Step II Step2 and NBME

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lawdawg

lawdawg

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For those of you who have taken step 2 ck already and did the practice exams on the nbme website, can you tell me if the difficulty level between the 2 are the same (length of question, etc.). I know the 150 cd they send in the mail is a lot easier, so I'm trying to know what to expect when I walk in there. Also, how did the predicted score turn out to the real thing.thanks
 
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lawdawg said:
For those of you who have taken step 2 ck already and did the practice exams on the nbme website, can you tell me if the difficulty level between the 2 are the same (length of question, etc.). I know the 150 cd they send in the mail is a lot easier, so I'm trying to know what to expect when I walk in there. Also, how did the predicted score turn out to the real thing.thanks
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Identical....I had probably 10 or so EXACT repeats off the NBME online exams. the score I received the NBME practice exams nailed almost identically both my step 1 and my step 2 scores. They are written by the same people....the NBME....so you can expect them to be, well....identical.

I thought they were right on.
If you want to know what boards REALLY looks like then take those exams and you'll know.

later
 
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12R34Y said:
Identical....I had probably 10 or so EXACT repeats off the NBME online exams. the score I received the NBME practice exams nailed almost identically both my step 1 and my step 2 scores. They are written by the same people....the NBME....so you can expect them to be, well....identical.

I thought they were right on.
If you want to know what boards REALLY looks like then take those exams and you'll know.

later
Click to expand...

thanks for the reply, took both NBME exams, got 610 on first and 690 on the second but I have a %$&load of anxiety about getting killed on the real thing, and my exam is in a week. do you guys all get these pregame jitters or is it just me? all i want is a 230
 
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lawdawg said:
thanks for the reply, took both NBME exams, got 610 on first and 690 on the second but I have a %$&load of anxiety about getting killed on the real thing, and my exam is in a week. do you guys all get these pregame jitters or is it just me? all i want is a 230
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pre game jitters. You'll be fine

If you prepared you'll do great.

this is confirmed by the NBME test scores you did well on.

good luck,

later
 
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12R34Y said:
pre game jitters. You'll be fine

If you prepared you'll do great.

this is confirmed by the NBME test scores you did well on.

good luck,

later
Click to expand...

Took step2 and thank God that thing is over. The extra one hour block almost kicked my arse, I was getting drousy. The test is on the same level as difficulty as the the two practice exams so hopefully my score will correlate with those tests. I will post again with all my correlation scores in a month (Qbank, USMLEworld, MKSAP, NBMEI/II, Step 1, MCAT, SAT/ACT, IQ exam, junior high school entry exam 🙂 ). Thanks , now the wait begins
 
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lawdawg said:
For those of you who have taken step 2 ck already and did the practice exams on the nbme website, can you tell me if the difficulty level between the 2 are the same (length of question, etc.). I know the 150 cd they send in the mail is a lot easier, so I'm trying to know what to expect when I walk in there. Also, how did the predicted score turn out to the real thing.thanks
Click to expand...

NBME:
PART 1- 550 (229)
PART 2- 630 (245)

STEP II- 235

Difficulty was really correlated. Seriously, this is a test of attention span and endurance.
 
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Hi,
I lost the CD the NBME sent me, but I downloaded released items from USMLE website. It was 3 sections, total of 138 questions, answer to the first Q was "Recall Bias". Can you tell me if this was the same test as the CD??? Also, it gave m no interpretation of my score. It just said 52, maybe that is 520??? If so, can you tell me what that correlates to?? I got 34/46 on the first section, 38/46 on the second section, and 39/46 on the third section. Any help is GREATLY appreciated. Thanks!
 
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that practice CD or the downloaded items are pretty darn easy compared to the real thing. those are NOT the nbme self assessment questions that everyone is talking about. for those you need to go to the NBME website and select the clinical sciences self assessment tests, and pay 45 bucks a pop. totally worth it.
 
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I know it's an old post, but for those who are still studying for step 2 I feel obliged to report that NBME practice exams for step 2 are not the best predictor of your score. I spoke with other people who agreed with me. Here is my experience:

NBME 1 - 390 (215)
NBME 4 - 460 (229)

Step 2 - 238
 
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Angel1982 said:
I know it's an old post, but for those who are still studying for step 2 I feel obliged to report that NBME practice exams for step 2 are not the best predictor of your score. I spoke with other people who agreed with me. Here is my experience:

NBME 1 - 390 (215)
NBME 4 - 460 (229)

Step 2 - 238
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The real question is did they drastically OVER predict anyones score? At least in your case it was a pleasant surprise.
 
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Well, I'll update when I get mine. My last and best was NBME 242. But sure felt awful about it when I took it Thursday. My friend got in the 220's on her practice tests last year, but wound up with 245 on the real thing. I'm sure hoping that the "curve" is really that good.
 
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link2swim06 said:
The real question is did they drastically OVER predict anyones score? At least in your case it was a pleasant surprise.
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Yup (see for example this post), but this is the only case I've seen; there are probably others. Seems like he was getting practice scores in the upper extreme where a few questions can make a big difference, but even so I wouldn't have expected such a drastic drop for his actual score.
 
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umx said:
Yup (see for example this post), but this is the only case I've seen; there are probably others. Seems like he was getting practice scores in the upper extreme where a few questions can make a big difference, but even so I wouldn't have expected such a drastic drop for his actual score.
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That was unusual. Way too big a drop.

For most on CK, it seems NBMEs underpredict these days, although occasionally someone will get a 200 on one and a 240 in the next, in which case, theyre probably closer to the latter.
 
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On step 1 my practice exams were in the 240s... on the real thing I got a 230.

I thought the questions were the same level of difficulty but the answer choices themselves were worlds tougher... I guess that means I fall for answer traps? Is that a real thing?
 
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je355804 said:
On step 1 my practice exams were in the 240s... on the real thing I got a 230.

I thought the questions were the same level of difficulty but the answer choices themselves were worlds tougher... I guess that means I fall for answer traps? Is that a real thing?
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If your practice tests were in the low 240s then that would still be somewhat predictive (just over 10 points off).

As long as people are getting 250s on practice nbmes and then 210s on the real deal I'd say it will tell you in the ballpark of where your score will be.
 
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