Step 2 CS- lots and lots of mistakes

[MaxillaryCa]

---

Members don't see this ad.

So I took the step 2 CS today. I think I was more stressed during this exam than even the step 1. Hopefully someone could please brighten my day, because I made a lot of dumb dumb mistakes.
Things I did wrong:

1. Missed a pretty straight forward diagnosis when talking to the SP at the end of the case. (Gave two others, but she kindve just frowned :[ )
2. Someone asked me a challenging question, and I feel like I just fudged the answer.
3. On 3-4 cases, I wasn’t able to finish completely. I finished saying the diagnoses and investigations but I just didn’t have time to ask if they had any more questions...
4. One case I did part of a main physical and a full secondary physical.
5. On another case, i didn’t do the correct physical for the diagnosis I gave. Why I did that is just beyond me.
6. One case i did a completely different physical and realized towards the end that I had to do another physical. I managed to complete like 90% of it but I wasn’t able to finish the case (ask any more questions at the closure)
7. Forgot obs/gyn history in that case ^
8. Didn’t counsel one patient about smoking.

What I did do:
1. Tried to be empathetic as much as I could
2. Washed hands regularly.
3. Always asked the whole history except that one case ^^^^
4. Always had 3 diagnoses with good supporting details.

Please let me know, if I just fudged this. Thanks guys

 

[MaxillaryCa]

I did all of this except #3, didn't ask OB history on a single patient lol. Also made lots more errors including not asking for family history on literally half the patients. Afterward I was so, so sure that I had failed lol. Still passed with lots of room to spare.

A clinical skills teacher at my school said that if you know enough to know what you messed up, you probably know enough to pass. Try not to stress about it!

Thats what I find really weird about this test. I did so many things right, but just a couple things makes you really doubt whether you're okay or not. BUT thanks for the encouragement! I just feel the need to compare at the moment, sorry about that lol. Did you take it this year? I heard they made it "harder" whatever that means

 

[Poit]

So I took the step 2 CS today. I think I was more stressed during this exam than even the step 1. Hopefully someone could please brighten my day, because I made a lot of dumb dumb mistakes.
Things I did wrong:

1. Missed a pretty straight forward diagnosis when talking to the SP at the end of the case. (Gave two others, but she kindve just frowned :[ )
2. Someone asked me a challenging question, and I feel like I just fudged the answer.
3. On 3-4 cases, I wasn’t able to finish completely. I finished saying the diagnoses and investigations but I just didn’t have time to ask if they had any more questions...
4. One case I did part of a main physical and a full secondary physical.
5. On another case, i didn’t do the correct physical for the diagnosis I gave. Why I did that is just beyond me.
6. One case i did a completely different physical and realized towards the end that I had to do another physical. I managed to complete like 90% of it but I wasn’t able to finish the case (ask any more questions at the closure)
7. Forgot obs/gyn history in that case ^
8. Didn’t counsel one patient about smoking.

What I did do:
1. Tried to be empathetic as much as I could
2. Washed hands regularly.
3. Always asked the whole history except that one case ^^^^
4. Always had 3 diagnoses with good supporting details.

Please let me know, if I just fudged this. Thanks guys

Tons of people worry they failed. Far far less actually do. You should be fine.

 

[MaxillaryCa]

Yep, I'm an M4 and just got my score back this past month! And just remember there is TONS of wiggle room for mistakes. The test is designed for students who have a minimum of 3 more years of learning lol, not attendings who are supposed to be able to do everything right. Lots of my classmates were also freaking out about this exam and everyone has passed so far.

Thats good to hear! I'm worried about those 3-4 cases where I ran out of time right after I finished giving the differentials and investigations. Is that sufficient for a closure? Or does that count a lot against you?

 

[MaxillaryCa]

No idea! At least for me my closure was just like "here's what I think might be wrong, here's what we're going to do, does that sound good, what questions do you have" so it sounds like you got the bulk of it even in those few cases where you ran out of time.

That’s kinda how I feel about it too. They did ask me challenging questions throughout the encounter as well. Eh well nothing I can do about it now. Thanks for all the help!

 

[956060]

What kind of mistakes are considered too much!? People say there’s tons of wiggle room but on this site they come back and say “barely passed” for what seems like little mistakes. I def forgot to include physical findings and instead said normal for some because I was on autopilot. Although I felt ok about 8 cases, Feel like I made huge errors on 3-4 cases. Based on sdn I def failed but trying to stay positive.

 

[956060]

But you don't actually know what those people did or didn't do. Maybe they had some major screw ups and didn't even know about it. That's my point - the people who are failed are always saying "I felt fine, I have no idea what went wrong, didn't make any major mistakes" and the people who passed always can list like 20 things they did wrong lol. And I think on the thread you posted/deleted people (including me) said you were probably fine. If it's any consolation, I had super sparse PE sections in all my notes with lots of "normal" and not even writing a bunch of stuff haha, plus stuff I thought I did but wasn't 100% sure looking back.

Thanks for trying to calm everyone down who is freaking out. Everytime I think I’ll stop thinking about it, I start obsessing about it again even though I know it won’t changr the outcome.

 

[MaxillaryCa]

Hey everyone just to update. I passed cis and sep with higher performance. Ice was definitely borderline. If I had to comment on how to avoid having ice in borderline, I would say make sure you finish the cases even if you have to skip out on one or two examination points. Good luck everyone!