NBME Exams for Step 2CK

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futuredoctor10

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I have a couple of questions regarding practice exams for Step 2CK:

1. What do you recommend as far as how many practice exams to take for a 3-4 week study schedule? Should we take a baseline prior to studying?

2. What tests do you recommend? From my research on here, it seems like there are four NBMEs (2, 3, 4, 6) and one UWSA. The NBME 6 should be left closer to the exam?

3. Should we be doing like one practice exam each week (maybe NBME 3, 4, 6 and UWSA)?

Thanks!
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Took NBME 2 yesterday after 1 month of prep hit a 510 (240), anyone know how the difficulty varies with NBME's? Like NBME 7 was supposed to be a more difficult Step 1 Form..
 
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The exam is a bit longer than the nbmes and a little harder. But a 240 is a good start. You are doing the right things so keep it up.
 
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I took all 4 forms plus UWSA in a 3.5 week prep. Started with an NBME for baseline, then took one a week later, another a week after that, the UWSA 5 days later and the last NBME 2 days before the exam. Look on the step 2 experiences thread for forms and order. The last form I took was within one point of actual (253, 252 predicted). Baseline was helpful, as it motivated me to work (212).

Good luck.
 
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rueby25 said:
I took all 4 forms plus UWSA in a 3.5 week prep. Started with an NBME for baseline, then took one a week later, another a week after that, the UWSA 5 days later and the last NBME 2 days before the exam. Look on the step 2 experiences thread for forms and order. The last form I took was within one point of actual (253, 252 predicted). Baseline was helpful, as it motivated me to work (212).

Good luck.
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outstanding work my friend. You clearly worked hard so congrats to you👍
 
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tbi1924 said:
Sorry if this has been answered before, but which nbme is most representative of the actual ck?
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Do a google search for it or a sdn search and you should find it quickly. I forget which is best. I know UWSA is pretty spot on, even though at the time I thought it was over predicting (245 about a week out, vs. 253 actual, per above).
 
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For the people that took NBME 6 and any other NBME, how did 6 compare to the other exams? Was it easier, harder, about even?
 
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Which two exams would you all say are the most accurate, if we are planning to just take two?
(out of all the NBMEs + UWSA)
 
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Just got my USMLE Step 2 CK score back. Thought I'd post about the NBME tests that I did:

NBME Form 6: 250
NBME Form 4: 263
Actual USMLE Step 2CK: 266

For me, the NBME Form 4 was more accurate. I did it approximately one week before my test date.
 
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NorEasterDoc said:
Just got my USMLE Step 2 CK score back. Thought I'd post about the NBME tests that I did:

NBME Form 6: 250
NBME Form 4: 263
Actual USMLE Step 2CK: 266

For me, the NBME Form 4 was more accurate. I did it approximately one week before my test date.
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Hows spaced out was Form 6 from your test? Congrats on the score.
 
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Taking Form 4 Tomorrow(today!), I'll post how it was/what I thought tomorrow night. I'm about 4 weeks out. Took Form 2, 2 weeks ago.
 
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Took form 4 got a 580 - 254(20 incorrect). 14 point increase from Form 2 I took 2 weeks ago. Strangely I felt less confident/that it was slightly more difficult in that there were so many questions where I felt there were more than 1 right answer 😛 Going to take a UWSA in 2 more weeks then give the beast a week after that.
 
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I just took nbme 4 and got a 244...I have 1 month to go.

Oddly enough I just took the surgery shelf yesterday and thought those questions were much more vague and difficult. Haven't gotten by score back from that yet.


Any recent test takers think the real deal was similar difficulty to nbme 4?
 
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CDI said:
Haven't finished it all. I think 5 or 6 chapters left. I'll probably go through the entire thing once before my exam.
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Definitely finish it. I read it last month and thought it was very useful for nbme 4 form I took today. There is at least 5+ questions which came nearly verbatim out of this book which I haven't seen in MTB or new from shelf studying.

I am just hoping it is as applicable to the real deal.
 
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link2swim06 said:
Definitely finish it. I read it last month and thought it was very useful for nbme 4 form I took today. There is at least 5+ questions which came nearly verbatim out of this book which I haven't seen in MTB.

I am just hoping it is as applicable to the real deal.
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My friend who took the exam said to read Secrets, and that she felt it definitely helped her even over MTB. Kind of surprised me. She wasn't a very high scorer though, so that also could be part of it.
 
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What is everyone's opinion on NBME 2? I just took it and thought I had nailed it, but got a 225. I have one month to go and am hoping for a 250.
 
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2324tigers said:
What is everyone's opinion on NBME 2? I just took it and thought I had nailed it, but got a 225. I have one month to go and am hoping for a 250.
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I just took NBME2 as well -- same for me. I thought I did pretty well, but I didn't do as well as I thought. I'm not putting too much weight on that, though. I feel like it just reminded me of where my weaknesses (and strengths) are.
 
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Hey yall, I wanna take NBME Form 4 for CK. Haven't done this before, so I'd appreciate some help/confirmation before making a purchase!
I'm on the Purchase Services page. Tab says "choose an exam"...Options include: Clinical Science Mastery Series (which looks like practice shelves), Comprehensive Basic Science, Comprehensive Clinical Science, Comprehensive Clinical Medicine.
What do I choose for CK/am I on a wrong page?
 
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NdNThunder said:
Hey yall, I wanna take NBME Form 4 for CK. Haven't done this before, so I'd appreciate some help/confirmation before making a purchase!
I'm on the Purchase Services page. Tab says "choose an exam"...Options include: Clinical Science Mastery Series (which looks like practice shelves), Comprehensive Basic Science, Comprehensive Clinical Science, Comprehensive Clinical Medicine.
What do I choose for CK/am I on a wrong page?
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I think the step 2 CK practice exams are Comprehensive Clinical Science

(step 1 = comprehensive basic science, step 3 = comprehensive clinical medicine, shelves = clinical science mastery)

They really need better names :laugh:
 
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I know this question has been asked a million times, but I'm nervous like everyone else... here's where I am in my study: any insight/thoughts would be appreciated! FYI I'm a DO student, top 1/3 of my class, did fine in third year.

Was very nervous for Step I, in hindsight should've not done DIT and instead focused entirely on UW: got a 218 - by SDN standards especially, I definitely bombed the first test, so third year has been all about redemption in terms of Step II prep.

Did UW, Kaplan, and a COMLEX-type QB each once through during rotations, and read MTB 2&3 over the course of the year.

Took NBME 6 before I started formal study, on 6/24: 223
Finished UW, second time through all timed/timed tutor: 78% correct (I know this is not an ideal assessment, because it was my second time through, although I don't feel like I remembered very many of the questions)
Took NBME 4 today: 260

In light of this, I re-scheduled my exam from the 31st to the 26th - for me, this was key so that I can make sure my Step 2 score is in before app's go out.

Is NBME 4 a complete fluke? I'll take UWSA in 6 days b/c I know that's supposed to be the best predictor, but I'm curious what others think who've taken it. Perusing old posts, it seems like NBME 4 was a decent predictor up to about the 250s or so... I also know that the NBME questions are extremely similar to UW, probably artificially inflating your score.

Thanks in advance for anyone's perspective!
 
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BUMP:

Does anybody know how many % of the questions on step 2 you need to get correct in order to get a good score, aka >250? I took practice NMBE 3 recently and got 80% of the questions correct and it only came out to be a 220. That seems awfully low for 80%. Any input? Thanks.
 
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abc12341 said:
BUMP:

Does anybody know how many % of the questions on step 2 you need to get correct in order to get a good score, aka >250? I took practice NMBE 3 recently and got 80% of the questions correct and it only came out to be a 220. That seems awfully low for 80%. Any input? Thanks.
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I definitely would like to know this as well! I just got a 77% on form 4 and it was only a 210....
 
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abc12341 said:
BUMP:

Does anybody know how many % of the questions on step 2 you need to get correct in order to get a good score, aka >250? I took practice NMBE 3 recently and got 80% of the questions correct and it only came out to be a 220. That seems awfully low for 80%. Any input? Thanks.
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I don't, but I think it's important not to put too much stock on your percentage of correct answers. The percent of correct answers doesn't correlate between the NBME and the USMLE the same way the 3-digit score does. The reason peoples' NBME scores and USMLE scores correlate is because the practice tests are broken up into percentiles just like the USMLE - if the average score is 238 and the SD is 19, that means that with a 220 you scored ~1 SD below the rest of people that take the NBME, despite getting 80% of the questions right.
 
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