Tank you for the write up. Don't be so hard on yourself, man -- feeling terrible after Step 1 is the norm, and you will most likely end up right around your UWSA2 score.
I have a couple questions.
The questions you mentioned that no M2 would reasonably be expected to know - were those like Step 2 style "next step" questions?
And for anatomy, without giving away anything too specific, what sorts of questions were the ones not covered in UFAP? Were they pure gross anatomy , e.g. naming an obscure ligament of the foot based on a picture, or were they clinically-oriented, e.g. "what structure may be damaged in this random neck surgery you never heard of" ?
Looking back on your preparation, aside from an extremely meticulous reading of FA, which you already mentioned might have been useful, what could you have done differently to prepare for these obscure questions? Would a Step 2 resource have helped? Or perhaps a supplemental anatomy review book? ...Or are these esoteric questions actually that random that no single review book would be worth the time and effort?
Thank you. And congrats on finishing. Based on your scores and level of preparation, I'm sure you did better than you think.
Sure.
So, for those "unreasonable" knowledge type questions, it varies. For next best step type questions, I think I actually only had 2-ish on my test, and I would say while it seems more like MS3-oriented stuff, it is stuff you probably learned throughout the year as long as you didn't totally blow off lectures. One of them is in FA. And the other I remember learning from lecture, but felt is kind of a no-brainer anyway. (I say that, hoping it was the right answer lol.) I think they really aren't question types I would agonize over learning Step 2 material for. They made a very small minority of my test.
An actual "unreasonable" question that comes to mind, you could only come to the right answer by eliminating every other answer. I guarantee 99% of MS2s have not heard of (what I believe was) the correct answer, unless maybe they have direct personal experience with it. So in a way, I guess it wasn't totally unreasonable... But it feels wrong to me. I should never
have to come to the answer by elimination. And I personally am a proponent of, if you don't recognize it, think twice or thrice before picking it.
Unfortunately I can't remember any else right now, my brain is kind of fried. But I will say these types of questions are also in the minority, so don't fret too much. They will show up, but they won't make or break your score.
Regarding anatomy, no, I think only 2 times was I just straight up shown a picture and asked to name what it was. Those were pretty reasonable, too, and I knew it right away. Most of the time it's just like it is in UWorld, knowing relationships of structures to one another or their functions.
To be honest, I truly can't say what would have prepared me better for the anatomy. I read several times that UWorld and FA anatomy is sufficient, so while I considered reading through BRS Anatomy, I decided against it. Flipping through the book now, it doesn't mention 2 of the questions I had. So I think my conclusion for the anatomy issue is:
There is no good way to study it. Do learn whatever is in First Aid and UWorld, don't agonize about anything else. Barring doing a long refresher in anatomy (which btw I don't think is worth it, even after today), you're just going to have to cruise with whatever you remember from MS1 and hope it's enough.
Wow, this is absolutely terrifying to read. I was hoping you were going to end your post saying that your practices tests were 240s and U-World 70s, so at least I could chock some of it up to not being prepared enough for the material. But realistically you're someone whose score should be in the 260s and to hear that the test was so perplexing/challenging for someone with your scores is very nerve wracking.
Regardless, congratulations on finishing it up and I know at worst you'll get a 250 and I'm sure that with however they curve/equalize exams, you'll probably end up somewhere around a 260+. If I've learned anything from this thread, it's that NBMEs and UW are really accurate predictors. Looking forward to hearing what you eventually get! Thanks for the write-up
From your username, I take it you want to go into Derm? Yeah, same here... Or at least, I did. RIP.
Jokes aside, after reading other people's experiences on how they ended up missing like 20 questions and still got like 250's, I've calmed down a little... Still keeping my expectations low so I don't disappoint myself in July. It's just hard not to feel like my practice scores must have all been a fluke or something. Every time I'd get a good score I'd think, yeah but I got lucky that this set of questions had a lot of stuff that I knew, what if I get a test with topics I don't know as well? Maybe the day finally came that my luck ran out. We'll see in July.
