Uworld not like Step 2 CK???

[premiergator]

I've been hearing from ppl who have already taken step 2 ck and also read some posts on here saying that world isn't really like ck at all? Ive heard the q's are much longer on the actually test and that it actually is harder than world. any truth to is? can anyone who has recently taken the test shed some light on the situation. ive got my test in a few weeks and have been doing world but was wondering if there's something better out there due to this new info. thanks.

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[relaxedMD]

My recommendation is to go through the last couple pages of the long thread where people have posted their impressions and their scores. Just try to see what has been written in the past five months. You will be more at ease then.
IN MY OPINION, the general feel of the exam was similar to Uworld. The actual exam was equally difficult on most of the questions and yet I found a lot of questions I could zoom through in less than 20 seconds. And that was a small relief. In most of my posts I encourage ppl to go through as many questions as possible. SO , do that! Just like in UW you will see some silly long q-stems. That is alot like the long stems you will see on the actual exam. I think that getting practice doing questions is the key no matter which source you go to (UW, NBME, Qbank, etc.)
And just to bust the myth that some UW questions are identical to actual ones. I didnt see any exact questions show up on the exam that I may have done in UW, eventhough I made it through 100 percent of it. GL

 

[Dr McSteamy]

I didnt see any exact questions show up on the exam that I may have done in UW, eventhough I made it through 100 percent of it. GL

of course no one expects exact questions. And even if they have 3 identical questions, that's not gonna get anyone a 99.

the real question is....... did the real Step 2 content seem more familiar because you did UW? Is that why you were able to breeze through the questions?

or was the familiarity based on the review books you used?

 

[Queen Kitty]

Just took Step 2 yesterday. I do think UW is still the best bet in preparation. I actually DID have a few questions that immediately jumped out as ones VERY SIMILAR to ones found in UW. I completed 100% of UW. Although the actual exam had a lot more obscure questions, the practice of UW definitely helped in timing and level of reading difficulty. I think the length of questions was definitely comparable. This thing is about stamina more than anything else.

 

[Dr McSteamy]

Just took Step 2 yesterday. I do think UW is still the best bet in preparation. I actually DID have a few questions that immediately jumped out as ones VERY SIMILAR to ones found in UW. I completed 100% of UW. Although the actual exam had a lot more obscure questions, the practice of UW definitely helped in timing and level of reading difficulty. I think the length of questions was definitely comparable. This thing is about stamina more than anything else.

so a few questions were similar.

but do you think the overall tested content was covered well by UW?

if you had to estimate a %age, how much of the actual test was 'obscure'?

 

[lord_jeebus]

I actually thought that UW was harder and had more obscure questions.

 

[relaxedMD]

Dr McSteamy-

It is hard to separate what I picked up in the review books vs what I gained from UW. I will say this much though, I spent 90 percent of my study time on UW and only about 10 percent of it reading review books. So my familiarity had to have come from the UW questions. Thats the best I can do at explaining it. Hope that helps.

After doing all UW questions, 90-95 percent of my actual exam was doable! I didnt mind guessing on the remaing obscure questions, because it was still an intelligent guess. GL

 

[CorpuSpongiosum]

UW prepared me better for Step 1 than Step 2 CK.

I really don't think there is one best way to study for CK. Waiting on score this week so could be singing a different tune if i did better or worse than I thought. And I honestly have not phucking idea how i did.

 

[Dr McSteamy]

I have just finished half of UW, and looking back and assessing all the questions I did....... I realize that I don't know chit!

Half the stuff i've never even learned before.
am i supposed to know that stuff?!

a lot of questions I try to look up in kaplan or Secrets..... only to find that they're not even discussed.

so if my dumba$$ were to rely on these review books, i'd fail CK.

doing UW makes me want to punch a hole in the wall. it makes me feel so stupid.

I want to get those "59% of people answered this correctly" questions. but i can't.

 

[climbingdocs]

Even more annoying that I am redoing questions I got wrong and I STILL am getting them wrong!!

 

[lfesiam]

My recommendation is to go through the last couple pages of the long thread where people have posted their impressions and their scores. Just try to see what has been written in the past five months. You will be more at ease then.
IN MY OPINION, the general feel of the exam was similar to Uworld. The actual exam was equally difficult on most of the questions and yet I found a lot of questions I could zoom through in less than 20 seconds. And that was a small relief. In most of my posts I encourage ppl to go through as many questions as possible. SO , do that! Just like in UW you will see some silly long q-stems. That is alot like the long stems you will see on the actual exam. I think that getting practice doing questions is the key no matter which source you go to (UW, NBME, Qbank, etc.)
And just to bust the myth that some UW questions are identical to actual ones. I didnt see any exact questions show up on the exam that I may have done in UW, eventhough I made it through 100 percent of it. GL

Just want to add to the myth...Mine had 4-5 questions that were identical (VERBATIM) to UW. 1) Bee sting question - give epi. first 2)glycogen storage dx 3) the antipsych depot of choice 4) calculating PPV, NNT (DON't FORGET TO memorize the formulas the night before!!!! they are very easy points!!!)

my 2 cents: 60% you can get from completing/reading UW 2x. 20% gimme or moderate. 10% you can narrow down to 2 choices. 10% "WTF???"

 

[Dr McSteamy]

60% you can get from completing/reading UW 2x.

after i take this test next month, i will come back here and post if that's true or not.


i'm sort of wary about test banks because for every 1000 questions you've seen, there are 5000 others the NBME can pull out of its bunghole.

 

[lfesiam]

after i take this test next month, i will come back here and post if that's true or not.


i'm sort of wary about test banks because for every 1000 questions you've seen, there are 5000 others the NBME can pull out of its bunghole.

i agree. on test day there were questions that was not on UW explanations.....(mainly the really weird infectious disease and genetic disorder questions) A CAUTION = my CK had 2 media files questions listening to different heart sounds!!! Surprised the heck out of me but they were pretty straight forward. CHECK THAT YOUR EAR PHONE WORKS before the test!!!

but here is a piece of mind...you can miss 14/46 questions and still make way above the mean. (~70% correct)

So choose your battle. Know that guess then skipping without delving into the question is perfectly fine (i.e. a formula you forgot).



Drink gatorade on test day (make you pee less) and carb load the night before.
The day is very long I warn ya. Go in with a plan on the breaks. Mine was
AM
2 Blocks - 5 min granola bar
1 Block - 5 min
1 Block - 20 min lunch (get some fresh air, you'll need it for the afternoon)

PM
1 Block - 5 min
1 Block - 15 min pbj sandwich/energy drink
1 Block - 10 min energy drink
1 Block - DONE!
(5 mins extra break time I got from finishing some blocks early)

 

[Dr McSteamy]

but here is a piece of mind...you can miss 14/46 questions and still make way above the mean. (~70% correct)

way above the mean? how do you know that?

the nbme uses some junky cryptic formula

 

[climbingdocs]

Drink gatorade on test day (make you pee less) and carb load the night before.
The day is very long I warn ya. Go in with a plan on the breaks. Mine was
AM
2 Blocks - 5 min granola bar
1 Block - 5 min
1 Block - 20 min lunch (get some fresh air, you'll need it for the afternoon)

PM
1 Block - 5 min
1 Block - 15 min pbj sandwich/energy drink
1 Block - 10 min energy drink
1 Block - DONE!
(5 mins extra break time I got from finishing some blocks early)

hahaha you must have high metabolism with all that food I did 5 min pee breaks every 2 blocks then 20 min lunch break, when I was taking COMLEX, but I am expecting USMLE being more time demending, as I finished COMELX an hour early.

 

[lfesiam]

way above the mean? how do you know that?

the nbme uses some junky cryptic formula

info from KAPLAN review session, mcsteam.

nbme is more than cryptic, i think they use the 8 ball.

 

[lfesiam]

hahaha you must have high metabolism with all that food I did 5 min pee breaks every 2 blocks then 20 min lunch break, when I was taking COMLEX, but I am expecting USMLE being more time demending, as I finished COMELX an hour early.

hi met and also hi GFR. i need to get my kidneys work up.

 

[Frogmed]

USMLE World helped alot. Actual test wasn't as wordy as World. Many things emphasized on world were on the test. As far as how the questions compare in toughness, I'll say about the same. It seemed like the actual test had more gimme type questions than world.
Glad it is over

 

[climbingdocs]

When I was taking USMLE it felt like I was doing UW: just as clueless as when doing UW hahahaha. Most questions I remembered from rotations, some from USMLE world, may be few from FA. I hope I passed.

 

[premiergator]

thanks for all the advice guys. im takin the beast on the 31st. i got bout 400Q's to go for world. im just goin to keep goin through them and do as many questions as possible. i have been doin a lil reading as well from like blueprints esp for peds and ob. but its way to dense maybe ill still b&w and just q's for that. ive been using step up medicine which is amazing. this is a struggle tho. cant wait for it be over. i really have to do amazing on this test since my step 1 was pitiful.

 

[Babycatcher2B]

thanks for all the advice guys. im takin the beast on the 31st. i got bout 400Q's to go for world. im just goin to keep goin through them and do as many questions as possible. i have been doin a lil reading as well from like blueprints esp for peds and ob. but its way to dense maybe ill still b&w and just q's for that. ive been using step up medicine which is amazing. this is a struggle tho. cant wait for it be over. i really have to do amazing on this test since my step 1 was pitiful.

How long have you been studying for?? How long have you been USMLE world questions? Timed, tutor, untimed?? How many questions do you do a day? I also take my test on the 31st and I have 66% left of unused questions. I started on the 1st. I do all timed and mixed questions. Its taking me a while because I read every question and every explanation and often take notes of what I don't know. Just wondering if I will be able to finish in time. Thanks.

 

[premiergator]

hey i started june 23rd b/c right now im doing a two week elective, which turned out to be not so bad. ive been doin everything in tutor mode and reading all the answers as well. i started with medicine and did that for the first two weeks with all world q's and reading step up medicine. that was rough i really studied like 12hrs/day. and now during my rotation im doing surgery, ob, psych, peds. hopefully ill be done with it all by the end of the week. but i will probably spend a bit more time on these subjects especially peds and do more reading i think. for me im just tryin to at least get thru the questions. every one says its mostly that. so im tryin to do that and read whatever i dont understand or things im missing.

what have u been using to study.

good luck.

 

[Bill_Brasky]

edit: wrong thread

 

[Babycatcher2B]

Well for one week I just read secrets (that was before I got UW, because I only wanted to buy it for a month). And basically, I've just been doing UW questions and making notes of concepts I didn't know and also make notes of concepts I need to review. I am basically using Step Up to Medicine to read certain topics that I know I'm week on (ex: Neuro) since Medicine was my first rotation of third year. My plans are to finish world and to reread secrets and just to read whatever I'm not so good at (ex: Biostats). Thanks for your reply.

 

[OddNath]

Well for one week I just read secrets (that was before I got UW, because I only wanted to buy it for a month). And basically, I've just been doing UW questions and making notes of concepts I didn't know and also make notes of concepts I need to review. I am basically using Step Up to Medicine to read certain topics that I know I'm week on (ex: Neuro) since Medicine was my first rotation of third year. My plans are to finish world and to reread secrets and just to read whatever I'm not so good at (ex: Biostats). Thanks for your reply.

That's pretty much exactly what I did, and Step 2 (just finished 2 hours ago!) was totally doable. Easier than UW, had time to spare on every block. Secrets is money. I'll post in the big thread when I get my results...but yeah. Strongly recommend UW + Secrets w/ Step Up as a reference.

 

[discreet44]

I recently took Step 2 - certain aspects of UWORLD were similar to the real exam, other aspects being different. The 'next step in management' questions were similar, as were the question lengths. The main differences - far more 'what is the mechanism?' and 'what could have prevented this illness?' type questions on the actual exam compared to UWORLD. The scope of content and the range of question difficulties of the real exam was broader - on the real exam, expect roughly 10% easy 'knee-jerk' questions and 10% difficult and obscure questions, the rest being somewhere in the middle. This differs from UWORLD, where I think most of the questions are moderately difficult, but there aren't as many really easy or really obscure questions as on the real exam. Overall, comparable difficulty level. Not surprisingly, NBME practice exams are the most similar to the acutal exam.

 

[Dr McSteamy]

i really have to do amazing on this test since my step 1 was pitiful.

same here. i did really average on step 1. But i'm not applying for competitive residencies, so i just need a decent step 2.

When I was taking USMLE it felt like I was doing UW: just as clueless as when doing UW hahahaha.

that's just what i'm afraid of- i do all these UW questions, and bam! the NBME pulls another 400 step 2 questions/topics i've never read before. thumbdown

 

[premiergator]

aight so ive gone through uworld once. got 10 days left so i think ill just go thru it again and read crush and fill in any gaps..i dont know man im really worried everytime i think i get something a day later i forget. hopefully the rest of you are having some success.

i actually am quite weary of taking the nbme for that exact reason of feeling inadequate. i did that last year for step 1 and i tell u it really shot my confidence down the floor and i got a shiz score. so im doing the complete opposite. im hoping that just going in with confidence will help me.

win or go home baby..lets do the damn thing.. good luck to the rest of you

 

[SkylineMD]

all this step 2 talk has me frustrated. I've completed UW with a 62% average and started repeating questions with a 80% average of the incorrect ones with a total of 3100 questions done so far. I have my exam in 2 days and I am completely frustrated at this point. I hear of the test not being like UW, not being like the NBMEs (which has prevented me from even taking one of them for fear of doing bad which would kick my confidence around). I even took the "easy" updated 2008 free 138 questions only to get a 72% average without really knowing how much difficult this new test has gotten when the old one had people saying they were getting 80-90s. med friends predicting a 187 with that 72% and even if you use my UW average as a conservative number, gives me 223 which is significantly higher than the stupid free exam prediction. Then I hear about this test being about stamina and I don't know how i got through 7 blocks of step 1 without being fried but I get the feeling that this extra block is going to be a doozy and completely make it harder.

sorry for the venting. Just needed to air it out since its getting to be D-day. I almost wish I didn't sign up for this test early because I did fairly decent on step 1. Should have just coasted by without really worrying about the score affecting my application - then I could have been among the many who wouldnt have taken this test as seriously.

good luck to all those taking the test