advice for the last 2 weeks of studying?

[spitfire5454]

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so im coming down the home stretch. 2 weeks till my test date. Ive done ALOT of UW, read step up to step 2 and crush. I took NBME 2 yesterday and got a 390, which is great b/c its passing (way up from form 1), but its still a little to close to comfort. ill take form 3 in 13 days. So at this point, do you guys have any advice for that last 2 weeks? i think im past the point of adding new reading material. should i be doing more questions or more reviewing my texts, or a little of both? Ive been doing 100 uw q's/day along with reading about 50-100 pages/day. Im thinking about maybe 200qs/day and cutting back on the reading a little. what do you think? Thanks

 

[Babycatcher2B]

How did you like Step Up to Step 2? And how long did it take you to read it?

 

[EternalMD]

you should figure out whether you are learning from the questions or just doing them because people say you should do them. If you tend to just gloss over the explanation for the questions, doing more won't help you all that much. With 2 weeks left, i would say just find one of the books you like and stick to it. You'll retain more from the repetition of one book than you will by reading the 2 (i think crush might be better of the two but haven't used step up to step 2ck).

150q's a day is not a bad pace either. that's 3hrs of just question time with lets say a conservative 2hrs to review it? leaves u with a few hrs in the day to read the material that you are weaker on.

 

[spitfire5454]

thanks for the replys. I couldnt find much a review for step up to step 2, but it was all i had at the time so i read it. i thought it was a good overview but far from complete. it took me a while to read it. lots of tables. i liked crush a lot better. it was far easier to read for me. took me about 4 days. however i thought crush was missing a lot of stuff too and wasnt that detailed. All in all, i think that both of them together make a great review. They both sort of fill in what other lacks.

as far as me doing more questions, im doing them because people on here say to go through UW as many times as possible b/c its gold for the step 2. Im not using UW as an assesment, im using it as a learning tool. After seeing stuff over and over again, the concepts start to stick.

 

[relaxedMD]

what are you reading a 100 pages of a day? I think a lighter quicker high yield read would be Secrets down the home stretch. Its a basic q and a form. Definitely dont burden yourself with textbooks anymore. Its all about how many questions you can get done between now and the day before the exam. The more you see in question form, the more comfortable you will be reading through the randomness that is the Step 2!
good luck

 

[Dr McSteamy]

what are you reading a 100 pages of a day? I think a lighter quicker high yield read would be Secrets down the home stretch. Its a basic q and a form. Definitely dont burden yourself with textbooks anymore. Its all about how many questions you can get done between now and the day before the exam. The more you see in question form, the more comfortable you will be reading through the randomness that is the Step 2!
good luck

so forget that you have a huge lack of knowledge, and just pick up secrets and do questions?
these things will save a weak student?

I have 7 weeks left, and I don't think reading fat reviewbooks is efficient either. I can't patch the holes in my knowledge in just 7 weeks.

then again, I'm afraid Secrets is not enough.
Most people who do well on Step 2 are strong students who have read extensively during 3rd year. Secrets can't be the magic book.

 

[relaxedMD]

I think you have plenty of time. My scores are very nearly a direct result of both secrets books. I read them during second and third years of school. When I went back to review for step 2 I chose Crush as my new study aide and Secrets as an old one. I read through those in a couple of weeks. Get comfortable flipping to any page and answering a question "on the fly."
That being said.... if you are really really weak in any particular subject you may want to devote a few nights of reading to the Step 2 KAPLAN NOTES. They are thorough. But plz dont read the whole set!
In the end it depends on how many questions you can get through comfortably on UW. GL

 

[blackboxmd]

I think last 2 weeks are to be used practicing cases, watching some videos and timed encounters including patient notes. I like watching videos and I recently found a forum that has a lot of free videos posted at usmlesource in the video forum. Hope that helps.