USMLE Official 2014 Step 2 CK Experiences and Scores Thread

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With all the changes going on, I think it is a good time to start a new thread and keep all the scores and experiences organized in one thread. Similar thread was really helpful for step 1, so I am hoping this one will be equally great and helpful to all.

Good luck to all the Step 2 CK'ers in 2014!
 
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dwyt said:
please guide, any help or reassurance will be highly appreciated...... my exam in 2 weeks.....almost done with uw averaging close to 70%......my problem is I can't finish even UW on time in mixed timed mode...how hard I'm trying every time I am leaving 3- 4 Q unattempted......so scared ...can't postpone exam have done it ENOUGH....my nbme4 was 223..... only planning to get close to 240....please someone help.....I'm desperate ....God bless u..
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The step exams (and shelfs) are such different beasts from the rest of the standardized test world. I'm the sort of person who finished each MCAT section with 15 minutes left and I finished the GMAT (>95%ile) in half the allotted time. Yet one of my biggest challenges on shelfs and step2 was timing!

What is comes down to is whether or not you know the information and the buzzwords. You sound like me, but not quite as bad: You really need to be doing content review. If you're shooting for 240, you need to be averaging >85% on USMLEW. It sounds like questions are just freaking you out.

Most of all, you need to be working on trying to get the gestalt of each passage. I found that the less I thought about questions (or rethought, more accurately), the better I did.
 
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Got my score back today so wanted to share my thoughts.

Step 1: Low 270s

Step 2 Study Schedule: Approximately the course of 6 weeks--however, the first 4-5 weeks I only studied sparsely, maybe a few hours a day. The last 1-1.5 weeks I started more or less full time.

Resources used: MTB 2 and 3, USMLE World QBank, Step 2 Secrets

Thoughts on resources:

Step 2 Secrets was great--easy to be able to get through it almost twice.

UW QBank--got through once. I didn’t read the answer choices as intensely as I did for Step 2 (an important point to make--I got through this qbank MUCH MUCH faster than I did for Step 1. Partly because I had done it during my clerkship year)
I also went thru USMLE-Rx qbank (half of it, anyway)

MTB 2 and 3: As I have posted before, these books are not that robust. Dr. Fisher makes way too many generalizations for it to be useful for someone trying to achieve a 250+ (in my opinion, of course). Nonetheless, I think it is important to use SOME kind of book, so this can do the job. However I don’t feel it is necessary to get both MTB 2 and 3.

Actual exam: Because I knew it would be super hard going in, I didnt’ feel too surprised when it lived up to that expectation. The first 2 sections were particularly tough, as they always tend to be on NBME exams. After that, things cooled down. There was a pretty fair distribution overall I thought in terms of subject matter. Not enough time to go over every question as I did with step 1.

Practice Tests

UWSA (6 weeks): 242

NBME 7: 263 (about 2 weeks out)

NBME 4: 277

NBME 6: 265 (< 1 week out)

Step 2 score (real test): 280+

I am happy to answer any further questions, feel free to PM me if needed. Thanks to everyone on SDN who selflessly give their time and information, and I hope to further contribute to that in the future.
 
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I'm a little surprised that you say Secrets was great. I'm ~1/2 way through it right now and it seems pretty basic/generalized. Nevertheless, can't really argue if you got 280+. But that's most certainly just you rather than the prep.

How was peds/obgyn on the exam?

And did you do those NBME subject-specific forms?

@ChessMaster3000
 
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Phloston said:
I'm a little surprised that you say Secrets was great. I'm ~1/2 way through it right now and it seems pretty basic/generalized. Nevertheless, can't really argue if you got 280+. But that's most certainly just you rather than the prep.

How was peds/obgyn on the exam?

And did you do those NBME subject-specific forms?

@ChessMaster3000
Click to expand...

To each his own, sir. If secrets isn't working for you, don't do it. But sometimes generalized is good, whereas mtb has a lot of very protocol specific info that will NEVER. BE. TESTED.

I don't recall too much peds but the test was a blur. Obgyn was in line with nbme forms.

And I did NOT use those forms, as I often used those forms for my shelf exams and didn't want to redo them. Nonetheless, those are amazing practice tests.
 
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It's taking forever to take notes on all of UWORLD. My exam is coming up in two weeks and I'm at about 70%. Would you say reading carefully all the explanations will suffice?
 
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NotTheBestUSMLE said:
The step exams (and shelfs) are such different beasts from the rest of the standardized test world. I'm the sort of person who finished each MCAT section with 15 minutes left and I finished the GMAT (>95%ile) in half the allotted time. Yet one of my biggest challenges on shelfs and step2 was timing!

What is comes down to is whether or not you know the information and the buzzwords. You sound like me, but not quite as bad: You really need to be doing content review. If you're shooting for 240, you need to be averaging >85% on USMLEW. It sounds like questions are just freaking you out.

Most of all, you need to be working on trying to get the gestalt of each passage. I found that the less I thought about questions (or rethought, more accurately), the better I did.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice, really appreciate it.

I'm done with uw with cumulative mixed timed mode 73% correct, 4 % omitted ( unattempted questions becose of shortage of time ) and 23 % wrong. Medfriends calculator and the score correlation graph on this website predict a score of more than 240 based on this 73 % correct . Am I missing something or you r saying I need to be averaging > 85% considering my timing issues ?

Content review ? shud I try go thru Kaplan medicine or MTB or uw explanations in a subject wise manner ? I did Kaplan and MTB2 before going thru the UW.

Are there any buzzwords or buzzword phrases on the real deal so that we can do some questions really quick saving time for the others ?

Thanks
 
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dwyt said:
Thanks for the advice, really appreciate it.

I'm done with uw with cumulative mixed timed mode 73% correct, 4 % omitted ( unattempted questions becose of shortage of time ) and 23 % wrong. Medfriends calculator and the score correlation graph on this website predict a score of more than 240 based on this 73 % correct . Am I missing something or you r saying I need to be averaging > 85% considering my timing issues ?

Content review ? shud I try go thru Kaplan medicine or MTB or uw explanations in a subject wise manner ? I did Kaplan and MTB2 before going thru the UW.

Are there any buzzwords or buzzword phrases on the real deal so that we can do some questions really quick saving time for the others ?

Thanks
Click to expand...
buzzwords are basically nonexistent on the real test. you really need to fix your timing issues--you should be at 0% omitted. cant afford to miss any opportunities to pick up points, and timing is only more difficult on the real deal
 
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ChessMaster3000 said:
buzzwords are basically nonexistent on the real test. you really need to fix your timing issues--you should be at 0% omitted. cant afford to miss any opportunities to pick up points, and timing is only more difficult on the real deal
Click to expand...
Is the first aid book necessary/usefull?
 
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hi errbody! long time lurker here, figured it was about time i start posting on these forums. 🙂

step 1: 249
NBME 7 (3 weeks prior): 246
NBME 4 (1.5 weeks prior): 263
UWSA (3 days prior): 264
step 2 ck: 265

i studied for 3.5 weeks after finishing my last clerkship, which was IM. i had been using SUTM to study for the IM shelf but focused mainly on MTB step 2 and 3 for my dedicated step 2 study time (read thru 1x each). reread a couple of chapters from SUTM that i felt weak on (mainly cards). also reread pestana's book 1x and referenced some of the tables from BRS peds. didn't feel like MTB had enough substance, which made it difficult to stick with it at times. as others have mentioned, i don't think there's a magic bullet text for step 2 ck like FA was for step 1. just have to find a book that you can stick with. and of course, do as many UWorld questions as you can! i reset my UWorld qbank sometime just before my IM shelf and did all the qs again. read through all the explanations but was too lazy to annotate much. 90% on my 2nd pass (random blocks), but felt this was bc i had just seen many of the qs when i was preparing for the IM shelf. never got the hang of the biostats or drug ad questions, and overall felt pretty underprepared going into my actual test.

day of: arrived at the test center only to realize i forgot my lunch at home (OH NOES). spent my first few breaks texting up a storm trying to find someone who could bring food for me XD anyway, left the test center feeling crappy... as expected... but less crappy than i felt after taking step 1! had 2 sets of drug ad questions (2-3 qs each), several WEIRD ethical questions, very little obgyn (thank goodness), more bread and butter stuff compared to step 1.

anyway, as everyone else says, i think UWorld is key to doing well on step 2. don't freak out or get frustrated if you can't find a good review book to supplement UWorld. i honestly don't know how much i retained from my one pass through MTB 2 and 3, but think i would have done it the same way if i had to do it all over again. trust in what you know... i feel like step 2 is more about your clinical impression of patients which you develop throughout 3rd year whereas step 1 is more about regurgitation of obscure facts. :barf:
 
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chickadeee said:
hi errbody! long time lurker here, figured it was about time i start posting on these forums. 🙂

step 1: 249
NBME 7 (3 weeks prior): 246
NBME 4 (1.5 weeks prior): 263
UWSA (3 days prior): 264
step 2 ck: 265

i studied for 3.5 weeks after finishing my last clerkship, which was IM. i had been using SUTM to study for the IM shelf but focused mainly on MTB step 2 and 3 for my dedicated step 2 study time (read thru 1x each). reread a couple of chapters from SUTM that i felt weak on (mainly cards). also reread pestana's book 1x and referenced some of the tables from BRS peds. didn't feel like MTB had enough substance, which made it difficult to stick with it at times. as others have mentioned, i don't think there's a magic bullet text for step 2 ck like FA was for step 1. just have to find a book that you can stick with. and of course, do as many UWorld questions as you can! i reset my UWorld qbank sometime just before my IM shelf and did all the qs again. read through all the explanations but was too lazy to annotate much. 90% on my 2nd pass (random blocks), but felt this was bc i had just seen many of the qs when i was preparing for the IM shelf. never got the hang of the biostats or drug ad questions, and overall felt pretty underprepared going into my actual test.

day of: arrived at the test center only to realize i forgot my lunch at home (OH NOES). spent my first few breaks texting up a storm trying to find someone who could bring food for me XD anyway, left the test center feeling crappy... as expected... but less crappy than i felt after taking step 1! had 2 sets of drug ad questions (2-3 qs each), several WEIRD ethical questions, very little obgyn (thank goodness), more bread and butter stuff compared to step 1.

anyway, as everyone else says, i think UWorld is key to doing well on step 2. don't freak out or get frustrated if you can't find a good review book to supplement UWorld. i honestly don't know how much i retained from my one pass through MTB 2 and 3, but think i would have done it the same way if i had to do it all over again. trust in what you know... i feel like step 2 is more about your clinical impression of patients which you develop throughout 3rd year whereas step 1 is more about regurgitation of obscure facts. :barf:
Click to expand...

i forgot my lunch too. so annoying

congrats on a great score (actually on both great scores). I just want to emphasize one this this post says, which is the question of annotating. For step 2, I really dont think annotating is a big deal AT ALL. The wealth of clinical knowledge needed is so vast that you dont really have time to annotate, you should be spending that time reading or doing as many questions as possible.

edit and disclaimer: I'm biased on this, because I didnt do a ton of annotating for step 1 either, and its just not my thing. if it really worked for you well in step 1, go for it .but if you did a ton of annotating for step 1 and didnt get the score you achieved, then its ok to drop it.
 
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django7 said:
A disparity in my practice test scores.

Nbme 4 (50% done uworld first time) 227
Nbme 6 (10% uworld left first time) 260

I guess I'll take uworld assessment and gun it for 3 weeks ahead
Click to expand...

finished Uworld with 71% first time. took UWSA today and got 260 again. Test next week.
what should i do till next week? incorrect on uworld? read my uworld notes? secrets? MTB? i dont know
 
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Hey guys looking for some advice. I've been getting around 78-80% cummulative timed random uworld. I got 255 mid month on uwsa. On step 1 I got above a 260, but I didn't ace every shelf by any means. I did ok like the worst I did was ~80 on shelf exams, got a couple in the 90's (not IM).

The problem is that it doesn't look like I'm going to finish uworld. Should I push my exam back to a date that I can finish uworld? Or do you think I should just do it? I can probably get to like 75% done with my date as is. I do not feel secure on the material, just using good reasoning. Weak in pedes especially. Any advice is welcome. I think if I get mid 250's I'll be ok, but scared of dropping into the 240's (I know it's a good score, but don't want to drop too far from step 1).
 
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JP2740 said:
Hey guys looking for some advice. I've been getting around 78-80% cummulative timed random uworld. I got 255 mid month on uwsa. On step 1 I got above a 260, but I didn't ace every shelf by any means. I did ok like the worst I did was ~80 on shelf exams, got a couple in the 90's (not IM).

The problem is that it doesn't look like I'm going to finish uworld. Should I push my exam back to a date that I can finish uworld? Or do you think I should just do it? I can probably get to like 75% done with my date as is. I do not feel secure on the material, just using good reasoning. Weak in pedes especially. Any advice is welcome. I think if I get mid 250's I'll be ok, but scared of dropping into the 240's (I know it's a good score, but don't want to drop too far from step 1).
Click to expand...

i would just take it now. you clearly know your stuff if you are scoring 250+ on your practice exams. And you did amazing on shelfs if you were scoring 80s as your lowest...
 
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Can anyone comment on how good the MKSAP questions be for step 2,

I would like to do the NBME subject exams but there just too much money, so thinking I may do MKSAP since it's probably more real than kaplan or Rx, can anyone comment on this
 
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I had a computer error during the 8th block of my test, I called the proctor and it took her about 5 minutes to fix it.
It didn't worry me much because she assured me that the computer saved everything, but after I received my score and found out that I failed, I became worried..what if the remaining 30 questions weren't included? Also, I didn't get the survey that I got after completing step 1! did this happen to any of you?
 
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Ls1986 said:
I had a computer error during the 8th block of my test, I called the proctor and it took her about 5 minutes to fix it.
It didn't worry me much because she assured me that the computer saved everything, but after I received my score and found out that I failed, I became worried..what if the remaining 30 questions weren't included? Also, I didn't get the survey that I got after completing step 1! did this happen to any of you?
Click to expand...

Computer error? That's lame. It's 2014. Your case probably warrants a score recheck if you feel inclined to get one. You might even be able to get the fee waived, given you have reasonable cause.
 
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@Ls1986 That is fishy, I would definitely get a score recheck and maybe even try to get someone from the NBME on the phone to make sure. No need for you to go through this beast again if it turns out to be an error on their part.
 
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Just took this behemoth yesterday! Actually felt pretty good coming out of it. Sure, a number of WTF moments, but overall felt much better than I did after Step 1. It's definitely a marathon of a day! Questions similar/easier than UWorld. They are still doing that thing where many questions have 1-2 answer choices that are diseases or tests I've never heard of -- hopefully just to be distractors because I almost never picked one of them! Some strange stuff too -- population health, and a detailed project/QI question where the answers were "corporate-speak" mumbo-jumbo straight out of Six Sigma.

Total prep time for me was about a week or so of decent effort. Just couldn't muster the willpower to go all out for this test since ERAS is already uploaded and most all my programs don't require Step 2 for ranking. Did all the OB and Peds World questions and a smattering of the rest. Exam definitely felt a little OB/PEds heavy too. In retrospect, maybe more World questions would have helped, but I kind of doubt it. I think the material covered is simply too broad, the clinical thinking and reasoning too nuanced, that I'm not sure how I would prepare differently in hindsight other than working my tail off during 3rd year and laying eyes on as many patients as possible.

Numbers:
Step 1: 260+
Step 2 practice NBME given by school at end of M3: off the scale but trended toward 270-280
UWorld average: 40% of bank completed, avg 80% correct

Real deal: ????

PS -- for not getting the survey - I got the survey but it cut off in the middle right as my Total Day Time expired, so if your final block ended your total day time you probably wouldn't get the survey at all.
 
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Hi all
I have a Q about flash cards. Did anyone use/bought? Which one do you recommend. I don't have the time to make my own. Any suggestions?
Thank you
 
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Did anyone else walk out of their exam thinking it was infinitely harder than the NBME practice exams? I did not expect to see so much Step I knowledge honestly. A few sections I felt like I had flat guessed through the entire way...
 
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Cloud805 said:
Did anyone else walk out of their exam thinking it was infinitely harder than the NBME practice exams? I did not expect to see so much Step I knowledge honestly. A few sections I felt like I had flat guessed through the entire way...
Click to expand...

Obviously this is just personal opinion, but I'd consider it lucky to get a lot of Step 1-type questions. I'm finding the long Step 2 QBank/NBME stems to be really really annoying. At least Step 1 usually cut to the chase.
 
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Dedicated study period starts tomorrow. Hoping to take the exam by end of February or sometime in March. Using

MTB2 and 3
MTB2 HY videos
UWorld
Secrets
Selective chapters from SUTM
 
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Phloston said:
Obviously this is just personal opinion, but I'd consider it lucky to get a lot of Step 1-type questions. I'm finding the long Step 2 QBank/NBME stems to be really really annoying. At least Step 1 usually cut to the chase.
Click to expand...

Well it was more like a Step II question that ended with a Step I tie in. I felt like I was getting short changed at the very second for a lot of questions.
 
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Hey all. I recently got done with step 1 a month ago and have now started prepping for step 2. Just a quick question, how much of step 1 shows up in the CK exam? Any particular areas that they focus on? Are my biochem, genetics, anatomy days behind me?? 😛 Really hate anatomy!!
 
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Dactino said:
Hey all. I recently got done with step 1 a month ago and have now started prepping for step 2. Just a quick question, how much of step 1 shows up in the CK exam? Any particular areas that they focus on? Are my biochem, genetics, anatomy days behind me?? 😛 Really hate anatomy!!
Click to expand...
Yeah, youre pretty much done with that. Congratulations. Throughout my step 2 prep I had a few seemingly step 1-ish questions but they were few and far between and nothing you can ever study for. So focus on clinical material to maximize your chances of success. Feel free to PM with any specific questions.
 
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