How bad do you have to mess up to fail Step 2 CS?

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eastcoastdoc

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For US seniors, 97% of U.S. seniors pass.

How badly do you have to mess up to fail?

Reason I ask, is that I just took the test today and didn't feel too hot about it. I honestly prepared about 1 day for it. I felt okay about most of it, but I remember on one patient I think I missed the #1, obvious diagnosis. Just completely left it off the list.

Anyways, is there a ton of room for error on this test?

Also, all are items on the checklist worth the same? Is missing the major diagnosis going to hurt me much more than missing another diagnosis?

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I didn't feel great about CS when I took it and passed without a problem. I studied for more than a day though. If you were comfortable with your exam skills before the test and you did well on your school's OSCE exams I think you should be fine.

As far as how much room for error there is, I'm not sure what to tell you. People do fail it and it's more likely to be those who took it before they had prepared themselves. You have to pass all 3 components of cs to pass the exam but missing one diagnosis isn't in itself going to mean you failed the test. Best of luck.
 
Nobody knows how they score the exam, so any affirmative answer is pure conjecture.
 
not by much. i was borderline on the data gathering and questioning skills and I thought i did those perfectly. my patient note was all the way to the right with only 2 asterisks and stars (i'm going into rads). anyway, i studied 2.5 mos like crazy using FA and watching OPETA and did this during my ambulatory medicine/psych rotation where I was getting commendations from attendings and residents so I was way prepared and still, I almost freaking failed!!! thank god i didnt. onto residency :D
 
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