for those who took step 2 - Did anyone feel this way?

[ozarka]

Hey -
i just took step 2 a few days ago and am slightly panicked/frustrated w/regard to how i did. i studied pretty hard, had a good average in usmle world (> 65%), did all the q's, etc. but a lot of the questions on the actual test seemed somewhat off the wall - random, bizarre, no real clear-cut answer. i would almost say some of the q's on the test seemed harder than the usmle world q's. i am honestly scared at the prospect of not passing, although i REALLY hope i'm just overanxious/overreacting. so my question is: did your initial impressions after the exam correlate with how you actually performed? is it sort of like step 1 where you could walk out feeling as though you failed and end up doing not-so-bad? (i sort of blocked the nightmare that was step 1 out of my mind, so have no idea if i thought this was better or worse...)

any thoughts are much appreciated. thank you!

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[watermen]

Hey -
i just took step 2 a few days ago and am slightly panicked/frustrated w/regard to how i did. i studied pretty hard, had a good average in usmle world (> 65%), did all the q's, etc. but a lot of the questions on the actual test seemed somewhat off the wall - random, bizarre, no real clear-cut answer. i would almost say some of the q's on the test seemed harder than the usmle world q's. i am honestly scared at the prospect of not passing, although i REALLY hope i'm just overanxious/overreacting. so my question is: did your initial impressions after the exam correlate with how you actually performed? is it sort of like step 1 where you could walk out feeling as though you failed and end up doing not-so-bad? (i sort of blocked the nightmare that was step 1 out of my mind, so have no idea if i thought this was better or worse...)

any thoughts are much appreciated. thank you!

I always feel this way after all my shelfs.

 

[MeowMix]

I spent 3 weeks petrified that I failed, and my UW scores were not nearly as good as yours. I had so many questions where I had no idea and had to guess, and so many where I was just too tired to think clearly, or I didn't really care any more. Up until the moment I opened the score report, I was still convinced that I would have to retake. I passed.

 

[JulianCrane]

How long did you all study for the exam and what did you use?

 

[radiocures]

the short answer to your question is yes. i believe most honest individuals feel this way after taking step 1 and step 2 ck. step 1 questions were obscure to me than the step 2 ck were, but i do agree with you there were several times i couldn't decide between two answers (took ck yesterday). i chose a prostate biopsy 3 times, which is a little unnerving along the lines of picking "d" five times in a row on a shelf exam, but oh well. as i say, you're not alone.

 

[ozarka]

hey guys - thanks for the words of encouragement. i had really wanted to raise my step 1 score and tried to put in some honest studying, and it's jus disappointing that i didn't walk out of there feeling so good about it. 🙁 But anyway, there's no point in panicking now i suppose, as it's over, but man, that was one frustrating exam...i hate the fact that you have to pick ONE answer where in reality you would be doing multiple things at once, obviously...and the options are so non-satisfying. (don't even get me started on the ethics questions - %&*((& what physician in her right mind TALKS like that??). i also checked out the usmle world score correlation thread and there are a lot of people who seemed to feel the same way as I did, and still do well, which is encouraging! Anyway, I will post my scores and correlations there when I get my results back as well. until then - i'm going to chill on my away rotation on the beach 🙂

 

[MeowMix]

Oh yes, the ethics questions. I had at least 3 where there was absolutely no single correct answer. They were horrific situations where the next step depended very much on the social situation, patient preference, etc.

 

[amrmd]

Man!!! I just took Step 2 CK a while ago and Im telling you...IT WAS HARD. There were times when i had just enough time to read and answer the last few questions without thinking.

USMLE World gave a bit help, but as a whole, it just gave a bit of help. In all honesty, I dont think i even passed the exams.

But good news or bad news ...I have to move on...Sigh

 

[JulianCrane]

What were you guys' study schedules like? I'm just wondering how I'm supposed to study for this exam while taking electives. Grrr . . .

 

[manning18]

It's common to walk out of any NBME-authored exam thinking one did poorly (or even failed). It sounded like you were well-prepared (considering your UW scores), so you should just relax and wait for your scores. FYI, scores are released on Wednesdays only. Yours should be released this coming Wed or the Wed after that.

 

[icare4u]

it only takes 2 weeks to get the results for the ck? I thought it took much longer. I'm thinking I should reschedule mine. I took the NBME today and scored a 184...ughhh. I had been doing world for about a week and scoring between 55 and 64%, so was actually hoping to do a little bit better. I'm really nervous, b/c I only have two weeks left to study...This stress is just KILLING me! I've got to have a good score, my step 1 was pretty dismal, a 192. Anybody got any advice?

 

[manning18]

The Step 2 CK scores should be released within 3-5 weeks. It might be more towards the 5 weeks now, since there are a lot of Step 1 exams to score as well. I have heard of people receiving Step 2 CK scores in the mail within 3 weeks. I meant that the OP who took Step 2 CK 'a few days' before 6-28 may have his/her scores released this coming Wed (7-18) or the Wed after that.
Icare: you seem to be in reasonable standing at this stage. You should keep in mind that it's fairly common for people to score much higher on Step 2 CK than their NBME exams predict. It seems that the exams tend to underpredict scores mainly on the low side (this is just an unscientific conclusion I made from reading various forums). You can use UW and NBME to gauge where you are weak and focus your studying accordingly. How 'good' of a score are you looking for?

 

[icare4u]

Well, that's encouraging. I guess I'll just stay the course for another week and see how it looks then. 😕 I don't know if you can reschedule this close to the exam date...

 

[amrmd]

dont be depressed with how i felt when i took it yesterday. It may not be the opinion of the majority. I consider myself as an average to below average student. When I do my readings, I always need to read it all over again before i can understand it. So my frustrations may not be the same level as yours will be in the coming weeks.

Always look on the positive side. Im just grateful Im done with it ....FOR NOW

 

[icare4u]

I don't know that I'm going to take the NBME again...just wanted some input. There were some great questions/answers, and I looked forward to seeing the reasoning behind them, but at the end, it's just "184", plump!!!!!
Well, that's really helpful! All it did was leave me with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, and took me away from time I could have been doing questions on USWorld where I could get the answers and the reasoning behind them.
Anybody else's thoughts on this?
Also, I'm also reading FA, but get this, I would see the question and think, "boy, I just studied that in FA," but I COULDN'T REMEMBER it, and I was able to remember what I had done in World. What do you think about just doing World questions alone? Really running out of time here!!! I was thinking I seem to get more out of World, and it might be better to get through all the questions, and maybe do them again if I have time left...will I miss out on a lot if I do that?