USMLE World Scores and Step II Scores

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Originally Posted by defcon8

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

Thanks for your quick response and for posting the books you used; really helpful... That was a great score.. Congrats :-)

I'm taking CK at the end of this month. I've just done ~500 questions in random 44 question blocks without any content review. I'm kind of reviewing content based on tutor mode. I've been scoring in the mid-60's with a range between high 50's to low 70's

Is this a normal percentage to start out with? I scored mid 80's to mid 90's on my shelves. I feel like the Uworld questions are much harder than the shelves and they're kicking my ass. It's kind of freaking me out and I'm worried about taking a big dive from my Step I score. I scored in the high 70's on Uworld for step I.

Should I be worried or is this a normal experience when you first tackle Uworld before CK?

I'd say that is pretty on par at first, especially without any review before hand.

Originally Posted by SB100

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?

My $0.02: I've gone through both. Step Up to Medicine is a great book. I used it all during rotations, and I love it. It lacks Peds (there is a touch, but it is meh), Ob/Gyn, Psych (again, some, but meh) and some Surg. Step up to Step 2 is a very condensed book, but it has a lot of higher yield Peds, Ob and Psych info. The charts are awesome. It is also easier to kill in a short period of time. I'm using both, rather, I've finished with the beast of SUTM and will be using SUTS2 again as I get nearer to my test date.

Other great supplements: Blueprints Peds, Blueprints Ob, Blueprints Psych

From reading this thread, I've come up with this for Step 2 CK:

Step Up to Step 2 (prefer to go less books but more repetitions)
UWorld
2-3 weeks dedicated study

Is this sufficient?

Originally Posted by C5toC9

From reading this thread, I've come up with this for Step 2 CK:

Step Up to Step 2 (prefer to go less books but more repetitions)
UWorld
2-3 weeks dedicated study

Is this sufficient?

it better be. i can tell you june 14th how it went, but that's about exactly what i'm doing. finishing neuro now (shoot me now)...had IM before this, hoping most of that stuff is relatively fresh.

I have a friend who took it right after our IM block (12 days) and said he could only study hardcore for 7 days, most of which was our first few rotations (we've been on the exact same schedule). He also said it's not bad at all.

Nice. Do you recommend SUtoStep2?

Anyone with experience with MTB?

Originally Posted by C5toC9

Nice. Do you recommend SUtoStep2?

Anyone with experience with MTB?

Ive been reading from MTB this year, and really like the format.

I hope u got ur score and it was good

Originally Posted by nitpick

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????

Undecided between MTB and SU2S2...anyone have any input between these 2 sources?

MTB is pretty quick, high yield information. I ended up buying MTB and will use a STUS2 pdf I have for the tables/diagrams. I have secrets too, might try to pump through that towards the end of the study period...but I have zero idea how I'll fit in all this crap in 17 days.

MTB is light on psyche/ob/gyn...STUS2 has all the peds dz included in each organ system.

If you only had time to do one NBME practice exam, would you do the 2nd or the 4th one. I heard those ones are the best. I have already done the UWorld one and the free question one. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

NBME 4 is better than NBME 2 in prediction and distribution of Q

Originally Posted by Tem

NBME 4 is better than NBME 2 in prediction and distribution of Q

Thanks

Hey guys! I wanted to share my story since so many posts on this site were so helpful to me in my prep and in giving me motivation. This is for us average students who don't have 270s =/

So I am an IMG from the Caribbean and I was an average medical student mainly because I was super lazy and crammed a few days before exams just enough to pass really. I took Step 1 back in Sept 2010. I studied my butt off like I didnt even know I was capable of for 3 months straight putting in 12 hours everyday not including break time. I used FA and DIT, memorized FA and knew that book inside out (if theres one thing I can do, its memorize)! Also used UW obviously but I had 200 Q's left that I was not able to complete. Ended up with a 216/91, which was a pass thank God but MUCH lower than I had expected and quite frankly I was a little disappointed because of the effort and dedication I put into that test. Biggest regret was not completing and re-doing UW a second time without a doubt.

Step 2 prep was soooo much more enjoyable and in an odd way, fun! I completed UW (in a topic by topic and on tutor mode) once in about a month with taking typed thorough notes on every topic except for Psych. 2nd month I did UW again on random timed mode while reviewing notes from first time around and using MTB, Secrets and FA for reference. But this time I also hand wrote notes for a total of 30 pages of random facts based on questions I got wrong again and the high-yield questions. So essentially I had reviewed UW 3 times...twice by doing the questions and 3rd time by reading my UW notes. Last 3 days before the test all I did was read all my UW notes again (typed and handwritten). I did not study during any of my rotations...not even a word. All my shelfs range in the 70's.

Difference btwn step 1 and step 2 was that for step 1 I memorized FA down to every word but had no idea how to apply the information. For step 2, I vowed not to memorize anything and to just read things at least 3 times and spend most of my energy on UW. Overall my step 2 prep was 90% UW and the rest was MTB, secrets, and FA just for reference and a whole lot of praying!

Stats:
Step 1 NBME 3 (1 week before): 218
UW Assessment (5 days before): 232
Step 1: 216/91

Step 2 (5/6/12)
Round 1 UW: 64%
NBME 4 (1 month before): 216 (440)
Round 2 UW: increased to 77%
UW Assess (1 week before): 236 (580)
Real Deal: 249/84!!! 33pt increase!!!

It is totally possible to do well on this test!!!! Focus on UW by learning the information in there and by understanding how to answer the questions. The length of the stems were not any different from UW so if u can finish a UW block in time then you can do the real deal in time.

P.S....I prayed...hard...and Jesus came through!!! Thank you God!!!!

Also a lot of people are confused about how to re-do UW if you don't have a 6 month subscription. What I did was once I completed UW the first time, I went back into those tests and marked every single question on all 51 (or whatever the total was) blocks so that all the questions were marked (I had a 2239 questions total in my bank and everything was marked). Then the 2nd time around I would do the questions in random, all, marked, timed mode. And as you do them they automatically get unmarked. This way you dont have any repeated questions from block to block and you will cover all 2239 questions once. For example when I started round 2 all 2239 questions were marked. After my first block only 2195 was marked and so on. Hope that makes sense. Your stats obv dont get reset this way but at least you're sure to cover ALL the questions in round 2 like you're doing it for the first time.

Just took the test on Tuesday. Used solely Uworld and 9 days. We'll see what happens in 3 weeks.

.

Originally Posted by smuchick13

Also a lot of people are confused about how to re-do UW if you don't have a 6 month subscription. What I did was once I completed UW the first time, I went back into those tests and marked every single question on all 51 (or whatever the total was) blocks so that all the questions were marked (I had a 2239 questions total in my bank and everything was marked). Then the 2nd time around I would do the questions in random, all, marked, timed mode. And as you do them they automatically get unmarked. This way you dont have any repeated questions from block to block and you will cover all 2239 questions once. For example when I started round 2 all 2239 questions were marked. After my first block only 2195 was marked and so on. Hope that makes sense. Your stats obv dont get reset this way but at least you're sure to cover ALL the questions in round 2 like you're doing it for the first time.

Hello!! Do you have to manually mark each question, or can you mass mark?

Thank you!!

I manually marked...so i had to go back to each test and mark the questions one by one...but u just keep the cursor at the mark box and hit the right arrow on the keyboard with one hand and the left mouse button with the other..LOL...so you can do it fairly fast.

Theres no way to mass mark btw

I've been going through SUTS2 and hate it. I wanted to like it, but I just don't like the format as well as I like Secrets for USMLE Step 2. Anyone else just use Secrets with UWorld?

Originally Posted by SB100

I've been going through SUTS2 and hate it. I wanted to like it, but I just don't like the format as well as I like Secrets for USMLE Step 2. Anyone else just use Secrets with UWorld?

Depending on how much time you have left, you could use Master the Boards. It is a very conversational format like step 2 secrets. It is a fairly quick read.

To answer your question, you would probably be fine with that combo.

Originally Posted by MossPoh

Depending on how much time you have left, you could use Master the Boards. It is a very conversational format like step 2 secrets. It is a fairly quick read.

To answer your question, you would probably be fine with that combo.

Taking it in less than 3 weeks, so I doubt I'd be able to use MTB. I've been hitting around 80% recently in my UWorld questions, so I'm thinking those questions combined with Secrets will suffice.

Also planning on just UW with Secrets, hoping this will be sufficient

Will I be able to take this test at the end of a month of primary care??? I dont want to take a month off for it because i want a month off for interviews.

Originally Posted by SB100

Taking it in less than 3 weeks, so I doubt I'd be able to use MTB. I've been hitting around 80% recently in my UWorld questions, so I'm thinking those questions combined with Secrets will suffice.

MTB looks big, but it is a pretty quick read. I haven't been investing too much time and I can still cover 2 chapters a day and 2 uworld blocks, easily. The font is huge with lots of spacing. But yea, you should be fine either way, especially with that Uworld percentage.



Now, for my question. (If you are one of those people who gets wound up reading SDN performance stuff, avert your eyes now.) I've been doing exceedingly well in uworld and did very well on two NBME exams (one was a step 3 practice that I got by mistake). I'm concerned I'm getting lulled into a false sense of confidence and the only reason I'm doing so well in uworld is because I gradually did the questions over the last year before resetting. I feel like I remember a minimal number of the questions, but am worried it is just back there subconciously. Of course, I've done nearly 2000 questions for every single rotation as well. Basically, I don't know how to accurately assess where I am.

Recommendations? Take another NBME? Get a month of Kaplan (which sucked my will to live for step 1)? Just keep doing uworld questions and hammering in the answers? I don't have much independent time to study for the exam, so I want to be as efficient as possible.

Yes, I feel a little ridiculous about this, but I have a long history of performing well in practice and then dropping the ball when it counts.

UW: jumped all over the place, but probably averaging in the low 60's. Did it twice (but only marked q's for the second time).
didn't do NBME's
did UWSA 216

Score: 227

So what's considered an "acceptable" score? I'm apparently below the "average" score, so I guess that I means I'm just below average? =(

What residency are you shooting for, how was your step 1 and all that jazz?

Originally Posted by sylvanthus

What residency are you shooting for, how was your step 1 and all that jazz?

237, internal med

Did Uworld once over three weeks (total study time). Took lots of notes but didn't have time to read through them as planned. Like everyone says, Uworld is key! Read quickly once through SUTS2 but looked over some charts the day before. Read through about 40% of secrets in the 2 days before the exam.
Uworld average: upper 70s
Uworld assessment: 264 (5 days before exam)
Actual: mid-270s
Step 1: mid-250s

Good luck! To all those studying, try to stay calm. I felt grossly underprepared in comparison to step 1!!

Originally Posted by ms99

Did Uworld once over three weeks (total study time). Took lots of notes but didn't have time to read through them as planned. Like everyone says, Uworld is key! Read quickly once through SUTS2 but looked over some charts the day before. Read through about 40% of secrets in the 2 days before the exam.
Uworld average: upper 70s
Uworld assessment: 264 (5 days before exam)
Actual: mid-270s
Step 1: mid-250s

Good luck! To all those studying, try to stay calm. I felt grossly underprepared in comparison to step 1!!

Nicely done man. I have basically identical scores, planning, and the general feeling of "ruh-Roh". I take it tomorrow so hoping uworld and secrets is enough!

Originally Posted by ms99

Did Uworld once over three weeks (total study time). Took lots of notes but didn't have time to read through them as planned. Like everyone says, Uworld is key! Read quickly once through SUTS2 but looked over some charts the day before. Read through about 40% of secrets in the 2 days before the exam.
Uworld average: upper 70s
Uworld assessment: 264 (5 days before exam)
Actual: mid-270s
Step 1: mid-250s

Good luck! To all those studying, try to stay calm. I felt grossly underprepared in comparison to step 1!!

Fantastic! I'm going to print your post out and put it on my wall for inspiration.
I'm in the same boat when it comes to time, resources, and UWorld scores.
Congratulations on the awesome score!
...hoping I could pull it off, too.

I just took the CK 2 weeks and I'm nervous about the results. I'm not a great test taker (I further realized this after Step 1). So to try to counter balance that, I did the Kaplan Q-Book 2x, First Aid Q-Book 2x, Kaplan QBank 2x and UWorld 2x (All timed).
I averaged a 64% on the first time through (timed, all mixed, 44 at a time) and an 81% the second time through. I managed to some how go through the UWorld questions 2 times within 4 weeks before the CK (176 to 220 questions a day).
I did not take a NBME.
I feel like I did alright, but I know that I'm an optimistic person and some times it's a false sense of security. I know that I did not choke on the exam, but I might have over thought some questions...
Any thoughts on how I might have done considering my % on UWorld??
Anyone scored 64% on their 1st time through UWorld and not score close to what they thought they might get?

I took my tast last wednesday (6/13), I was wondering if I should expect my test exactly three weeks later (7/4) or four weeks later (7/11)? I know they usually release the scores three weeks later, but I realize that my wednesday test day may change things. Thanks

UWorld x 2 + Goljan x 1 + First Aid x 3 over 7 weeks
Step 1: 231/99

UWorld x 2 (around 75% average the second time around) & a little more than half of Kaplan Qbank (66% average over last 8 blocks) over 4 weeks
228 on UWorld practice test 1 week into studying (After coming out of IM clerkship where I did all IM qsts in UWorld and doing all non-IM questions the first week of studying)
247/84 on the real thing doing 3 blocks of 44 qsts a day for 4 weeks (4-6 hours a day depending on motivation)

I used no books, just questions. Kaplan qbank for step 2 was wayyy better than their step 1 qbank in my opinion. UWorld as usual is really good. The real test felt easier than the Step 1 and judging by my score, my instincts were correct. Don't sweat this test. If you did poorly on the first one then you want the upswing, otherwise I am not sure this test matters that much.

Done with the test today …. Feeling so depressed ….! Youcan not imagine how many Q for the biostatistics and Ad abstracts … about 40 Qof these stuff ….which eventually ruined my chances of hoping of a decent score…

My experience :

Over 9 months of preparation in an on-off rhythm

USMLRx = 72%(months before the test)

Kaplan Q bank = 62% (months before the test)

USMLE World =73% (months before the test)

All for the unused Q … timed mode … system-wise

NBME 4 = 232 (a month before the test)

UWSA = 256 (11 days before the test)

Let’s wait for 3 weeks of torture ….

Just got my Step II score back today (6/20) and I took my exam on 5/31, so I guess 3 weeks exactly for me.

For a score/experiences bit:

Step 1: 254
Step 2 studying: did UWorld once through during third year, taking all the questions that corresponded with that shelf (yes, including the 1400+ for the medicine shelf). Had 19 days to study Step 2, and I did UWorld a second time through and a few extra questions at the end (~300). Also did First Aid for Step 2 CK and annotated it with UWorld (nowhere near the same amount of detail I did for Step 1) and read through it a second time (some sections a third time). Took two NBME exams (I think 4 first and then 2 second) and I got a 238 after the first 3 days of studying and a 240 after about 12 days of studying...was bummed about the mere 2 point change but I was also sick for 4 days during this 19 day study period.

During the exam, I felt like it was going horribly. I felt like I got rocked by my first two blocks, and then things continued to get better with each block after. I didn't let myself get defeated-after each block I would take a break and just look in the mirror and tell myself that I could get through this, "That was only one block, you still have seven more to kick some a**," etc.

Final Step 2 CK Score: 259/86!!!!!!!!!

Best of luck to everyone, and don't stress! I did way better than I thought I ever could do on both steps!

I am wanting to use either Kaplan or USMLERx qbank throughout my third year rotations to help me prepare for the shelf exams as well as prep for Step 2. It seems that UWorld is again the Gold-standard so I want to save that for my dedicated Step 2 study. Kaplan and Rx about the same price, but Rx appears to have more questions. Any thoughts?

Originally Posted by NTF

Just took the test on Tuesday. Used solely Uworld and 9 days. We'll see what happens in 3 weeks.

Got my score today.
Step 1: 257
Uworld average: 71%

Step 2: 248

I'm a little disappointed in the drop, but hey it's still a pretty decent score by non-SDN standards. Not too shabby given I only used Uworld, no review books & 9 days.

Originally Posted by NTF

Got my score today.
Step 1: 257
Uworld average: 71%

Step 2: 248

I'm a little disappointed in the drop, but hey it's still a pretty decent score by non-SDN standards. Not too shabby given I only used Uworld, no review books & 9 days.

Congratulations on the solid score. Did you take the UWSA at any point?

Can anyone comment on the distribution of subjects on the actual exam? I would expect that most of the exam is internal medicine, but what has everyone seen in terms of the other subjects? Thanks!

Originally Posted by shan564

Congratulations on the solid score. Did you take the UWSA at any point?

Thanks! Nope only 1 pass thru the qbank.

Originally Posted by HalladayWeekend

Can anyone comment on the distribution of subjects on the actual exam? I would expect that most of the exam is internal medicine, but what has everyone seen in terms of the other subjects? Thanks!

after IM, for me it was Peds>OB>Psych=Surgery. And for biostats it was on average 1-2 questions per block.

Congrats guys. Our school does not require to clear step 1 before step 2 CK. I believe doing CK now is easier since I have clinical rotations but do you think being already done with step 1 helped you in CK study or score? or it is not related?

Originally Posted by stronghold

Congrats guys. Our school does not require to clear step 1 before step 2 CK. I believe doing CK now is easier since I have clinical rotations but do you think being already done with step 1 helped you in CK study or score? or it is not related?

Yes, definitely. When you're studying for 2ck, Step 1 material comes up all the time, but you can just dismiss it as "oh yeah, I already know that" instead of having to learn it. It also helps to have the Step 1 knowledge before you take Step 2, since understanding the anatomy/pathophysiology/pharmacology/etc will make it a LOT easier to learn the clinical aspects of a particular disease.

Originally Posted by IMnotgivingup!!

after IM, for me it was Peds>OB>Psych=Surgery. And for biostats it was on average 1-2 questions per block.

Very similar here.

I would switch OB/Gyn and Peds for my test, but both were extremely high yield. I also had a fair amount of immuno (deficiencies, AIDS, etc..)

Did you guys think the material covered in secrets and UW for OB is sufficient for the real thing?

My experience was very similar to Dissected's. Lots of OB and immunodeficiencies, very little surgery.