USMLE World Scores and Step II Scores

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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!!
 
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Took it yesterday and now have real energy to actually talk about it. ( I have CS tomorrow and had to drive 4 hours afterwards)

Preparation wise, it is difficult for me to sum up. Throughout the year I did countless questions and read a ton of resources including uworld.

Beginning of 4th year we have a graduation OSCE, where they basically give us 2 weeks off. I used most of that time to study 6 or 7 hours a day. I had a month of an elective with pretty long hours and then 2 weeks of anesthesia with much more controllable hours. That probably gave me another 12ish days of studying tagged on to 10 or so days of actual dedicated study time. (By the end, I really wasn't doing much studying.)

I went through uworld again and then the last week I did all my incorrects and marked questions, sometimes two or three times. I read step 2 secrets throughout the year and most of it again now along with a kaplan step 3 book, MTB and random references.

First practice test (NBME 4) I took before my elective and got a 267. Most of my scores were ranging in the 255-267 range


The test itself felt a lot like UWSA and NBME4. A couple random factoid questions you either know or don't know, a couple that I just didn't get what they were asking for and a couple with wacky wordings for stuff you know the answer to in normal human phrasings. It is a long test and I made sure to bring lots of caffeine and food for it. I probably consumed enough caffeine to make an ordinary person's heart explode, but it really pushed me through the end. Surprisingly, I was still feeling pretty good by the last block and could've done more if I had to.

Overall, the test seemed fair. Heavier on the biostat than I would've liked (probably had 3 questions per block) that were ranging from easy to no clue. Very obgyn and fairly peds heavy too. Surgery was barely represented on there. There was a lot less preventative medicine and ambulatory type stuff than I anticipated as well.

My real goal was 260+ with my content goal being 250+ and my not punching anyone goal being greater than my step 1 score (240s). I know there are people that read that and have little panic attacks, but that is just because of the programs I am reaching for more than anything else. I sacrificed a lot of stuff this past year to make it happen that I probably shouldn't have, but all is said and done. We will see what the end result is in 3-4 weeks I guess.
 
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Took it yesterday and left feeling not so hot about it. After Step 1, I remembered most of the questions from the exam (200+), but this one I could barely remember more than 20 at first. Every question I remembered, it ended up being wrong (random questions pretty much).

I hope I get at least what I got on Step 1 as I would be very happy with that. Definitely can't see getting 10+ more than that even though the average for Step 2 moved up 12 points (233 from 221). Psychiatry killed me on this test.

Btw Step 2 Secrets was a complete waste of time. UWorld was good enough to answer the majority of the questions. The rest were random facts that you could narrow down from clinical experiences or just a best guess clinical judgement on next step. The questions were longer so I only had 10-15 minutes per block at the end to review my marked questions (marked 10 a block).

Edit: Ended up doing UWorld twice...first time I did all 1,400 IM questions in 7 days prior to my medicine rotation very early in third year and got 60% correct. Re-did all of Uworld two weeks before the real exam and had 92% right (obviously because I had seen them before). SA was 253 (20% of questions wrong).
 
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Kudos to you for being able to remember the answers to 2,000+ questions man. I did uworld throughout the year with a few big gaps and I found, outside of the weird questions that stand out, I barely remember the answers to any of them. If I did remember the question, I often screwed myself out of the right answer.

If that is the case and you understood all the answers and the explanations, I'm sure you did more than fine.
 
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To the people posting their scores, when did you take your test? I have a friend that took step2 on 7/5 and he got his score back on Tuesday. His step 2 score seemed oddly low.
 
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Transposony said:
So, I am not the only one accomplishing this feat :laugh:
Click to expand...

"There is no way I didn't answer that last time. It must've been something else. Nope, it was that..I was an idiot last time."

Anyway, I find not being able to remember exam questions a good sign for me...usually.
 
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49ers said:
Took it yesterday and left feeling not so hot about it. After Step 1, I remembered most of the questions from the exam (200+), but this one I could barely remember more than 20 at first. Every question I remembered, it ended up being wrong (random questions pretty much).

I hope I get at least what I got on Step 1 as I would be very happy with that. Definitely can't see getting 10+ more than that even though the average for Step 2 moved up 12 points (233 from 221). Psychiatry killed me on this test.

Btw Step 2 Secrets was a complete waste of time. UWorld was good enough to answer the majority of the questions. The rest were random facts that you could narrow down from clinical experiences or just a best guess clinical judgement on next step. The questions were longer so I only had 10-15 minutes per block at the end to review my marked questions (marked 10 a block).

Edit: Ended up doing UWorld twice...first time I did all 1,400 IM questions in 7 days prior to my medicine rotation very early in third year and got 60% correct. Re-did all of Uworld two weeks before the real exam and had 92% right (obviously because I had seen them before). SA was 253 (20% of questions wrong).
Click to expand...

I think the score increase (from around 221 to 233) is in large part due to the fact that many more people are taking Step 2 early, including those who scored highly (240+) on Step 1 (and are likely to do the same if not even better on Step 2). In the past, I understand that many more people put off taking Step 2 and then would take it just to pass.
 
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Took my test on June 28th and got my score on July 25th. I'm really happy with the result! 🙂

Scores
Step 2: 256
Step 1: 257

Practice Tests for Step 2
UW SA, 8 days before: 247
NBME Form 4, 5 days before: 258

Resources
USMLEWorld Qbank (Didn't use Qbank during 3rd year except surg and psych.)
Step 2 Secrets
Step Up to Step 2
Step Up to Medicine (Didn't read this during my medicine rotation)

Timeline
Studied for 8 weeks: 4 weeks during rads, 2 weeks during derm, and 2 weeks off. Reviewed each topic by reading those chapters in all the books and then doing all the corresponding Qbank questions. I use Qbank like a textbook, so I never did random blocks in Qbank, and my Qbank % doesn't mean much. During my last week, I reread Step 2 Secrets and reviewed all my missed / incorrect questions in Qbank.

Congrats to everybody else who's done with Step 2, and good luck to all of you who are taking it soon!
 
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HalladayWeekend said:
I think the score increase (from around 221 to 233) is in large part due to the fact that many more people are taking Step 2 early, including those who scored highly (240+) on Step 1 (and are likely to do the same if not even better on Step 2). In the past, I understand that many more people put off taking Step 2 and then would take it just to pass.
Click to expand...

I have been told, by people with more knowledge of the scoring stuff than me, that when you take it doesn't really matter in the competing with others sense. They calculate the score from more historical data than the people taking the test at that exact moment.

Part of the score increase is the material which people are studying more and can relate to patients they encounter and experiences throughout the year. Personally, I always found clinical questions much easier than most basic science questions.
 
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MossPoh said:
I have been told, by people with more knowledge of the scoring stuff than me, that when you take it doesn't really matter in the competing with others sense. They calculate the score from more historical data than the people taking the test at that exact moment.

Part of the score increase is the material which people are studying more and can relate to patients they encounter and experiences throughout the year. Personally, I always found clinical questions much easier than most basic science questions.
Click to expand...

I'm inclined to agree...

For instance, if we know someone has beta thalassemia major, we know to give routine transfusions (up until hemochromatosis anyway)


but it is far harder to figure out a complicated genetic code and ascertain where the splice sites are
 
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I think the person who mentioned the score increase (221 to 233) was referring to the difference between Step 1 and Step 2, not the increase in average Step 2 scores. Average scores increase every year, but it's been a while since the average Step 2 score was 221.
 
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IS KILLING ME!!

I took step 2ck on 7/7 and until this morning I still had a "Print Permit" link (though it gave me an application error message when I clicked it).

The link is now completely gone.. Its been about four weeks... sanity gone...

I felt like I'd been dragged through the hedges backward when I left that exam!

:xf:
 
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shan564 said:
I think the person who mentioned the score increase (221 to 233) was referring to the difference between Step 1 and Step 2, not the increase in average Step 2 scores. Average scores increase every year, but it's been a while since the average Step 2 score was 221.
Click to expand...

The Step 2 average hasn't gone up from 221-233 reccently, but I still think it has outpaced the average mean increase of Step 1 for the reasons I mentioned.
 
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congrats shemarty!! havent seen you around in a while (or maybe i havent been around). hope all is well!! what are you plnning on going into?
http://dkmg2azsloi0e.cloudfront.net/images/smilies/tongue.gif
shemarty said:
Took my test on June 28th and got my score on July 25th. I'm really happy with the result! 🙂

Scores
Step 2: 256
Step 1: 257

Practice Tests for Step 2
UW SA, 8 days before: 247
NBME Form 4, 5 days before: 258

Resources
USMLEWorld Qbank (Didn't use Qbank during 3rd year except surg and psych.)
Step 2 Secrets
Step Up to Step 2
Step Up to Medicine (Didn't read this during my medicine rotation)

Timeline
Studied for 8 weeks: 4 weeks during rads, 2 weeks during derm, and 2 weeks off. Reviewed each topic by reading those chapters in all the books and then doing all the corresponding Qbank questions. I use Qbank like a textbook, so I never did random blocks in Qbank, and my Qbank % doesn't mean much. During my last week, I reread Step 2 Secrets and reviewed all my missed / incorrect questions in Qbank.

Congrats to everybody else who's done with Step 2, and good luck to all of you who are taking it soon!
Click to expand...
 
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HalladayWeekend said:
The Step 2 average hasn't gone up from 221-233 reccently, but I still think it has outpaced the average mean increase of Step 1 for the reasons I mentioned.
Click to expand...

Yes, my mistake for not being clear with my post. I mean the averages between Step 1 (221) and Step 2 (233) were pretty far apart. The reason I brought it up is because people mention to make sure your score doesn't drop (and I hope I just got the same...not looking for an increase of 12 points over my Step 1).

Still feel like crap about that test day...I feel a little better about Step 2 CS, which I recently took as well, but not great either. Oh well...done with both thankfully.
 
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Took the test recently. The majority of the exam was pretty straightforward and some out of the park questions. I had hard first three sections but things get better from 4th section. I feel better than step 1 (230s) but we will see what happened. I had time management issue in the first section and had to guess the last two questions.

UWORLD 67% first pass, NBME 210s-250s. I will update when the result comes back in a few weeks.
 
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What is the significance of the disappearing permit link that everyone seems to be talking about? I took the exam last Thursday and get an error message when I click on the link.
 
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biobruin03 said:
What is the significance of the disappearing permit link that everyone seems to be talking about? I took the exam last Thursday and get an error message when I click on the link.
Click to expand...

If the link is no longer there, it has a 95% positive predictive value that your scores will be released the following Wednesday 😀

The link usually disappears early on in the week and Wednesday morning/afternoon the score will be available. If you can still click on it, you'll probably be waiting a bit longer.
 
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ar2388 said:
congrats shemarty!! havent seen you around in a while (or maybe i havent been around). hope all is well!! what are you plnning on going into?
Click to expand...

i know, its been so long since our pre-allo days! im doing ophtho, but im taking a year off for research first. you?
 
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Dawkter said:
Shan what did you end up doing in the last few days? MTB, Secrets, or DIT manual?
Click to expand...

I went through 2/3 of the new Kaplan HY course and used Secrets to cover the 1/3 that I wasn't able to do because of time constraints.

If I could go back in time, I'd try to do 100% of both of those things. I think they were each at least as useful as DIT, and less time-consuming.
 
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Hi NewYorkDoctors,

Could you lease explain why you felt USMLERx was not helpful?
I did UW + Rx for Step 1 and did very well on step 1, so I planned to do the same for Step 2.
I also like the PreTest series, but want to make sure I spend my scare resources wisely

Thanks.
 
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yearn4ivy said:
Hi NewYorkDoctors,

Could you lease explain why you felt USMLERx was not helpful?
I did UW + Rx for Step 1 and did very well on step 1, so I planned to do the same for Step 2.
I also like the PreTest series, but want to make sure I spend my scare resources wisely

Thanks.
Click to expand...


It was not unhelpful. In fact, it was quite helpful for me to reinforce basic concepts

But it is not a "magic bullet" in the same way as UWorld is.

Specifically, I felt Rx helped me get some basic concepts ingrained into my mind. However, none of the Rx qusetions tested similar concepts on the real test, despite similar content.

I know these semantics are confusing.

When I say similar content I mean:

Ex. Rx and real test both have content on vaginal discharge and itching.

Similar concepts would be:

Ex. UWorld and real test both stressed the concept that BV has foul odor but NO ITCHINESS or PAIN, unlike candidiasis and trichomoniasis
 
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253.... had gotten a 256 on the UWSA a few days prior. Felt like crap walking out of there

Oh and for reference I had scored a 220 on step 1.
Didn't read a single book back to front. Maybe read 1/3rd of secrets. Had gone through DIT just watching once but didn't study the workbook. Mostly just group studied U world questions. Was scoring > 80% on second pass of U world.
 
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Proteinpowda said:
253.... had gotten a 256 on the UWSA a few days prior. Felt like crap walking out of there
Click to expand...

Congratulations. I'm hoping mine turns out the same... I got 253 on NBME 4 a few days prior, but after the test, I felt like something that came out of the colon of a patient with pancreatitis and a Giardia infection.
 
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267/88.

how the hell does one get above a 90 ha

Edit:

UW Avg = 69%
NBME 4 4 weeks out = 251
UWorld test 8 weeks out = 242
Step 1= 252.

Interpret that as you will.....main reason i post all that is don't be down based on your practice tests.
 
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ASAPRocky said:
267/88.

how the hell does one get above a 90 ha

Edit:

UW Avg = 69%
NBME 4 4 weeks out = 251
UWorld test 8 weeks out = 242
Step 1= 252.

Interpret that as you will.....main reason i post all that is don't be down based on your practice tests.
Click to expand...

Congrats! Excellent score. How did you feel leaving right after the exam?
 
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Step 1 - 240's
Step 2 - 250's

UW - used throughout 3rd year, timed, by section, with about 68% avg. Second pass, reset, random, timed, 91% complete with 80% avg.

NBME 2 and 4 (225 and 235 respectively, 2-3 weeks out)
UWSA - 245 (7 days out)

As noted above, I almost made it through UW twice. I skimmed Step Up to Step 2 but did not find it helpful. I read Step up to Medicine during my medicine rotation and did well on that shelf which was solid prep for this exam. As many others have said, the best prep is studying for your shelf exams during 3rd year. I took CK 3 weeks after my last rotation which was OB/GYN, so that was all still fresh, and did not require much additional prep. Do yourself a favor and spend 1 day reviewing biostats. These are easy points if you spend just 1 day hitting the major points. I barely studied any psych and just relied on my prior knowledge from my rotation. I used Secrets in the last 48 hours and actually wished i had read this earlier in my prep, and then quickly reviewed it at the end of my prep as well. It may have added a point or two to my score.

I highly recommend taking this exam shortly after the conclusion of your 3rd year. The longer you wait, the more prep you have to do.

As far as test day - the exam felt and is longer than Step 1. About 85% of the questions are easy if you did UW and studied a little during 3rd year. The other 15% are just out of left field or required you to remember some obscure fact from your first 2 years of school. If you get to a question that you simply do not know, don't waste your time rereading the question like the answer is going to magically reveal itself. Pick an answer and move-on quickly. I probably had to do this 20 times during the exam. Prepare yourself mentally to do this ahead of time and you will not beat yourself up during the exam when you come across these questions that you simply do not know how to answer.

I'm very excited. Not 260's like a lot of SDNers but very content with my step scores and looking forward to residency application season.

Good luck to everyone.
 
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Step 1: low 230's
Step 2: High 240's

NBME: before I started studying: 220
Didn't take anymore cause that motivated me enough.

WORLD average: 67% tutor mode by section first pass

Study methods: studied 3 weeks. 1- WORLD tutor 1 time complete and then ones I missed OR sections I felt weak on reviewed/re-done
2- MTB: read through it twice and took notes to review second time through.

Thats it. Honestly- the sections I did best on aligned almost perfectly with the shelfs I did well on and vice versa. I think WORLD is the key to this test (p.s.- my score is dead on the "100 cases" thread prediction) I saved WORLD until I studied for boards, and I think that was a good decision for me. I mostly used some combination of 2 of the following: case files, first aids (psych, surgery), pretest, and Lange Q & A for shelfs during the year.

Also- I felt pretty awful afterwards. I easily marked 10+ in most sections that I didn't have time to return to.
 
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Step 1: 250s
CCSE: >250
CCSSA4: >250
Step 2: 260s

mainly read books with some uworld

Felt horrible coming out of the test and for the last few weeks
 
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49ers said:
Congrats! Excellent score. How did you feel leaving right after the exam?
Click to expand...

Thanks. I felt decent. I would say I felt like I knew for sure 50%, 20% i could reason pretty well, 10% I could reason somewhat but wasn't sure, and 10% had no clue.

Generally, I just always keep my cool during these things and I convince myself that all the questions I have no clue on are experimental ha.
 
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Thanks for the clarification. I do agree that Rx ( at least for step 1) helped with getting through information, where as UW was more conceptual and encouraged multi-step critical thinking

I plan to use Rx year long, then purchase a 3 month subscription to UW.

Great score, btw.

NewYorkDoctors said:
It was not unhelpful. In fact, it was quite helpful for me to reinforce basic concepts

But it is not a "magic bullet" in the same way as UWorld is.

Specifically, I felt Rx helped me get some basic concepts ingrained into my mind. However, none of the Rx qusetions tested similar concepts on the real test, despite similar content.

I know these semantics are confusing.

When I say similar content I mean:

Ex. Rx and real test both have content on vaginal discharge and itching.

Similar concepts would be:

Ex. UWorld and real test both stressed the concept that BV has foul odor but NO ITCHINESS or PAIN, unlike candidiasis and trichomoniasis
Click to expand...
 
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Step 1: 256
UWorld: 80%
UWorld practice: 240 (5 days out)
Real thing: 250

Very happy with my score, despite the dip. I have been doing research for 8 months without any real clinical experience since my clinical year. I studies for about 2 hours a day for 3 weeks, followed by 2 weeks of 6 hours a day 7 days a week. I did UWorld 1.5x, secrets, and a few chapters of step up to step 2 before I decided it was terrible.
 
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Step 1:235
UW second time through:81
UWSA: 242 1 week out
NBME 4: 242 3 days out
Step 2:259

Had 3 weeks to study. Used only UW for first 2 weeks going through all qs for second time. Took thorough notes during the year while first time and review those while doing qs again. Last week did practice exams and read secrets. Feel horrible coming out of exam due to blindly guessing on 10+ qs but overall very pleased with the score. The exam is definitely doable in a short amt of time
 
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Step 1: 230s
CCSSA 1: 246
CCSSA 4: 251
UWorld: 75% on first-pass, timed, random
Step 2: 270s

Used UWorld x1 during dedicated prep, not really much else.
 
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