doing only world, nothing else

[eyeball01]

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IF I only do World questions as my studying will I be foe Step 2 CK

 

[OveractiveBrain]

Step 2 will always be your foe, whether or not you will be its foe is another story.

In general (despite some of the squawking that happens here in the forums), doing USMLE WOrld ONLY is a bad idea. If you were rocking all of the shelves, took great notes from the 18 different books you used for shelf prep, and have read those notes every weekend for the past month AND are using USMLE World Only for your "dedicated Step 2 studying," then sure.

If, like most people, you are entering a dedicated period of studying having totally forgot the difference between urge and overflow incontenince from your OB rotation or the Vaccine schedule from your Peds rotation, you will likely need something more.

The typical "i just want to do well, i dont really care what I get" (aka average, aka 230 this year) is to combine First Aid or Step Up and USMLE World. It is likely the you will undergo question burnout and want time to read something informational without engaging in the mental struggle of questions. Likewise, you will want a place for your notes to go. Why not used a book some one else has taken the time to write and to build an index for to help you take your notes, reading details about a disease you may not have thought of, only to better use the questions for reinforcing the reading youve done, opposed to wallowing laxidasically through the qbank?

General Strategy: (1) Read First Aid or Step Up in the first week. (2) Do 50-100 questions a day for 3 weeks, taking notes in your book and rereading it or parts of it on the weekend. (3) One week of taper or practice tests. (4) Ace the exam.

 

[laputan]

I really disagree.

I only wanted to pass and spent 2 weeks on UW, absolutely nothing else. Ended not even doing the ob-gyn questions. I was a little worried whether I would pass going into the test. Then found it to be really doable on test day.

If you're worried, take a practice NBME, you will find that you are already "passing" prior to any studying.

 

[silas2642]

I agree with the above poster-- all I did to study for step 2 was answer all the questions x1. I did pretty well on the shelf exams during third year and would add that if you were barely passing your shelf exams that you should probably consider using an additional source like first aid or something.

 

[Golding]

I don't think you're receiving very sound advice in this thread. UWorld is most definitely a must-do in preparation for the exam, but more likely than not you would be shooting yourself in the foot if you used it alone. You very well might be fortunate enough to be one of the people who does well just with UWorld, but I think it's important to recognize (especially with the skewed representation SDN seems to have), success by such a method is really the exception. It's not the norm.

 

[silas2642]

I don't think you're receiving very sound advice in this thread. UWorld is most definitely a must-do in preparation for the exam, but more likely than not you would be shooting yourself in the foot if you used it alone. You very well might be fortunate enough to be one of the people who does well just with UWorld, but I think it's important to recognize (especially with the skewed representation SDN seems to have), success by such a method is really the exception. It's not the norm.

Well, I'm sure that the OP knows to take my advice/experience with step 2 with a grain of salt-- the best thing to do would be to keep consulting with other students on the forum who have taken the exam and done well as well as fellow classmates.

The reason I focused only on UWorld is because that's what the interns and fellow fourth years advised me to do-- I had been told repeatedly to just finish UWorld, review the questions carefully (which I did-- including the questions I answered correctly), and that I should be set assuming that my shelf performances were okay.

 

[Golding]

Well, I'm sure that the OP knows to take my advice/experience with step 2 with a grain of salt-- the best thing to do would be to keep consulting with other students on the forum who have taken the exam and done well as well as fellow classmates.

The reason I focused only on UWorld is because that's what the interns and fellow fourth years advised me to do-- I had been told repeatedly to just finish UWorld, review the questions carefully (which I did-- including the questions I answered correctly), and that I should be set assuming that my shelf performances were okay.

By no means do I intend to put you on the defensive. Your experience was what it was, and I think it's exceptional that it worked out so well for you. UWorld is priority number one, and is never the wrong idea when in doubt as to what to do to prepare. But I've seen too many people underachieve because they heard that Step 2 is more easygoing. The shelf exams will certainly put students in a good spot for the CK, though. I agree.

 

[Pegasus22]

IF I only do World questions as my studying will I be foe Step 2 CK

It all just depends on your starting point. If you think you have large areas that you're uncomfortable with (like incontinence for the above poster) you'd be well off supplementing your UWorld studying with targeted reading from a more thorough review text.

Take a practice test. If you find that your score is below like a 220 (and you're weak in many large areas) then by all means pick out a review text or two and read through it cover to cover. Otherwise if your deficits are more patchy you could do what I did and do UWORLD questions to identify weak areas and then briefly (for maybe a half hour a day) read through material.

I used UWORLD for maybe 90% of my studying. I'll let you know in a week or two how it worked out.

 

[JDWflash44]

I don't think you're receiving very sound advice in this thread. UWorld is most definitely a must-do in preparation for the exam, but more likely than not you would be shooting yourself in the foot if you used it alone. You very well might be fortunate enough to be one of the people who does well just with UWorld, but I think it's important to recognize (especially with the skewed representation SDN seems to have), success by such a method is really the exception. It's not the norm.

Pretty much just did UWorld over 3.5 weeks and redid the questions that I got wrong in psych and OB/gyn and got 260+ so it certainly can be enough if you feel you have a good foundation. But I agree to use NBMEs to judge your progress, got 240 on NBME before starting to study, so was confident that it was all I needed. Hope this helps.

 

[Golding]

Pretty much just did UWorld over 3.5 weeks and redid the questions that I got wrong in psych and OB/gyn and got 260+ so it certainly can be enough if you feel you have a good foundation. But I agree to use NBMEs to judge your progress, got 240 on NBME before starting to study, so was confident that it was all I needed. Hope this helps.

Like I said, I don't doubt the possibility, but I do doubt the feasibility. Your success story is great to hear, but I believe it is more exceptional than it is typical. I'm not ready to advise the OP to expect great results from UWorld alone. There would be a serious risk of not succeeding, which would make his chances of moving forward that much more difficult.

 

[slowlybutshelly]

I just took step2ck yesterday. I was a repeat test taker. The last time took the exam was before they increased the number of questions from 42 to 44 each block, and added media and sequential (no going back) questions, and increased the passing score. So I was very nervous. I saw soooooo many clues from uworld. It seemed to me that if a person studied secrets,fa, or a review book, they would get the essentials. But during the test, I would see the essentials...and wonder..and then i would see a uworld clue and KNOW it was correct. So I came out of there wishing I would have just made notes and notes on uworld and done nothing else. and gone over just that. I think if a person does that with uworld, they will ROCK step2ck.

 

[nogolfinsnow]

You can definitely do just UWorld, especially if you've done decently (>80 at least) on all the shelf exams. I would highly recommend doing a practice test after 1 week or so of just doing World, and if you're anywhere near your target then another week or so of Qs and you should be good. Also, World gives you great breakdowns of what you're missing, so if you're awful at certain subjects you can break out a review text or go over the questions again. This test is not Step 1, you don't need to prepare like you did for step 1. I spent 1/3 the # of days studying compared to step 1 and got a higher score on Step 2.

 

[spaceshuttle]

I agree. Doing only World is perfectly fine. Like the others have said, if you have been doing well on most of your Shelf exams (80 or >), doing only world will easily prepare you.