average UW length.

All I did was UW and reading certain specific topics from FA CK/Step Up/Wikipedia/Medscape over 2 months. 1-2 blocks of UW per day. I had good prep from Step 1 and did well on all my clinicals. I'm a non-US IMG. I finished each block with about 15 minutes left (!!!), so I had ample time to go back and re-check every single question, though I changed very few answers. Certainly there were some tricky questions but it felt a lot fairer than Step 1 (more reasoning in CK vs. more memorization of specific details in Step 1).

Also felt the exam was perfectly doable. I'm glad I only paid for the two months of UW and UWSA, it was more than enough. Will eventually post back in about 2 weeks with my score.

Can you please tell me how did you decide which topics to read from comprehensive sources like Medscape? Thanks!

Originally Posted by indsha008

Can you please tell me how did you decide which topics to read from comprehensive sources like Medscape? Thanks!

I can't remember any specific examples, but I used it for any conditions where I really wanted to go over workup or management/treatment. Also, I like Medscape for quickly looking at possible clinical presentations. I didn't use it to study per se, but more to look into some diseases with more detail than was given in UWorld. It is surprisingly comprehensive with everything from epidemiology, pathophys, treatment, labs/imaging... it's probably a lot more detailed than you need for CK but I found it to be a decent resource when you wanna read about specific diseases/syndromes/conditions.

Originally Posted by defcon8

what graph?

the one attached to this thread.

So I finished Uworld a long time ago (1 month ago) was getting mid 60s average by the end. UWSA was 216 last week and Free 150 today was 74%. Hopefully I can pass if nothing goes horribly wrong? The cut off is so high now, 189...blah.

How many blocks a day do you guys usually do? Do you have time to review the material in books too on the same day? I'm planning on 3 blocks a day plus covering 25 pages a day in Step Up to Med/First Aid CK. I dunno if that's realistic or not, or if I sacrifice quality studying at that rate.

Originally Posted by dolor21

How many blocks a day do you guys usually do? Do you have time to review the material in books too on the same day? I'm planning on 3 blocks a day plus covering 25 pages a day in Step Up to Med/First Aid CK. I dunno if that's realistic or not, or if I sacrifice quality studying at that rate.

I dunno if I m just slower but I can usually only do 2 blocks of 44 questions a day (usually I hit my goal of 100questions but it pretty much takes me all day). I think I average about 12 or so questions an hour...But I do tutor mode and I usually read the full explanation of why each answer choice is wrong and I take notes as I go. UW is great but it takes a really long time to complete...

What do you guys think? Is this about average speed?

Originally Posted by footcloud

So I finished Uworld a long time ago (1 month ago) was getting mid 60s average by the end. UWSA was 216 last week and Free 150 today was 74%. Hopefully I can pass if nothing goes horribly wrong? The cut off is so high now, 189...blah.

I m getting kinda close to finishing up all the IM questions on UW (which is probably about 60% or so of the total questions).. Is there any second Qbank that most people recommend to do? OR... should I just keep redoing UW over and over?

Hey guys....so this might be an odd question but does anyone know how many questions are in the actual CK QBank?? Like the real exam...not uworld or Kaplan...I'm talking about the real deal lol

Originally Posted by smuchick13

Hey guys....so this might be an odd question but does anyone know how many questions are in the actual CK QBank?? Like the real exam...not uworld or Kaplan...I'm talking about the real deal lol

likely several tens of thousands

Originally Posted by NRAI2001

I m getting kinda close to finishing up all the IM questions on UW (which is probably about 60% or so of the total questions).. Is there any second Qbank that most people recommend to do? OR... should I just keep redoing UW over and over?

depends on how much time you have left. you should definitely redo UW, but you might want to consider doing a 2nd bank before your second run of UW if you have an overabundance of time

Originally Posted by NRAI2001

I dunno if I m just slower but I can usually only do 2 blocks of 44 questions a day (usually I hit my goal of 100questions but it pretty much takes me all day). I think I average about 12 or so questions an hour...But I do tutor mode and I usually read the full explanation of why each answer choice is wrong and I take notes as I go. UW is great but it takes a really long time to complete...

What do you guys think? Is this about average speed?

It always takes longer when you are doing questions initially, especially if you are annotating, but as concepts get more familiar (and you have less to annotate), your speed should pick up

Originally Posted by nitpick

Don't believe in above post. I have watched Kaplan Videos- They are really good. All except Surgery videos are good. Lavodnas is saying Surgery videos are good -means he is trying to misguide people over here.

I know this is a while ago, but it's just funny how different people enjoy different kaplan videos. I thought most of them were garbage except for Pestana's Surgery notes. I used those as my primary learning source and rocked the shelf. Our whole school uses these notes/lectures and it is by far one of our strongest Shelf exams. Those lectures are also highly recommended on the Surgery Shelf discussion thread. The only other ones I thought were even moderately useful were the peds one's, though I am sure a lot of people may disagree with that.

Originally Posted by genswim24

I know this is a while ago, but it's just funny how different people enjoy different kaplan videos. I thought most of them were garbage except for Pestana's Surgery notes. I used those as my primary learning source and rocked the shelf. Our whole school uses these notes/lectures and it is by far one of our strongest Shelf exams. Those lectures are also highly recommended on the Surgery Shelf discussion thread. The only other ones I thought were even moderately useful were the peds one's, though I am sure a lot of people may disagree with that.

Agreed...I got the Kaplan Videos specifically FOR the Pestana videos

Originally Posted by defcon8

Took CK on March 26 and got my scores back this week.
Resources:
Med:Kaplan
Surg: NMS casebook
ObGyn: Blueprints
Paeds: Kaplan
Did most of those text along with my clinical rotations. Used MTB2 for psych and to review those subjects.
UW(Unused, timed, random): 74% (100% completed)
Did UWSA 2 days before my exam just so it didnt go to waste(despite knowing that a poor score could really demoralize you) - 252
Actual exam seemed alot easier than UW.. I had only one block with several long stems. All other blocks were full of 3 liner questions.
Final CK score: 251

Did you read during the semester SUM or your only resource for medicine was kaplan lecture notes? Thanks in advance...

Originally Posted by jdmd1student

Did you read during the semester SUM or your only resource for medicine was kaplan lecture notes? Thanks in advance...

Kaplan was my main resource for med along with questions and worked out well.