UW/Step 2 question/advice

[Doctor4Life1769]

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Going through UW.
Did Psych, Surg, OBGYN, Peds ... hit mostly around 70s with some 80s (psych and surg) and some mid/upper 60s (obgyn) ... 70s in peds

Now on IM ... doing cardio ... extremely tough! Running b/w mid 50s and mid 60s ... some of the topics I just dont feel good about ... I get q's correct that apparently 20% get right, then there's some q's that 60-70% apparently get correct and I had no freakin clue wtf was being asked ... and would end up answering the "red herring" answer.

I guess my question is ... I know IM and cardio especially are the big topics hit on Step 2CK, but how representative are the IM (and esp. cardio) questions from UW for the actual exam? Is it really THIS tough?!

Overall im at 72% but I've not really completed much IM. I'm almost done with Cardio ... Thanks

 

[Doctor4Life1769]

Bueller?

I've finished cardio, down to 71% overall ... finished cardio with like a 59 or 60% overall. Did some other subsections with better success, didn't seem as difficult - so I was curious if UW just harped on difficult cardio cases/vignettes or if this is the norm and I need to brush up on my cardio ... or is it tougher than the type of Q's faced when taking the actual exam? I did COMLEX 2 and did well but that was back in July. It's possible I may have forgotten some stuff on cardio ... a lot of it brought back memories as I was reviewing, but some things just looked brand new. Thanks

 

[jackieMD2007]

You need to relax and take a deep breath. I was scoring in the low to mid 60's the whole time when I did timed UWorld blocks. Cardio is tough--I agree--but I thought that the Uworld questions were very similar to the actual exam.

Focus on heart murmurs. The EKGs that I saw were totally obvious and I didn't need them based upon the clinical vignettes. Focus on what drugs you give for what indications. It is going to be totally fine.

 

[Doctor4Life1769]

Thanks Jackie

You're right about the murmurs - I'd definitely forgotten some of the murmur characteristics and I feel a lot better about them now. After going through cardio q's I read up notes I'd taken before for my COMLEX and I feel good. Now onto Neuro/Ophthalmology and the rest! Hoping to finish up the IM section by next week or so ...

 

[TrojanGopher]

You need to relax and take a deep breath

Totally agree. I'm not sure how high you are realistically hoping to score, but an average of 72% on USMLE World corresponds to a score of 254. That's certainly nothing to be stressed about.


http://www.medfriends.org/step2_estimator/index.htm