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Taking this badboy on Monday, any tips?
Honestly don't care about this test at all, I'm not going to panic. Step 2 is the most important factor in my career now.
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Hi all. Long time lurker, first time posting on SDN. Took the test yesterday. I studied for about three months using Step up, Combank, Online MedEd, First Aid, and Comquest for my dedicated time which was two weeks. By the end of dedicated I was definitely ready to get it over with.
I felt like the test was ALOT of biostats and ethics, at least 80-100 questions easily. Then the rest was mostly OB, Gyn, Peds, and OMM. Had a handful of EKGs. My last set had about 8-10 bioterrorism questions that I would not have known unless I looked at the CDC's bioterrorism website. It's super nice because they link to each disease with the run down. It can be found if you search CDC bioterrorism and go to the "by category" page.
For biostats I watched these two youtube videos, about 25 minutes each but SO worth it. Search step 1 biostats and the video is made by Randy Neil MD. I can't post links as this is my first post, so annoying...
Long post, but wanted to share my experience. I left feeling WAY better than I did leaving level 1. Probably becuase I was much more calm and confident going into the test. Just breath and trust in your knowledge!! Hoping this mindset paid off for me. Let me know if you have any questions! Good luck!
I felt like the test was ALOT of biostats and ethics, at least 80-100 questions easily. Then the rest was mostly OB, Gyn, Peds, and OMM. Had a handful of EKGs. My last set had about 8-10 bioterrorism questions that I would not have known unless I looked at the CDC's bioterrorism website. It's super nice because they link to each disease with the run down. It can be found if you search CDC bioterrorism and go to the "by category" page.
For biostats I watched these two youtube videos, about 25 minutes each but SO worth it. Search step 1 biostats and the video is made by Randy Neil MD. I can't post links as this is my first post, so annoying...
Long post, but wanted to share my experience. I left feeling WAY better than I did leaving level 1. Probably becuase I was much more calm and confident going into the test. Just breath and trust in your knowledge!! Hoping this mindset paid off for me. Let me know if you have any questions! Good luck!
I had lots of stats, ECG's and ethics questions. Only one random bioterror question. Plenty of videos with "exam findings", as well as auscultating points on an interactive chest. Questions felt pretty evenly distributed,except the ethical dilemma questions which really felt like 25% of every block. Barely any OMM on there to my surprise and it wasn't anything difficult. Just like my Level-1, lots of buzzwords and vague stems that you either knew it or didn't. Picture's were generally garbage quality ,especially for skin findings, x-rays, and ECG's which you cannot ZOOM. Overall wasn't that bad, I would say it felt like a really long COMAT.
My 7th block (post-2nd break) was ridiculously tough (aka vague) and convoluted; hoping that was mostly experimental crap.
My 7th block (post-2nd break) was ridiculously tough (aka vague) and convoluted; hoping that was mostly experimental crap.
Whats up with all these ethics questions ? i heard this happened last year too
Any resources for ethics questions? Is it worth studying a lot of derm? I'm pretty weak on it. Any good resources to review video findings and auscultating points on a chest? Any other advice to give? Was there a lot of Neuro on there because the blueprint says neuro is emphasized more now. Also were the Combank OMM questions good enough or should I use comquest as well?
Just so yall know supposedly they do change the test soon... i think like may 25th or something . So peoples experience from early spring will be much different than those who take in say june
Real Talk though, im waiting on my p.e to come out sometime this week. Felt like crap coming out of it. I hope i passed. @TheOther , what did you think of level 2 ?
Just got the email, fam. I passed.
Honestly, it’s been a miserable 8 weeks of waiting. I kept thinking of mistakes I made, especially my poor excuse of OMM hahahah. And there was one humanistic aspect I thought did me in, but guess it was just up in my own head. I also was the first one out on almost every encounter, several even before the 2 min announcement.
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I passed as well, just got the email. Lol i was out very quickly as well but i still felt rushed for documentation. Have you taken level 2 CK yet ?
same boat, im taking mine in the last week of june. First step and then comlex. Supposedly the test is changing soon so idk if all this ethics stuff everyone speaks of will be on there. You doing any dedicated? or is it during clerkship?
Also Step first then COMLEX, the week before you. 4 weeks of dedicated, but that last week is test week. What about you?
ill be doing 2 weeks dedicated and then 2 weeks on radiology which is super chill at my hospital. then last week i take them 25th and 30th. Well see what the trend is this upcoming exam. hopefully its not OMM heavy.
Any tips for how to approach the very vague COMLEX question stems? I've done Uworld throughout third year and found that Uworld often gives you a lot more info on the disease, etc and then asks more detailed questions, while all the COMATs and the COMSAE I took just give some two sentence question stem like "patient is dizzy and confused, whats the most likely diagnosis?"
I've been doing around average on UWorld but find that I really struggle with the extremely vague questions on the COMATs or COMSAE. Is there a better way or alternative strategy to approach these types of questions? I walked out of most of the COMATs feeling like I barely applied any medical knowledge during the test and rather just made gut feeling guesses for so many questions.
I thought that COMLEX level 1 was pretty straightforward with the question stems, but level 2 just seems to be so vague.
I've been doing around average on UWorld but find that I really struggle with the extremely vague questions on the COMATs or COMSAE. Is there a better way or alternative strategy to approach these types of questions? I walked out of most of the COMATs feeling like I barely applied any medical knowledge during the test and rather just made gut feeling guesses for so many questions.
I thought that COMLEX level 1 was pretty straightforward with the question stems, but level 2 just seems to be so vague.
I posted in a few threads too similar in name — totally thought I was writing in the PE thread hahah. Sorry if there was confusion. Guess I’ll be back to update on the CE in a couple months!
I have my CE on June 18 and taking step 2 June 14. Haven’t studied any omm this year. Is buying a month subscription to comquest and hammering through the omm, micro, and ethics questions between my step 2 and level 2 (3days) sufficient if I have been prepping uworld x2 plus omeded?
you should be the sacrificial lamb for the OMGOMT thing. The community needs and honest review ! not a paid one.... i already bought one month of combank so it cant be me. Honestly all you really need is omm , the rest is covered by u world
Nahh don't fix what ain't broken. Green book + COMBank OMM Qs. All. Day. (By all, I mean the 3 days between the 2 exams 😀)
No clue, I think I'm just going to wait for the email. My PE score came back on the very first day which was surprising.
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Did yours have alot of ethics and random OMT like everyone claims this years has been ?
i hope this trend continues , i take mine on the 30th after the "change"
Did average, fine with it. Dont have to see an NBOME question for 2 years
what is avg for level 2 ? is it and upward trend like step 2?
Damn that SD -_- sorry for the dumb question but idk if comlex is still really worth anything anymore considering this merger.
Yeah big SD. But I guess that’s the nature of it based on the large scoring scale. I believe that makes the 99th percentile around a
770. But yeah, who knows. I guess it’ll be useful for those applying competitive AOA specialties this year.
oh well I did below average then, and lower than my Level-1. Shouldnt matter for ACGME gas tho
Honestly, if you do even slightly below avg on step, you still have a good shot on Gas as long as you apply broadly and dont have any redflags . Good luck to you, ill be apply gas as well
Thanks man, same to you. I did below average on Step 1 and everyone ive talked to said to just kill Step 2 and ill be good
Got rocked by comsae D at my school today - 373. School needs to see a comsae of 450+ before I can sit for the real deal, so I pushed my date back to Aug. 20th. I'm terrified of both this and the PE. I'm not feeling too great at the moment.
Have you started your real prep yet? If not, or you haven't hit your groove yet, just take this in stride. COMSAEs are pretty dumb and this by no means is a reflection of what you can achieve. Also, the PE is a totally different ball game and you're gonna be fine if you do the Kauffman vids and book.
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I agree with all the above posts . Comsaes are a big **** show. Ive seen people go 150 either way from . My best advise is to go through uworld and combank and actually prep for it. That includes Ethics and Biostats which alot of people brush off to the side
I had around a week or so of "real" prep before the comsae, but I didn't review much OMM beforehand which really hurt me as well I think. Outside of any prep I did for comats, I'm around 200 Q's into UW and 600 into combank. I wanted to give it a solid chance, but combank is such garbage. The plan now is to finish UW asap (50 q's a day while on rotations, 80-100/day on days off) and supplement weak areas with MTB and OME.
Now that my PE is before my CE, how much time do you think I need to take from CE to dedicate to PE prep? 1 week?
I think you're gonna be fine. I took form D too and the OMM crushed me lol. Doing Uworld is going to help bring your score up a LOT.
I don't think you need one week "full time" away from CE prep, I took 1 week basically to prep for the PE, but I watched all of the videos (the COMBANK Kauffman ones) over 1 weekend which was the bulk of my preparation, and then during the week of my test I was on my rotation and just skimmed through cases in the book. I didn't really practice but it's probably a good idea to do a practice case or two just to get a feel for the timing. I was scared about coming up with differentials for the note, so during that week preceding the test I tried to mentally think through top differentials for common complaints (chest pain, LBP, dizziness, etc.) PM if you have any q's!
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