Official Compiled Step 2 Experiences

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Pox in a box

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Official Compiled Step 2 Experiences...

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Took it today...

Studied 3 days. Took me about 5.5 hours to take it. Worked 4 blocks, took a 10 minute break, and worked 4 blocks. I felt the questions on average were longer than the Step 1 but right on par with all the NBME clerkship shelf exams. For instance, internal med and psychiatry questions were freaking long, but surgery and pediatrics were comparatively short.

Breakdown on my exam:
20% Internal Medicine
20% Family/Ambulatory/Preventative
20% Surgery
10% Pediatrics
10% Obstetrics
10% Gynecology
10% Psychiatry

..more or less

Out of 368 questions, I felt maybe 15-20 of them dealt with dermatology, 10-15 dealt with ophthalmology, 5-10 dealt with biostats and experiment/literature evaluation. Probably had ~5 questions with actual color pictures. ~5 more images dealing with xrays/cts/mris/angios/etc. ~2 questions involving an ECG of some sort. 2-3 questions taken from the Step 1 (not literally, but in other words, they dealt with basic science stuff like microbiological processes or biochem)

Difficulty fluctuated with each block. My first two were pretty easy, third block was near impossible, fifth block was filled almost solely with page-long patient presentations or labs. Some questions would give you the initial patient presentation in the first sentence, then proceed to fill you in on their entire history leading up to the current presentation, then provide you with the entire history relating to the present, then give you labs, and then ask some question that was either incredibly simple or impossibly hard. Bleh. Rest of the blocks were fine.

Know how to diagnose everything, know what to order initially to diagnose things, know how to initially manage things, and know how to follow-up manage the same things. The more normal lab values you know, the better off you'll be. There are STILL values given in the occasional question that you will not be able to look up the normal for (because they didn't include it with the other lab references)

Common things are common. If nearly everyone in our wonderful society has diseases x, y, and z, what diseases do you think nearly everyone in the Step2's questions are going to have?

Lots of questions where they would give you a patient with a certain ethic background, his weekend hobby, his current meds, his PMH, and his travel history and then ask you to pick the one that is most likely causing his current complaint. Sigh, the problem solving is fun for the first few questions, then it gets really old.

Tons of questions dealing with patients visiting the ER. I cannot stress this enough. Or, if they aren't visiting the ER primarily, they're returning to the ER because some ******* treated them incorrectly a week prior.


Content emphasis:
Int Med (cardio, gastro, pulmo, renal all equally represented)
Surgery (trauma and abdominal complaints)
Pediatrics (congenital problems, infections)
OB (nothing surprising here, identical in quality to OB/Gyn shelf)
Gyn (STDs duh, adult gyn was big)

Books/Q's used to prepare:
Prescription for the Boards Step 2
USMLE Secrets Step 2
Released questions on the NBME site: 123/138

Didn't use the NBME assessment tests this time around, mainly because a)Step 1 was more important and b) performed better on the related clerkship NBME shelf exams


Overall, longer but easier than Step 1. Certainly needed less time to study for. Unlike Step 1, a lot of this junk you'll have already learned from your "educational experience" in the hospital and most of it is logical and relevant.
 
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