USMLE - Official 2015 Step 2 CK Experiences and Scores Thread

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With 2015 right around the corner I think it's a good time to begin a Step 2 CK experiences and scores thread for 2015. Let's keep the all experiences and scores in this thread.

Good luck to everyone taking the exam in 2015!
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Fawn Leibowitz said:

Sure, I benefited a lot from reading about other people's experiences, happy to pay it forward. I started by roughly figuring out how many days I wanted to spend per subject. Then I started studying with the subjects that had the most uworld questions, prioritizing the ones that I hadn't seen most recently. On a given day, I'd read First Aid, read my shelf outlines, and work through uworld - my second pass since I'd done it once during M3 year. For other resources, I redid Pestana for surgery - I felt that uworld and first aid were not comprehensive enough. I also reviewed the First Aid for Step 1 chapter on biostats, I thought it was better than the FA Step 2 chapter.

Reviewing the subject before doing questions was important for me - starting with questions is too disjointed for me. I like to use the questions to identify and fill in gaps in knowledge. After I read my review materials, I did the bulk of uworld for that subject, until I felt like I had a good sense of it. Then I'd move on to the next subject, but since I'd left some uworld questions from earlier subjects, I could also do some mixed blocks of material I'd reviewed. This was most helpful for subjects with overlap, like cardio and respiratory. Sometimes just knowing I was doing a respiratory block could steer me away from all of the cardiac answer choices. Doing some mixed blocks minimized this. The days that I spent per subject varied depending on how much I remembered from M3. Sometimes it took me 1.5 days to review before doing questions, maybe even longer. Though they weren't always full days, in retrospect I probably studied nearly 4 full weeks.

I flagged any question in uworld that I wanted to see again. Sometimes this meant I'd gotten the question wrong, but not necessarily. My first pass of uworld M3 year was maybe 81-83%, I don't remember exactly. My second pass was 91%. After my second pass, I redid all of the flagged questions.

I tend to be a big note taker, and my old notes definitely came in handy as I said above. I've posted them below as google docs for anyone who would like them, along with the books I used for each shelf. The outlines took ages to make, so if anyone gets any extra mileage from them, that makes me feel even better about the time. During Step 2 study I refused to let myself outline, knowing it would take too long. But I did keep a table of quick facts to review for each subject - things I didn't know or didn't know well. I limited most of my info to the content of the summary paragraphs in uworld, so that I wouldn't get too bogged down in details. I posted them in the google link - not sure if they'll be helpful for others since they were so tailored to my knowledge base, but maybe you can use them for an example. I found this really helpful in the few days before the exam.
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TEST DAY:.
As for the day of the test, I actually left feeling pretty good. I figured I'd do well, but I didn't have a score prediction. I never did any NMBEs because I felt like they'd just take away study time. They seem most useful for people who have trouble with time management on tests, and that wasn't really an issue for me. On shelves I always took the full time, but usually because I was reviewing some or all of my answers. On test day, I wouldn't let myself obsess over a question. I had seven 44 question blocks and one 42 block. I spent maybe 90 seconds max, flagged and moved on. I had enough time at the end to review most of my flagged questions. The stems were long but had a lot of filler (e.g., a long list of normal vitals or irrelevant medical history). I read the end of the question first and skimmed answer choices before reading the whole thing.

I felt like most of the questions were straightforward, not meant to be trick questions. The presentations were classic, with generally no inconsistent symptoms. The closest thing to a trick question was that once I had to recognize that a baby was immune compromised when choosing a likely diagnosis for respiratory infection. The clues were that the baby's family had immigrated from a third world country and mom had died from one of the classic AIDS opportunistic infections, like disseminated MAC. So from that, I knew that the baby probably had HIV/AIDS. Maybe there were other trick questions and I missed them, who knows. You definitely can miss a number of questions and still did well. I completely guessed on maybe 2-5 per section, and I know that I was completely wrong twice. Once I was given a classic presentation of mono and basically had to distinguish it from strep. I mixed up the region of cervical lymphadenopathy for the two, and based on that alone, I chose strep. This was even though they showed a photo of an atypical lymphocyte. I realized I had no idea what an atypical lymphocyte actually looked like, and thought maybe this was a trick question with a normal lymphocyte. Later at home I realized that I had mixed up on the lymph node distribution, the question was completely straightforward. The point it, don't hang your hat on just one detail in the question. If 90% of the picture fits, go with that diagnosis.

My biostats questions were straight from First Aid for Step 1. I didn't have any drug ads, thank god.

REVIEW MATERIALS:
Here are my shelf outlines, "flashcard" notes for step 2, and a list of the resources I used for the shelves:.



    • Surgery: Mostly Pestana, some NMS case files, random useless resources like online lectures. My outline was not good for this rotation because I hadn't quite figured out how to study yet. I was going into too much detail, using too many different sources..
      [*]Neuro: I used this book and really liked it: Amazon product. It's actually a relatively quick read. I outlined the crap out of it and did uworld, along with a computer program on different neuro tracts that is only available at my school..
      [*]Family Med: I did case files, but I didn't like it because it felt very scattered. I'm not sure what would have been better..
      [*]Peds: Case files, pretest. I outlined the crap out of casefiles and it was very useful for step 2 review - First Aid and Uworld didn't have enough depth, but there was no time to reread an entire peds book..
      [*]Medicine: I outlined Step Up to Medicine. This was a huge undertaking, I did it over our weeks long winter break. I would definitely recommend scheduling the medicine rotation over a block that has vacation time mixed in, as there is just so much material it's nice to have the option to study some over vacation..
      [*]Ob/gyn: Case Files and ACOG uwise, I outlined a ton from both. I also did some online modules about urogyn issues (prolapse, etc) that were helpful..
      [*]Psych: First Aid for psych. I didn't outline that much because there was much less material than for other shelves and it's pretty straightforward. It was important to know diagnostic criteria for major mental illness - e.g., SIG E CAPS for depression, DIG FAST for mania..




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Congrats on such a great score. Your hard work has truly paid off.
Thanks for your write up as well. It's really helpful for me and I am sure for many others. How can I get access to the outlines you made of your UW ck notes? You say there is a google link.
 
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Erek94 said:
Sat 6/18

Step1: 255
Step2: 273

In order: UWSA- 264, nbme4- 263, nbme6- 269, nbme7 (1week before)- 256

Did all clinical mastery tests.
U world twice
Passively did usmlerx which got annoying so I stopped and realized just doing uworld, nbmes, up to date and anki to consolidate everything.

Walked out of test feeling better than step 1 but more uncomfortable as days went on as expected. Overall the stem length of the questions isn't as bad as everyone makes it out, it averages out to a little longer than uworld.
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Been scoring around the same on my practice exams, did you make the Anki deck yourself or use one that was already there? Also how good were the clinical mastery series for the actual exam?
 
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USMLE Step 2 experience

step 1: 251
comlex level 1: 640

step 2: 260
comlex level 2: tbd

Prepped for USMLE step 2 for about 4 weeks, 4-6 hours a day with 1 day off a week
USWA: 253
nbme exams around 250ish (1 per week for 4 weeks)
Uworld: 1 pass for each shelf exam, 3 more full complete passes. First 2 times through I read everything, but took 0 notes. Only noted topics that I had trouble with (think biochem, immunodef, glycogen storage diseases) and looked those up 2 days before the exam.

MTB 2: 2 full passes (one during year, one during prep time with noting subjects that I had an issue with). I did not like MTB but it is the best we have. There are a lot of misc facts in this book and I think the important thing for these was to appreciate and remember themes, not to remember specifics.
secrets: 1 quick pass 3 days prior to exam
medbullets: 1 pass of all step 2 stuff

Overall a very fair exam. Marked around 5-8 questions per block and had roughly 10 mins per block to spare. Uworld and MTB were sufficient to prepare me for 85% of the exam, the remaining 15% either you see it in the clinic, or you didn't. Hardest part of the exam was all the dilemma questions, not even tough ethics, just weird questions. Not something you can prepare for. Other than that, a few simple media questions, very straight forward exam. Like step 1, I left feeling that I overprepared for this, because the random 15% you really can't prepare for. I think someone mentioned previously the really weird scenarios and while I won't elaborate on that, I think the important thing is to do just move past the questions you have no idea. Don't even mark them because you could deliberate for 10 minutes on 1 question.

That all said, I felt my Step 1 prep really helped with this exam. Answering questions for me became less what is the Dx or Tx, but what are the questioners asking and why are they asking it. Identify how they will ask pyloric stenosis and when you know that it is easy to remove it as a distractor in another question. Know why they would give you a plain film of an abdomen vs an ultrasound. Common things happen commonly and the test makers know this, they aren't out to trick you.
 
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Tuesday 6/16

Step 1: 246
Step 2: 252

USWA a few days before CK- 254,
NBME 7 (5/9/15) - 246
NBME 4 (4/18/15) - 237
NBME 6 (12/12/14) - 210 (baseline - forced by school to take it this early)

I had heard that the UWSA was the best predictor and it predicted by 2 points! Too bad it wasn't under by 2 points but I'm happy with the >250!

I will say that I doubted myself a LOT more than I did for step 1. I thought biostat/epi questions were hard, and as the weeks progressed, I got more and more worried that I was going to do significantly worse than my practice tests. I would replay the questions I knew I had gotten wrong..I never actually counted how many but I was sure I could list > 15 questions so my mind automatically multiplied that by 10.
 
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283. Used UWorld x2 (93% avg), UWSA (265 a few days out), and Step 2 Secrets (didn't gain me a single point on the real exam). Memorize UWorld and trust it, that's all I can say. I didn't use any NBMEs because as they didn't have any explanations I thought educationally they wouldn't have changed outcomes.
 
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Did anybody do two NBMEs back-to-back to simulate the full length? On one hand I've heard some people recommend it with the rationale of "If I've already experienced this level of fatigue once before, I'll be better prepared to handle it on exam day." On the other hand there's the "you don't train for a marathon by running 26 miles" argument..

2 weeks till my exam, finished uworld today (have ~500 missed Q's to re-do). Trying to decide how to spend my remaining time. I've done 1 NBME so far 2 weeks ago as a baseline (244). If you take the time to look up and review explanations for your missed NBMEs and Clinical Mastery series, do you guys feel that makes them become worthwhile "learning tools" rather than mere "assessment tools"? Are there a lot of real-exam questions that feel "very similar" to the NBMEs? Or should I just spend all my time doing more uworld and reviewing notes?
 
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boltzm said:
283. Used UWorld x2 (93% avg), UWSA (265 a few days out), and Step 2 Secrets (didn't gain me a single point on the real exam). Memorize UWorld and trust it, that's all I can say. I didn't use any NBMEs because as they didn't have any explanations I thought educationally they wouldn't have changed outcomes.
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That's pretty awesome. Not much more to say..
 
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Morzh said:
Did anybody do two NBMEs back-to-back to simulate the full length? On one hand I've heard some people recommend it with the rationale of "If I've already experienced this level of fatigue once before, I'll be better prepared to handle it on exam day." On the other hand there's the "you don't train for a marathon by running 26 miles" argument..

2 weeks till my exam, finished uworld today (have ~500 missed Q's to re-do). Trying to decide how to spend my remaining time. I've done 1 NBME so far 2 weeks ago as a baseline (244). If you take the time to look up and review explanations for your missed NBMEs and Clinical Mastery series, do you guys feel that makes them become worthwhile "learning tools" rather than mere "assessment tools"? Are there a lot of real-exam questions that feel "very similar" to the NBMEs? Or should I just spend all my time doing more uworld and reviewing notes?
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Honestly, I thought a lot of the NBME questions I missed were sort of off-the-wall topics that didn't come up on my test, although I definitely learned from reviewing them. I think reviewing UW notes is a better use of time - it covered most of what was on my test.
 
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Morzh said:
Did anybody do two NBMEs back-to-back to simulate the full length? On one hand I've heard some people recommend it with the rationale of "If I've already experienced this level of fatigue once before, I'll be better prepared to handle it on exam day." On the other hand there's the "you don't train for a marathon by running 26 miles" argument..

2 weeks till my exam, finished uworld today (have ~500 missed Q's to re-do). Trying to decide how to spend my remaining time. I've done 1 NBME so far 2 weeks ago as a baseline (244). If you take the time to look up and review explanations for your missed NBMEs and Clinical Mastery series, do you guys feel that makes them become worthwhile "learning tools" rather than mere "assessment tools"? Are there a lot of real-exam questions that feel "very similar" to the NBMEs? Or should I just spend all my time doing more uworld and reviewing notes?
Click to expand...
I don't think it personally matters. My adrenaline kept me through the first 4 or 5 blocks w/ only like 5 minute breaks. After that it was a lunch and caffeine break and I was fine. I would use them as study prep more so than assessment, as I personally learned from doing them.
 
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hey guys
took my test on 06/30. any idea when i might be getting my score back? I hope they won't make me wait until Sept??
 
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rcdamania said:
Been scoring around the same on my practice exams, did you make the Anki deck yourself or use one that was already there? Also how good were the clinical mastery series for the actual exam?
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Yea I made my own anki deck which IMO is really the best way to use anki. Probably ended up being around 3K total cards. For step 2 I broke the decks down by subject this time instead of a large culminating deck where cards may get lost for a while.
The CMS tests are great. While i didn't have any repeat questions it gave me a feel for what types of answers the nbme is looking for in general situations and I felt like those general principles were well represented on the real deal.
 
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Erek94 said:
Yea I made my own anki deck which IMO is really the best way to use anki. Probably ended up being around 3K total cards. For step 2 I broke the decks down by subject this time instead of a large culminating deck where cards may get lost for a while.
The CMS tests are great. While i didn't have any repeat questions it gave me a feel for what types of answers the nbme is looking for in general situations and I felt like those general principles were well represented on the real deal.
Click to expand...
Cool thanks for your input, gonna go thru UWorld CK one last time (second time now in dedicated study, did one throughout the year). Would you recc doing it in TUTOR or take full length blocks? Only got two weeks left so figured I would try to hit the high yield stuff as much as I can.
 
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rcdamania said:
Cool thanks for your input, gonna go thru UWorld CK one last time (second time now in dedicated study, did one throughout the year). Would you recc doing it in TUTOR or take full length blocks? Only got two weeks left so figured I would try to hit the high yield stuff as much as I can.
Click to expand...
I would just dotutor mode and get the instant feedback info. Your timed tests should be the nbme's at this point.
 
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boltzm said:
283. Used UWorld x2 (93% avg), UWSA (265 a few days out), and Step 2 Secrets (didn't gain me a single point on the real exam). Memorize UWorld and trust it, that's all I can say. I didn't use any NBMEs because as they didn't have any explanations I thought educationally they wouldn't have changed outcomes.
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Wow. Congrats. That score is just phenomenal!
How long did you take to prepare? Was it just uworld that you used as your main resource?
 
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I dont know where else to turn to but here. Took the exam last week still up all night tossing and turning thinking about it. By far much more difficult than I expected it to be. Please dont get me wrong I know this is the last national exam as a medical student but the stems and the vagueness of the questions themselves demoralized me! maybe after results come out I can give a much more detailed outline of my experience, but I apologize for the rant.

-Uworld 1st time 60%, Uworld 2nd time 75 %

-Free 151- 2 days out ~ 91 %
-UWSA- 4 days out ~ 235
-NBME4- 3 weeks out ~ 223
-NBME7-4 weeks out ~ idk fml like 198
-NBME6- 5 weeks out ~ 210
 
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bigpacman101 said:
I dont know where else to turn to but here. Took the exam last week still up all night tossing and turning thinking about it. By far much more difficult than I expected it to be. Please dont get me wrong I know this is the last national exam as a medical student but the stems and the vagueness of the questions themselves demoralized me! maybe after results come out I can give a much more detailed outline of my experience, but I apologize for the rant.

-Uworld 1st time 60%, Uworld 2nd time 75 %

-Free 151- 2 days out ~ 91 %
-UWSA- 4 days out ~ 235
-NBME4- 3 weeks out ~ 223
-NBME7-4 weeks out ~ idk fml like 198
-NBME6- 5 weeks out ~ 210
Click to expand...
I think you're gonna crack a 240. Just put the worry on hold... it won't change a thing test-wise and a bit of extra chill in your life will do wonders for you. Let it go.
 
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metukah said:
Can anyone comment on their thoughts on NBME form 7? Seemed tougher than the other forms.
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That's been the general consensus on the form. People scoring lower on it than others. I thought it was pretty vague, felt like I was never getting enough information. SDN community tends to think this is the lowest possible score you can get on the real deal... For what it's worth
 
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last week and I don't feel like looking at the books. I should just read and go through all the high yield and marked. UGH! any motivating tips? Also, don't feel confident to take it, but don't want to study anymore. DOn't think it will help if I push the test any further. Just freaking out about the vagueness of the real deal
 
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bigpacman101 said:
I dont know where else to turn to but here. Took the exam last week still up all night tossing and turning thinking about it. By far much more difficult than I expected it to be. Please dont get me wrong I know this is the last national exam as a medical student but the stems and the vagueness of the questions themselves demoralized me! maybe after results come out I can give a much more detailed outline of my experience, but I apologize for the rant.
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I feel your pain :( I took mine 3 weeks ago and I honestly don't even know if I passed...I've been abusing bendryl since...and trust me, you're in a better place than I am...at least you took some 'assessment tests' before you took the real deal. You kind of know where you stand...I just took the test without any UWSA or recent NBMEs (last nbme i took was way back in March). I just got fed up. Anyways, nothing we can do about it at this point. Keep us posted and good luck.
 
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hey guys thought i'd post my exp with ck (partially to encourage other weak links like me and also to contribute in general). general background i'm a huge slacker prob bottom 50percentile in my class and straight passed every single clerkship besides psych. Always scored below class avg on shelf exams -,- don't study too much during school year cuz i'm lazy but i try to make it up during step exams.

Step 1: 234 or 5 or 6 (I've forgotten)
NBME 7: 232 (3 days before exam freaked the **** out of me)
UWSA: 252 (7 days before exam)
Uworld around 80+ percent second time around
Step2: 256 yay :)


I took 8 weeks off to study for CK. reasoning: didn't study too much during school year so actually not super familiar with topics, i'm a slow worker and also inefficient worker (video games are the bane of my existence). Got into library around 10ish, hour break for lunch with friends, finished about 5 or 6 and eat dinner and just do a few questions before watching tv and just relaxing every day.

I used Step Up to Medicine as my core book. I read kaplan surgery, obgyn, peds, FA psych (all which I used during school year). I have to really recommend against reading kaplan surg and peds. NOT useful at all and sometimes just downright wrong/confusing. FA psych was great and fast read and kaplan obgyn covered lots of stuff I have no idea about.
Used Uptodate when needed.

UWorld was huge as expected. I had about 800+ questions left over from the year which I finished as I read my books. I reset and did another 1400 ish questions before running out of time. Took notes on topics I had no clue about cuz I can't help but take notes. always feel like things slip my mind so I need to write it down somewhere. Uworld covered all the non IM topics so well you technically don't need any other books and could easily go on Uworld alone. IM you should prob have a book to read from and I liked Step Up

I found NBME7 to be really difficult as my exam score shows. It is however closest in format/question style to real test but it is far more tricky-they give you misleading things constantly to mess with you. I do not recommend taking it late in the game cuz it shattered my confidence. If anything take it early to make urself study hard.

During my exam day Chicago had a ****ty parade for their ****ty hockey team so sirens and ambulances were going off the whole time. really distracting which kinda threw me off and freaked me out but theres really no time and you just got to press on. I would mark questions but really never really have time to get back to them, huge rush to finish questions and actually did not have time to even mark a answer for one questions ugh. Left feeling crushed and very angry with the ****ty parade.

As far as topics go it was mostly IM so dont' freak out if you are weak in other topics. VERY few neuro. A few peds, surg, and relatively moderate amount of obgyn (i got at least 3-4 q's about breast masses which I never know wtf to do with)

And thats my story. Quite happy with my score and if your a weak student like me dont' give up theres hope!!! and also curse chicago's ****ty hockey team I hope they never win another championship. Anyways I'd be more than happy to answer any questions.

and thanks indo for your brain stem lesions guide. It was definitely good stuff (though did not help at all for the exam haha)
 
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Zully said:
I feel your pain :( I took mine 3 weeks ago and I honestly don't even know if I passed...I've been abusing bendryl since...and trust me, you're in a better place than I am...at least you took some 'assessment tests' before you took the real deal. You kind of know where you stand...I just took the test without any UWSA or recent NBMEs (last nbme i took was way back in March). I just got fed up. Anyways, nothing we can do about it at this point. Keep us posted and good luck.
Click to expand...

I think you guys should relax a bit and forget about the exam. Everyone I talk to comes out feeling like crap (even ppl who do well). Thats the nature of the test. Just enjoy your time until the results come out!!!
 
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Quick question:

Getting thru UWorld for a second pass in my dedicated study. I have 10 more days left, and figured this would be most high yield. Was wondering from those who took the test if the questions in UW that are coined 'EXTREMELY HIGH YIELD' in the answer explanation, actually showed up??
Some of them are super random, so was just curious.

Please offer any suggestions as well as to what I should get thru in 10 days as well :) Thanks! Congrats to everyone
 
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rcdamania said:
Quick question:

Getting thru UWorld for a second pass in my dedicated study. I have 10 more days left, and figured this would be most high yield. Was wondering from those who took the test if the questions in UW that are coined 'EXTREMELY HIGH YIELD' in the answer explanation, actually showed up??
Some of them are super random, so was just curious.

Please offer any suggestions as well as to what I should get thru in 10 days as well :) Thanks! Congrats to everyone
Click to expand...
Everything in uworld is extremely high yield, and singling out 10-20 points in a 2200 question qbank, for the potential unlimited questions that the test makers can ask is too hard to answer. Just do all the questions and some practice tests.
 
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Congrats on your score! How long did it take for you to get your score 3 or 4 weeks? The wait is killing me slowly but surely lol.

elegantorchid said:
hey guys thought i'd post my exp with ck (partially to encourage other weak links like me and also to contribute in general). general background i'm a huge slacker prob bottom 50percentile in my class and straight passed every single clerkship besides psych. Always scored below class avg on shelf exams -,- don't study too much during school year cuz i'm lazy but i try to make it up during step exams.

Step 1: 234 or 5 or 6 (I've forgotten)
NBME 7: 232 (3 days before exam freaked the **** out of me)
UWSA: 252 (7 days before exam)
Uworld around 80+ percent second time around
Step2: 256 yay :)


I took 8 weeks off to study for CK. reasoning: didn't study too much during school year so actually not super familiar with topics, i'm a slow worker and also inefficient worker (video games are the bane of my existence). Got into library around 10ish, hour break for lunch with friends, finished about 5 or 6 and eat dinner and just do a few questions before watching tv and just relaxing every day.

I used Step Up to Medicine as my core book. I read kaplan surgery, obgyn, peds, FA psych (all which I used during school year). I have to really recommend against reading kaplan surg and peds. NOT useful at all and sometimes just downright wrong/confusing. FA psych was great and fast read and kaplan obgyn covered lots of stuff I have no idea about.
Used Uptodate when needed.

UWorld was huge as expected. I had about 800+ questions left over from the year which I finished as I read my books. I reset and did another 1400 ish questions before running out of time. Took notes on topics I had no clue about cuz I can't help but take notes. always feel like things slip my mind so I need to write it down somewhere. Uworld covered all the non IM topics so well you technically don't need any other books and could easily go on Uworld alone. IM you should prob have a book to read from and I liked Step Up

I found NBME7 to be really difficult as my exam score shows. It is however closest in format/question style to real test but it is far more tricky-they give you misleading things constantly to mess with you. I do not recommend taking it late in the game cuz it shattered my confidence. If anything take it early to make urself study hard.

During my exam day Chicago had a ****ty parade for their ****ty hockey team so sirens and ambulances were going off the whole time. really distracting which kinda threw me off and freaked me out but theres really no time and you just got to press on. I would mark questions but really never really have time to get back to them, huge rush to finish questions and actually did not have time to even mark a answer for one questions ugh. Left feeling crushed and very angry with the ****ty parade.

As far as topics go it was mostly IM so dont' freak out if you are weak in other topics. VERY few neuro. A few peds, surg, and relatively moderate amount of obgyn (i got at least 3-4 q's about breast masses which I never know wtf to do with)

And thats my story. Quite happy with my score and if your a weak student like me dont' give up theres hope!!! and also curse chicago's ****ty hockey team I hope they never win another championship. Anyways I'd be more than happy to answer any questions.

and thanks indo for your brain stem lesions guide. It was definitely good stuff (though did not help at all for the exam haha)
Click to expand...
 
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rcdamania said:
Quick question:

Getting thru UWorld for a second pass in my dedicated study. I have 10 more days left, and figured this would be most high yield. Was wondering from those who took the test if the questions in UW that are coined 'EXTREMELY HIGH YIELD' in the answer explanation, actually showed up??
Some of them are super random, so was just curious.

Please offer any suggestions as well as to what I should get thru in 10 days as well :) Thanks! Congrats to everyone
Click to expand...

its not anymore HY than anything else in UW. I suggest you do questions until ur time is up or if u have notes take a day or two to consolidate ur knowledge (thats what i like to do because I always forget stuff)
 
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rodmichael82 said:
Congrats on your score! How long did it take for you to get your score 3 or 4 weeks? The wait is killing me slowly but surely lol.
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seriously man that NBME 7 comment made my day. Totally bombed it compared to my other practice tests. 10 days out...freaked the efff out! Glad to know that it may be an outlier/study motivator.
What did you do the day before the test to review?

Congrats on being done!
 
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elegantorchid said:
hey guys thought i'd post my exp with ck (partially to encourage other weak links like me and also to contribute in general). general background i'm a huge slacker prob bottom 50percentile in my class and straight passed every single clerkship besides psych. Always scored below class avg on shelf exams -,- don't study too much during school year cuz i'm lazy but i try to make it up during step exams.

Step 1: 234 or 5 or 6 (I've forgotten)
NBME 7: 232 (3 days before exam freaked the **** out of me)
UWSA: 252 (7 days before exam)
Uworld around 80+ percent second time around
Step2: 256 yay :)


I took 8 weeks off to study for CK. reasoning: didn't study too much during school year so actually not super familiar with topics, i'm a slow worker and also inefficient worker (video games are the bane of my existence). Got into library around 10ish, hour break for lunch with friends, finished about 5 or 6 and eat dinner and just do a few questions before watching tv and just relaxing every day.

I used Step Up to Medicine as my core book. I read kaplan surgery, obgyn, peds, FA psych (all which I used during school year). I have to really recommend against reading kaplan surg and peds. NOT useful at all and sometimes just downright wrong/confusing. FA psych was great and fast read and kaplan obgyn covered lots of stuff I have no idea about.
Used Uptodate when needed.

UWorld was huge as expected. I had about 800+ questions left over from the year which I finished as I read my books. I reset and did another 1400 ish questions before running out of time. Took notes on topics I had no clue about cuz I can't help but take notes. always feel like things slip my mind so I need to write it down somewhere. Uworld covered all the non IM topics so well you technically don't need any other books and could easily go on Uworld alone. IM you should prob have a book to read from and I liked Step Up

I found NBME7 to be really difficult as my exam score shows. It is however closest in format/question style to real test but it is far more tricky-they give you misleading things constantly to mess with you. I do not recommend taking it late in the game cuz it shattered my confidence. If anything take it early to make urself study hard.

During my exam day Chicago had a ****ty parade for their ****ty hockey team so sirens and ambulances were going off the whole time. really distracting which kinda threw me off and freaked me out but theres really no time and you just got to press on. I would mark questions but really never really have time to get back to them, huge rush to finish questions and actually did not have time to even mark a answer for one questions ugh. Left feeling crushed and very angry with the ****ty parade.

As far as topics go it was mostly IM so dont' freak out if you are weak in other topics. VERY few neuro. A few peds, surg, and relatively moderate amount of obgyn (i got at least 3-4 q's about breast masses which I never know wtf to do with)

And thats my story. Quite happy with my score and if your a weak student like me dont' give up theres hope!!! and also curse chicago's ****ty hockey team I hope they never win another championship. Anyways I'd be more than happy to answer any questions.

and thanks indo for your brain stem lesions guide. It was definitely good stuff (though did not help at all for the exam haha)
Click to expand...

seriously man that NBME 7 comment made my day. Totally bombed it compared to my other practice tests. 10 days out...freaked the efff out! Glad to know that it may be an outlier/study motivator.
What did you do the day before the test to review?

Congrats on being done!
 
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elegantorchid said:
its not anymore HY than anything else in UW. I suggest you do questions until ur time is up or if u have notes take a day or two to consolidate ur knowledge (thats what i like to do because I always forget stuff)
Click to expand...
Yeah I made UW notes on the notes feature in the question bank...deciding if I should make quizlet cards out of them or just read thru!

Thanks for your input
 
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rcdamania said:
Yeah I made UW notes on the notes feature in the question bank...deciding if I should make quizlet cards out of them or just read thru!

Thanks for your input
Click to expand...

I read thru my notes on the final day to make sure i didn't forget anything. no time for u to make cards now. I think u should just read it.
 
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Hi there,
I need some advice, please anyone. I have the exam in three weeks and will finish my review this week. Wanted to know what is the best assessment to take first. Heard nbme 7 is really a demoralizer so don't want to take this near exam but at the same time heard it's closer to the real thing. Also see people relying on UWSA so please send me your opinions especially those who have recently done the exam and gotten results back.
Thank you
 
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Well, thought I'd post in here fishing for any comments of encouragement for my wife who took this test a couple weeks ago and is still inconsolable about her performance on the exam. She really wanted to do well so she'd have a better chance at joining my program for residency so she put a lot of pressure on herself in that respect. She's not into posting stuff and I haven't been able to calm her down with my experience last year, so hopefully someone will read this and feel her (my) pain, lol. I know there are a lot of these anecdotal stories on this site, but I thought I'd post on her behalf to see if I can get her some more support.

She is convinced the test went horribly. She says that she missed a lot of the gimme questions that are in the qbanks, and she's currently up to 25 questions wrong, of the ones she can remember. Does anyone remember roughly how many questions they got wrong that they could think of after the test, and how things turned out? Her practice scores:

UWorld qbank: 68% fully completed on tutor mode
NBME4: 223 (4 weeks out)
NBME6: 237 (3 weeks)
NBME7: 227 (2 weeks)
UWSA: 247 (1 week)

Thanks for any comments. I'll come back and report how she did when she gets her score. Hopefully that'll help more people out who feel like she does.
 
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jmc2015 said:
Hi there,
I need some advice, please anyone. I have the exam in three weeks and will finish my review this week. Wanted to know what is the best assessment to take first. Heard nbme 7 is really a demoralizer so don't want to take this near exam but at the same time heard it's closer to the real thing. Also see people relying on UWSA so please send me your opinions especially those who have recently done the exam and gotten results back.
Thank you
Click to expand...
I took UWSA first, NBME 7, then NBME 4. Really I think any of those are good. Although yes NBME 7 was a doozy but use it as a learning tool as well as a predictor. If you're 3 weeks out then don't be scared of 7, just take another one a week later, gauge your progress.

That's my opinion, from someone who hasn't received their score yet
 
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Hi everyone,
I took my CK on May 31 of this year and it went well. From the beginning I have always put in about 6-8 wks worth of solid studying (10-12 hrs) each day. I would mix and match between doing uworld questions and then watching kaplan videos and using MTB2 as my only book and just writing in that thing like crazy. It's a great way to switch it up especially when you are worn out. I would always do the uworld in 45 question blocks bc you do need to simulate the real exam, so doing 5 and 10 question increments just doesn't give you a good feel with regards to your timing. I also took the UWSA (261) about 2 weeks prior and then once I ran out of the uworld questions i did the NBME 7 (245) and NBME (255). I was also studying for my CS during this time so it was alittle different for me in regards to applying my time to the appropriate studies. I think the worst thing someone can do is use too many resources (books), stick with one!!! And just do as many questions as you possibly can.

Step 1: 251
Step 2 CK: 260
 
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