USMLE World Scores and Step II Scores

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

lmh14

Member
10+ Year Member
5+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2005
Messages
75
Reaction score
0
Probably been discussed before, but can't find a recent thread....

I'm just curious about what scores people were getting on USMLE World, and then how you ended up doing on Step 2.

All you have to do is post two numbers...... :)

Thanks folks, and good luck with everything!!

Members don't see this ad.
 
Is there a reason that this forum doesn't have discussion thread for the NBME exams for each of the shelf rotations? Is it because people don't see them as difficult as the Step 1 forms?
 
Is there a reason that this forum doesn't have discussion thread for the NBME exams for each of the shelf rotations? Is it because people don't see them as difficult as the Step 1 forms?

Those exams came out last year, so they are still fairly new and not sure if everyone even knows about them yet. There is lots of discussion of them in the Shelf Exam threads in the Clinical Rotations forum. FWIW, I took both peds, both ob/gyn, and one medicine and they correlated nicely with my raw scores.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Initially had planned to take 4 weeks to study for CK but they closed a testing center and found out like 2 days before I was scheduled that I had another week to study. So I had like 5 weeks.

Reset world and completed all on random untimed. ~83% correct. Did most of these during third year to prepare for shelves

Step 1: 250+
USMLEWORLD Exam (-3 weeks): 263
NBME 6 (-2 weeks): 269
NBME 4 (-1 week): 283

Real CK: 270+
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
Took the test on 10/14 and got my score back today. I promised myself that if I passed CK I would post on this forum so here goes:
Step 1: 245+
Shelf scores: 79-96 (avg 87)
UW first pass during clerkships so don't really remember
UW second pass: around 85%
NBME 6: 237 (2 weeks out)
UWSA: 252 (few days out)

Studied on and off for the first few months of fourth year. Did an older version of DIT following along with the old version of Step Up to Step 2 during that time. Had 2 weeks off rotations to study for CK and only did UWorld and some Kaplan during that time. Test day was awful. I felt like I maybe was able to answer 50% of the questions, question stems were long (I'm a fast reader, never had issues on NBMEs or UWorld but ended up needing all the time on every section), answers were vague or phrased in such a way that even if you knew the answer they used a different term to describe it. Quite a few questions required you to recognize the imaging to make a diagnosis and answer the questions, you could not infer from the vignette. There were a couple questions on hospital management (how can you prevent medication errors from happening type questions) on the exam that threw me off. There was way more biostats than I expected and I hadn't studied that thinking it would be very low yield. Drug ads were annoying and I spent too much time overthinking them. I nearly had a panic attack during the exam. I went home and made a list of 40-50 questions I knew I got wrong, not including random weird questions I just couldn't even remember. Spent the next three weeks miserable and convinced I had failed and my future was ruined.

Final result: 250+ (The average was a 238 with SD 19)
Trust what you learned third year and rely on your UWSA results. I didn't believe anyone when they told me it would be ok. I also think the curve on the exam must be very generous so if you're feeling like I did after the exam there is definitely hope.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
hi! looks like step 2 material don't really prepare you well for biostat. Any good question bank for that?
 
Initially had planned to take 4 weeks to study for CK but they closed a testing center and found out like 2 days before I was scheduled that I had another week to study. So I had like 5 weeks.

Reset world and completed all on random untimed. ~83% correct. Did most of these during third year to prepare for shelves

Step 1: 257
USMLEWORLD Exam (-3 weeks): 263
NBME 6 (-2 weeks): 269
NBME 4 (-1 week): 283

Real CK: 273
Hi! did kaplan first read, plan to take step 2 by the end of dec. Is there enough time or should i delay the exam? I will start doing uworld next week. Which NBME should i take and when?
 
Great score! I'm scheduled to take NBME 4 on Nov 22, hope I improve a lot from my baseline (229)

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk
 
Test on 10/21, score received today. I am trying to give back more to the SDN community, so here goes.
Step 1: 247
Shelf scores: Mid 70s to 94
UW 1st pass: 75%
UW 2nd (missed q's only): around 82%
Step 2: 256 (mean of 238, SD of 19)

I used Step Up to Step 2, and I found it lacking. It covers the bare minimum. Thankfully, UWorld is where it is at. I found UWorld's explanations for Step 2 to be less in depth than Step 1's, but adequate. As much as I hate recommending the use of FA, I'd have to say that's what I'd do if I had to do it all over again. I made one pass through UWorld (got through about 75% of the questions at that time) and was set to take the exam in the middle of September. Do to some issues with my rotation at the time, I had to push it back a month. Finished the other 25% and repeated missed Qs over the next month. Took the exam a little cold, since most of my studying happened the month before my original date in September. I hope this helps. If you have questions, drop me a line.


Edit - I also read over USMLE Step 2 Secrets first few pages, which is like a Q&D of the top 100 topics.
 
Last edited:
Took the test on 10/14 and got my score back today. I promised myself that if I passed CK I would post on this forum so here goes:
Step 1: 245+
Shelf scores: 79-96 (avg 87)
UW first pass during clerkships so don't really remember
UW second pass: around 85%
NBME 6: 237 (2 weeks out)
UWSA: 252 (few days out)

Studied on and off for the first few months of fourth year. Did an older version of DIT following along with the old version of Step Up to Step 2 during that time. Had 2 weeks off rotations to study for CK and only did UWorld and some Kaplan during that time. Test day was awful. I felt like I maybe was able to answer 50% of the questions, question stems were long (I'm a fast reader, never had issues on NBMEs or UWorld but ended up needing all the time on every section), answers were vague or phrased in such a way that even if you knew the answer they used a different term to describe it. Quite a few questions required you to recognize the imaging to make a diagnosis and answer the questions, you could not infer from the vignette. There were a couple questions on hospital management (how can you prevent medication errors from happening type questions) on the exam that threw me off. There was way more biostats than I expected and I hadn't studied that thinking it would be very low yield. Drug ads were annoying and I spent too much time overthinking them. I nearly had a panic attack during the exam. I went home and made a list of 40-50 questions I knew I got wrong, not including random weird questions I just couldn't even remember. Spent the next three weeks miserable and convinced I had failed and my future was ruined.

Final result: 250+ (The average was a 238 with SD 19)
Trust what you learned third year and rely on your UWSA results. I didn't believe anyone when they told me it would be ok. I also think the curve on the exam must be very generous so if you're feeling like I did after the exam there is definitely hope.

First Congrats your great scores! What about the drug ads questions? how to prepare them? Are there any examples? Thanks a lot! Do you think uw is enough for knowledge coverage
 
First Congrats your great scores! What about the drug ads questions? how to prepare them? Are there any examples? Thanks a lot! Do you think uw is enough for knowledge coverage
A good read through and understanding of the biostatistics for USMLE Step 2 is the most critical step to addressing the drug ads and abstracts. UWorld gives you enough of them to be familiar with them, but probably not much more than that because the questions end up asking specific biostat/epidemiology questions. Don't forget that just because you had a drug ad question you can forget the rest of what you know too, not all answers come from within the ad. For instance, if you had an ad for a new PDE5 inhibitor and the question was about a patient asking for the drug, no matter how efficacious the drug is in the ad, you still have to think about the work-up for ED. Don't get too sucked in to the info in the ad, because the other stuff counts in those too.
 
First Congrats your great scores! What about the drug ads questions? how to prepare them? Are there any examples? Thanks a lot! Do you think uw is enough for knowledge coverage
A good read through and understanding of the biostatistics for USMLE Step 2 is the most critical step to addressing the drug ads and abstracts. UWorld gives you enough of them to be familiar with them, but probably not much more than that because the questions end up asking specific biostat/epidemiology questions. Don't forget that just because you had a drug ad question you can forget the rest of what you know too, not all answers come from within the ad. For instance, if you had an ad for a new PDE5 inhibitor and the question was about a patient asking for the drug, no matter how efficacious the drug is in the ad, you still have to think about the work-up for ED. Don't get too sucked in to the info in the ad, because the other stuff counts in those too.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
I just wanted to add a short experience. Earlier this year I asked this board how long to take off time to study given the fact that I did very well on the shelfs (96-99) and had a strong step 1 (255+). Most people said no more then 2 weeks and I'm glad I took their advice as I was going to take a whole month. I started in Oct. and did 3-5 USMLE world (2nd pass) blocks a day on tutor about 9am-6pm, finished 2 days before my exam- did the usmleworld practice exam:265 and then did my incorrects and re-read a page of notes i wrote for things I easily forget. By the end of the 2 weeks I was completely burned out and wanted to throw my computer out of the window.

Test day was pretty painful, I just couldn't get into a good rhythm, the questions are actually quite hard (worse then the usmle world practice exam)... at least I was expecting that since I'd read on this board that a lot of people feel "eh" walking out but still doing ok. I made some really stupid mistakes on a couple of questions that i kicked myself about over the last 3 weeks but ended just fine with a 268.

Bottom line is: If you've done well on third year shelfs, and did well on step 1 I would say take no longer then 2 weeks to study and just use USMLE world and wiki (if needed to look things up). And if you felt horrible after walking out, its normal, most of the time you'll have done just fine even if you made tons of stupid mistakes.
 
Alright this coming Wednesday is my 3rd Wednesday from exam week...anybody else expecting scores?
 
If I took my exam on Wednesday, October 30,2013, should I be expecting my score report this Wednesday or next week?
 
253 on UWSA today, marginal improvement from my NBME 6 252 a week ago... 2 weeks out... any suggestions on what i need to improve further? Middle range performance in OB and PEDS it seems
 
253 on UWSA today, marginal improvement from my NBME 6 252 a week ago... 2 weeks out... any suggestions on what i need to improve further? Middle range performance in OB and PEDS it seems

I would say just do as many questions in general as possible. If you have more world questions left - take those. I would also just take another NBME for purely questions, don't focus on the predicted score. You can also take your missed/marked questions over in world again to see if you learned anything from those.
 
I took about 2.5 weeks to study for the test. All I used was one pass through UWorld.

I got my score back today and it is >260. That said, everyone do uworld.
 
I promised I'd post here if I did ok since I read through this forum so much and got help from it. Here goes:

I started studying for the test in July and did a pass through UWorld. I finished it at around 61% at the time. I was going to register to take it, but my school wouldn't approve me to take the exam for some reason. They kept delaying pushing the friggin button to approve me to sign up for boards so I had to wait like a month and a half. Obviously in that time, I was slowly losing information I gained from UWorld, so I signed up for Kaplan QBank and did about 40% of the QBank averaging in the high 50s - low 60s. When my school finally approved me, I took a practice NBME 3 and made a 203. I was mortified as I thought I knew everything. I started to panic and pushed my test date back to Halloween. I was scored weakly on women's health issues so I read through the chapters on OB-GYN on Step Up to Step 2. I re-ordered UWorld and just went through all the questions again. I was averaging 75-82% on all the questions. I re-did all the questions I missed at the end and was averaging 90+ % on them. I did a practice NBME 6, 1 week before the test and made a 233. I did NBME 4 two days before the exam and made a 228. I was pretty bummed out because I was so sure I knew all the material but didn't want to delay my test any further.

I went in on test day and felt like I got hammered. Everyone says this and they're really right on it. I just kind of didn't let anything faze me and just kept clicking away. It seemed like I was at 50/50 on about 30% of the questions. There was only 1 question on the entire exam where I had no idea what it was even talking about and couldn't reason my way to an educated guess. Anyway, I started at 7:30, took one 30 minute break and was out by 3. I just went home and focused on my away electives and prayed a lot, haha.

Final Step 2 CK: 250

I was pretty relieved considering the highest practice test I got was a 233 and I got a 228 the day before. My advice to you all is to just do as many questions as possible. UWorld really did cover pretty much everything I needed. I had bought the Kaplan Step 2 book and USMLE secrets but really didn't use those at all. My school made us buy Doctors in Training, but I watched one video and was out. It just wasn't for me for Step 2. Anyway, best of luck to you all and don't get discouraged. Practice tests are nice but they're not the word of God. Just have faith in your knowledge and do your best.
 
Took the test ~a month ago and recently got my score back. Just wanted to add my 2 cents :).

Shelf scores: 99s and 98s
UW during clerkships (~75%): ~88%
UW during step 2 study (different ~75%): around 89%
NBME 3: 281 (~2 weeks out)
NBME 6: 279 (few days out)
No UWSA

Prep: ~75% of UWorld. Nothing else during study period. Read books 3rd year.

Test day:
Didn't feel great. Felt rushed and couldn't check answers in any block.

Final result: 270+

Basically, I just wanted to add my experience to emphasize/reiterate previous posts stating that even if you score >265, you might come out of the test feeling bad. Know that step 2 is curved much more leniently than either the NBMEs or Step 1. I was interested to find out you can have <5 asterisks on your Step 2 performance profile and still break 270. Don't worry if it's harder than expected y'all.
 
Last edited:
Greetings, folks. There's been very little talk about the Kaplan qbank. I'm still very early in my prep and am about to start it now. I know it's not the favorite choice in qbanks but I'm saving UWorld for later. My target for CK is to break 260.

I was just hoping if someone who got a 260+ actually took the Kaplan qbank (or someone who knows one who did) could tell me how much he scored in it. Eg. I scored 83% in the Step 1 Kaplan qbank (during the last month of my prep) and ended up getting a 262 in the real deal. I was wondering if it's on similar lines in CK as well. I know it's not an accurate estimate but I'm just trying to figure out a ballpark here. Thanks...
 
That was *THE* worst test I've taken so far. I don't know if it was because of the new questions, or my relative lack of preparation compared to step 1, but it was horrible. I just kept pulling up the next question stem and rolling my eyes at the length.
 
That was *THE* worst test I've taken so far. I don't know if it was because of the new questions, or my relative lack of preparation compared to step 1, but it was horrible. I just kept pulling up the next question stem and rolling my eyes at the length.

I felt like a bunch of that test was the NBME just daring me to start skipping through question stems. Jerks.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Which book is better to use for prep? MTB or SUTS2? The latter, reminds me of Goljan's book, where it's all bullet-point format. I'm not taking my exam till end of August, but just want to prep and start early.
 
UWorld: 81% 2nd pass (31% left to go)
NBME 6: 252 3 weeks ago
UWSA: 253 2 weeks ago
NBME 4: 242 today

- felt like this NBME tested alot of peds and OB which are my weak spots compared to medicine and surgery.. feeling disappointed 1 week away from my exam any suggestions? Im reading the OB and Peds sections of MTB3 now to fill gaps
 
I took my exam last week... I feel like I bombed it....
I couldn't stop crying.... everyday I woke up remembering a new stupid mistake I made on the test.
I didn't take any NBME, only took UWSA with a 254
Just by casually thinking about it I can recall I missed 6 easy stupid questions, not to mention the others that I can't even recall.... or due to careless mistakes
I am seriously having depression symptoms :(
 
Last edited:
I took my exam last week... I feel like I bombed it....
I couldn't stop crying.... everyday I woke up remembering a new stupid mistake I made on the test.
I didn't take any NBME, only took UWSA with a 254
Right now I can recall I missed 6 easy stupid questions, not to mention the others that I can't even recall.... or due to careless mistakes
I am seriously having depression symptoms :(

Six questions?

Nothing personal, but **** you.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 4 users
Took the test ~a month ago and recently got my score back. Just wanted to add my 2 cents :).

Shelf scores: 99s and 98s
UW during clerkships (~75%): ~88%
UW during step 2 study (different ~75%): around 89%
NBME 3: 281 (~2 weeks out)
NBME 6: 279 (few days out)
No UWSA

Prep: ~75% of UWorld. Nothing else during study period. Read books 3rd year.

Test day:
Didn't feel great. Felt rushed and couldn't check answers in any block.

Final result: 270+

Basically, I just wanted to add my experience to emphasize/reiterate previous posts stating that even if you score >265, you might come out of the test feeling bad. Know that step 2 is curved much more leniently than either the NBMEs or Step 1. I was interested to find out you can have <5 asterisks on your Step 2 performance profile and still break 270. Don't worry if it's harder than expected y'all.


Its great :) was step 2 similar to uworld ? What should i focus on to ace this exam? I wanna break 260. I am doing uworld, MTB and kaplan notes. Did you do kaplan Qbank ? What was really helpful in scoring this good ?
 
any suggestions ? what one should do? i am doing MTB + uworld.

I did Uworld... I don't know what else I could have done, but it wasn't really enough. Maybe more of the NBME practice tests. Kaplan is good for IM, for sure.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Just finished the exam, was brutal. Feel like ****... feel like although there were some Uworld gimme's alot of the exam I felt like I had 50/50s or didnt know what was the proper next step. Was pressed for time on 3/8 blocks where I finished and only had <3 mins to review. Dunno If I should have read more or what but I finished Uworld with an 81% 2nd pass random timed with like 85% on last 6 blocks before i wrote step 2. The stems were much longer than any practice test or Uworld. Feel crushed but im hoping by some miracle I passed.
 
I'm in my last 3 weeks before my exam (Dec 27), should you guys suggest I focus on finishing my 2nd pass of UW (the most I can do is 2 blocks/day) or should I also read my heavily annotated MTB2?
 
I'm in my last 3 weeks before my exam (Dec 27), should you guys suggest I focus on finishing my 2nd pass of UW (the most I can do is 2 blocks/day) or should I also read my heavily annotated MTB2?

why only 2 blocks a day on your second pass? If you could do only 1, I'd do UWorld second pass, but 3 weeks is enough time to do both imo...especially since you have already done both already.

just keep in mind that on the real test the question stems are A LOT longer and that neither UWORLD nor MTB covers biostats well enough for the exam
 
why only 2 blocks a day on your second pass? If you could do only 1, I'd do UWorld second pass, but 3 weeks is enough time to do both imo...especially since you have already done both already.

just keep in mind that on the real test the question stems are A LOT longer and that neither UWORLD nor MTB covers biostats well enough for the exam

can't concentrate after 2 blocks, I try to read carefully both correct & incorrect options, but by now it feels like I'm torturing myself (as I remember a lot of answers from my first pass)
 
Took CK a long time ago, like May '13. SDN reflects above avg posters and I want to average it up a bit on here. Since I took it so long ago, I can only give estimates.

Step 1: 220s

UWorld Step 2 CK Qbank: 77%
UWorld Self Assessment: 240s-250s
NBME #2: 240s-250s
NBME #4: 240s-250s
(all of the above were within 5 points of each other, UWorld Qbank score I extrapolated from that stickied thread)

Step 2 CK: 260+

-UWorld Qbank is the gold standard. tried kaplan and in retrospect, uworld is far superior. would not bother with kaplan
-bought first aid to study, but in retrospect, it was a waste of time and UWorld was more than adequate. 1st aid can be used as a quick reference at most.
-scored higher than predicted, but would not say actual test is easier. as a side note, i think the NBME practice tests are severely outdated and do not reflect actual test and are meant to milk money from us. UWSA and UWorld Q bank are probably the best predictors.
-from average step 1 to above average on step 2: motivate yourself. i lost motivation while studying for step 1 b/c of the lack of relevance to real life medicine (histology, pathology, memorizing biochem pathways, virulence factors, families of viruses, zebra diseases, etc, etc). I was extremely motivated studying for step 2 b/c I felt I could apply most of what I'm studying to real life on real patients. also wanted to make up for average step 1. just motivate yourself somehow and you can cross percentiles even if you've been doing average.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Man, I am really sucking on USMLE W. I am getting 66%, 70%, and 64% on the first three blocks. I never used USMLE W before (I used MKSAP to study for medicine), so I wonder if I'm getting used to the format, or just not doing very well. Most of the time I am getting around the average that all students get on this.

Sometimes I wonder if this is test-taking skill or just lack of knowledge. I did have a 4 year gap between MS1-2 and MS3-4, but I wouldn't think it should have such a big effect. Perhaps I just haven't seen enough patients on the wards? But I do very often see that questions are essentially testing your basic knowledge, just putting it in a clinical context (e.g. patient shows up with macrocytes and gallstones, brother has it, what does he have? (hereditary spherocytosis) - that's more a pattern recognition question than a true clinical judgment/management question). Many questions are not truly about clinical judgment or management...
 
Man, I am really sucking on USMLE W. I am getting 66%, 70%, and 64% on the first three blocks. I never used USMLE W before (I used MKSAP to study for medicine), so I wonder if I'm getting used to the format, or just not doing very well. Most of the time I am getting around the average that all students get on this.

Sometimes I wonder if this is test-taking skill or just lack of knowledge. I did have a 4 year gap between MS1-2 and MS3-4, but I wouldn't think it should have such a big effect. Perhaps I just haven't seen enough patients on the wards? But I do very often see that questions are essentially testing your basic knowledge, just putting it in a clinical context (e.g. patient shows up with macrocytes and gallstones, brother has it, what does he have? (hereditary spherocytosis) - that's more a pattern recognition question than a true clinical judgment/management question). Many questions are not truly about clinical judgment or management...

you will probably get better as you do more questions, just keep at it and don't despair
 
you will probably get better as you do more questions, just keep at it and don't despair

Thanks for the encouragement. I did another section, got 61% (which was the average), then I decided to try to be a lot more careful and critical in weighing options. Last two blocks (first pass) were 82%!
 
Took the it today, felt really bad. Couldn't study last few days because of interviews either, blah. Anyone know how to make sure the scores don't get automatically sent out?
At this point of the application cycle, scores will not be sent out automatically (that would have happened if your scores were available prior to 9/15). If you would like to send your scores once they are available, you have to log into ERAS and click "retransmit." You may not have the option not to send your scores as some programs require it for ranking. Transmitting the score in ERAS is an all or nothing phenomenon. In other words, you can't send your score to some programs and not others (unless you email your scores to individual PC/PDs (assuming that's is OK with them)).
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
At this point of the application cycle, scores will not be sent out automatically (that would have happened if your scores were available prior to 9/15). If you would like to send your scores once they are available, you have to log into ERAS and click "retransmit." You may not have the option not to send your scores as some programs require it for ranking. Transmitting the score in ERAS is an all or nothing phenomenon. In other words, you can't send your score to some programs and not others (unless you email your scores to individual PC/PDs (assuming that's is OK with them)).
Thank you for the reply, very useful. Had a hard time finding the answer for some reason.
 
Why is the UWSA performance profile so ugly? This guys are making enough money that paying some guy to redesign it and make it look decent shouldn't be such a big deal, compared to the NBME ones it looks like crap

Anyway, does anyone here knows where to study preventive medicine from? That's my absolute lowest performance bar in the performance profile and I hope to improve it before my exam
 
Last edited:
Why is the UWSA performance profile so ugly? This guys are making enough money that paying some guy to redesign it and make it look decent shouldn't be such a big deal, compared to the NBME ones it looks like crap

Anyway, does anyone here knows where to study preventive medicine from? That's my absolute lowest performance bar in the performance profile and I hope to improve it before my exam

I thought UWORLD covered it pretty well. Kaplan is a lil outdated on it. How was your score on UWSA compared to NBME? How did the difficulty compare of UWSA to the UWORLD qbank? thanks!!!
 
Top