Going crazy...need help!!!

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aeb

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Hi. I am an IMG planning to take Step 2 ck on dec 20. I took the Step 1 in Oct 2008 and got 184/74 failed, by one miserable point. I graduated from med school last june and thats why I planned to take the step 2ck first. I took the usmleworld SA right after I finished the uworld the first time and got 52% on 2 blocks which I think is on the border line for passing. I freaked out after seeing the same % from the first 2 blocks and I stopped and rescheduled my test that was scheduled for dec 7. I was super nervous when I did these 2 blocks. The thing is, I am on my last days and have been studying since August, did Doctors in training and finished it on october. Now Usmleworld 2nd time 66% average, sometimes I hit over 70% this second time, timed, unused, but sometimes I can remember some of the q's, to what I call pseudocheating. I do from 1-2 blocks a day and I read the explanations and I have completed 45% of the questions this second time. I also take some time to review the step up. Average 8 hrs per day, somedays even 12hrs, and some days around 4 hrs. The thing is, Im pretty exhausted now and I barely feel confident about taking this test. I don't want to fail. What do you guys think I can do? I am planning to take nbme form 4 this sunday and see how I do cuz I just freaked out while doing the Uworld SA and I dont think it reflects my real performance. Should I keep doing just Uworld q's? should I read my notes and review everything? OR should I do both? How much time do you think I should spend studying during these days. I know I need to do my last effort but I am mentally and physically exhausted. I also wouldnt like to postpone my exam...Please, any help or support will be really appreciated. Thank u.

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Please, somebody, help.
It sounds like a lot of your problems revolve around anxiety getting the best of you, right now. Your nervousness is understandable given your misfortune in the previous Step, but I think you need to find ways to quell your stress while you study.

You're doing the right moves by doing UWorld x2. UWorld will invariably give blocks that make you feel incompetent. I would go down to 43-47% randomly sometimes. The score gives some impression of where your headed, but more important than that is the content. Focus on identifying the types of questions you keep missing, and work on making sure you identify them whenever they come up again. Covering those holes will serve you well.

But priority number one is to take a deep breath, chill, go through the endurance requirements of CK by doing many blocks each day... You will feel ready. And that's majorly important.
 
Thanks for replying. Yeah, I know that I am dealing with a level of anxiety that I have never experienced before. I am working on that psychologically. I am now taking 1/4 of a capsule of inderall to calm myself a bit when these episodes come. I have been working really hard on usmleworld, doing 2 blocks per day and reading the answers, it usually takes me the whole day by doing so many q's and reviewing them and sometimes I feel that I should read my book and notes and review them. However, it's been impossible for me to do more than 2 blocks per day and do anything else like reviewing my notes from DIT and step up. Do you think I should cut down to 1 block per day and review my notes or should I keep doing 2 blocks per day?
 
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When an athlete trains for a fight, competition, or race, they spend 6 or more hard core weeks, drilling their bodies into the ground, suffering daily, barely giving themselves time to recover. This builds their endurance, their strength, and their skill in ways that are not possible for most people.

The week or so before the fight, the athlete tapers. Their workouts become "easy," still maintaining a grueling pace, but giving the body a chance to rest, to recooperate. That way, on competition day, all the muscles are rested, all fatigue annhilated.

For YOU, my friend, with the exam on Dec 20th, you need to taper. Doing questions is not useful when you fail to train the way you will be testing. Doing 80 questions a day and reading the entire explanation is not useful with the exam so close. You should be doing 250-300 questions a day, practicing endurance, not learning new knowledge.

Do MORE questions per day, but do not focus on explanations. You will be sitting for 364 questions come test day. You have 9 hrs. you should be preparing for that, not learning new information
 
I agree with u overactivebrain. I can see while I am doing Uworld q that i get some q's wrong by simply not reading a key point or lab from the question. I don't have problem finishing q's on time on uworld, but i know q's are longer on the real test and that's what I have to work on, reading fast w/o skipping key points from the question. I took nbme form 4 today, I got 380/202. I am not going to risk it for passing or not, so I am going to take one month and do 200-300 q's a day and get that endurance. I am not ready as I want to be yet. You are totally right my friend. I keep making same stupid mistakes by not reading and interpreting the question the way it is supposed to. I also noticed that I didn't do that well on Ob/gyn. I really need to work on that. I think that any weak area can do more harm to your score than what you could imagine. I think I'll be doing some q's from this section and work on them. Thank u both overactivebrain and golding for replying. really.
 
I think 1 month of 200-300 Q per day is overkill.

Have you learned all the material yet?

Most of the answers to questions on step 2 for me came from learning during my 3rd year rotations.

How did you do on your rotations? Did you every take a shelf exam?

Are you using any other study resources other than Uworld?

I took 2 weeks to do nothing but study and do small amounts of practice questions.

Go through each subject spending the most time on your weakest subjects. The goal is to understand the material well enough to be able to apply what you know to get the tricky questions correct.

What resources are you using?


As the test gets closer (last week or so) then i would recommend 200-300 q's ever other day. Then a day completely off right before.


Best of luck to you! I think that re-taking step 1 is really going to suck. You still have a pretty big hurdle ahead of you even after passing step 2ck
 
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