USMLE Official 2018 Step 2 CK Experiences and Scores Thread

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As 2018 approaches and people are starting to rev up for their CK studying I figured I would start the 2018 Step 2 CK Experiences and Scores Thread.

As always please follow all of the forum / NBME / USMLE etc.. rules and regulations when posting.


My dedicated starts tomorrow, have about 6 weeks to study over the holidays. Hoping for a 250 +, scored a 26x on step 1.

Good luck to everyone taking the exam in 2018!
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Dr.Jekyll75 said:
looking back, thats what sunk me to avg on the step 1 . i was doing well on nbmes and uwsa. then the beast won with intimidation and i caved to those traps. Comlex, on the other hand, i didnt care and was like well i know ill pass, and this test doesnt matter. I ended up scoring really well. Have faith in yourself. From what i see, people are doing well on step 2. usually with 10 points of their uworlds avg combined
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I had a similar experience with step 1 and I changed some of my answers to wrong because I was like "this is step 1, the answer can't be straight forward" lol I was also hallucinating with anxiety and lack of sleep so that didn't help either. I remember going home after and just standing in the shower trying to wash off the sweat and wondering what just happened
 
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quincyfuturemd said:
I had a similar experience with step 1 and I changed some of my answers to wrong because I was like "this is step 1, the answer can't be straight forward" lol I was also hallucinating with anxiety and lack of sleep so that didn't help either. I remember going home after and just standing in the shower trying to wash off the sweat and wondering what just happened
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not gonna lie i felt the same way during the exam. When i got home that day i say on the coach is a state of confusion. like the hell just happened. i still get random ptsd flashback from question my step lol
 
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I had THE WORST back to back panic attacks before step 1. Didn't sleep the night before.. horrible pre-test anxiety..
I pray CK won't be a similar experience :(
Anything y'all recommend that best helps anxiety short of taking ssri's lol
 
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maryjane25 said:
I had THE WORST back to back panic attacks before step 1. Didn't sleep the night before.. horrible pre-test anxiety..
I pray CK won't be a similar experience :(
Anything y'all recommend that best helps anxiety short of taking ssri's lol
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I'm in the same boat. One thing I've decided since step 1 is if I haven't slept at all I'll bite the bullet and pay the fine and try to reschedule. Pre deciding that has kinda helped me calm down a bit too. Kind of like a safety net I guess. One nice thing about ck is it's not impossible to rebook like cs and the fines also aren't astronomical.
One horrible thing I do under stress too is I start to skim through questions and just try to click an answer and get it over with. I've never been that kind of person during tests even though I've always had test anxiety. Just another wonderful flaw steps brings out of me
 
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maryjane25 said:
I had THE WORST back to back panic attacks before step 1. Didn't sleep the night before.. horrible pre-test anxiety..
I pray CK won't be a similar experience :(
Anything y'all recommend that best helps anxiety short of taking ssri's lol
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Carb load on pizza and ice cream the night before. feel better, wake up, fart during the exam from your lactose intolerance, crush it.
 
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Just took nbme6 and got a 203/39 wrong. Where do I even go from here? Goal of a 250. I felt good throughout the exam. Nearly all my incorrect I narrowed down to 2 answer choices.. planned on taking in 3 weeks if I scored above a 240. Clearly I’m way off now. Any input greatly appreciated. The end of my dedicated is the start of July. July and August are two important rotations— July will not be a big time burden.
 
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blueforest said:
251!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you so much guys for believing in me I am shaking!!! That exam was absolutely brutal and I had to check the score report twice to see if my name was actually correct... this doesn't feel real. I cried for a week after the exam thinking I ruined my life and shots at residency as an IMG since I made so many mistakes from mental exhaustion. Please take care of yourself to avoid such feelings.

Remember, it really is true that post exam feelings do not correlate with your score at all. This entire time I had hopes of passing and I knew that if I pass it will be like a 210 or something... I guess my exam had to have a ridiculous question set and many people found it hard and messed up. That is the only explanation. I don't understand the USMLE curves at all lol. I felt much better after step 1 and I scored a 233... crazy!!!!
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Was looking through older posts and noticed that your UWSA scores are very similar to mine. In a lot of other posts i came across I noticed a repeating pattern of people generally scoring lower than their UWSA 2 but you ended up scoring closer to your UWSA1! Would you mind shedding some light on what you did the last couple of days before the exam?
 
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hey guys any correlations with the free 120s out there?
i got a 82%,uwsa 1: 242 and am curious how ready i am for this damn thing?
 
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quincyfuturemd said:
I'm in the same boat. One thing I've decided since step 1 is if I haven't slept at all I'll bite the bullet and pay the fine and try to reschedule. Pre deciding that has kinda helped me calm down a bit too. Kind of like a safety net I guess. One nice thing about ck is it's not impossible to rebook like cs and the fines also aren't astronomical.
One horrible thing I do under stress too is I start to skim through questions and just try to click an answer and get it over with. I've never been that kind of person during tests even though I've always had test anxiety. Just another wonderful flaw steps brings out of me
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I think I'm gonna take a Benzo the night before. This exam cannot be taken on no sleep, I saw the result of that on my nbme/SA's performance.
 
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chromuffin said:
Just took nbme6 and got a 203/39 wrong. Where do I even go from here? Goal of a 250. I felt good throughout the exam. Nearly all my incorrect I narrowed down to 2 answer choices.. planned on taking in 3 weeks if I scored above a 240. Clearly I’m way off now. Any input greatly appreciated. The end of my dedicated is the start of July. July and August are two important rotations— July will not be a big time burden.
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Take another nbme (preferably 8) or uwsa2.
 
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maryjane25 said:
Do you mind sharing how you improved 30 points from nbme6 to 7 in 2 weeks?
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I made a lot of dumb mistakes, have glaring deficiencies in some of the subjects I hadn't seen in a long time. I OMEd those subjects and just stuck to really digesting blocks of u-world. 250ish is more in line with my step1score so I was hoping I would rev up to around there.
 
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Hey guys, Im taking Step 2 CK on the 25th. Im nervous as hell after I just took NBME 6. I got 77 percent correct and it said I got a 196 :( That's insane. I am at about 60 percent correct/ 27th percentile on UWORLD and got a 232 on UWSA 1 early last week. What do I do? Thanks!
 
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Saxappeal1 said:
Hey guys, Im taking Step 2 CK on the 25th. Im nervous as hell after I just took NBME 6. I got 77 percent correct and it said I got a 196 :( That's insane. I am at about 60 percent correct/ 27th percentile on UWORLD and got a 232 on UWSA 1 early last week. What do I do? Thanks!
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In a similar situation although I haven’t taken uwsa1 yet. Got a 203 with 39 wrong. Planned on taking it a week after you. Probably going to push back to mid-August now. I’d feel happy with your 232 on UWSA though. It’s supposed to be the best predictor.
 
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Ok yeah Im going to take the UWSA 2 in several days. And my UWORLD percentage is about 60-61, not really sure what to make of that.
 
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I'm confused why my practice test scores are all over the place.
Step 1: 256
NBME 6: 267 during week 1 of studying
UW1: 255 during week 2 of studying
NBME 8: 245? during week 3 of studying
saving UW2 for last...
UW average 86% (but I have been through it once during clerkships)

Why are the scores so different?
 
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Saxappeal1 said:
Hey guys, Im taking Step 2 CK on the 25th. Im nervous as hell after I just took NBME 6. I got 77 percent correct and it said I got a 196 :( That's insane. I am at about 60 percent correct/ 27th percentile on UWORLD and got a 232 on UWSA 1 early last week. What do I do? Thanks!
Click to expand...

From the people who I’ve seen post their scores, the UWSAs seem to be very predictive, +/- 5 points. I would completely ignore your NBME scores, some people don’t take any because they know how badly they underpredict. I’m taking the NBMEs just to see the style of questions and identify areas of weakness, the curves are ridiculous on them so don’t panic
 
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Took UWSA 2, 250. So now my past 3 scores have been
UWSA1: 249
NBMe 7: 250
UWSA2 :250

Anyone think I can get a 260 in 3-4 days? Goal score was 260 but hit this wall. My uworld bank second pass (although I rarely remember questions) is more along the 83% mark at like 80% done.
 
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How are people valuing their second pass on Uworld? Isn't there somewhat of a recall bias? I often find myself going through questions and I can vaguely remember the question or answer and more often tend to choose the answer based on memory of seeing that question before? Do most people not remember the questions? just wondering....
 
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Doc2b82 said:
How are people valuing their second pass on Uworld? Isn't there somewhat of a recall bias? I often find myself going through questions and I can vaguely remember the question or answer and more often tend to choose the answer based on memory of seeing that question before? Do most people not remember the questions? just wondering....
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I can remember some from the block I had most recently. Last semesters rotations definitely not
 
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Doc2b82 said:
How are people valuing their second pass on Uworld? Isn't there somewhat of a recall bias? I often find myself going through questions and I can vaguely remember the question or answer and more often tend to choose the answer based on memory of seeing that question before? Do most people not remember the questions? just wondering....
Click to expand...
My review percent is only like 5% higher than my first because I could care less about my second pass percentage and just use it for review. I spend no more than 60 seconds per question.
 
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chromuffin said:
My review percent is only like 5% higher than my first because I could care less about my second pass percentage and just use it for review. I spend no more than 60 seconds per question.
Click to expand...

This is basically me. I'm glad I'm not the only one lol. I find doing this helps me go through more questions faster and avoid burnout too. Taking my second pass score too seriously was starting to wear on me.
 
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DO??? said:
My scores thus far are very similar to yours, please let us know how you did on step 2 ck. When do you get your scores back?
Step 1: 254
uworld step 2 1st pass tutor mode per subject: 75%; 2nd pass random timed about 50% complete 88%. Have not taken the free assessments yet.
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Got my results. Got 260s and beat may step 1 score by good margin. Hope you will do great in exam.
 
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Doc2b82 said:
How are people valuing their second pass on Uworld? Isn't there somewhat of a recall bias? I often find myself going through questions and I can vaguely remember the question or answer and more often tend to choose the answer based on memory of seeing that question before? Do most people not remember the questions? just wondering....
Click to expand...


I ran into a similar issue. If I'm not pressed for time I rule out every answer beside the correct one (within reason). I think that's been helping me and I've been very close on nailing the explanations on why they're all wrong.
 
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Saxappeal1 said:
Hey guys, Im taking Step 2 CK on the 25th. Im nervous as hell after I just took NBME 6. I got 77 percent correct and it said I got a 196 :( That's insane. I am at about 60 percent correct/ 27th percentile on UWORLD and got a 232 on UWSA 1 early last week. What do I do? Thanks!
Click to expand...
I have exam too on the same date and my NBME 8 score was 213 about a week ago. I don't have any assessment left and that is my big mistake. Actually, I took UWSA 1 and 2 both about 3 months ago. I have no option other than taking an exam in my eligibility period.
 
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NK9 said:
Was looking through older posts and noticed that your UWSA scores are very similar to mine. In a lot of other posts i came across I noticed a repeating pattern of people generally scoring lower than their UWSA 2 but you ended up scoring closer to your UWSA1! Would you mind shedding some light on what you did the last couple of days before the exam?
Click to expand...

I just reread my Online MedEd notes and focused on my ANKI flashcards of UW incorrects. The free 120 is great practice before the exam and I also watched the step 2 CK Secrets "book" videos on youtube. There's a video of like 100 high-yield facts or something, watch that or read the book if you have it. I also studied like a psycho the day before my exam causing me to feel like a zombie during test day. I don't recommend that but I scored 251 so idk what works anymore lol. In hindsight, I wish my brain felt more "refreshed" instead of numb and exhausted.
 
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blueforest said:
I just reread my Online MedEd notes and focused on my ANKI flashcards of UW incorrects. The free 120 is great practice before the exam and I also watched the step 2 CK Secrets "book" videos on youtube. There's a video of like 100 high-yield facts or something, watch that or read the book if you have it. I also studied like a psycho the day before my exam causing me to feel like a zombie during test day. I don't recommend that but I scored 251 so idk what works anymore lol. In hindsight, I wish my brain felt more "refreshed" instead of numb and exhausted.
Click to expand...

Any tips on how to prepare for biostats?
 
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blueforest said:
I just reread my Online MedEd notes and focused on my ANKI flashcards of UW incorrects. The free 120 is great practice before the exam and I also watched the step 2 CK Secrets "book" videos on youtube. There's a video of like 100 high-yield facts or something, watch that or read the book if you have it. I also studied like a psycho the day before my exam causing me to feel like a zombie during test day. I don't recommend that but I scored 251 so idk what works anymore lol. In hindsight, I wish my brain felt more "refreshed" instead of numb and exhausted.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much for the feedback!!!
 
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Took my CK yesterday.

Went through uworld twice, used some other external resources (books and whatnot), UWSA1/2 257/245.

For what its worth I can relate to everyone who said they felt just god awful walking out. Just random...and know I missed stuff that I had missed on uworld and probably killed a few patients because god forbid I choose the wrong next step.

Good luck to all who test.
 
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MightBeACylon439 said:
Took my CK yesterday.

Went through uworld twice, used some other external resources (books and whatnot), UWSA1/2 257/245.

For what its worth I can relate to everyone who said they felt just god awful walking out. Just random...and know I missed stuff that I had missed on uworld and probably killed a few patients because god forbid I choose the wrong next step.

Good luck to all who test.
Click to expand...
Any advice on how to best prepare. Is studying Uworld enough like everyone says? Is the test just a variation of Uworld? Any other advice? Congrats on being done. Hope you get the score you are looking for!
 
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sss2g2 said:
Any advice on how to best prepare. Is studying Uworld enough like everyone says? Is the test just a variation of Uworld? Any other advice? Congrats on being done. Hope you get the score you are looking for!
Click to expand...

Uworld is enough in that it teaches you how to think how you need to think for the exam. I dont think that any one or multiple sources is enough...its pretty random so just use your best reasoning skills.

And thank you, I hope I get the score im looking for too. Everyone has told me they felt the same way when they walked out and it turned out well for them (at least everyone ive talked to)...so I am just hoping that happens to me too.
 
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MightBeACylon439 said:
Took my CK yesterday.

Went through uworld twice, used some other external resources (books and whatnot), UWSA1/2 257/245.

For what its worth I can relate to everyone who said they felt just god awful walking out. Just random...and know I missed stuff that I had missed on uworld and probably killed a few patients because god forbid I choose the wrong next step.

Good luck to all who test.
Click to expand...
was your exam similar to UW? did you take any NBME?
 
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Virgo32 said:
was your exam similar to UW? did you take any NBME?
Click to expand...

read my other response to sss2g2 for similarities to UW.

As far as NBME's I took one before dedicated and got like a 188, it stressed me the **** out. From everything I read the NBME's were not predictive and were all over the place. I weighed the option of using them as another question bank vs. how much stress it would cause my psyche and decided to skip taking any more of them.

Besides if you really go through peoples posts that take multiple NBME's and UWSA, even if their NBME's are good and not all over the place...their final score still lands near what their UWSA's are...so thats another reason I decided to skip the NBME's.
 
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Does anyone know how to get the emma holiday last minute review videos? The website now requires a password. I believe the IM is on youtube. But don't know about the rest. Thanks
 
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sss2g2 said:
Congratulations!! I've been seeing various reviews about how some people's test were not like Uworld at all and some whose test were very similar to Uworld. How would you best retain information from Uworld? Did you write things down or use a supplementary book at all? Thank you
Click to expand...

I took some notes on OneNote from UWorld on any important algorithms or info that I found hard to remember. I did not get time to go over all of these notes, but I went through a majority after my 2nd pass. I think UWorld's greatest strength in addition to being the gold standard resource for clinical information is presenting you with information that can strengthen your clinical reasoning ability to answer questions on topics never encountered before.
 
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do the cms exams help for step2ck? i didn't do them during the school year but I'm in dedicated right now and was wondering if they are helpful? also which ones should i do?
 
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NBME 6: 220 (4 weeks out)
UWSA 1: 249 (2 1/2 weeks out)
NBME 7 : 250 (2 weeks out)
UWSA 2: 250 (1 week out)
NBME 8: 256 (3 days out)

Not sure what to make of my NBME's being on par / higher than my UWSA's. Any chance of a 260 on the actual thing?
 
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