Usmle Step 2

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Swaydaa

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Hey guys just took step 2 today. I hope this is legal?? I scored a 230 on Step 1 and I thought it was a little tougher. You will probably hear many more people say it was easier, so take my statement with a grain of salt!

1. I had no less than 20 questions (yes 20) on amenorrhea (all types), womans fertility, and womens endocrine......CANT STAND THAT CRAP!! What sucked the most is they ALL stated...the mans sperm count was good....I was waiting for one of those. Had many OB questions (35-40) I was pleased at that...I like OB

2. I had about 10 questions on congenital heart defects...know the blood gases and symptoms that go with each (I hate that crap). One associated with an XRAY. They don't give the "classical" buzzwords.

3. I finished my last 5 days of studying with surgery.....cant even recall 2-3 freakin pure surgery questions....what a total waste time (in my opinion).

4. about 40-50 questions concerning what test you would do next.

5. I consider myself pretty darn good at reading EKG's and recognizing dysrythmias....NOT A Single rhythm strip or EKG....damn. I did have a question that stated the patient had peaked T-waves.

6. I had exactly 5 questions on epi/stats. sensitivity, PPV, NPV, power....ONE asking about relative risk. Do a quick run through on doing the math for these things...I thought I was good, but I proved to be a little rusty (spent 4-5 minutes on one question trying to figure out where to put the numbers).

7. Had a good number of trauma questions...definatley worth a little extra time.

8. I was lucky mine did not have a bunch of DERM...I was scoring mid to low 60's on Q-bank for DERM. As a whole, I thought the Q-bank was good/OK for step 2. It was nowhere close to being as detailed as the actual test....but It does cover all the topics. MKASP was pretty darn good I must say.....real close to the actual IM questions!!

9. I hear the test bank has over 10,000 questions. I only had 376 questions, so everyones test may be totally different.

10. The test was freakin looooooooooooong as hell. 9 HOURS. the last block and half I was shot. My eyes were the only thing holding me to the computor...the rest of my body was FALLING AWAYYYYYYYYYYy. Get some good rest. Lot tougher than step 1 concerning getting through and reading the page long question with labs.

11. About 4 to 5 questions on acid base with the actual blood gas in the question...pure respiratory, compensated, etc.

12. OB/GYN blueprints in my opinion is the absolute gold standard for USMLE step 2. Best of the bluprints series. Pediactric blueprints follows OB at a close second. I thought internal medicine blueprints stunk like Sh-t for the exam. I wil post my results when I receive them and then offer my study plan if it worked???


Thanks for listening...just had to get it off my back. GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE. I hope you do well. :)

Anyone ELSE please feel free to add your experience!!!!

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Hi Everyone...which Boards & Wards is everyone suggesting? I was just wondering if there is a specific one for the Peds and Psych or is it the 1 book thats over 300 pages...thanks.
 
Well, I found out my Step II CK score today and it was 260/99. I am very happy with this good news, as I didn't think I would do that well.
 
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bigfrank said:
Well, I found out my Step II CK score today and it was 260/99. I am very happy with this good news, as I didn't think I would do that well.

Congratulations!
 
Congratulations...please do share which books you used to review and also the time you spent reviewing. Thanks
 
I took the exam today. I'm elated that it's done :D

Anyhow, my exam was exploding with ob-gyn and peds. Everyother question was regarding either a swollen joint in a kid or vaginal bleeding in pregnant woman. I also had lots of trauma questions. There were a few basic science questions that I thought were quite easy.

I completed two nbme assessments. One, I took way a few months back prior to studying and I got a dismal score (440= 204). I took the second assessment after studying on and off for a month (620= 245). Hopefully my score will be close to the second assessment. I tend to underscore on assessments as compared to the scores on my actual exam.

I'll post my score when I receive it. Time for another Samuel Adams :love:
 
I'm scheduled to take Step 2 CK in a few days and here is where I stand:

USMLEWORLD: ~1500 qs first time through score 65%
NBME self assessment 1: Score 510 (220)

I am genuinely worried that I may not pass the real thing.

Any idea if I should be ok to pass with a good margin of error. I don't need to do extremely well as I have already matched. Thanks for the help.
 
harlantubal said:
I'm scheduled to take Step 2 CK in a few days and here is where I stand:

USMLEWORLD: ~1500 qs first time through score 65%
NBME self assessment 1: Score 510 (220)

I am genuinely worried that I may not pass the real thing.

Any idea if I should be ok to pass with a good margin of error. I don't need to do extremely well as I have already matched. Thanks for the help.
Don't worry. You WILL pass with your NBME score. Don't sweat it.
 
future_OB said:
Hi Everyone...which Boards & Wards is everyone suggesting? I was just wondering if there is a specific one for the Peds and Psych or is it the 1 book thats over 300 pages...thanks.

The 300 pager is what i used to read peds + pysch.
 
Here is how i studied and how i did

step 2 ck 228/92 (took it feb6tth--less than 4 weeks later got my score)

USMLE world-- awesome! tough questions but good preparation. avg 58 % random low 50's at beginning and around 60's by end.

self assesments: first one predicted 210 and second 215

secrets: best book there is for it, in hind sight I would have just used this book and maybe OB blueprints

boards and ward: good but nothing really different than secrets

blueprints OB and peds: would read OB again, but not peds

studied 2 months. 2 hours a day. first month, just read blueprints and secrets. second month, did usmle world, secrets again and boards and wards. I tried doing a block a day during the week and then a self assesment or so on the weekend. I did one practice test to "get in shape." That test is long, probablythe hardest part of it all. Just pace yourself.

I seemed to get through the real questions much faster than with the USMLE questions.

good luck to all and thanks for the past posts. they really help in preparation
 
feeling excited. received my step 2 ck result today. got 247/99 (step 1= 255/99)

usmleworld was excellent. was getting around 70% throughout my study period but could do only around 900 questions because of the time crunch. studied 35 days.

did blueprints OB-gyn and peds - great books these
surgery and psych from kaplan notes - short and concise. took 2 days for each of the two

medicine, I revised from the books and notes I had used during clerkship.

most important part is to sleep before the exam - extremely long.

good luck to all!!
 
What up.

Step2CK: 248/99

Studied Crush Step 2, which was ok. Some areas were too superficial, but for the most part it was sufficient. Most importantly, I just did a bunch of questions on USMLEWorld. I think I did nearly all of them and did them as full blocks of random and timed questions. Averaged 68%, with most scores between 65-75% by the end. I studied 17 days about 4 hours per day. I did one of the NBME exams and scored a 630 (I think) 2 days before the real exam, which predicted a score of 245. Pretty close correlation. I thought it was a lot easier to study for than Step 1 and was an easier test. Only thing about it is that it is ridiculously long.


Good luck to all who still have to take this thing.
 
OK, here goes...

Took Step 2 CK February 16, received score report March 10
NBME assessment #1 taken 2 weeks prior to the real thing: 248
Studied 2-4 hours every other day or so for the next 2 weeks, using Crush (read OB/GYN sections & skimmed the rest) and USMLEWorld (700 questions, 64% correct)
Step 2 score: 242 (Step 1 of 256)

The first half of the exam was about what I expected in terms of difficulty and question length, but the last four sections were HARD. Of course, they probably seemed harder because by that point I was just so exhausted. I left feeling like I barely passed, so the score I ended up with was a nice surprise! The questions were, on average, the same length as those on USMLEWorld, but the ones that were longer were MUCH longer.

IM, OB/GYN, and Peds were pretty equally represented and probably made up 75-80% of the questions, with the remaining 25% consisting of Neuro, Psych, trauma, and post-op management. I had no questions on topics like ophtho, ENT, derm, etc. - I wish I had not studied them at all and had spent more time on peds & OB/GYN.

Hope this helps!
-BBB
 
Took in late February, received score on March 11th. Absolutely shocked at how well I did (oh well, I already know I matched to IM).

Step II: 267/99
Step I: 253/99

My approach? I could not bring myself to study much directly from texts, so went with questions mostly. I did go through sections of blue prints peds, BP ob/gyn, and took notes in First Aid. Also supplemented with UptoDate open on my browswer when I reviewed answers to question blocks. Finished Kaplan Qbank with about 79-->80% correct, and about 700 questions on USMLEworld with ~72% correct. Consistent with nearly everyone here, I found USMLEworld to be very much on point in terms of topics and prompt length. Overall, USMLEworld was somewhat harder than the real deal, Kaplan slightly easier. I agree with Bigfrank and Souljah that aggressively studying for the MS3 shelf exams is the best prep, followed by USMLEworld. I also agree that you need to have some stamina for this one. Reading through the passages was particularly exhuasting. Man, I had a terrible headache at the conclusion of this thing!

I did not find any one topic to be especially over-emphasized. I did have a reasonable number of biostats questions, which by luck I reviewed the night before the exam. No direct surgery questions (like the surgery shelf exam). Minimal psych.

Best of luck to all future exam takers!

-PB
 
Took it in late February, received score this past week.

Step II: 270
(Step I: 265)

Spent 3 weeks studying First Aid, Secrets, but mostly USMLEWorld. I scored about 75% on their questions, but wasn't doing them randomly--I would read a section in First Aid, then do all of the questions in USMLEWorld of that particular section, and go over all the answers and write high-yield notes in First Aid. Took about 2 weeks to finish all of the questions, and the last week I basically re-read Secrets and First Aid. This approach wasn't too grueling, and the last week was particularly relaxed.

I agree with all the previous posters that questions are the most important prep. As a fourth year who's matched though, this score won't do me any good ;) Good luck everyone
 
daisygirl said:
Got my score today. I took the exam on 2/27.

Step I- 226/92
Step IICK- 247/99

I'm very pleased. :D

daisygirl...do you mind elaborating on what you used, how much time you studied, etc
 
Studying for your third year shelf exams is the key element. I reviewed what I had learned using USMLE world and Secrets- nothing else.

I did ~1700 questions in the question bank and my overall score was 68%. I probably read Secrets ~1 1/2 times (meaning I read some sections twice). I reviewed material over the course of two months, however, I really probably studied a full two weeks in the end.

The NBME assessment (#2) predicted that I would score 245. The assessments are very accurate.
 
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