Usmle step 2 experience 268
Stats:
UW first pass %: 92
UW second pass % : 99 ( only got done with 10 percent)
UWSA1: 271 (3 weeks before)
UWSA 2: 281 (1 week before)
New free 120 %: 89 (1 week before)
Real deal 268: ( definitely didn’t go as well as my assessments)
Thoughts about the exam:
Difficulty: I personally thought the exam was the harder compared to the UWSAs, or maybe my form
had a lot of question I found hard on it. I felt that I had underperformed in my exam, a lot of questions
made me second guess myself and made me confused while picking between two options. The content
however did not seem too alien; all the questions had some level of familiarity no weird diseases etc, it
is with option choices where they get you. I had a couple of question on picking antibiotic regimens for
diseases and they were no way as simple as the UWORLD ones. Patient safety/ ethics was not that big of
an issue but then again you do not know until you get it wrong. Images were a nightmare, I got one
sequential question wrong because I thought I saw hilar adenopathy in a normal x-ray, it was just a bad
picture I probably would have made the same mistake again. The rest of the images were not much
better but after getting this wrong I tended to rely less on the images and more on the stem, I feel I
fared better this way. Heart sounds were doable nothing major, I found the ECGs hard, to be fair I had
not revised cardiology in a year, regardless I still think they were harder than we are used to.
Timing issue: When compared to step 1 timing is more important in step 2. While writing step 1 I usually
had 10-15 minutes left at the end of each block to review. In contrast during CK I had barely under 5
minutes left every time, even had to answer 2 questions by picking randomly in 1 block. UWSAs are even
worsel in this regard, was finishing them on the dot with no time left to review.
The extra block and abstract/drug ad: as far as having to do another block is concerned it is not a major
issue, your adrenaline helps push you through. Some people like to simulate the entire test by taking 8
UWORLD blocks back-to-back or doing two assessments together; I have never done it because it is too
damn tiring but it can be some thing too consider if you are worried about stamina.
I had 2 abstracts and no drug ads in my test; the section will have 38 questions so you can tell before
stating when you will get a drug ad/abstract. The difficulty of the abstracts was similar to the UWORLD
ones, the strategy I used in solving them was do them in the end and I used to read the whole abstract
before starting just because I did not want to be skimming it again and again to find the answer. You can
try both strategies, In the end do what you feel comfortable with.
Step 1 stuff: hardly any stuff one stuff in here. if there was any it was so basic that I had no issue with it.
How did I study:
Disclaimer: most of what I am going to talk about is what I should not have done as I feel I messed up my
preparation. In retrospect should have asked a senior who too prepare for the exam would have saved a
lot of time.
Overall, my UWORLD first pass took a year, yes, I know crazy, I only finished my first pass a week before
my exam. There were a lot of interruptions in between my prep; ended up going to America for a couple
of rotations hardly did anything there, had to write final year prof in between. I believe 4-6 months are
enough for step 2 if done right with no interruptions. I would recommend hammad’s experience over
my own considering I believe he did it the right way.
I would have done a second pass of UWORLD if I had time, but if you are scoring above 95% in your
second pass you might not need it.
Since there was no first aid this time around, I had to make my own notes I just bought a PDF editior
software and kept on adding information there. By the end of it I had about 3000 pages of notes and not
enough time to go through them. Doing as much question as possible would have been a better
strategy, you really don’t need to make any notes.
I did U world specialty wise for e.g Medicine than peads, in retrospect should have done it random help
you remember stuff better.
Struggled a lot with retaining all the information. Unlike step 1 I don’t think you need to know
everything so just keep on giving assessments throughout your preparation and when you break your
goal score(preferably score 10 points higher to it, a 10 point drop is pretty common) just give the exam.
Resources:
Uworld: I think this pretty much all you will need nothing else. However, there is a caveat here; Uworld
will only help you with like 70 percent of the questions in the real exam. What I mean by this is that 70
percent of the questions will seem familiar as in the same stuff uworld tests on. The other 30 percent
will be things not exactly tested in Uworld but you can make educated guesses or pick the best answer
based on what you have learned from UWORLD. (This is just my interpretation it might be different for
other people.)
CMS : these were good too, definitely not necessary. I feel you can score high without them too, I can’t
exactly recall how many question I got from doing CMS forms but they are worth a try if you have time
but only after you are done with UWORLD. I only did the latest two from of each subject minus psych,
start with the latest and go down the list from there.
Step 3 Q bank: waste of time in my opinion I did a couple of hundred questions, but I would recommend
doing CMS form over Step 3 any day. The questions feel pretty similar some new stuff, but CMS forms
add a little more depth to your knowledge while step 3 Q bank has stuff which is not tested on CK.
Step up to Medicine : didn’t really use it but I don’t think it would have added much more.
Amboss: did like 200 question pretty similar to UWORLD, I guess you can try it after finishing UWORLD.
However even though Amboss probably has more similar questions CMS forms have harder question
which might have more utility. It would be hard to pick between the two I feel you can do whatever suits
you more.
Amboss Library: definitely has everything you would ever have to know and then some but it is far too
extensive and you cant finish it and retain it at the same time. Use is as a reference resource.
UP-to-Date: the GOLD STANDARD of reference resources, this is not something for CK but what doctors
in hospital use every day. Use it if clarify some confusion not as a study tool. Better evidence has a
donation program for uptodate you can apply and try your luck but will probably end up not using it as
much.
Anki: Didn’t use it but I had more retention issues in step 2 than step 1 so might have been more useful
if I had tried it early on.
Divine intervention podcasts: Divine is a genius his podcasts tell you all you need to know and what the nbme wants you to know; the guy has literally hacked the nbme. Since you wont probably be able to do
all his podcasts, definitely do the high yield ones on his reddit post, or you can start listening to them
early on. There is a pdf notes of his podcasts available on his website.
I might be missing a lot of stuff, so reach out to me if you have any more questions.
Congratulations Izhan
ReplyDeleteWell deserved!