Best way to study for step 2 during 3 week dedicated without reusing UWorld?

[MedScat]

I just started my dedicated Step 2 study period and had the intention of doing a second pass of UWorld (which I finished throughout the year on rotations). One day in, I'm noticing that I remember many of the questions and I'm getting them right just because I recognize that it's the right answer. I still plan on doing UWorld but I'm not sure it' as effective if I'm remembering the answers. Any advice?

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[Redpancreas]

I just started my dedicated Step 2 study period and had the intention of doing a second pass of UWorld (which I finished throughout the year on rotations). One day in, I'm noticing that I remember many of the questions and I'm getting them right just because I recognize that it's the right answer. I still plan on doing UWorld but I'm not sure it' as effective if I'm remembering the answers. Any advice?

I call this UW burnout syndrome. My approach to this conundrum is a comprehensive video source over the 3 weeks. The best (and one of the only ones) is one you've heard of already (OnlineMedEd). Even if you think you've remembered it, you'll run into new things. It's a huge video library and 3 weeks is a reasonable amount of time to cover the videos at a comfortable, but not slow pace. I don't like his questions/flashcards/notes so just stick to the free videos.

100% think you should repeat UW no matter how much you remember. This impression is based off one day of questions. Keep going, maybe tomorrow you'll get a different impression and feel you remember nothing. You'll make connections between UW and the OME videos too and think of things differently. Organize UWorld into blocks around what you cover in OME.

I'd also find some new questions to keep your mind conditioned to seeing new material. If you need high quality Step 2 CK questions, other than UWorld I trust the NBME exams, UWSA #1/2. Not really sure about AMBOSS, USMLE Rx, and Kaplan. The more questions the better. I think @Phloston may have some opinions on what the best questions may be after using up UW, NBMEs, and UWSAs.

Lastly, make sure you cover biostats thoroughly. Write all the formulas and the sens/spec square out and remember which corner is A, B, C, and D. I know that sounds elementary-school-like but it will save time on the exam. You'll be suprised how many people get these basic biostats questions wrong on UW. Don't go crazy. To some extent, your board score is up to your test-taking ability.

Good luck!

 

[Phloston]

I just started my dedicated Step 2 study period and had the intention of doing a second pass of UWorld (which I finished throughout the year on rotations). One day in, I'm noticing that I remember many of the questions and I'm getting them right just because I recognize that it's the right answer. I still plan on doing UWorld but I'm not sure it' as effective if I'm remembering the answers. Any advice?

I'm assuming your designated prep is 4-8 weeks?

Memorize all of the Clinical Mastery Series subject-specific NBME forms (i.e., IM, FM, surg, etc.). Then memorize NBMEs 6-8 and offline NBME 4. That's the long story short. If you've already done the forms alongside rotations, then go back and actually memorize them.

UW rides on brand as gold standard but it's on the decline. The bank has exploded to >3,800 Qs of superfluousness.

A lot to talk about on the prep front.

 

[Redpancreas]

I'm assuming your designated prep is 4-8 weeks?

Memorize all of the Clinical Mastery Series subject-specific NBME forms (i.e., IM, FM, surg, etc.). Then memorize NBMEs 6-8 and offline NBME 4. That's the long story short. If you've already done the forms alongside rotations, then go back and actually memorize them.

UW rides on brand as gold standard but it's on the decline. The bank has exploded to >3,800 Qs of superfluousness.

A lot to talk about on the prep front.

Could you elaborate more on this? I would think more questions is a result of the higher focus on CK now. It's clear from your post history you're very high on the NBME forms which makes sense as they're the only USMLE-sponsored content available.

1.) Any testbanks that you think are doing a better job or on the upswing?
2.) Do you believe that memorization of these forms provides solid results? I feel whatever information I learn, there's always totally different stuff on the real deal.

 

[Phloston]

Could you elaborate more on this? I would think more questions is a result of the higher focus on CK now. It's clear from your post history you're very high on the NBME forms which makes sense as they're the only USMLE-sponsored content available.

1.) Any testbanks that you think are doing a better job or on the upswing?
2.) Do you believe that memorization of these forms provides solid results? I feel whatever information I learn, there's always totally different stuff on the real deal.

UW is on the decline I believe. It's about intent. They didn't expand the Qbank to 3800+ because that's helpful to students. They did it for themselves as an effort to try to drive out competition from, e.g., Amboss, Rx, etc.

People average at least two Qbanks during their prep nowadays. UW has always been the gold standard. Then students will pick a second Qbank. So UW thought, "Well if we just make our Qbank essentially two Qbanks in length, then people will just do ours." But the result is now it's too long/superfluous. They seem to be engaged in some deleterious runaway effect.

The focus needs to be on the NBMEs because those are the real exam, yes. For Step 1, the aim needs to be to memorize forms 20-30 (even though the online ones are 25-30). And that just scratches the surface truthfully. I've observed repeats from forms 6-18 on 20-30. The Qs are repeated everywhere. And certainly on the real exam.

For 2CK, the aim should be to memorize forms 4-8 + the Clinical Mastery Series subject-specific forms.

I see it with my students that memorizing the NBME Qs leads to best results. Think about the number of people worldwide who do UW 2-3x and still get mediocre scores, yet UW is still the gold standard. It's just branding and people blindly following.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

The focus needs to be on the NBMEs because those are the real exam, yes. For Step 1, the aim needs to be to memorize forms 20-30 (even though the online ones are 25-30). And that just scratches the surface truthfully. I've observed repeats from forms 6-18 on 20-30. The Qs are repeated everywhere. And certainly on the real exam.

For 2CK, the aim should be to memorize forms 4-8 + the Clinical Mastery Series subject-specific forms.

I see it with my students that memorizing the NBME Qs leads to best results. Think about the number of people worldwide who do UW 2-3x and still get mediocre scores, yet UW is still the gold standard. It's just branding and people blindly following.

This goes against common advice I've heard from people that the NBMEs can be almost entirely ignored. I didn't find them that useful for Step 1 and scored high, so curious why you're so intent on not only using them, but straight up memorizing them? I have never heard of that before.

 

[Redpancreas]

UW is on the decline I believe. It's about intent. They didn't expand the Qbank to 3800+ because that's helpful to students. They did it for themselves as an effort to try to drive out competition from, e.g., Amboss, Rx, etc.

People average at least two Qbanks during their prep nowadays. UW has always been the gold standard. Then students will pick a second Qbank. So UW thought, "Well if we just make our Qbank essentially two Qbanks in length, then people will just do ours." But the result is now it's too long/superfluous. They seem to be engaged in some deleterious runaway effect.

The focus needs to be on the NBMEs because those are the real exam, yes. For Step 1, the aim needs to be to memorize forms 20-30 (even though the online ones are 25-30). And that just scratches the surface truthfully. I've observed repeats from forms 6-18 on 20-30. The Qs are repeated everywhere. And certainly on the real exam.

For 2CK, the aim should be to memorize forms 4-8 + the Clinical Mastery Series subject-specific forms.

I see it with my students that memorizing the NBME Qs leads to best results. Think about the number of people worldwide who do UW 2-3x and still get mediocre scores, yet UW is still the gold standard. It's just branding and people blindly following.

Thanks for the insight!

 

[Phloston]

This goes against common advice I've heard from people that the NBMEs can be almost entirely ignored. I didn't find them that useful for Step 1 and scored high, so curious why you're so intent on not only using them, but straight up memorizing them? I have never heard of that before.

The NBMEs are the USMLE. Things are in transition. 25-30 were recently released. And 20-24 are not that old. The repeats across the exams are everywhere. I'd go into more detail about things showing up across NBMEs in relation to real exams but I don't want to break rules that way on a public forum. There are also repeat images with different vignettes.

 

[Redpancreas]

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The NBMEs are the USMLE. Things are in transition. 25-30 were recently released. And 20-24 are not that old. The repeats across the exams are everywhere. I'd go into more detail about things showing up across NBMEs in relation to real exams but I don't want to break rules that way on a public forum. There are also repeat images with different vignettes.

@Phloston , how do you know this for sure given you’ve taken the exam once? Self reporting from your students? No need to give examples.

 

[Welshman]

I've observed repeats from forms 6-18 on 20-30. The Qs are repeated everywhere. And certainly on the real exam.

Just FYI, the NBME has said about 25% of the questions on the new forms 25-30 are repeats from the previous forms.

Not to say there aren’t tons of repeat questions on the real deals though, definitely was the case for my shelf exams, wish I did more NBMEs back then

 

[Phloston]

see

@Phloston , how do you know this for sure given you’ve taken the exam once? Self reporting from your students? No need to give examples.

As I said above I'm not going to report real exam info here. There are "wow really?"-type specifics I can give though, yes.

 

[Phloston]

Just FYI, the NBME has said about 25% of the questions on the new forms 25-30 are repeats from the previous forms.

Not to say there aren’t tons of repeat questions on the real deals though, definitely was the case for my shelf exams, wish I did more NBMEs back then

The repeats translate over onto the real deal. It's also Qs as far back as the ancient NBMEs. Real exam Qs showing up on offline and current NBMEs, as well as repeat images with different vignettes.

 

[MedScat]

The repeats translate over onto the real deal. It's also Qs as far back as the ancient NBMEs. Real exam Qs showing up on offline and current NBMEs, as well as repeat images with different vignettes.

Ive heard that the NBME score isn't curved as nicely as the actual exam and seeing a significantly lower grade can really be a big self esteem blow so some people don't even do them. What do you think about this? Should we just ignore the score and use the NBMEs for content purposes only?

 

[ohmanwaddup]

Ive heard that the NBME score isn't curved as nicely as the actual exam and seeing a significantly lower grade can really be a big self esteem blow so some people don't even do them. What do you think about this? Should we just ignore the score and use the NBMEs for content purposes only?

I can attest to your first sentence. only one of my NBMEs for step 1 broke 220, and even then it was like 222. the rest were sub 214.

It wrecked me for most of dedicated and contributed a lot to my anxiety. was not predictive at all either, ended with a 231

 

[Phloston]

Ive heard that the NBME score isn't curved as nicely as the actual exam and seeing a significantly lower grade can really be a big self esteem blow so some people don't even do them. What do you think about this? Should we just ignore the score and use the NBMEs for content purposes only?

You don't want to use the newest NBMEs super early. Should be saved for final couple months. So at that point some sense of score prediction is fine. The offline forms should be used for content only.

 

[Phloston]

I can attest to your first sentence. only one of my NBMEs for step 1 broke 220, and even then it was like 222. the rest were sub 214.

It wrecked me for most of dedicated and contributed a lot to my anxiety. was not predictive at all either, ended with a 231

Can be tough dealing with NBMEs, but the best way to get the score up is to memorize all NBME forms.

 

[ohmanwaddup]

Can be tough dealing with NBMEs, but the best way to get the score up is to memorize all NBME forms.

I get what you are saying if there really are that many repeats, but it just seems like such an insane study strategy. If one of my friends told me they were doing this I would be pretty alarmed

 

[Phloston]

I get what you are saying if there really are that many repeats, but it just seems like such an insane study strategy. If one of my friends told me they were doing this I would be pretty alarmed

Things evolve. If someone said put all your money in crypto 6 months ago you'd have told them to stop spamming.

 

[Ganon]

Things evolve. If someone said put all your money in crypto 6 months ago you'd have told them to stop spamming.

I mean this with all due respect, but could your opinion be biased by the fact that you sell notes to the NBME forms as a tutor service?

Many of my friends scored >250 on step 2 using only UWorld and advised against using many NBME forms, finding UWSA2 to be far more predictive, and the explanations for UWorld questions to be far more comprehensive than most study tools.

 

[Redpancreas]

I mean this with all due respect, but could your opinion be biased by the fact that you sell notes to the NBME forms as a tutor service?

Many of my friends scored >250 on step 2 using only UWorld and advised against using many NBME forms, finding UWSA2 to be far more predictive, and the explanations for UWorld questions to be far more comprehensive than most study tools.

A lot of that is free content so he's not "selling", but I suppose it's one of his main forms of advertisement that indirectly leads students to buy his paid content (tutoring services). I will say that he's worked hella hard to put up a ton of free content. He's been focusing on tons of USMLE stuff and it's kind of his niche so I imagine he's an expert. I assume he gets his experience from his students who have taken the exam who he then asks to reproduce material or who he talks to since he has only taken the USMLE series once. However, the same can be said of UWorld in general. They aren't leaked any proprietary pools of actual Step questions and he is right that they have kind of built a name for themself in the testing industry. I agree their quality has stayed the same since Step 1. I benefited from Step 1 UW but then Step 2 CK was meh, and Step 3 wasn't that great at all.

My only recent experience has been with Step 3 and what I can say (n=1) is that the UWorld questions were not at all representative of what I saw on the actual exam. They helped a bit to review topics and helped me recognizes diseases quicker though. I don't know if the NBMEs were helpful for Step 3 though as I didn't use them. I will say the Mehlman notes for USMLE Step 3 were OK, but not helpful for what showed up on the exam possibly because Mehlman's focus is more on USMLE Step 2 CK and not Step 3.

 

[Phloston]

I mean this with all due respect, but could your opinion be biased by the fact that you sell notes to the NBME forms as a tutor service?

Many of my friends scored >250 on step 2 using only UWorld and advised against using many NBME forms, finding UWSA2 to be far more predictive, and the explanations for UWorld questions to be far more comprehensive than most study tools.

Literally zero related to that. I've been posting on this forum for 8 years about USMLE. And my notes are free by the way. Show us where I've ever sold notes. That's what I thought.

Re second part, this is common thing I hear, "My friend did just just FA and UW and scored 257." And my response is, "Right. And had your friend dissected out the NBME forums in earnest he/she would have scored 267 instead."

UW is on the decline. The NBMEs are on the rise. And they have explanations now as well.

 

[ohmanwaddup]

Literally zero related to that. I've been posting on this forum for 8 years about USMLE. And my notes are free by the way.

Re second part, this is common thing I hear, "My friend did just just FA and UW and scored 257." And my response is, "Right. And had your friend dissected out the NBME forums in earnest he/she would have scored 267 instead."

UW is on the decline. The NBMEs are on the rise. And they have explanations now as well.

They have explanations now? I don't remember that from step 1

 

[Phloston]

They have explanations now? I don't remember that from step 1

Forms 25-30 have explanations and answers highlighted. And they show all questions, not just ones you get wrong. They're doing this for 2CK forms and Clinical Mastery series as well.

 

[ohmanwaddup]

Forms 25-30 have explanations and answers highlighted. And they show all questions, not just ones you get wrong. They're doing this for 2CK forms and Clinical Mastery series as well for 2CK. Makes UW increasingly lower tier.

Huh, maybe I'll do 1-2 a week during dedicated then. my anki reviews are getting low enough it's certainly feasible. Whats a couple hundred more bucks at this point anyways

 

[MedScat]

Forms 25-30 have explanations and answers highlighted. And they show all questions, not just ones you get wrong. They're doing this for 2CK forms and Clinical Mastery series as well.

Do you have any insider scoop as to when the forms with answer explanations will be available for the Step 2 CK forms?

 

[Phloston]

Do you have any insider scoop as to when the forms with answer explanations will be available for the Step 2 CK forms?

I know for sure they have explanations on most of the subject-specific forms now. It's not insider scoop. The exams are online.

 

[MedScat]

I know for sure they have explanations on most of the subject-specific forms now. It's not insider scoop. The exams are online.

I meant the Step 2 CK forms not the subject specific. I checked the website they aren't there that's why i asked, thinking you might know. Thanks though!