miserable new step 2 CK experience

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oho

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I am not the kind of person who joins forums. So the fact I am doing it right now is because I am really desperate and Im only looking for honesty no matter how harsh it might sound to my ears, as at this point, I guess nothing could go worse than how it already is for me.

I made the worst decision Ive ever made in my entire life yesterday.. I studied for step 2 ck for around 4 months, almost 5.. I didnt do so good on step1 (229) so I was really aiming to score as high as possible on step 2.

I couldnt sleep at all the night before the exam, even tho i took a short acting benzo (prescribed) and 2 melatonins and got anxious after seeing they were not having any effect on me, and instead cried all night (lot of things going on in my life right now).. I finally said to myself at 5 am in the morning that i was going to cancel it.. Once I said this to myself, i felt asleep. I woke up at 7 am and decided to go take it... On my my way there, I was feeling tired but got advice from ppl that I could do it and so on...

I was already tired and started to freak out when I noticed questions were longer than ever, longer than uworld and kaplan q bank all together... Sleep deprivation+ anxiety that not even a benzo could get rid of + new crazy step 2 ck format = the recipe for disaster obviously.

I couldn't finish most blocks... Each was 44-47 qs long... Im sure I finished just one block completely and most prob it was the 44 q one. I have poor recall on the type of questions and my answers as I was obviously too stressed after seeing I couldnt think properly and that I wasnt being able to manage time. I thought about canceling but I didn't bc i was afraid on a how an incomplete attempt would look on my transcript. Now I regret I didn't cancel it.. I was praying hard all the way through it.. but I dont know if my prayings were reaching God or if they are going to have any effect at all as I didn't complete most blocks. I think I missed about 35-40 qs in total + the ones I had wrong. The last block was only 28qs long and even that took me the whole hour, i was feeling like my head was about to explode by that point already.. To conclude I either failed or score very low and I can't tell what is worse... I basically want to stop living right now.

Is my journey over? bc on top of this nightmare, I am an IMG

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What's done is done! All you can do now is wait for the score. You should know in three weeks. I think majority of the people pass especially because you studied for that long (even with the anxiety and lack of sleep on test day). Other than that try to be calm. If you don't get the score you wanted that means you will have to make yourself stand out in other ways. It would suck because you put in all that work but life is not fair. Be strong and get yourself in the mindset, "if this doesn't work out the way I need it to, then I'll deal with it and try to find another way."
 
Need a little more info:
Did you take NBMEs or UWSA?
UW %

Saying your journey is over is very premature. Your Step I score is very good. Above average for US and Canadian grads. I am pretty sure when you get your score you will be fairly surprised. Good Luck!!!
 
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I had a nearly identical experience. Studied my butt off, put way too much pressure on myself, took an ambien in anticipation of sleep problems, and I didn't sleep for even a second. I felt a combination of severe fatigue and intoxication from the ambien.

I went to the testing center with complete intention of canceling the test, but I couldn't get another appt for a couple weeks so I bit the bullet. I was fully convinced that I failed it afterwards, for 5 weeks I was miserable. When I got my score back it was 15 points better than my goal, and as high as my best NBME.

You're gonna feel like crap and probably not let yourself get hopeful but just keep in mind that in actuality you have no idea how you did. Keep your head up.
 
Remember - they don't make these tests so you feel good afterwards!

Try not to torture yourself all the way to the day of score reporting - like I did. I was in the group of score delay. I waited a month and a half and was so depressed and distraught, it was horrible - friends and family had NEVER seen me so down. The only thing that calmed me down after the exam was to do USMLE World questions in detail and study. You will remember the types of questions and the types of detail they tend to ask. It took my mind off of failing and it will also provide you with something productive to do in case you did not pass. You'll hit the ground running the day you get your score back.

If you didn't pass it is NOT the end of the world. Think about what you did wrong and study smarter. SDN is just that, a network of people here to help each other.

It sounds like you have pretty severe test anxiety like I do so I did all UW questions 3 times to get my timing down and to get my brain to relax during the real thing. Notice Tiger Woods has the same routine every time before hitting the ball. He does this so his brain will relax. My routine was to highlight the last sentence (the actual question they were asking), glance over answer choices very quickly, and THEN read the question stem.

I know you shouldn't but I marked all the drug ad questions and came back to them if I had time. In my opinion, they are time wasters. They don't count any more than any other question so don't stress about them. For all other questions I did them from the bottom question up - because at my testing facility you couldn't see the last question when looking at the list (had to scroll down to see it). I hate that.

At lunch I could barely eat because I was hating life so much. A good friend texted me and said, "Hang in there. Forget what you did this morning and move on." Every block is a new play and is a chance to do well. Forget the last one and move on or you'll blow the next play.

When do you get your score?
 
Remember - they don't make these tests so you feel good afterwards!

Try not to torture yourself all the way to the day of score reporting - like I did. I was in the group of score delay. I waited a month and a half and was so depressed and distraught, it was horrible - friends and family had NEVER seen me so down. The only thing that calmed me down after the exam was to do USMLE World questions in detail and study. You will remember the types of questions and the types of detail they tend to ask. It took my mind off of failing and it will also provide you with something productive to do in case you did not pass. You'll hit the ground running the day you get your score back.

If you didn't pass it is NOT the end of the world. Think about what you did wrong and study smarter. SDN is just that, a network of people here to help each other.

It sounds like you have pretty severe test anxiety like I do so I did all UW questions 3 times to get my timing down and to get my brain to relax during the real thing. Notice Tiger Woods has the same routine every time before hitting the ball. He does this so his brain will relax. My routine was to highlight the last sentence (the actual question they were asking), glance over answer choices very quickly, and THEN read the question stem.

I know you shouldn't but I marked all the drug ad questions and came back to them if I had time. In my opinion, they are time wasters. They don't count any more than any other question so don't stress about them. For all other questions I did them from the bottom question up - because at my testing facility you couldn't see the last question when looking at the list (had to scroll down to see it). I hate that.

At lunch I could barely eat because I was hating life so much. A good friend texted me and said, "Hang in there. Forget what you did this morning and move on." Every block is a new play and is a chance to do well. Forget the last one and move on or you'll blow the next play.

When do you get your score?
Well said.
You certainly have REAL good friend.
 
Need a little more info:
Did you take NBMEs or UWSA?
UW %

Saying your journey is over is very premature. Your Step I score is very good. Above average for US and Canadian grads. I am pretty sure when you get your score you will be fairly surprised. Good Luck!!!

I got 580 in the only NBME I took which was form 4 and I took it like a month before I took the actual test.. UW % 78... And even though I know they sound pretty fair scores, I feel UW and NBME don't correlate with the new ck crazy format really... I don't know if it was bc of my frustration while taking the test, but I do feel that the questions were so vague and way too much info for what they were asking despite I was reading the stem before skimming the whole question... And what really frightens me, is the amount of questions I missed psychlover :(
 
I had a nearly identical experience. Studied my butt off, put way too much pressure on myself, took an ambien in anticipation of sleep problems, and I didn't sleep for even a second. I felt a combination of severe fatigue and intoxication from the ambien.

I went to the testing center with complete intention of canceling the test, but I couldn't get another appt for a couple weeks so I bit the bullet. I was fully convinced that I failed it afterwards, for 5 weeks I was miserable. When I got my score back it was 15 points better than my goal, and as high as my best NBME.

You're gonna feel like crap and probably not let yourself get hopeful but just keep in mind that in actuality you have no idea how you did. Keep your head up.

Cant believe the similarity of our experiences.. Did you miss questions chet?? When did you take it?
 
Remember - they don't make these tests so you feel good afterwards!

Try not to torture yourself all the way to the day of score reporting - like I did. I was in the group of score delay. I waited a month and a half and was so depressed and distraught, it was horrible - friends and family had NEVER seen me so down. The only thing that calmed me down after the exam was to do USMLE World questions in detail and study. You will remember the types of questions and the types of detail they tend to ask. It took my mind off of failing and it will also provide you with something productive to do in case you did not pass. You'll hit the ground running the day you get your score back.

If you didn't pass it is NOT the end of the world. Think about what you did wrong and study smarter. SDN is just that, a network of people here to help each other.

It sounds like you have pretty severe test anxiety like I do so I did all UW questions 3 times to get my timing down and to get my brain to relax during the real thing. Notice Tiger Woods has the same routine every time before hitting the ball. He does this so his brain will relax. My routine was to highlight the last sentence (the actual question they were asking), glance over answer choices very quickly, and THEN read the question stem.

I know you shouldn't but I marked all the drug ad questions and came back to them if I had time. In my opinion, they are time wasters. They don't count any more than any other question so don't stress about them. For all other questions I did them from the bottom question up - because at my testing facility you couldn't see the last question when looking at the list (had to scroll down to see it). I hate that.

At lunch I could barely eat because I was hating life so much. A good friend texted me and said, "Hang in there. Forget what you did this morning and move on." Every block is a new play and is a chance to do well. Forget the last one and move on or you'll blow the next play.

When do you get your score?

I guess I will get my score in 3-4 weeks from now.. Thank you so much for your words and tips..
 
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