USMLE World Scores and Step II Scores

[lmh14]

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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!!

 

[HiddenGentleman]

Sounds like there are quite a few of us taking it tomorrow, I am too. Good luck everyone. I have that feeling of the calm before the storm.

 

[Phur]

Kept my eye on this thread as I was preparing, only right to contribute to it.

Step 1: 244

I knew early on that I was only going to have 1 week of dedicated study time, so I started preparing earlier than I probably would have if I would have had a few more weeks.

Finished 1st run of UW about 4 months out at ~60%
NBME 1 4 months out (for a baseline): 216
USMLE Rx: 72%
NBME 2 3 months out: 221
Kaplan QB: 65%
NBME 3 2 weeks out :239
UW assessment 1 week out: 252
UW 2nd run through: 77%
NBME 4 2 days out: 249

Resources: All 3 q-banks while also doing UW a second time. IM was my last rotation before it, so I had gone through SUTM a couple times along side questions. I went through FA for CK once, but wasn't a huge fan. I went through Secrets once.

Test day: Got off to a rough start with starting my first block with a sequential question where I got the first part wrong. Got a little frazzled from that. First 2 blocks felt really tough, but then I felt it got better. Primarily med and surg with very little ob/peds/psych.

Real thing: 249

What I would have done differently. If I could have had my rotations set up a little better, maybe that could have helped. Other than that, I would have looked at Secrets or the rapid review portion in the back of FA again right before the exam. I felt like the exam was a lot more high yield than Step 1. Felt like there were very few 'I have no idea what you're talking about.' type questions. Many of the ones I got wrong were things I should have remembered. But my goal was to do better than Step 1, which I did, so I'm satisfied.

 

[tiburones]

I've been following this thread too, and I feel like somewhere along mid-summer the test took a turn for the freaky - I took it yesterday and am only now snapping out if my "wtf" haze.

What I mean is that I had a ridiculous amount of "what are you talking about?" questions, one so far as to having a list of farm animals for answer choices. My test was SUPER stats heavy and it was a good thing I re-looked up some of those equations during the break and wrote them down on my board like some had suggested on this forum. There was also a whole lot more psych than I expected, so brush up on all the yummy drugs and the good old DSM, my friends.

I studied my weaknesses (primarily cards, renal, and all those tricky endocrine disorders) the heaviest, and was disappointed to see so little of it on the exam. Lots of pedo immuno and OB peri-labor stuff, a lot of those pseudo-ethical "how do we best prevent systems errors in the hospital setting" type questions where any of the answer choices would have worked, and it's hard to know what NBME is thinking in terms of what's best - I'm sure USMLE World and the editors of Secrets will be updating their reviews with this stuff soon as it looks like NBME is pushing toward this realm.

In sum, I guess the test just really didn't focus on the bread and butter stuff that people generally say it does, and it felt more Step-1ish in terms of randomness and not being at all straight forward. It is frustrating that I could have failed, or could have done really well, and I honestly have no way of subjectively gauging it. I guess my advice to those taking it would be to be prepared for anything; I think I mistakenly bought into the hype that Step 2 is much "easier" and more straightforward than Step 1, which in my case did not turn out to be true at all.

 

[vector2]

I've been following this thread too, and I feel like somewhere along mid-summer the test took a turn for the freaky - I took it yesterday and am only now snapping out if my "wtf" haze.

What I mean is that I had a ridiculous amount of "what are you talking about?" questions, one so far as to having a list of farm animals for answer choices. My test was SUPER stats heavy and it was a good thing I re-looked up some of those equations during the break and wrote them down on my board like some had suggested on this forum. There was also a whole lot more psych than I expected, so brush up on all the yummy drugs and the good old DSM, my friends.

I studied my weaknesses (primarily cards, renal, and all those tricky endocrine disorders) the heaviest, and was disappointed to see so little of it on the exam. Lots of pedo immuno and OB peri-labor stuff, a lot of those pseudo-ethical "how do we best prevent systems errors in the hospital setting" type questions where any of the answer choices would have worked, and it's hard to know what NBME is thinking in terms of what's best - I'm sure USMLE World and the editors of Secrets will be updating their reviews with this stuff soon as it looks like NBME is pushing toward this realm.

In sum, I guess the test just really didn't focus on the bread and butter stuff that people generally say it does, and it felt more Step-1ish in terms of randomness and not being at all straight forward. It is frustrating that I could have failed, or could have done really well, and I honestly have no way of subjectively gauging it. I guess my advice to those taking it would be to be prepared for anything; I think I mistakenly bought into the hype that Step 2 is much "easier" and more straightforward than Step 1, which in my case did not turn out to be true at all.

This sums up my test last week pretty well. I'll be feeling good if I broke a 230 judging by the number of qs I marked.

 

[garyy]

• I've been following this thread too, and I feel like somewhere along mid-summer the test took a turn for the freaky - I took it yesterday and am only now snapping out if my "wtf" haze.

What I mean is that I had a ridiculous amount of "what are you talking about?" questions, one so far as to having a list of farm animals for answer choices. My test was SUPER stats heavy and it was a good thing I re-looked up some of those equations during the break and wrote them down on my board like some had suggested on this forum. There was also a whole lot more psych than I expected, so brush up on all the yummy drugs and the good old DSM, my friends.

I studied my weaknesses (primarily cards, renal, and all those tricky endocrine disorders) the heaviest, and was disappointed to see so little of it on the exam. Lots of pedo immuno and OB peri-labor stuff, a lot of those pseudo-ethical "how do we best prevent systems errors in the hospital setting" type questions where any of the answer choices would have worked, and it's hard to know what NBME is thinking in terms of what's best - I'm sure USMLE World and the editors of Secrets will be updating their reviews with this stuff soon as it looks like NBME is pushing toward this realm.

In sum, I guess the test just really didn't focus on the bread and butter stuff that people generally say it does, and it felt more Step-1ish in terms of randomness and not being at all straight forward. It is frustrating that I could have failed, or could have done really well, and I honestly have no way of subjectively gauging it. I guess my advice to those taking it would be to be prepared for anything; I think I mistakenly bought into the hype that Step 2 is much "easier" and more straightforward than Step 1, which in my case did not turn out to be true at all.

I'll 3rd that ..
did basicly uworld x2, and little bit of secrets, had done step1 4 months prior so that sorta helped

• Step1 : 260
• Uworld 1st pass: 69% (mostly random timed)
• 2nd pass 77%
• NBME4 (1 month out) 239
• UWSA (1month out) 254
• test day 8/20 : felt the exam was harder than uworld itself (anyone felt like it ? ), was struggling all thru the exam, most of the questions were weird .. like they made it though just to make it tough, vague questions and even vague answers u had to even think what they meant by some of the answers..really horrible feelin' .. was finishing on time and one or 2 sections were outa time.. all the sections were hard as hell. step2 aint a walk in the part.. felt it was much harder the step1.. on step1 i was let w 5-10 min at the end of each block..
• my summation of the exam was that it was a TWISTED exam..

 

[jmayer]

any test takers from today?

the previous posts are making me really nervous - test day tomorrow 🙁

 

[DocDanny]

That was exhausting, but I thought it was pretty fair.

My easiest question basically asked me to diagnose Rheumatoid Arthritis.

There were so many easy questions, and then ones where I just guessed. It was so much easier than Step 1.

 

[PokerDoc]

I didn't feel like my test was 'harder' than UW. I actually thought UW was more similar to the real thing than either NBME 2 or 3. However, I felt like my test was unbalanced. Normally you hear people say stuff like how its 60% medicine 40% everything else?

My test, if i had to give a rough breakdown was
50% peds and I am NOT exaggerating. Over 100 of my questions were peds, easily (this got me really flustered about halfway through my test that I had to step out and regroup, because I just hate peds)
35% medicine
15% eveything else. Very very few OB/GYN, I could count psych on one hand (although at least 10 peds questions were psych related such as conduct disorder or normal behavior, etc.) I had MAYBE 10 surgery questions and another 5 questions or so on rotator cuff/plexus injuries that I totally forgot to study, but after looking them up I got 3 out of 5, so can't really complain.

 

[SGuttenberg]

NBME4: 267 (2 days out)

How have people been finding NBME4 vs. the real deal? I've heard its most representative.

Also any suggestion for making a 276 possible in 1 day? I need to defeat a classmate and rub it in his face . Seriously though, if I get 260+ on the real thing I will be content.

 

[NoWayOut]

NBME4: 267 (2 days out)

How have people been finding NBME4 vs. the real deal? I've heard its most representative.

Also any suggestion for making a 276 possible in 1 day? I need to defeat a classmate and rub it in his face . Seriously though, if I get 260+ on the real thing I will be content.

content? uuuhmm ..ok.... So what have you been studying?...spill it..please...

 

[SGuttenberg]

😱 content? uuuhmm ..ok.... So what have you been studying?...spill it..please...

On SDN 260 isn't really 😱 worthy, maybe a 280. Assuming step 2 is a normal distribution probably 10% of people get 260 or better. Our top score is 276 with maybe half having taking step 2 by now and I definitely don't go to a top med school. Its getting pretty cut throat for those decent residency spots.

As far as studying goes the thing is I did well on all the shelfs 3rd year by studying then so I'm not trying to learn anything so much as review. For that purpose secrets and world work well.

 

[tiburones]

On SDN 260 isn't really 😱 worthy, maybe a 280. Assuming step 2 is a normal distribution probably 10% of people get 260 or better. Our top score is 276 with maybe half having taking step 2 by now and I definitely don't go to a top med school. Its getting pretty cut throat for those decent residency spots.

As far as studying goes the thing is I did well on all the shelfs 3rd year by studying then so I'm not trying to learn anything so much as review. For that purpose secrets and world work well.

Wow, y'all are craaazy cut-throat. Reminds me of college. Some of us are just trying to stay afloat!

 

[theRainmaker78]

NBME4: 267 (2 days out)

How have people been finding NBME4 vs. the real deal? I've heard its most representative.

Also any suggestion for making a 276 possible in 1 day? I need to defeat a classmate and rub it in his face . Seriously though, if I get 260+ on the real thing I will be content.

the test is changing.... NBME correlation is completely random. I know ppl to score 20-30 points above and below the NBME on step 2 (recently). I think its because the focus of the exam isn't the bread and butter topics it used to be. This is a trend you can see if u read posts on this thread from the past month.

UWSA shows better correlation but still not accurate in all cases.

That being said you sound like ur in good position to do well. However, I doubt many ppl appreciate the cockiness.

 

[H2DO]

anyone that took the test had their scores released yet? I heard after they changed the test it is taking 8 weeks?!

 

[wanderlustin]

Just to give my thoughts on the exam and echo what some have been saying....

I took the test on Thursday last week, and I don't necessarily think it was harder than UWorld, just not what I was expecting. It was different. There were a lot of ethics questions that I just had to make an educated guess on--even studying for those is a crapshoot. Also, just a lot of vague answers and presentations without the typical buzz words you expect to see. I had a decent amount of ob/gyn and psych, which was good for me. And definitely study that biostats stuff.....like an idiot, I completely blanked on calculating negative predictive value (how could I forget that!?!) And how do I have some much time left over at the end of UWorld blocks, but be cutting it so close during the real thing?? I think I just second guess a lot when it gets real.

Probably won't be getting my score till late September, but I'll post all my stats here for some perspective.

 

[skatalite]

anyone that took the test had their scores released yet? I heard after they changed the test it is taking 8 weeks?!

I took my test 8/2 and haven't received my scores.

 

[skatalite]

My print permit link disappeared today, but I think that's because my eligibility period ended yesterday.

 

[Soccer171983]

I took my test 8/2 and haven't received my scores.

myself and my fiancee took the test on 8/8 and 8/9. Both of us are still waiting.

 

[211498]

Just to give my thoughts on the exam and echo what some have been saying....

I took the test on Thursday last week, and I don't necessarily think it was harder than UWorld, just not what I was expecting. It was different. There were a lot of ethics questions that I just had to make an educated guess on--even studying for those is a crapshoot. Also, just a lot of vague answers and presentations without the typical buzz words you expect to see. I had a decent amount of ob/gyn and psych, which was good for me. And definitely study that biostats stuff.....like an idiot, I completely blanked on calculating negative predictive value (how could I forget that!?!) And how do I have some much time left over at the end of UWorld blocks, but be cutting it so close during the real thing?? I think I just second guess a lot when it gets real.

Took it last Tuesday and I second what you wrote, I needed the whole hour for almost all blocks. A lot of OB/GYN and Psych, little Pharm. I studied almost exclusively with UWorld, and this might have been a mistake. Hopefully this will work out and I scored >220...

 

[Soccer171983]

any one take there test in the early august and get scores back yet?

 

[The Dark Knight]

anyone that took the test had their scores released yet? I heard after they changed the test it is taking 8 weeks?!

do you know where you heard that? is it at most 8 weeks or now is that the standard minimium amount of time?

 

[The Dark Knight]

do you know where you heard that? is it at most 8 weeks or now is that the standard minimium amount of time?

To clarify on the previous comment made, it could take up to 8 weeks for people who took it back in late July. According to the NBME bulletin, all tests from late July to Mid-September are going to be part of one large pool that they plan on releasing scores for on Wednesday, September 28, 2011.

So if you happen to take the test on September 13, you might be looking at waiting for 15 days....not 8 weeks

 

[Jaymz]

To clarify on the previous comment made, it could take up to 8 weeks for people who took it back in late July. According to the NBME bulletin, all tests from late July to Mid-September are going to be part of one large pool that they plan on releasing scores for on Wednesday, September 28, 2011.

So if you happen to take the test on September 13, you might be looking at waiting for 15 days....not 8 weeks

Further clarification- it could take until Sept 28 for those who took it on August 2nd/3rd or after due to the new testing format. I took mine July 30 and have my score, as do several others who took it late in July.

 

[Dr Rusted]

To clarify on the previous comment made, it could take up to 8 weeks for people who took it back in late July. According to the NBME bulletin, all tests from late July to Mid-September are going to be part of one large pool that they plan on releasing scores for on Wednesday, September 28, 2011.

So if you happen to take the test on September 13, you might be looking at waiting for 15 days....not 8 weeks

those who take the test on 19th sept, when will their scores be released??

 

[lavodnas]

8/8 NBME 1 510/232 (pre-study)
9/6 NBME 3 490/228

UWORLD: (1st run)50% complete overall 67% random and timed
Test Oct. 6

Trying to get a >240, any suggestions or do I seem to be on the right track ? Going to take UWSA in 2 weeks, Should I bother with another NBME and if so which one? Lastly does anyone know if the free questions on the USMLE website are worth the time?

 

[Jaymz]

8/8 NBME 1 510/232 (pre-study)
9/6 NBME 3 490/228

UWORLD: (1st run)50% complete overall 67% random and timed
Test Oct. 6

Trying to get a >240, any suggestions or do I seem to be on the right track ? Going to take UWSA in 2 weeks, Should I bother with another NBME and if so which one? Lastly does anyone know if the free questions on the USMLE website are worth the time?

Strongly suggest you finish world and know it very well before you take UWSA (for a better 'estimate' at where you are score wise) because UWSA seems to be the best predictor scorewise for most people, most of the time. Doesn't look like you improved on your score from august to september- Again, suggest you focus on world, because you only have 50% done, so not surprised you didn't improve much* (although, for what it's worth, it seems like NBME 3 for most people is a downer/difficult test.. I know people avging in 250s who took NBME 3 and got 230s). I personally wouldn't do any NBMEs, but would do the free 150 as there are some repeats on the actual exam sometimes. Good luck!

 

[lavodnas]

Strongly suggest you finish world and know it very well before you take UWSA (for a better 'estimate' at where you are score wise) because UWSA seems to be the best predictor scorewise for most people, most of the time. Doesn't look like you improved on your score from august to september- Again, suggest you focus on world, because you only have 50% done, so not surprised you didn't improve much* (although, for what it's worth, it seems like NBME 3 for most people is a downer/difficult test.. I know people avging in 250s who took NBME 3 and got 230s). I personally wouldn't do any NBMEs, but would do the free 150 as there are some repeats on the actual exam sometimes. Good luck!

Thanks

 

[ForeverandEver]

So if you could only take one practice test, would it be the UWSA? Thanks.

 

[MilkmanAl]

So if you could only take one practice test, would it be the UWSA? Thanks.

That's all I'm doing, so it had better be good. 😛

My 3-week strategy so far: 1 pass through UW by subject (and organ system for medicine) - probably 3-4 days out from finishing that - take UWSA, a random pass through UW, use whatever time is left over to study things I suck at. Step 1 was 228 despite practice scores in the high 240's, and I'm hoping to top 240 on this one. We'll see on the 23rd, I suppose.

 

[PokerDoc]

I took two nbmes and uwsa,, i also agree uwsa was most similar

 

[Oreola]

What do you guys think of doing the case files series in med, surg, peds, ob/gyn, and psych instead of any one or a combination of secrets, SUTM, master the boards, ect.. I still plan on doing world in addition of course.

 

[Jaymz]

What do you guys think of doing the case files series in med, surg, peds, ob/gyn, and psych instead of any one or a combination of secrets, SUTM, master the boards, ect.. I still plan on doing world in addition of course.

Personally, I think it's a bad idea. Especially since case files blows for most of the clerkships. It's only good for OB/Gyn, in my opinion. If anything I could see reading case files for OB/Gyn because it's a good comprehensive review and fairly short- for psych your time would be better spent using world or secrets, but if you really have to use another source, first aid for psych is shorter and more high yield. For the other subjects if you really want to use something else, maybe try first aid for step 2 CK, reading only the relevant sections. For medicine I see nothing better than world or SUTM. Honestly the more time you spend on world, the better off you'll be I think.

 

[kryptik]

Battled the beast today. Overall UW does a decent job, just find another source to go with it. I ended up using Step Up to CK. Although I did use Step Up to Medicine for my medicine rotation and the kaplan books for the rest of my 3rd year rotations.

UW = 70% timed random
UWSA = 234 one week out
USMLE Sample questions = 82% had some repeats 👍

I tried to cram all of Step Up CK in the last 3 days, I split the book into 3 equal parts and run through it 4 days before the exam.

Some tips:
Read last line before reading entire question.
Save those abstract and drug ad crap for last, it can take a lot your time

Hoping for a >230

Will update when scores are released.

 

[Soccer171983]

I took usmle ck on august 8th and was told by one of the nbome ladies that the next release date will be on the 28th of this month. She said we will get an email at 10:30 am stating that scores should be up by 11 am.

 

[DrVanNostran]

In order, what are the best NBMEs?

I hear NBME 2 is fairly good, not so sure about the others?

 

[memberi50]

Need some advice from people who've done well..looking to get >250..running low on time:

OBGYN (heard there's a decent amount): is UW + Secrets enough? will FA add anything?

Peds: is UW + Secrets enough? will FA add anything?

Biostats: is UW + Secrets enough? will FA add anything?


for medicine topics i've done UW+SUTM+Secrets


Thanks

ps. after I take it, i'll post my scores & study program

 

[Dr Rusted]

nbme 1 = 189 - just after 2 rounds of reading kaplan notes n MTB and 2 months before starting uworld
uwsa 1 = 220 - yesterday

have exam on 25th sept and want a 250+, any suggestions? should i postpone by 2 week or should i give it on 25th ?

 

[MilkmanAl]

229 on UWSA this morning. Blargh. Oh well, I guess I still have a week of studying left.

 

[ladybug711]

Test in 4 days. 255 on the UWSA. Can I reach 260+ or should I postpone?

 

[EddieIndy]

Test in 4 days. 255 on the UWSA. Can I reach 260+ or should I postpone?

I would postpone... 255 won't get you into any residency 😉

 

[lasko]

so currently doing DIT to get through Step Up to Step 2.
I have completed about 40% of world, 9 days left to study.
I am on Day 10/15, and still need to review. I am having a hard time finishing the world questions.

My averages in begining random/timed have been 70-75%, however few outliers of 51% and 60%. It seems I am not going to have enough time to finish UWorld, plan to do 100Q/day until exam day. (900 Questions out of 1400, plus the UWSA test on Friday)

Any suggestions?
Drop DIT and do all of world

or keep learning with DIT, and completing 75% of world is enough?

 

[lavodnas]

Test Oct. 6

My plan is to finish Uworld by Tues. With 4 blocks tomorrow,4 on Friday and 6 on Monday. Last 8 exams I have >70%.
Then Next Friday USWA (Sept 23.) Review it on the weekend.
Then Step up to MED Step 26 and 27
Free USMLE Prac Test Sept. 28
Then Sept. 29 until Oct.4 Step Up to Step 2 and all my notes which I wrote in that book from UWORLD.

Anyone see any flaws or changes I should make?

 

[Jaymz]

so currently doing DIT to get through Step Up to Step 2.
I have completed about 40% of world, 9 days left to study.
I am on Day 10/15, and still need to review. I am having a hard time finishing the world questions.

My averages in begining random/timed have been 70-75%, however few outliers of 51% and 60%. It seems I am not going to have enough time to finish UWorld, plan to do 100Q/day until exam day. (900 Questions out of 1400, plus the UWSA test on Friday)

Any suggestions?
Drop DIT and do all of world

or keep learning with DIT, and completing 75% of world is enough?

Hands DOWN, drop DIT and do world, in my opinion.

 

[Jaymz]

Test Oct. 6

My plan is to finish Uworld by Tues. With 4 blocks tomorrow,4 on Friday and 6 on Monday. Last 8 exams I have >70%.
Then Next Friday USWA (Sept 23.) Review it on the weekend.
Then Step up to MED Step 26 and 27
Free USMLE Prac Test Sept. 28
Then Sept. 29 until Oct.4 Step Up to Step 2 and all my notes which I wrote in that book from UWORLD.

Anyone see any flaws or changes I should make?

Personally, I have an enormous amount of hatred for Step up to step 2... so the only thing I would change is use those days to either do world, or specifically address what you feel are your weaknesses.

 

[Doublecortin]

Test in 4 days. 255 on the UWSA. Can I reach 260+ or should I postpone?

really? no really?

 

[civilleader]

It is just me, or is it just that I feel like Uworld has way less management than the real thing. I feel like seldom do i get a whats the next best step question on uworld, while on the nbme that was practically everything.

 

[JVK]

T-13 until 500 new results posts. 😎

 

[radiologyguy]

took the test today.
Got 85%ile+ on three shelf exams
Got 90%ile+ on the other three

Got 255 on step 1

I averaged 75% for UWorld first run through
I did 1350 questions a second time through, averaged 82%

I thought the test was a lot harder than I was expecting. The questions werent hard....out of the whole test there was only 2, maybe 3 questions that I did not know the diagnosis. However, there were a lot of questions where I narrowed it down to two choices that both seemed right. This really disappointed me. Also, they have questions that are in series, and once you answer the first part, the second part of the question appears and tells you what the answer of the first part was.....I missed TWO questions this way where I knew my first answer was wrong, but I had to continue along the second part.
Lots of weird ethics questions. Like really weird. I cant even describe them right now, my brain is fried. I didnt think one area was emphasized more than the other, except with ethics being the exception. Will update with results when they are reported. Not super excited. Was hoping for 260+, now thinking I should be happy with a 240.....

 

[Julietcf14]

For those of you who have taken the test recently, how does it differ from uworld... as in, are the questions harder? is the material very different? are they longer? were you off on timing?

 

[radiologyguy]

questions are about the same length, the diagnoses are easier, but the answer choices seemed more vague.