BOTH Class of 2018 Study Thread

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ortnakas

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A lot of us loved our study thread for Step 1, so why not recreate it for Step 2?

I know we won't be thinking hardcore about USMLE/COMLEX until next spring/summer, but figured we could use this for strategizing now, and for shelf exams too.

Paging: @W19 @gobigorgohome22 @Entadus @Ibn Alnafis MD @AlgernonMed @TheShaker @Mad Jack @NontradCA

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Just took a UWSA (first practice test for step 2) and got a 254. But my worst subject was surgery which makes sense cause I've barely studied it (haven't taken the shelf yet).
Pretty much finished my first pass of uworld at 69%. Step 1 was a 250 so my goal is like 260+.
Step 2 scheduled in 8 days... not sure if I should delay until mid June.


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Just took a UWSA (first practice test for step 2) and got a 254. But my worst subject was surgery which makes sense cause I've barely studied it (haven't taken the shelf yet).
Pretty much finished my first pass of uworld at 69%. Step 1 was a 250 so my goal is like 260+.
Step 2 scheduled in 8 days... not sure if I should delay until mid June.


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I would delay because that might put you on a better footing for that 260+ ... Good job on your first practice test!
 
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Just took a UWSA (first practice test for step 2) and got a 254. But my worst subject was surgery which makes sense cause I've barely studied it (haven't taken the shelf yet).
Pretty much finished my first pass of uworld at 69%. Step 1 was a 250 so my goal is like 260+.
Step 2 scheduled in 8 days... not sure if I should delay until mid June.


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What are you going in to?
 
I keep flip flopping on delaying... feeling really great finishing up my last few uworld blocks and feel like I'm on the upward rise. I also don't feel comfortable with some things but I've got 7 days to finish up....
 
I keep flip flopping on delaying... feeling really great finishing up my last few uworld blocks and feel like I'm on the upward rise. I also don't feel comfortable with some things but I've got 7 days to finish up....
You are doing great. I think you should go for it. Remember, there's a point after which the return diminishes. However, if you feel you need more time to hone in some topics, then by all means postpone.
 
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I'd keep your date. Point of deminishing returns, as the above user pointed out. Plus you could be doing an away rotation in June!

I still think you can easily hit 260, but I also don't think 255 vs 260 is going to matter in the EM world (this is coming from a fellow EM applicant with similar goals for step 2).

If your heart is set on the 260+, and you feel energized enough to postpone, then go for it. Postponing until June seems like way too long though.
 
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Just took a UWSA (first practice test for step 2) and got a 254. But my worst subject was surgery which makes sense cause I've barely studied it (haven't taken the shelf yet).
Pretty much finished my first pass of uworld at 69%. Step 1 was a 250 so my goal is like 260+.
Step 2 scheduled in 8 days... not sure if I should delay until mid June.


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Do a NBME
 
I'd keep your date. Point of deminishing returns, as the above user pointed out. Plus you could be doing an away rotation in June!

I still think you can easily hit 260, but I also don't think 255 vs 260 is going to matter in the EM world (this is coming from a fellow EM applicant with similar goals for step 2).

If your heart is set on the 260+, and you feel energized enough to postpone, then go for it. Postponing until June seems like way too long though.

Thank you. Yeah 250 vs 260 probably won't matter for applications. Plus my 250 will probably be just fine for getting interviews and could release CK later.
I'm on family May-June and all the dates on the weekends are full and have been so earliest to take would be June 19.


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Thank you. Yeah 250 vs 260 probably won't matter for applications. Plus my 250 will probably be just fine for getting interviews and could release CK later.
I'm on family May-June and all the dates on the weekends are full and have been so earliest to take would be June 19.


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Ahh gotcha! I'm sure you'll kill is regardless! See yah on the interview trail!
 
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Did an "incorrect only" block on UW today and got demoralized. Apparently I didn't learn enough my first pass.
 
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Same, doing incorrects. It's so irritating when I get the questions wrong again because I couldn't shut down the part of my brain that keeps trying to remember what the right answer was instead of going with the answer I know should be correct.
 
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When I redo qs, I sometimes pick an answer choice different from the one I know it's correct because i feel I had missed that question on my first pass. Sucks.
 
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Well crap... NBME 7 is a 235. I've been searching the 2016 thread and someone got a 244 on it 4 days prior to taking step 2 where they got a 265.


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Well crap... NBME 7 is a 235. I've been searching the 2016 thread and someone got a 244 on it 4 days prior to taking step 2 where they got a 265.


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I did a bunch of digging before deciding which NBME to take as my baseline, and 7 is known to underpredict in pretty much everyone. I'd trust your UWSA score; from what I've seen, it correlates the best.
 
Same, doing incorrects. It's so irritating when I get the questions wrong again because I couldn't shut down the part of my brain that keeps trying to remember what the right answer was instead of going with the answer I know should be correct.

Oh man, I hate that. It's like a mind game in an already pretty convoluted exam.

Side note, there seems to be a running trend with my incorrects - they are all long as ****.
 
so i just did a uworld question thats made me realise how confused i am with peads...

baby growing consistently in 25 percentile since birth is a concern right? or is it ok as long as they dont drop percentiles?
 
so i just did a uworld question thats made me realise how confused i am with peads...

baby growing consistently in 25 percentile since birth is a concern right? or is it ok as long as they dont drop percentiles?
It's all about the growth curves for those questions, if they are consistently 25th percentile, that means they are growing normally, they are just small (probably have small parents, genetics, etc.). It becomes a concern when they drop percentiles, like if they go from 25th to 15th, that's an issue.

There's tons of caveats I'm sure, but in general if they are consistently at a certain percentile at repeated visits, not really anything to be concerned about.
 
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Not too bad. Think of this score ad your floor and worse case scenario. You will score better on the real deal
 
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It's all about the growth curves for those questions, if they are consistently 25th percentile, that means they are growing normally, they are just small (probably have small parents, genetics, etc.). It becomes a concern when they drop percentiles, like if they go from 25th to 15th, that's an issue.

There's tons of caveats I'm sure, but in general if they are consistently at a certain percentile at repeated visits, not really anything to be concerned about.
thanks, i suspected as much after seeing I got it wrong but its nice to get some confirmation.

It feels like people have gotten smarter since step 1 looking at the uworld averages on questions. I dont find the questions to be much different in difficulty just less hypotheticals
 
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Question: what role does RAIU play in working up symptomatic hyperthyroidism, if at all? I know it delineates hot from cold nodules, so can be used with equivocal FNA. But SUTM doesn't mention RAIU in work-up of hyperthyroidism, yet OMED does (I assume to ddx between different types of etiologies).
 
I think FNA is only done in hypothyroidism. In hyperthyroidism, RAIU is done to differentiate between graves (diffuse), toxic adenoma (single nodule), multinodular goiter, or thyroiditis (low uptake).
 
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So since I have a bunch of homework (write a case report and finish a presentation) to do this weekend plus I'm working all day Sunday I've decided to just reschedule for 6/19. Less stress and can go through UWorld a second time.


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I believe each question is worth a different amount of points. Back when I took it my 3 digit score was lower than someone who got more questions wrong than me.

Hmmmm....weird. I feel like my score report and percent correct line up alright, but the percentile definitely doesn't. Was using this test to guage whether or not to move up my test date, and feel a little leary making that decision with the big discrepancy.
 
Hey guys was lurking and was wondering what you all thought? Wanted to take a practice test as I am done with most of my core rotations and took NBME 4 and got a 233. Am not planning to take the test for 6-8 weeks or so, but was a bit disappointed as I expected to be higher based off of my shelf scores. However, after seeing that MackandBlues got a 254 on the UWSA with a 77% correct, I am curious whether NBME 4 underpredicts? I got 27 wrong for a percent of 85% and that correlated to a 233. Thanks!
 
Hey guys was lurking and was wondering what you all thought? Wanted to take a practice test as I am done with most of my core rotations and took NBME 4 and got a 233. Am not planning to take the test for 6-8 weeks or so, but was a bit disappointed as I expected to be higher based off of my shelf scores. However, after seeing that MackandBlues got a 254 on the UWSA with a 77% correct, I am curious whether NBME 4 underpredicts? I got 27 wrong for a percent of 85% and that correlated to a 233. Thanks!

I'm not sure about NBME 4, but you can browse through the Step 2 experiences thread to get an idea. I know for step 1 that you could miss a lot more on the UWSA and still get a really high score; thats just the way they are graded. I think it is the same for step 2. I've taken NBME 7 and UWSA. I scored 4% higher, but 15 points lower on the NBME vs. UWSA
 
Hey guys was lurking and was wondering what you all thought? Wanted to take a practice test as I am done with most of my core rotations and took NBME 4 and got a 233. Am not planning to take the test for 6-8 weeks or so, but was a bit disappointed as I expected to be higher based off of my shelf scores. However, after seeing that MackandBlues got a 254 on the UWSA with a 77% correct, I am curious whether NBME 4 underpredicts? I got 27 wrong for a percent of 85% and that correlated to a 233. Thanks!

I also took NBME 7 a few days later and got a 235 with 79% correct


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is there an easy way to differentiate between the systemic mycosis infections without knowing your geography really well? or is that the only way?

Theres so much overlap (unless you're lucky enough that they mention birds/bats or earthquakes/deserts )
 
is there an easy way to differentiate between the systemic mycosis infections without knowing your geography really well? or is that the only way?

Theres so much overlap (unless you're lucky enough that they mention birds/bats or earthquakes/deserts )

I divide them by college football conferences. Usually the question stem will give an obvious state they're in


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Feeling confident after NBME 4 I did my incorrects on uworld and took UWSA1... let's just say 10 questions in my brain started screaming abort mission, data not found! God that was awful
 
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