Step 2CK Question Length

[drLexus]

Can anyone comment on how long the questions are? I'm scared it'll be a full page of text which is my worst nightmare! Are they longer than the ones in UWorld?

Was there difficulty with timing during the exam? I usually finish my UWorld sections right on time, never really have any left over minutes. Is that going to be a problem?

Are they 4-5 lines or sometimes longer?

Thanks!

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[JRjcu08]

Can anyone comment on how long the questions are? I'm scared it'll be a full page of text which is my worst nightmare! Are they longer than the ones in UWorld?

Was there difficulty with timing during the exam? I usually finish my UWorld sections right on time, never really have any left over minutes. Is that going to be a problem?

Are they 4-5 lines or sometimes longer?

Thanks!

I took it today (yesterday? whatev.) and there were several that were LONG, as in the text took up the whole page + scroll for labs. Most of mine were at least 4-5 sentences, usually more.
I was tight on time nearly every section. Like people have been saying in other threads though, my last section was only 36 questions, but all the others were 44-45. Why not make every block 43??...

 

[StrangerX]

It's what you get when you have people who like to write novels write questions. As Goljan said, these people sit around thinking of ways to torture medical students.

 

[MrBeauregard]

Can anyone comment on how long the questions are? I'm scared it'll be a full page of text which is my worst nightmare! Are they longer than the ones in UWorld?

Was there difficulty with timing during the exam? I usually finish my UWorld sections right on time, never really have any left over minutes. Is that going to be a problem?

Are they 4-5 lines or sometimes longer?

Thanks!

I took CK this past Saturday. I did not feel that the questions were any longer than they were in UWorld. For every seemingly very long question stem there was a very short one to off-set it as well as quite a few medium length questions thrown in. Overall, I felt the question lengths were very manageable. I also think that since the typeface is pretty big on the screen at Prometric maybe people think they are longer than they actually are.

The most difficult part of this exam is not the question length; it's the fact that your brain never has time to rest. This test is written so that you aren't ever 100% sure about your answers for the ones you mark. Yes there are definitely gimmes, and plenty of them. But you just don't ever have time to rest. Your'e always reading, thinking, thinking, thinking, answering, guessing, and then moving on to do it again.

I usually finished with 12-15 minutes left per block; sometimes more and sometimes less. I almost always used every second of leftover time to go over my marked questions.

 

[Dr.CCM]

I would say the questions are slightly longer than uworld but not much. I typically had a little more time left on UWSA blocks than the test but not much.

 

[drLexus]

thanks for your replies, anyone else take the exam recently?

 

[NeuroAP86]

I would say the questions are slightly longer than uworld but not much. I typically had a little more time left on UWSA blocks than the test but not much.

Agree with this with the exception of a couple questions per block that were long. I am a pretty quick test taker but I seemed to run out of time on almost each block.

 

[umx]

There are over 300 questions so of course some are short and some are long 😛 but overall UWorld is a pretty good representation. The real questions were perhaps on average maybe a line or so longer, but that's probably recall bias 😉.

The time it takes you to get through a block depends much more on your stamina and ability to focus than it does on the question stem length. Towards the beginning I found myself completing blocks with 15-20 minutes to spare (my usual); towards the middle I was tiring out and with no end in sight I finished with less leftover time (~1-5 minutes to spare); towards the end you either get a rush of adrenaline and finish faster or you are tired and finish slower (I was a mix of both; 7th block was slow but 8th went better). My strategy is to get through all the questions once and go back to think seriously about ones I marked, so I relied on having at least 5-10 minutes of time to go back and spend quality time with the tricky Qs.

I would say the average question length across all my blocks was the same, and all my blocks had 41-45 questions each. If you find yourself regularly running out of time (or just barely finishing) during UWorld or NBME practice tests, the best thing to do is work on your speed for sure

 

[evilbooyaa]

Some questions might've been a little longer than UWorld, but overall they were about the same. If time is an issue on practice questions, work on speed reading or changing up tactics (reading the last line/question stem prior to reading the entire vignette). As other posters have stated, my strategy involved having 10-15 minutes at the end of every section to review the questions that I wasn't sure on (or any complicated ones that involved math that would take me more than 0.5 - 2 mins).

 

[kaleerkalut]

Some questions might've been a little longer than UWorld, but overall they were about the same. If time is an issue on practice questions, work on speed reading or changing up tactics (reading the last line/question stem prior to reading the entire vignette). As other posters have stated, my strategy involved having 10-15 minutes at the end of every section to review the questions that I wasn't sure on (or any complicated ones that involved math that would take me more than 0.5 - 2 mins).

Good to know. Timing is always a huge issue for me even when I do UWorld blocks (less so though than NBMEs).

 

[futuredoctor10]

thanks for your replies, anyone else take the exam recently?

Agree with this with the exception of a couple questions per block that were long. I am a pretty quick test taker but I seemed to run out of time on almost each block.

I took the exam recently. I would say compared to the practice exams, I had much less time per block to review my marked questions than on Step 1 and other exams.

 

[rule out normal]

They have the potential to be longer, and the average is longer than UW. Many are also harder and just weird. However, a minority are shorter than the average UW question.

 

[rule out normal]

Another reason people seem to be pressed for time is that they may be more cautious and thorough when analyzing the answer choices on the real thing.

 

[thehundredthone]

They have the potential to be longer, and the average is longer than UW. Many are also harder and just weird. However, a minority are shorter than the average UW question.

My personal experience was that most questions were 5 lines long at best and usually did not have too many irrelevant lab values. There were some UWorld length questions but I remember having to scroll down only for a handful of questions. (One of which was because there was a CT at the beginning of the question)

 

[CDI]

Sounds similar to how most recall the exam after Step 1.

 

[thehundredthone]

Sounds similar to how most recall the exam after Step 1.

Most of my Step 1 questions were 1-2 liners heh.

 

[je355804]

I took it today (yesterday? whatev.) and there were several that were LONG, as in the text took up the whole page + scroll for labs. Most of mine were at least 4-5 sentences, usually more.
I was tight on time nearly every section. Like people have been saying in other threads though, my last section was only 36 questions, but all the others were 44-45. Why not make every block 43??...

I've yet to take it, but does no one else think the ability to speed read is an absolute trivial indication of how accomplished of a physician you will be?

Will Mr. X truly be a better neurosurgeon than Mr. Y because he can read at a rapid pace?

I believe the examiners make some questionable decisions regarding the structure of this exam. I understand the school of thought that physicians need to be quick decision makers, however, clearly the exam in it's current form lends a serious advantage to those who are more adept at reading rapidly. Which I contest has no correlation to one's ability to be adept at their profession.

~Granted, this is all based on anecdotal evidence... I suppose I should reserve judgement until I've actually taken the exam!

 

[Siggy]

I took Step 2 today (well, technically yesterday at the time I'm writing this). I definitely was hurting for time. For Step 1, I always had an extra 5-10 minutes, which meant I didn't really have to budget my break time (I took 20 minutes between block 8 and 9 on Step 1 because... well.. I could). For Step 2, I never had more than 2-3 minutes left after reviewing my marked and doing a quick review of my answers. There were several blocks where I didn't have enough time to review all of the questions, but I never felt truly rushed to finish the questions. That said, I was all "F this, and this and this, and I really really don't care anymore" by the time I started the last block.

I'll also throw a vote toward the whole "How the hell do people pass this thing" vibe.

 

[anna01106]

my step 2 experience today was a complete disaster. i mostly had super long passages with tons of labs, and every section had at least 2 media questions. and those freaking annoying ads and studies were pretty ubiquitous on my exam. all sections were at least 43 questions, longest section was 44. i walked out today feeling horrible, like nauseous horrible, but also frustrated because studying with UWorld and doing those NMBE forms (did 3 out of the 4) were not at all indicative of how the exam actually went for me. i typically had at least 5 minutes to review marked questions, but today i was literally racing with 7 questions left and 6 minutes to finish the block. at first i was really hoping it was just test anxiety, but by the 7th block, i felt pretty damn screwed.

i'm not trying to discourage or scare anyone else who hasn't taken it yet, but it might be helpful to at least anticipate longer stems, more vague presentations, and a hell of a lot more ads and study abstracts to refer to. if you happen to get a test form that doesn't have as many, consider yourself super lucky!

 

[evilbooyaa]

I've yet to take it, but does no one else think the ability to speed read is an absolute trivial indication of how accomplished of a physician you will be?

Will Mr. X truly be a better neurosurgeon than Mr. Y because he can read at a rapid pace?

I believe the examiners make some questionable decisions regarding the structure of this exam. I understand the school of thought that physicians need to be quick decision makers, however, clearly the exam in it's current form lends a serious advantage to those who are more adept at reading rapidly. Which I contest has no correlation to one's ability to be adept at their profession.

~Granted, this is all based on anecdotal evidence... I suppose I should reserve judgement until I've actually taken the exam!

This is true of literally every exam that you take in medical school. If you can read faster, you will be less pressed for time. None of these exams actually determine who is going to be a better neurosurgeon. If you walk into a court room and say, "I can't be sued for malpractice, I got a 260 on step 1 and a 270 on step2!", it will mean literally nothing.

 

[Siggy]

This is true of literally every exam that you take in medical school. If you can read faster, you will be less pressed for time. None of these exams actually determine who is going to be a better neurosurgeon. If you walk into a court room and say, "I can't be sued for malpractice, I got a 260 on step 1 and a 270 on step2!", it will mean literally nothing.

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqeC3BPYTmE[/YOUTUBE]

 

[je355804]

I took CK this past Saturday. I did not feel that the questions were any longer than they were in UWorld. For every seemingly very long question stem there was a very short one to off-set it as well as quite a few medium length questions thrown in. Overall, I felt the question lengths were very manageable. I also think that since the typeface is pretty big on the screen at Prometric maybe people think they are longer than they actually are.

The most difficult part of this exam is not the question length; it's the fact that your brain never has time to rest. This test is written so that you aren't ever 100% sure about your answers for the ones you mark. Yes there are definitely gimmes, and plenty of them. But you just don't ever have time to rest. Your'e always reading, thinking, thinking, thinking, answering, guessing, and then moving on to do it again.

I usually finished with 12-15 minutes left per block; sometimes more and sometimes less. I almost always used every second of leftover time to go over my marked questions.

Well I'm assuming that since you are the only person of several hundred anecdotes which I have read that said the test was so incredibly manageable to finish, that you are an aberration.

 

[je355804]

This is true of literally every exam that you take in medical school. If you can read faster, you will be less pressed for time. None of these exams actually determine who is going to be a better neurosurgeon. If you walk into a court room and say, "I can't be sued for malpractice, I got a 260 on step 1 and a 270 on step2!", it will mean literally nothing.

I suppose in essence that is a response to what I said, however I didn't mean it so literally.

The point was, should the purpose of the test not be to determine who possesses the most clinical knowledge, and not who possesses the most clinical knowledge and can read at the speed of light.

 

[CDI]

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqeC3BPYTmE[/YOUTUBE]

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