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!!

 

[thehundredthone]

I would assume if you thought it was so super easy, you didn't look into the questions enough and were just satisfied with your first instinct, which will often be wrong on these kind of tests.

That's where I haven't been able to decipher what I've done wrong on my tests. They always seemed at par with all the prep material, and I didn't do badly on them either. Just not as well as my predictions.

 

[NeuroAP86]

Hey guys. I know it's my first post. I'm a long time lurker here, but finally decided to post so that you all can join me in patting myself on the back. Just got my score. I'm so proud.

UWorld first pass: 99% (still pissed about the question I missed)
UWorld second pass: 100% (told them the answer they wanted on that one question, but I still say I was right the first time)
NBME 2 (took this at the start of 1st year, just cuz): 220
NBME 4 (waited til second year for this one): 240
UWSA (buddy said I should wait until 3rd year for this): 280

Real deal: 305

Mini-wave in celebration of me!

I know the national average is 235ish, but we SDN folks are just that far ahead of the curve! As if anyone here would ever get below a 240. HA! Everyone else in the country must be getting in the low 200s to bring down the average we all worked so hard to bring up!

What did I do for my score? Aside from inherent brilliance, I studied Kaplan, DIT, SUS2, MTB 2/3, Secrets, and I got board specialty review books for Internal Med, Surgery, Psych, Neurology, and OB/GYN. It took me one week to get through all the material. On test day, I felt horrible. I know you all say your exams were hard, but let me tell you. Mine was so hard that two of my classmates walked out mid-exam and dropped out of med school! I mean right there in the testing center. I overheard them calling the dean in tears and saying they just couldn't do it anymore. THAT'S how hard my exam was.

Now a round of applause for everyone for slaying the beast and rushing to a board we've never posted on before to let everyone else know how awesome we are! GO US (and especially me)!!!!

See you on Step 3 score-release day!

👍

 

[primadonna22274]

I'm still pretty early into UWORLD (300 q's, 73 avg). Have only done IM section as I was prepping for IM shelf exam today. My step 2 is in 3 weeks and definitely going to step it up now.
Is it fair to say that strong performance (high 80s-90s) on NBME shelf exams has a positive predictive value on a strong step 2 score? Thanks 🙂

 

[kaleerkalut]

Any other August testers get scores back? I just saw the one poster who took it Aug. 1 and got score back but haven't heard from anyone else. TIA

 

[ipizzy]

I'm still pretty early into UWORLD (300 q's, 73 avg). Have only done IM section as I was prepping for IM shelf exam today. My step 2 is in 3 weeks and definitely going to step it up now.
Is it fair to say that strong performance (high 80s-90s) on NBME shelf exams has a positive predictive value on a strong step 2 score? Thanks 🙂

I have almost no evidence to back this up, but I think shelf scores are a very strong predictor of step 2CK score, probably better than Uworld. My general observation: people on this thread have posted a wide range of Uworld averages with similar CK outcomes (e.g. people with averages ranging in the 70s% to 90s% on Uworld have scored 260+). People with shelves in the mid to high 90s tend to score at the upper extreme (270+), people with shelves in the high 80s to low-mid 90s tend to score 250s-260s+, etc. A lot of people around here agree that one of the best ways to prepare for step 2 is to learn as much as possible during 3rd year, and shelves are a pretty good marker of how well you're learning during 3rd year IMO.

 

[primadonna22274]

I have almost no evidence to back this up, but I think shelf scores are a very strong predictor of step 2CK score, probably better than Uworld. My general observation: people on this thread have posted a wide range of Uworld averages with similar CK outcomes (e.g. people with averages ranging in the 70s% to 90s% on Uworld have scored 260+). People with shelves in the mid to high 90s tend to score at the upper extreme (270+), people with shelves in the high 80s to low-mid 90s tend to score 250s-260s+, etc. A lot of people around here agree that one of the best ways to prepare for step 2 is to learn as much as possible during 3rd year, and shelves are a pretty good marker of how well you're learning during 3rd year IMO.

Thanks...I'm hoping 🙂
250s would be a 40-pt jump for me LOL.
On the other hand, clinical medicine is my strong suit after 13 yr as a PA. Step 1 basic sciences was much more difficult for me.

 

[dmgcontrol]

IMG from Europe, VISA is not required
Step 1: 242
Step 2: 218 (Uworld avg 68%)


1 research publication, great LOR's from high up surgeons, extensive US clinical experience (in surgery)
Pursuing general surgery residency.

How much will my leap down in step 2 score hurt my chances of matching into a program?
How is this 218 going to influence me as an applicant for the upcoming match?
It seems most questions on this forum cater to the low step 1 performers who redeem themselves with a high step 2, very little covers the reverse.

Any one who has any experience or insight on the matter?

 

[Copernicus7]

UWorld Qbank 1st Pass: 63% correct, 40th percentile
UWorld Qbank 2nd Pass: 77% correct, 85th percentile

UWorld Self Assessment: 640 (247 approximated)

NBME CCSSA Form 4: 560 (250 approximated)

USMLE STEP 2 CK: 250

Hope somebody finds the info useful. Best of luck.

 

[JJtheMD]

Heres my results! I cant believe how many posts there are on just this one thread!

Step 2 ck: 221

uworld step 2 first pass: 61%
uworld step 2 second pass: 74%

NBME 4: 219
NBME 6: 229
UWSA: 234

Its a long exam, long questions. But if your on top of your game, you should do well.

 

[kaleerkalut]

UWorld Qbank 1st Pass: 63% correct, 40th percentile
UWorld Qbank 2nd Pass: 77% correct, 85th percentile

UWorld Self Assessment: 640 (247 approximated)

NBME CCSSA Form 4: 560 (250 approximated)

USMLE STEP 2 CK: 250

Hope somebody finds the info useful. Best of luck.

When did you take it?

 

[med8957]

On average, how many drug ad questions per block did everyone have?

Is it normal to spend a longer time on the drug ad questions? (Uworld drug ads are kind of long)

 

[Rebs28]

On average, how many drug ad questions per block did everyone have?

Is it normal to spend a longer time on the drug ad questions? (Uworld drug ads are kind of long)

I believe I had 3 drug ads for the entire exam. 1 page each.

The drug ads I had were all quite easy, IMO, and because of this I would say that they took less time than the average question.

 

[xtina0]

I had three drug ads as well. What I did was save them till the end of the block, this way I could spend all my remaining time on them and not feel pressured that I was taking too long to read them.

my first drug ad a little difficult it was 3 pages. my other two were easy 1 pg each

 

[xtina0]

what is considered a competitive score on step 2 ? or better yet does step 2 even matter if step 1 is decent?

 

[Copernicus7]

When did you take it?

July 27

 

[buccsmf1]

what is considered a competitive score on step 2 ? or better yet does step 2 even matter if step 1 is decent?

avg for my test was 237 so I would think anything 250+ would be considered a very good score.

as far as your second question goes, Ive heard that step 2 is becoming more and more important with so many schools switching to pass/fail. many students just used to see things as, "so well on step 1 then just cruise." i heard many people mention that PDs specifically brought up their step 2 score and commended them on taking it.

 

[Pipers]

what is considered a competitive score on step 2 ? or better yet does step 2 even matter if step 1 is decent?

Its relative. What specialty are you applying to?

For pediatrics, CK matters more than Step 1 (in grand sweeping terms). That being said, a not great score on Step 1 (< 220) isn't the death of you and can be made up for with a more stellar CK (> 240).

 

[eastcoastdr]

Kind of having a freakout here..decided to post in this thread since it seems to be the most active one about Step 2 CK in this forum!

I'm taking Step 2 in 2 weeks.

Uworld first pass during 3rd year - 69% (I kinda rushed through these, did most on tutor mode because I wanted to get to the explanations...).

I studied mostly using DIT and Step up to step 2 ck. DIT was such a waste of time, I didn't get anything out of the videos and I felt like they harped on too much unnecessary stuff and left out what was important. I'm annoyed bc I feel like I could have just spending more time on questions or something 🙁 And now I only have 2 weeks left to really learn the material.

Did the Uworld Self assessment today - 230. Please, please tell me that all hope is not lost. What do you guys recommend I do in the next 2 weeks? Do as much Uworld second pass as I can? Focus on NBMEs? For some reason I just feel a little more lost this time around :/

Okay took NBME 4, and did much better - 244! I'm feeling like I can really do this. I'm also getting kinda burnt out, wish I had booked my test a little sooner. Last week I was freaking out, now i'm just over it! Oh well. Just gonna try and push through as much uworld as I can this week and maybe do NBME 6 if time permits. Uworld second time around is going much better as well - scoring in the 80s now.

I'm finding that questions are definitely the way to go in the last few weeks before the exam. There's so many topics that *know* a lot about, but I just can't figure it out in a multiple choice Q. So just trying to focus on picking up buzzwords and little hints from the stems.

Hope everyone else's prep is going well. And congrats to those who got their scores back, amazing job as always 🙂 Thanks so much for everyone who wrote about their experiences, it's SO helpful!

 

[Omizzle]

YEAHHH OT!

~Guile

I know yours is coming up, good luck guile 🙂 You will rock it.

 

[Jorje286]

Did it today. Felt my ass was kicked. Concur with everyone who said it's harder than UWorld. Longer stems, more atypical presentations, looking at every possibility to confuse the hell out of you. I had a total of 5 drugs ads... with a total of 12 questions. Pace was unrelenting throughout. I hope most people are feeling that way, cause I need to at least match the 245 on step 1.

 

[je355804]

Did it today. Felt my ass was kicked. Concur with everyone who said it's harder than UWorld. Longer stems, more atypical presentations, looking at every possibility to confuse the hell out of you. I had a total of 5 drugs ads... with a total of 12 questions. Pace was unrelenting throughout. I hope most people are feeling that way, cause I need to at least match the 245 on step 1.

I pity da foo who has to take this in 10 years... The minimum pass score will be 253, the questions will be fill in the blank, and you best BALEEVE spelling will be graded.

 

[johndoe3344]

Definitely harder than UW. I felt like my blocks had different degrees of difficulty. The easier ones (only 2 of them) were on par with UW. The harder ones (pretty much the rest) I ended up marking about 3-4x more questions.

Definitely know your heart sounds. I can't listen to heart sounds for my life, so I pretty much had to try to intuit the right answer from the rest of the stem... I could do that (at least I think I could..) maybe in about 1/3 of them (had around like 7-8 total).

Fair chunk of peds and obgyn.

My biostat questions were personally very easy. Maybe a drug ad in 5/8 blocks, but straight forward stuff.

Lot's of really random **** that's not in prep books (I used SUTM for Medicine MTB3 for everything else) or UW... you'd probably have to memorize all of uptodate to get them correct.

 

[doc10487]

i am also relying on MTB 2 & 3, kaplan LN and UW. Any suggestion on what else should i do to conquer this beast?
is kaplan QBank useful?

thanks and best of luck

Definitely harder than UW. I felt like my blocks had different degrees of difficulty. The easier ones (only 2 of them) were on par with UW. The harder ones (pretty much the rest) I ended up marking about 3-4x more questions.

Definitely know your heart sounds. I can't listen to heart sounds for my life, so I pretty much had to try to intuit the right answer from the rest of the stem... I could do that (at least I think I could..) maybe in about 1/3 of them (had around like 7-8 total).

Fair chunk of peds and obgyn.

My biostat questions were personally very easy. Maybe a drug ad in 5/8 blocks, but straight forward stuff.

Lot's of really random **** that's not in prep books (I used SUTM for Medicine MTB3 for everything else) or UW... you'd probably have to memorize all of uptodate to get them correct.

 

[Esprit00]

Spoke to someone who took the exam two weeks ago and she felt the exam was more straightforward than UWorld and it was okay. If a person thinks like this, does that mean they screwed up considering the trend on SDN where everyone thinks they fail and then pull out awesome numbers?

 

[CDI]

Spoke to someone who took the exam two weeks ago and she felt the exam was more straightforward than UWorld and it was okay. If a person thinks like this, does that mean they screwed up considering the trend on SDN where everyone thinks they fail and then pull out awesome numbers?

Usually easier exam = tougher "curve"
Unless the person was owning UW with a 85%+ and 260+ on NBMEs.

 

[Esprit00]

Usually easier exam = tougher "curve"
Unless the person was owning UW with a 85%+ and 260+ on NBMEs.

Yeah you're right. Plus Step 2 CK can give you a false sense of security if you actually don't know as much as you think you know.

 

[Esprit00]

Zomg... 13 more days to Step 2 CK. As my brain becomes saturated with information in one last round, I slowly lose my sanity and find myself randomly spouting CK knowledge to unsuspecting strangers (well... not really strangers but still lol). AH THE MADNESS!!!

 

[je355804]

Took the test today...

UWorld. UWorld. UWorld.

I can't say UWorld enough times to make you understand how UWorld this test is. At least 70% of my test could be answered DIRECTLY from UWorld questions....

With that said, the test was everything everyone says it is. It was long, it was hard, and it was exhausting.

 

[Siggy]

It was long, it was hard, and it was exhausting.

That's what she said.

 

[je355804]

That's what she said.

 

[wannabebonedoc]

Took the exam 7/29. Wasn't sure if I was gonna post anything, but I got a lot from this forum so I felt obligated.

Step 1: 250+
Shelves: Averaged mid 80's
UW 1st pass: Third year clerkships. Untimed. Tutor. 72%
UW 2nd pass: Untimed. Tutor. 86%

Three weeks dedicated study time. Studied 8+ hours on weekdays and didn't do much on the weekends. Read through FAFS2CK over the first 2 weeks and annotated it while doing system specific banks and would continue to add previous days system after reading next chapter. Still had 800 questions during third week and just did these with annotations. Read Step 2 Secrets couple days before exam. Easy to read and got some points from it.

Didn't take any practice exams.

Felt better than after step 1, but that's relative cause it was still pretty crappy. Had a bunch of OB/GYN stuff I had never heard off with some factoid questions I'd never covered either. Got flustered and angry with one of the drug ads that really screwed up my rhythm. Looking back, I would've skipped it and left time for it at the end. Definitely worth taking an hour or two to skim through epi/biostats a few days before. Had several questions (8 or so) on these and saved me some time. Definitely thought UWorld was key.

Step 2 CK: 270+

 

[eastcoastdr]

Took Step 2 today...**** that was hard. more on that..

Uworld first pass - 69%
Uworld second pass - didn't finish all the way but was getting high 70s/low 80s
UWSA 2 weeks out: 230
NBME 4 1 week out: 245
NMBE 6 a few days out: 225 - started to panic here lol
Did free 150 2 days before as a confidence boost: 90% / 247 according to some estimator I found on google

Real thing: Was really hard. I thought it was similar to the really difficult parts of Uworld. I had a LOT of ob/gyn. And a LOT of peds too. The biostats was definitely hard, those drug ads were such a waste of time. I'm glad I saved them for the end. Anyways there was just a ton of stuff I wasn't sure about...I had at least 15 qs marked in every block, and I didn't necessarily have time left to go back through them again. I felt like for a good chunk of questions I could always narrow it down to 2 answers and then it was just a crapshoot. Oh well, nothing I can do about it now, I guess.

Looking back, I wish I hadn't reset Uworld because I didn't have enough time to go through it again anyways. I should have just gone through my marked and incorrects from my 1st run.

Will update when I get my score back.

 

[med8957]

Hi guys, does the exam format on the screen look exactly like on uworld (including the lab values/tabs)?

 

[link2swim06]

Hi guys, does the exam format on the screen look exactly like on uworld (including the lab values/tabs)?

As far as I can remember, yes.

 

[VCorp]

Seems like all you need for Step 2 is UW...which is strange because for Step 1 you need FA, UW, and Pathoma to be successful.

 

[CDI]

Seems like all you need for Step 2 is to do well in 3rd year.

Fixed that for you.

 

[VCorp]

Fixed that for you.

Crap. stressing hard about it already. seems like there can be a lot of material during 3rd year where the material isn't taught properly or can lead to gaps in the material.

atleast for step 1 prep if there are gaps, there are really good resources to cover those gaps up.

 

[link2swim06]

Crap. stressing hard about it already. seems like there can be a lot of material during 3rd year where the material isn't taught properly or can lead to gaps in the material.

atleast for step 1 prep if there are gaps, there are really good resources to cover those gaps up.

Stuff overlaps in third year. A ton. This decreases gaps.

Medicine, family medicine, and surgery have a lot of the same patients/pathology.

The only truly unique ones ob/gyn and psych. Peds has some overlap but plenty of unique stuff too.

Regardless when you study for shelves you will use a lot more than uworld. There shouldn't be too many gaps if you ace the shelves (if any gaps).

 

[VCorp]

Stuff overlaps in third year. A ton. This decreases gaps.

Medicine, family medicine, and surgery have a lot of the same patients/pathology.

The only truly unique ones ob/gyn and psych. Peds has some overlap but plenty of unique stuff too.

Regardless when you study for shelves you will use a lot more than uworld. There shouldn't be too many gaps if you ace the shelves (if any gaps).

are you still in the atlanta area? if not, let me know ill send you a PM on the other forum

 

[link2swim06]

are you still in the atlanta area? if not, let me know ill send you a PM on the other forum

Nope, I am doing an away rotation in the midwest right now.

 

[caveat87]

My experience (7/27 test taker here)

Step1: high 250s

Fairly good clinical grades, but step scores were mostly mid 70s/low 80s. Not AOA material here.

Study plan:
2 weeks during radiology. Read MTB step2ck 1.5 times through, 50% of UWORLD (had been using for shelf exams so it was kinda my second time through and I was in the mid 70s on random full timed blocks). Lets just say I wasn't the most motivated to study during July.

UW practice test: 236 toward beginning of my studies

Actual beast: It was freaking long as hell. Quite a few gimmes but enough questions that were pretty out there. Ad questions were long...I wish I had some more gimmes because my timing was an issue after the 4th block. I definitely made a few bonehead mistakes and it did not feel like it went as well as step1 did.

Step2ck: mid 240s. Not excited about explaining the drop in my score/percentile to program directors, but I don't think it will be a deal breaker for my desired specialty.

Good luck to everyone else out there. If I could do it again I might have taken the month off to break the 260 barrier, but what is done is done.

 

[amikhchi]

Has anyone's permit link disappeared? I suppose it's just wishful thinking on my part... took it Aug 5th and still hoping I won't have to wait till Sept 25th...

 

[link2swim06]

Has anyone's permit link disappeared? I suppose it's just wishful thinking on my part... took it Aug 5th and still hoping I won't have to wait till Sept 25th...

I took it August 1st. Permit has disappeared within the past couple of days.

 

[amikhchi]

I thought Aug 1st people had already gotten there scores? Or was that only a some of them?

 

[link2swim06]

I thought Aug 1st people had already gotten there scores? Or was that only a some of them?

Maybe it's regional. I know a half of dozen august 1st test takers. None of us have got our score yet.

 

[btabaac4]

There is no doubt in my mind that if you took the test in mid to late August, the scores will be released on September 25th - as announced.

Only 22 days to go...

 

[VCorp]

Seems like the trend is most people do significantly better (x > 20 points) on S2 compared to S1. Have a friend I was telling CDI about who got a 210 on his S1 and ended up with a 230 on S2. I've been seeing this trend following the thread.

 

[Esprit00]

To the folks who have already taken Step 2 CK tips, do you guys have any tips for exam day? Please and thank you! 🙂.

 

[mdeast]

To the folks who have already taken Step 2 CK tips, do you guys have any tips for exam day? Please and thank you! 🙂.

I think the hardest part of the exam is the length. It's 8 sections of ~44 questions (each section ranged from 41-44 questions for me, same time limit of 60 minutes to complete). This is 1 section more than Step 1.

Comparatively, all the practice tests I did were usually max 4 sections long.

I found myself struggling on Sections 7 and 8 just to pay attention. There are often quite long vignettes that present a lot of very dense information and I had multiple instances where I'd read the paragraph only the find myself at the end not even remembering what the initial complaint was. This was probably most evidence on the last 20 questions or so of the exam. I still finished most sections with about 12-15 minutes left to check answers. But, I definitely was getting down to less than 10 on the last few sections.

Not sure if there is a way to deal with this, but make sure you take breaks, bring some healthy, high energy foods, and at least be aware that a 9 hour exam is going to be tough at the end. Also, for long vignettes, make sure to read the final question at the end of the paragraph and the answer choices before reading the full paragraph. Oftentimes, the final question doesn't even relate to 3/4 of the information presented, or doesn't even require you to read the vignette. So, you can save a lot of time and energy but just skipping over unnecessary information.

On a broader note, a lot of the difficulty I found in the exam vs. practice questions is that the vignettes are much more vague and it's a bit harder to differentiate correct answers. When in doubt, always make sure to ask yourself "What knowledge point are they trying to test on this question?". I found that really helped when I was narrowing things down.

 

[VCorp]

To the folks who have already taken Step 2 CK tips, do you guys have any tips for exam day? Please and thank you! 🙂.

CDI's tip was clutch. When I took my 55 minute break at the end of block 5, the first thing I did was take 2 tylenols to prevent headache from kicking in. This helped me quite a bit. 🙂