USMLE Official 2018 Step 2 CK Experiences and Scores Thread

[Qester]

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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[Jasonharper]

T

FA is enough, but u gotta practice with a partner dont study alone. Make sure u time urself and practice typing notes. Remember if you fail one component you fail the whole thing.

Thank you for advise!

 

[Jasonharper]

Uwsa 1:241 2 weeks ago
Nbme8: 232 1 week ago
Uwsa2: 224 today

Exam monday...
Feeling terrible

Relax you did great your uwsa ım sure you ll be fine good luck

 

[chromuffin]

Uwsa 1:241 2 weeks ago
Nbme8: 232 1 week ago
Uwsa2: 224 today

Exam monday...
Feeling terrible

What did you do differently on uwsa2 than previous exams? Seems like it would be an outlier. What was your %age?

 

[golfdoctor1489]

What did you do differently on uwsa2 than previous exams? Seems like it would be an outlier. What was your %age?

I had this one block that just killed me. I read the qs and just didnt what they wanted me to answer.
Im gonne go over it and see why I got so many wrong.

I had 62% overall
Block 1: 70%
Block 2: 65%
Block 3: 62%
Block 4: 50%

 

[chromuffin]

I had this one block that just killed me. I read the qs and just didnt what they wanted me to answer.
Im gonne go over it and see why I got so many wrong.

I had 62% overall
Block 1: 70%
Block 2: 65%
Block 3: 62%
Block 4: 50%

Hmm.
I got a 244 on UWSA2.
Our breakdown was somewhat close.
1: 70%
2: 55%
3: 88%
4: 70%

If you want to talk about it in PM, let me know and I’ll try and help.

 

[SCCBCCAK]

Step 1-255
NBME 6,7,8- 247s
UWSA 1- 250
UWSA2- 257
Shelf exams percentile: 60th, 80th, 97th, 99th,99th,97th,84th
uWorld during clerkships: 75% during dedicated second time 86%
Re-did all CMS during dedicated

I think studying hard for shelves during third year is the best predictor of success in step 2

Step 2: 264

 

[jcae6]

When does the permit usually disappear?

 

[Jasonharper]

When does the permit usually disappear?

Mine was disappear 1 day before release (3th Tuesday )

 

[jcae6]

Mine was disappear 1 day before release (3th Tuesday )

Good to know! Thank you!

 

[Asme]

Same here man...same here...

it's disappointing in a way but i was legit scared I failed.

I was disappointed too but I am glad that at least it’s all over.

 

[itmeusmle]

I had this one block that just killed me. I read the qs and just didnt what they wanted me to answer.
Im gonne go over it and see why I got so many wrong.

I had 62% overall
Block 1: 70%
Block 2: 65%
Block 3: 62%
Block 4: 50%

This looks more like fatigue that day as opposed to your knowledge base. Decreasing grade in each block... Didn't sleep well? Something going on that day?

 

[golfdoctor1489]

This looks more like fatigue that day as opposed to your knowledge base. Decreasing grade in each block... Didn't sleep well? Something going on that day?

I looked over it and I made some really stupid mistakes. I felt like I was running out of time and was rushing a lot. Time has never been an issue for me. I guess I just have to be more confident. I was a little anxious knowing that uwsa2 was the most predictive according to everyone.
Looking at the qs I got wrong, there wasnt much that I didnt know.

Not changing my date. Taking it on monday. Hopefully I can make it to 240+

Thanks to everyone that has replied, and good luck for everyone preparing for this test.

 

[golfdoctor1489]

This looks more like fatigue that day as opposed to your knowledge base. Decreasing grade in each block... Didn't sleep well? Something going on that day?

For the people who have already taken step 2 ck. What are some things that you saw in the test that you said to yourself.. "I wish I would have reviewed this the day before"...
I would appreciate the comments. Thank you

 

[chromuffin]

For the people who have already taken step 2 ck. What are some things that you saw in the test that you said to yourself.. "I wish I would have reviewed this the day before"...
I would appreciate the comments. Thank you

Don’t underestimate the amount of ethics and social sciences. I had a lot more than was ever on any uwsa

 

[APA 32]

For the people who have already taken step 2 ck. What are some things that you saw in the test that you said to yourself.. "I wish I would have reviewed this the day before"...
I would appreciate the comments. Thank you

Psych pharmacology

 

[Jasonharper]

Don’t underestimate the amount of ethics and social sciences. I had a lot more than was ever on any uwsa

Same as well!

 

[golfdoctor1489]

Don’t underestimate the amount of ethics and social sciences. I had a lot more than was ever on any uwsa

How would you review this?? From Uworld, or MTB??
Thanks for the advice

 

[PAC2DO]

If I take my exam on 10/2 (Tuesday), does 10/3 (Wednesday) count as one of the 3rd Wednesdays for score release?

 

[chromuffin]

If I take my exam on 10/2 (Tuesday), does 10/3 (Wednesday) count as one of the 3rd Wednesdays for score release?

Not sure. I took mine on a Monday. I’ll find out if that’s the case this upcoming week

 

[madrid1117]

Took mine today. Honestly, had to doublecheck to make sure I was taking STEP2 since a lot of material was more STEP1 related and basic science. Know your basic pharmacology mechanisms, know the hell out of biostats and calculations, and be ready for things that make you say, "What the actual f*#k did I just read?"

Sketchy pharm from LAST year got me points today. Knowing UWorld like the back of my hand helped me eliminate wrong answer choices.

Good luck guys!

 

[Adamantinoma]

.

 

[Zora98]

Just a heads up, for those who took CK in the first week of September: My permit disappeared, and I took it 9/5.

Oh boi, fingers crossed!

 

[Jasonharper]

Just a heads up, for those who took CK in the first week of September: My permit disappeared, and I took it 9/5.

Oh boi, fingers crossed!

Good luck ! Big day is coming my friend Best wishes

 

[chromuffin]

Good luck ! Big day is coming my friend Best wishes

Took it 9/10 and mine hasn’t disappeared. Guessing I’ll get it next week?

Edit: wrong quote lol

 

[Zora98]

Took it 9/10 and mine hasn’t disappeared. Guessing I’ll get it next week?

Edit: wrong quote lol

Hmm most likely, since you took it the week after

 

[GreenMachine86]

Posting this to help with anyone else who is trying to figure out how to make sense of the "disappearing permit" and "Step 3 FSMB" tricks.

I took my exam on Thursday Sept 6th, and my scheduling permit disappeared yesterday (Monday week 3) sometime mid-day to evening. This is noteworthy because a previous poster took their exam the day before me on Wed Sept 5th and had the permit disappear a day earlier than me. At the time that my permit link disappeared, I still could not sign up for Step 3. However, just this morning (Tues) I was able to sign up for Step 3.

This makes sense: the ECFMG sends the score to the FSMB, so you'd expect a delay between when the ECFMG registers my score and when the FSMB registers my score (putting my step 2 critical thinking to good use here!).

(To those just joining the thread now, the step 3 FSMB trick is described in much greater detail in earlier posts, but essentially it is believed that if you passed a given step exam AND have already taken all the other step exams prior to step 3, you will be able to sign up for the step 3 exam a day or two before the final score comes out)

Conclusions
1) The day your permit link disappears is not conserved across all people who will receive their score on a given Wednesday, and possibly correlates to the day you sat the exam originally (perhaps Wed, Thurs, Fri exams correlate with Sun, Mon, Tues link disappearing, for example).
2) You may be able to do the "FSMB step 3 trick" a day after your permit disappears.

I really hope I passed, as with the rest of you I was freaking out over this exam... good luck everyone.

 

[golfdoctor1489]

I took step 2 ck yesterday. It was a really hard exam. I thought it was really similar to uworld in the length of questions and style. However, these questions were much harder.
I really dont know how it went. I know everyone comes out feeling terrible... At this point, I would love to get the average of my Uwsa as a final score.

Thanks to everyone in this forum. Reading all the different experiences really helped me.

 

[PAC2DO]

I took step 2 ck yesterday. It was a really hard exam. I thought it was really similar to uworld in the length of questions and style. However, these questions were much harder.
I really dont know how it went. I know everyone comes out feeling terrible... At this point, I would love to get the average of my Uwsa as a final score.

Thanks to everyone in this forum. Reading all the different experiences really helped me.

Do you care to elaborate what made it much harder ghan UW?

 

[chromuffin]

When the permit disappears, does that mean you can’t click “print permit”? Or when you click print permit you get an error saying “permit is not available”??

 

[lawlzi]

When the permit disappears, does that mean you can’t click “print permit”? Or when you click print permit you get an error saying “permit is not available”??

Permit disappearing means that the actual "print permit" button has disappeared from the screen.

After the test, you can still click the permit button and you will get an error message like "permit not available since student already sat for the test." But this does not mean your permit "disappeared".

 

[chromuffin]

Permit disappearing means that the actual "print permit" button has disappeared from the screen.

After the test, you can still click the permit button and you will get an error message like "permit not available since student already sat for the test." But this does not mean your permit "disappeared".

This is a sad day then lol

 

[Kaolat_p]

The score is out guys!

My experience
Background: international Asian med student, will graduate next year


Step 1: 270 01/19/18


Preparation time: 6.5 months with 0 day dedicated because clinical rotations in my country are pretty intense.

Study time varied from 0-6 hrs each day depended on my free time between night shifts and things.


UWSA 1: 264 3 wks before

UWSA 2: 270 2 wks before

NMBE 8 254 2 wks before

NMBE 7 246 ~1 wk before

NMBE 6: 279 2 days before

Free 120: 91% 1 day before

Uworld: 1st pass, timed, not random: 81%

2nd pass, timed, random: 96%


Real deal: 267 09/04/18


Material used

MTB 2 for internal med

MTB 3 for others

First aid step 2 CK

Kaplan lecture note

UWORLD


Looking back, I think I wasted too much time with all those books which cause unnecessary stress. If I could do it again, I will just read MTB2,3 to make the transition to UWORLD easier and be done with that because the real exam will not be like anything you’ve prepared for anyway lol

Personally, I think Step 2ck is a lot harder than Step 1. I don’t even know What am I doing at the time haha

 

[dravj]

The score is out guys!

My experience
Background: international Asian med student, will graduate next year


Step 1: 270 01/19/18


Preparation time: 6.5 months with 0 day dedicated because clinical rotations in my country are pretty intense.

Study time varied from 0-6 hrs each day depended on my free time between night shifts and things.


UWSA 1: 264 3 wks before

UWSA 2: 270 2 wks before

NMBE 8 254 2 wks before

NMBE 7 246 ~1 wk before

NMBE 6: 279 2 days before

Free 120: 91% 1 day before

Uworld: 1st pass, timed, not random: 81%

2nd pass, timed, random: 96%


Real deal: 267 09/04/18


Material used

MTB 2 for internal med

MTB 3 for others

First aid step 2 CK

Kaplan lecture note

UWORLD


Looking back, I think I wasted too much time with all those books which cause unnecessary stress. If I could do it again, I will just read MTB2,3 to make the transition to UWORLD easier and be done with that because the real exam will not be like anything you’ve prepared for anyway lol

Personally, I think Step 2ck is a lot harder than Step 1. I don’t even know What am I doing at the time haha

can you please elaborate why it was so different from uworld?
thanks in advance, these posts are making me really nervous now

 

[Zora98]

Got my email! scores are coming out in 10 minutes

 

[Kaolat_p]

can you please elaborate why it was so different from uworld?
thanks in advance, these posts are making me really nervous now

I guess the main problem is that a lot of real exam content is the thing that you’ve never seen before or not even familiar with, like it’s not in any material I mentioned above. Sorry I can’t be more specific because of the restriction ^^”

In step 1, if you can remember all of the first aid book, you are pretty much guaruntee a good score. But it’s not like that in step 2ck.

 

[dravj]

I guess the main problem is that a lot of real exam content is the thing that you’ve never seen before or not even familiar with, like it’s not in any material I mentioned above. Sorry I can’t be more specific because of the restriction ^^”

In step 1, if you can remember all of the first aid book, you are pretty much guaruntee a good score. But it’s not like that in step 2ck.

understood, thanks

 

[itmeusmle]

understood, thanks

When I did UWSA 2, NBME 8, schools NBME CCSE, I felt like 50-60% were easy, 25-30% were of higher difficulty but familiar, and the remainder I was unfamiliar with (haven't seen in UW/MTB2/3). I think the people who achieve the higher scores nail all the easy Q's and don't leave any easy points on the table. I felt the same on the actual exam. Everyone uses the same resources. So, I would imagine we all know approximately the same material. I use an indicator for Uworld with any question that is being answered >50% means I absolutely must know that topic cold since a majority are answering it correctly and that puts me in line with the average.

 

[LowContrast]

Long time lurker. Reading this thread helped a lot with keeping me focused and motivated, so I wanted to share my experience, now that I have my score back.

First things first:
Western european medical student. I'm taking the steps in parallel to my national exams. Had 6 weeks of dedicated time, but prepared with the brosencephalon anki deck for Step 2 before dedicated period. I also kept using the brosencephalon Anki cards for Step 1 when I was done with that, which might have helped score some basic science points.

The exam was strange, for sure. I didn't really feel bad coming out, but I wasn't sure about my performance AT ALL. There were enough gimme-type questions that I was pretty sure I passed. But there were also enough questions where I could only narrow down the correct answer to 2 or 3 options and had to make an educated guess. This was kind of nerve-wrecking in the weeks following the test and was definitely worse than after Step 1.
Not sure if I have a crappy memory or just a healthy mode of repression, but I could hardly remember any specific questions coming out of the test center.

Step 1: 260+
Step 2CK: 270+

Uworld first pass, timed random: 81%; 2nd pass: 93%

CMS Forms (offline):
EM: 86%
FM 1: 90%; FM 2: 90%
IM 3: 86%; IM 4: 94%
Neuro 3: 94%; Neuro 4: 85%
OBGYN 3: 74%; OBGYN 4: 84%
Peds 3: 80%; Peds 4: 92%
Psych 3: 86%; Psych 4: 80%
Surg 3: 92%; Surg 4: 85%

NBME 6: offline 95% - 263? (4 weeks out)
NBME 7: offline 90% - 258? (3 weeks out)

UWSA 1: 272 (2.5 weeks out)
NBME 8: 254 (1.5 weeks out)
UWSA 2: 267 (1 week out)
Free 120: 88% correct

Other Material:
MTB 2 one pass, MTB 3 halfway, then I gave up on it. Didn't feel I got too much out of it and was getting kind of burned out from reading books.
UpToDate for reading up on stuff

I didn't have any of the US shelf exams to prepare me for the core content, so I initially read through MTB 2 and did a pass through UW. Then I spent 10 days doing just the CMS Forms and going through MTB 3 before starting my 2nd pass of UW.
I tried to reason my way through most questions on my second pass, instead of simply answering from memory.

What helped my a lot was adding 3-4 UW blocks on to every NBME or UWSA session to simulate the real length (or more).

Good luck to everyone still waiting for their scores, and especially to all those who are still in preparation-mode.
There's light at the end of the tunnel.

- Edited for minor changes

 

[Propofol_Plug]

The score is out guys!

My experience
Background: international Asian med student, will graduate next year


Step 1: 270 01/19/18


Preparation time: 6.5 months with 0 day dedicated because clinical rotations in my country are pretty intense.

Study time varied from 0-6 hrs each day depended on my free time between night shifts and things.


UWSA 1: 264 3 wks before

UWSA 2: 270 2 wks before

NMBE 8 254 2 wks before

NMBE 7 246 ~1 wk before

NMBE 6: 279 2 days before

Free 120: 91% 1 day before

Uworld: 1st pass, timed, not random: 81%

2nd pass, timed, random: 96%


Real deal: 267 09/04/18


Material used

MTB 2 for internal med

MTB 3 for others

First aid step 2 CK

Kaplan lecture note

UWORLD


Looking back, I think I wasted too much time with all those books which cause unnecessary stress. If I could do it again, I will just read MTB2,3 to make the transition to UWORLD easier and be done with that because the real exam will not be like anything you’ve prepared for anyway lol

Personally, I think Step 2ck is a lot harder than Step 1. I don’t even know What am I doing at the time haha

Congrats stellar scores!!!

 

[Propofol_Plug]

Long time lurker. Reading this thread helped a lot with keeping me focused and motivated, so I wanted to share my experience, now that I have my score back.

First things first:
Western european medical student. I'm taking the steps in parallel to my national exams. Had 6 weeks of dedicated time, but prepared with the brosencephalon anki deck for Step 2 before dedicated period. I also kept using the brosencephalon Anki cards for Step 1 when I was done with that, which might have helped score some basic science points.

The exam was strange, for sure. I didn't really feel bad coming out, but I wasn't sure about my performance AT ALL. There were enough gimme-type questions that I was pretty sure I passed. But there were also enough questions where I could only narrow down the correct answer to 2 or 3 options and had to make an educated guess. This was kind of nerve-wrecking in the weeks following the test and was definitely worse than after Step 1.
Not sure if I have a crappy memory or just a healthy mode of repression, but I could hardly remember any specific questions coming out of the test center.

Step 1: 260+
Step 2CK: 270+

Uworld first pass, timed random: 81%; 2nd pass: 93%

CMS Forms (offline):
EM: 86%
FM 1: 90%; FM 2: 90%
IM 3: 86%; IM 4: 94%
Neuro 3: 94%; Neuro 4: 85%
OBGYN 3: 74%; OBGYN 4: 84%
Peds 3: 80%; Peds 4: 92%
Psych 3: 86%; Psych 4: 80%
Surg 3: 92%; Surg 4: 85%

NBME 6: offline 95% - 263? (4 weeks out)
NBME 7: offline 90% - 258? (3 weeks out)

UWSA 1: 272 (2.5 weeks out)
NBME 8: 254 (1.5 weeks out)
UWSA 2: 267 (1 week out)
Free 120: 88% correct

Other Material:
MTB 2 one pass, MTB 3 halfway, then I gave up on it. Didn't feel I got too much out of it and was getting kind of burned out from reading books.
UpToDate for reading up on stuff

I didn't have any of the US shelf exams to prepare me for the core content, so I initially read through MTB 2 and did a pass through UW. Then I spent 10 days doing just the CMS Forms and going through MTB 3 before starting my 2nd pass of UW.
I tried to reason my way through most questions on my second pass, instead of simply answering from memory.

What helped my a lot was adding 3-4 UW blocks on to every NBME or UWSA session to simulate the real length (or more).

Good luck to everyone still waiting for their scores, and especially to all those who are still in preparation-mode.
There's light at the end of the tunnel.

- Edited for minor changes

Wow congrats well done!!

 

[Questionarius]

If I take Step 2 CK this Friday 9/28, when should I receive the score? And will I receive the score any sooner than if I were to take the test next Tuesday 10/2?

 

[snaliger]

FYI I scored 10 points higher than my most recent and best practice test (UWSA2). Not that my score is good or anything but I was able to do better than all my practice tests if that provides reassurance to anyone who is struggling as much as I did.

 

[itmeusmle]

FYI I scored 10 points higher than my most recent and best practice test (UWSA2). Not that my score is good or anything but I was able to do better than all my practice tests if that provides reassurance to anyone who is struggling as much as I did.

FYI I scored 10 points higher than my most recent and best practice test (UWSA2). Not that my score is good or anything but I was able to do better than all my practice tests if that provides reassurance to anyone who is struggling as much as I did.

Congrats on the pass! What were your practice scores if you don't mind sharing?

 

[Adamantinoma]

.

 

[Northerncardinal]

To the recent test takers,
Ive been hearing a lot about the real exam being very different from uworld.
Can you elaborate what you mean by that. Is it the content tested? More low yield stuff or the high yield cases? Or the Q stem length?
If uworld isnt helping, How to study for this exam then?
How to tackle it?
The recent exam experiences are making me really anxious

 

[hushhush88]

To the recent test takers,
Ive been hearing a lot about the real exam being very different from uworld.
Can you elaborate what you mean by that. Is it the content tested? More low yield stuff or the high yield cases? Or the Q stem length?
If uworld isnt helping, How to study for this exam then?
How to tackle it?
The recent exam experiences are making me really anxious

I took mine in mid-August. It wasn’t that it was super different from Uworld, it just had a lot of very confusing answer choices. For me, absorbing all the concepts in Uworld will be enough for this exam.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[GreenMachine86]

Here are my experiences with the exam, aimed at all you SDN readers like me who are not really shooting for the 270s... :

Uworld: ~59% (first pass on random timed, did 3/4th of the questions, was scoring upper 60s, some 70s on sections in last few weeks though)
UWSA1 (~1.5 mo out) 224
UWSA2 (4 weeks out) 209
NBME 8 (3 weeks out) 198 — Rescheduled exam at this point for 3 weeks later than intended
CK - 222

A few things about my impression of the test: I found that the proportions of subjects tested paralleled that of Uworld. So for example, I really struggled with peds and ob/gyn questions early on, so I made a focused effort to study a ton of peds and ob/gyn and to do all the OnlineMedEd videos for those subjects. I found that Neuro wasn't very represented on Uworld and so I didn't hit neuro very hard at all prior to taking the test. On test day, I was really happy that I'd put in more work on ob and peds and that I hadn't wasted time on rare neuro. My score report reflected this choice: my worst section was neuro, but there wasn't very much neuro on the test anyway (Obviously there was some neuro; it just wasn't Step 1 level stuff where you needed to remember spinal cord anatomy like the back of your hand).

A few surprises on my score report: on uworld my best section had been pulm and crit care, but on score report resp ended up being one of my weaker areas. Also, in spite of my extra studying, my obstetrics was still one of my weaker areas. Also, I did not do any auxiliary -- nada -- in micro, immuno, or heme/onc besides the questions that came up in uworld because I felt I was reasonably strong in those areas, and immuno and heme were by far my best sections (I didn't think there were very many questions on the exam in those areas, however). Other than those surprises, my areas of strengths and weaknesses paralleled those on uworld and also how I felt walking out of the exam.

Obviously, if you look at my practice test progression above, you'd think "hmm, that sucks that his scores progressively went down as he got closer to the test." Yeah, it was discouraging, but I am 100% sure that I knew more about medicine on test day than I did a month or so earlier when I took that first uworld practice exam. I think it is pretty clear that doing more uworld questions correlates with better scores, period, because you become much better equipped to rule out answer choices that you know are wrong. I am very easily duped by distractors, which I think creates an asymptote for getting significantly higher scores.

Is it frustrating that all of that extra studying didn't reflect in a better score on the exam? of course it is a bit discouraging. However, it was also a very good demonstration that the test is not an indictment on me or my ability to practice medicine, since the extra knowledge that I gained from studying obviously did not budge my actual score at all from where I was sitting a month earlier, but I am sure that I absorbed it in a meaningful and useful way.

I ultimately got the exact score that the usmle-score-correlation website predicted based on my total uworld percentage, and generally in the upper-range of what I was hoping/expecting to get based on my scores leading up to the exam.

 

[dravj]

Just gave the exam... honestly have no idea what just went down. My thoughts echo what everyone has posted earlier. Questions sort of similar to uwsa, but no mock test really prepares you for the real thing.
It's going to be be a grueling wait for the results now.

 

[Adamantinoma]

.

 

[karl32]

For those of you who took exams on Wednesdays, how long did you have to wait for scores to be released? I took my exam on 9/12/18. Not sure if I should be expecting my score this Wednesday or not.