USMLE Official 2021 Step 2 CK Experiences With Scores Thread

[EMDoc22]

All right y'all, let's get this party started. Here's to a smooth sailing third year, no Prometric drama with Step 2, in-person aways and interviews, and no CS/hopefully PE.

School: bone wizard

Step 1: mid 230s
Level 1: mid 570s

Step 2 goal: 250+
Level 2 goal: 600+

Interests: EM, OB/GYN (distant second)

Rotations (in order): Peds, IM, FM, Psych, Neuro, Surgery, EM, OB/GYN and then several electives mixed in

Resources: UWorld, Online MedEd, Tzanki deck since it's shorter and the Step 1 decks burned me out, might check out B&B for Step 2 when it comes out since Dr. Ryan saved my butt on Step 1

My rotations go until the end of June and unfortunately my schedule is pretty backloaded with my final 3 rotations being EM, OB and ICU so I guess that means I'll be taking Step 2 in early July. Obviously I'm not sure how auditions/aways will be playing out next summer and if PE will be a thing so a lot up in the air right now in terms of scheduling. My school does COMATs for our shelf exams but I don't plan on using any DO-specific resources for COMATs or Level 2 as I've heard UWorld is all you need.

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[HopeImakeit]

So what is the consensus on the NBME practice exams? I'm taking one tomorrow and I'm not sure which I should take/how much they under/overpredict

Good for practice. Don't waste too much time reviewing them. NBME 6 is the easiest form but with a harsh curve, NBME 7 is trash, NBME 8 is supposed to be the best of them.

 

[ohmanwaddup]

From what I've read, it seems like NBME 8 is the most predictive. I guess NBME 7 is brutal and confidence-crushing but I don't know much about NBME 6. I'm doing NBME 8 as a baseline in a couple weeks and that will be the only NBME exam I do.

I need to be slapped silly, Ill do NBME 7 next week

 

[Steve_Zissou]

Jesus Christ, I felt like I was doing really well and that NBME 8 was pretty easy, then I got my score. 223. ****!

Edit: after reading on the inter webs, it seems like this is not uncommon for NBME 8.

 

[dilg]

Does anybody have good mneomonic for developmental milestones in peds?....i have hard time remembering those details

 

[calivianya]

Does anybody have good mneomonic for developmental milestones in peds?....i have hard time remembering those details

I just made a separate small cloze deletion Anki deck off of a developmental milestone chart from uworld with the milestones and the ages as different cloze deletions... like the infant has a social smile::what social ability at 2 months. And I just brute forced my reviews on it the weekend before I started my peds rotation.

I don’t think there is an easy way to remember this stuff before your peds rotation unless you’ve had a kid. By the end of the rotation though, once you’ve done 100 million well child appointments (if your rotation has outpatient exposure) and your preceptor has asked you to assess milestones at every single one of them, you’ll know them pretty well.

 

[HopeImakeit]

Does anybody have good mneomonic for developmental milestones in peds?....i have hard time remembering those details

You can try revisiting the reproductive section of FA for step 1. I remember it had some mneumonics on stuff like that.

For step 1 I didn't even try to learn peds milestones or placental pathologies, and I remember I didn't even get 1 question on them. But for step 2 they are very high yield.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

Reading all of this makes me pretty nervous. Step 2 is < 1 month away and I haven't done anything for a baseline yet (still have one last COMAT to take). I'm starting to get nervous lol.

 

[Steve_Zissou]

Reading all of this makes me pretty nervous. Step 2 is < 1 month away and I haven't done anything for a baseline yet (still have one last COMAT to take). I'm starting to get nervous lol.

You’ll be fine, you’ve been killing it all year. Taking my UWSA with a hangover is what I think got me. I’m certain my next UWSA will be significantly higher.

That being said, I have 18 days and I’m terrified rn.

 

[calivianya]

Reading all of this makes me pretty nervous. Step 2 is < 1 month away and I haven't done anything for a baseline yet (still have one last COMAT to take). I'm starting to get nervous lol.

I’m sort of in the same boat - I still have a COMAT left, too. My last COMAT is 12 days before step 2 and I start my last rotation of third year tomorrow! I’m planning on doing a short block of surgery questions (maybe 20qs) on comquest every day to prepare for the COMAT since comquest has been A+ for scoring well on the COMATs so far, but also doing just straight random uworld blocks from here on out so I’m preparing for them both simultaneously, with a slightly higher focus on surgery. I’m going to take practice tests every Saturday from here on out.

I am YET AGAIN not going to finish uworld before step 2. I didn’t finish it before step 1, and I meant to do better this time, but I have >2900 questions left so it’s not happening. I have five weeks and three days to go. Makes me want to

 

[fldoctorgirl]

I am YET AGAIN not going to finish uworld before step 2. I didn’t finish it before step 1, and I meant to do better this time, but I have >2900 questions left so it’s not happening. I have five weeks and three days to go. Makes me want to

My plan for Step 2 just feels so....much less than Step 1?? It's weird. I should be done with all of UWorld by the time I take the test. I saved ambulatory med and the EM questions, plus any new questions that they've added. My plan is to do those + incorrects, so hopefully I'll have time to get through almost everything. But...that's literally it? Plus like 30 mins of Anki a day. It feels like nothing. I feel like I was in such a grind for Step 1 at this point and had such a plan locked down and I'm so nonchalant about it this time around that it's almost freaking me out.

 

[Steve_Zissou]

My plan for Step 2 just feels so....much less than Step 1?? It's weird. I should be done with all of UWorld by the time I take the test. I saved ambulatory med and the EM questions, plus any new questions that they've added. My plan is to do those + incorrects, so hopefully I'll have time to get through almost everything. But...that's literally it? Plus like 30 mins of Anki a day. It feels like nothing. I feel like I was in such a grind for Step 1 at this point and had such a plan locked down and I'm so nonchalant about it this time around that it's almost freaking me out.

I’ve finished UWorld once and am doing my second round, 80 questions a day + reviewing questions/annotating master the boards with incorrects. That takes me about 3 hours first thing in the morning, then I spend 2 or so hours doing Anki (100 new because I didn’t finish all of it + reviews), then I spend another hour or two reviewing sections of master the boards/first aid so I cover everything. I also have a running list in a notebook with little tidbits I don’t have down 100% that I review once a week.

 

[ohmanwaddup]

My plan for Step 2 just feels so....much less than Step 1?? It's weird. I should be done with all of UWorld by the time I take the test. I saved ambulatory med and the EM questions, plus any new questions that they've added. My plan is to do those + incorrects, so hopefully I'll have time to get through almost everything. But...that's literally it? Plus like 30 mins of Anki a day. It feels like nothing. I feel like I was in such a grind for Step 1 at this point and had such a plan locked down and I'm so nonchalant about it this time around that it's almost freaking me out.

I did a bigger deck than you but same. After tmr I'll be under 400 reviews a day, so like 1.5 hours max. Im wayyyy to chill

 

[fldoctorgirl]

I’ve finished UWorld once and am doing my second round, 80 questions a day + reviewing questions/annotating master the boards with incorrects. That takes me about 3 hours first thing in the morning, then I spend 2 or so hours doing Anki (100 new because I didn’t finish all of it + reviews), then I spend another hour or two reviewing sections of master the boards/first aid so I cover everything. I also have a running list in a notebook with little tidbits I don’t have down 100% that I review once a week.

I was thinking of maybe adding in some content review but wasn't sure what to use. Do you like master the boards?

 

[calivianya]

Speaking of master the boards, the guy who wrote them is doing a live online class for step 2 starting May 30th running through June 24th. It’s perfect timing for me since I don’t take step 2 until June 30th, but it’s a little annoying that the timing is all in EST and I’m no longer in that time zone so I’d probably miss the first few minutes of a lot of the classes just due to leaving the hospital right around when the class starts. Not to mention I’m going to take a bunch of call during this rotation, so I’d likely miss some lectures just because I’d get called in.

I’m honestly thinking about it, though. I’ve attended a couple of his free live lectures before and I thought they were great, and it would give me structure, which I badly lack. He says he’ll go through master the boards cover to cover in four weeks.

Idk. I’ve got a week to think about it before the course starts.

 

[Steve_Zissou]

I was thinking of maybe adding in some content review but wasn't sure what to use. Do you like master the boards?

It’s crap, but so is every other step 2 book I’ve seen. I mainly use it so it has a framework and I annotate my info/UWorld info into it for later comprehensive review. I’m adding in some Divine Intervention for these last two or so weeks.

 

[ohmanwaddup]

It’s crap, but so is every other step 2 book I’ve seen. I mainly use it so it has a framework and I annotate my info/UWorld info into it for later comprehensive review. I’m adding in some Divine Intervention for these last two or so weeks.

Dirty USLME recommended secrets to step 2. its alright

 

[Deecee2DO]

Does your first pass percent on Uworld CK really matter? Im still not over 70% correct overall and im shooting for 260s. Kind of worries me. I dont understand how people could possibly be in the 70s and 80s first pass on it its insanely hard. Id say most of the time i score high 50s-mid 70s but mostly in the 60s

 

[Hippocrates II]

Does your first pass percent on Uworld CK really matter? Im still not over 70% correct overall and im shooting for 260s. Kind of worries me. I dont understand how people could possibly be in the 70s and 80s first pass on it its insanely hard. Id say most of the time i score high 50s-mid 70s but mostly in the 60s

I did anki pretty religiously this year and I've been in the mid-upper 70's on uworld as of late. If I took away all of the answers I easily get right because anki used the same picture as the question stem and gave it away, I'd probably be in the 60's as well. I'm not really concerned because there is just so much in these questions that I have truly never seen or heard of before, and I'm sure that's true of most people. Just trying to remember whatever I can from these questions and go from there

 

[sunshinefl]

Does your first pass percent on Uworld CK really matter? Im still not over 70% correct overall and im shooting for 260s. Kind of worries me. I dont understand how people could possibly be in the 70s and 80s first pass on it its insanely hard. Id say most of the time i score high 50s-mid 70s but mostly in the 60s

I got exactly 70% on my step 2 UWorld q bank, but as I’ve said I only did like ~12% of it.

I got a 238.

 

[calivianya]

Does your first pass percent on Uworld CK really matter? Im still not over 70% correct overall and im shooting for 260s. Kind of worries me. I dont understand how people could possibly be in the 70s and 80s first pass on it its insanely hard. Id say most of the time i score high 50s-mid 70s but mostly in the 60s

I really don’t think first pass uworld percent correct means anything. So many people are using premade Anki decks so their first pass average is going to be a lot higher because they’ve had the specific concept/weird idea combination from a hard question as an Anki card already. You can’t compare yourself to those people.

Also a lot of people are using it to check their knowledge they learned some other way, not as a primary resource. That’s going to change how the scores go, too.

I’m not using premade decks (using Anki, but making my own off things I don’t know), and I’m sitting at exactly 60% correct at ~850 questions in. I feel pretty good about it... but maybe I’m just delusional.

 

[Deecee2DO]

I really don’t think first pass uworld percent correct means anything. So many people are using premade Anki decks so their first pass average is going to be a lot higher because they’ve had the specific concept/weird idea combination from a hard question as an Anki card already. You can’t compare yourself to those people.

Also a lot of people are using it to check their knowledge they learned some other way, not as a primary resource. That’s going to change how the scores go, too.

I’m not using premade decks (using Anki, but making my own off things I don’t know), and I’m sitting at exactly 60% correct at ~850 questions in. I feel pretty good about it... but maybe I’m just delusional.

Youre right this makes me feel better lol And to know youre in 60s as well and not using decks is reassuring since youre consistently a baller. Thank God for SDN i was having a mental breakdown

 

[Deecee2DO]

I got exactly 70% on my step 2 UWorld q bank, but as I’ve said I only did like ~12% of it.

I got a 238.

Did you use premade decks?

 

[Steve_Zissou]

Does your first pass percent on Uworld CK really matter? Im still not over 70% correct overall and im shooting for 260s. Kind of worries me. I dont understand how people could possibly be in the 70s and 80s first pass on it its insanely hard. Id say most of the time i score high 50s-mid 70s but mostly in the 60s

I finished with 66-67% my first run thought. Was in the 50s-60s for the first half, almost never dropped below 70 for the second half. On my second run with an average of 81%. Small, dumb, test strategy mistakes are what are mostly keeping me from 90%+. It is infuriating, but I figure it’s the norm.

 

[ohmanwaddup]

sitting at 69.2% right now, but I did Dorian. While dorian has a ton of Uworld in it, I feel like there are not too many that I get right just because of it. Unless its a unique answer or picture straight from Dorian, I usually can't tell if it was a card till afterward.

Progression wise I started out getting 50s-60s, but over the last month pretty consistently get 70-85

 

[sunshinefl]

Did you use premade decks?

No. I didn’t do any premade decks. I did make anki cards for myself as I felt necessary and in my own way which isn’t very anki-like (much longer) and didn’t review them in an anki fashion (more like any time I revisited the card to add to it or if I had another question on it). I did do some comquest questions as well and added to the same deck in the same way.

 

[Deecee2DO]

I finished with 66-67% my first run thought. Was in the 50s-60s for the first half, almost never dropped below 70 for the second half. On my second run with an average of 81%. Small, dumb, test strategy mistakes are what are mostly keeping me from 90%+. It is infuriating, but I figure it’s the norm.

81% is great man! Whats your goal score?

 

[Steve_Zissou]

81% is great man! Whats your goal score?

260, but I would be happy with anything over 250 tbh

 

[fldoctorgirl]

Does your first pass percent on Uworld CK really matter? Im still not over 70% correct overall and im shooting for 260s. Kind of worries me. I dont understand how people could possibly be in the 70s and 80s first pass on it its insanely hard. Id say most of the time i score high 50s-mid 70s but mostly in the 60s

I'm at exactly 70% overall, have around 800 unseen. I'm not super worried about it because the way I used UWorld for step 2 is so different than for step 1.

 

[HopeImakeit]

Does your first pass percent on Uworld CK really matter? Im still not over 70% correct overall and im shooting for 260s. Kind of worries me. I dont understand how people could possibly be in the 70s and 80s first pass on it its insanely hard. Id say most of the time i score high 50s-mid 70s but mostly in the 60s

Finished my first pass with 62,5% correct using the qbank as my primary learning tool and did no anki (saw maybe like 400 cards).

Second pass is 84,5% ~ 50% completed and UWSA1 was 249 last week.

 

[ohmanwaddup]

Speaking of Uworld, how do yall use it? I've just been making cards for things I had no idea of (at about 200 with 68% of Uworld done). I read through explanations and what not, try and understand what I went wrong, but I'm not pouring over notes or anything.

 

[HopeImakeit]

Speaking of Uworld, how do yall use it? I've just been making cards for things I had no idea of (at about 200 with 68% of Uworld done). I read through explanations and what not, try and understand what I went wrong, but I'm not pouring over notes or anything.

Same, on my second pass I have a word doc where I add some of my incorrects + very HY stuff.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

Speaking of Uworld, how do yall use it? I've just been making cards for things I had no idea of (at about 200 with 68% of Uworld done). I read through explanations and what not, try and understand what I went wrong, but I'm not pouring over notes or anything.

Haven't done anything for first pass since I'm using it as a learning resource. Will likely keep a doc of factoids on incorrects when I do a pass of my incorrects. I am not doing all of UW again.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

It finally happened.

 

[ohmanwaddup]

View attachment 337651
It finally happened.

lol you crazy

was this a full 40Q block? how much did your percent correct just shoot up lol

 

[fldoctorgirl]

lol you crazy

was this a full 40Q block? how much did your percent correct just shoot up lol

Nah 20.

Really disappointingly 0% lol. Still at 70 overall.

 

[calivianya]

Speaking of Uworld, how do yall use it? I've just been making cards for things I had no idea of (at about 200 with 68% of Uworld done). I read through explanations and what not, try and understand what I went wrong, but I'm not pouring over notes or anything.

I do the exact same; I have a ton of cards, though. I think I also err on making cards on minor details of things I otherwise know well, if that minor detail led me to miss a question. Mine is a combo of uworld (~30% done), comquest (finished banks for most rotations), and random factoids I found out on rotations that I hadn’t known before. I’m at about 1300 cards so far, and very behind on my reviews.

It’s been way worse than my step 1 deck. My step 1 deck I made this way was only 1200 cards total, and that was with about 1k uworld questions unseen when I took step 1.

 

[ohmanwaddup]

I do the exact same; I have a ton of cards, though. I think I also err on making cards on minor details of things I otherwise know well, if that minor detail led me to miss a question. Mine is a combo of uworld (~30% done), comquest (finished banks for most rotations), and random factoids I found out on rotations that I hadn’t known before. I’m at about 1300 cards so far, and very behind on my reviews.

It’s been way worse than my step 1 deck. My step 1 deck I made this way was only 1200 cards total, and that was with about 1k uworld questions unseen when I took step 1.

damn....

I only have like 300 uworld cards right now. I usually only make one if its not in dorian

 

[ohmanwaddup]

Well I’ve found my motivation today.

someone on the Reddit release thread had a 216 in step 1, and was scoring in the 240s-250s on NBMEs and UWSA

210 on step 2

Jesus Christ

 

[fldoctorgirl]

Well I’ve found my motivation today.

someone on the Reddit release thread had a 216 in step 1, and was scoring in the 240s-250s on NBMEs and UWSA

210 on step 2

Jesus Christ

I learned from Step 1 not to look at Reddit. Way too many outliers. This person probably had something similar happen to them on Step 1 and they likely don't test well for some reason (anxiety etc.).

 

[Steve_Zissou]

Well I’ve found my motivation today.

someone on the Reddit release thread had a 216 in step 1, and was scoring in the 240s-250s on NBMEs and UWSA

210 on step 2

Jesus Christ

I lost my motivation for today. Woke up early to get ready for UWSA2, found out that the power is out in my little apartment complex and the landlord said it will take a few hours. Looks like I’m only doing Anki and textbook review today.

 

[calivianya]

damn....

I only have like 300 uworld cards right now. I usually only make one if its not in dorian

That’s the difference. I’m not using any premade decks. I’m working harder not smarter lol

Well I’ve found my motivation today.

someone on the Reddit release thread had a 216 in step 1, and was scoring in the 240s-250s on NBMEs and UWSA

210 on step 2

Jesus Christ

Scary. Hopefully that will motivate me, too... I know those are outliers, but still.

 

[Steve_Zissou]

Update: power is back, motivation still nowhere to be found

 

[Deecee2DO]

Well I’ve found my motivation today.

someone on the Reddit release thread had a 216 in step 1, and was scoring in the 240s-250s on NBMEs and UWSA

210 on step 2

Jesus Christ

You dont know this persons back story. They could have been cheating on practice exams and looking stuff up. Happened to my boy in my class-looked stuff up all the time during practice tests and was “predicted” at mid 250s and scored mid 230s. People also lie. a lot.

 

[ohmanwaddup]

Just hit 70% correct with 70% of world completed. Oh yeah baby

 

[EMDoc22]

Just took my last COMAT and have one block left in third year. I'm taking the weekend off and will finish my first pass of UWorld early next week and then will start incorrects. I'm planning on doing an NBME for a baseline next weekend since I'll be about 5 weeks out and then will do the two UWSAs and free 120 closer to my exam. Still not experiencing any stress over Step 2 and I can't figure out if that's a good thing or bad thing.

 

[Steve_Zissou]

Half way through UWSA 2, so far one block is 85% second is 70%. Not great but not horrible, especially since I ran out of time on the first block and thought I was going to get 50%. ****! I also just remembered that I forgot to answer one of the drug as questions.

 

[Steve_Zissou]

Update: finished UWSA 2 after another night of less than optimal sleep (probably got 6 hours). Scored 256. First block 85%, second 70%, third 83%, and fourth 75%. Honestly felt awful the whole way through. Felt like I was missing a ton

 

[Deecee2DO]

Update: finished UWSA 2 after another night of less than optimal sleep (probably got 6 hours). Scored 256. First block 85%, second 70%, third 83%, and fourth 75%. Honestly felt awful the whole way through. Felt like I was missing a ton

How far out are you? And does Uwsa2 underpredict? I think youll hit 260s for sure

 

[Steve_Zissou]

How far out are you? And does Uwsa2 underpredict? I think youll hit 260s for sure

14 or so days. Inspired me to push even harder now that I’ve gotten a score near my goal. Helps not being hung over when I took it.

 

[ohmanwaddup]

been pooping the bed in wurold today. lots of 60% on my blocks. Dropped back down to 69% correct fml. taking NBME 7 on Saturday or Sunday

EDIT: Did even worse with my last few blocks of the day lol. Just what I need 3 weeks out