Frustrated w/Step 2 studying

[me454555]

I got USMLEWORLD and I'm hitting it at about 55%. I've been doing about that for the last 1k questions and I feel like I'm hitting my plateau. I'm reading crush + B&W but I just have no clue where some of the answers to these questions come from. I'd like to get to 60% on UW by the time I take the test in Aug but I don't know where to go. Does anyone recommend a different resource or am I just not studying the ones I got hard enough?


I've also been doing Kaplan Q book and getting about 70-75% of the Qs correct on various topics

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[Titofsu]

I'm with you on that one. I'm averaging 61% on USMLE World. My question is, what do these percentages correlate to for a score on Step 2? UW says that 50 to 60% is considered "very competitive" but what does that mean?

 

[anconeus]

it seems like a 75 on UW will guarantee you a 250+ from what Ive heard

 

[Back34]

I wound up with 52% after going through all questions (with the exception of tox and stats). Got 225 on the real thing.

 

[manning18]

I'm not familiar with Boards and Wards. However, I have read Secrets (which is basically Crush in a Q&A format). Secrets (and, therefore, Crush) is WAY too general and lacks a lot of key details. I have turned to First Aid (FA) for several key sections, namely Peds, OB, GYNE and Psych. I would not be surprised if I use FA for Neurology and certain Medicine sub-specialties as well. For the four sections listed above, FA is excellent and the corresponding section in Secrets is worthless. FA was better, by far!! Maybe you might want to pick up FA for certain sections!! Good luck!!

 

[drRumi]

I'm not familiar with Boards and Wards. However, I have read Secrets (which is basically Crush in a Q&A format). Secrets (and, therefore, Crush) is WAY too general and lacks a lot of key details. I have turned to First Aid (FA) for several key sections, namely Peds, OB, GYNE and Psych. I would not be surprised if I use FA for Neurology and certain Medicine sub-specialties as well. For the four sections listed above, FA is excellent and the corresponding section in Secrets is worthless. FA was better, by far!! Maybe you might want to pick up FA for certain sections!! Good luck!!

keep in mind that those that have already gone thru the exam have repeatedly indicated that secrets is a good book and fa is not much use. i have not taken the exam myself, but from all the things that i have read on the exam, it appears secrets + UW seems to be a good combination.

 

[streetdoc]

I'm not familiar with Boards and Wards. However, I have read Secrets (which is basically Crush in a Q&A format). Secrets (and, therefore, Crush) is WAY too general and lacks a lot of key details. I have turned to First Aid (FA) for several key sections, namely Peds, OB, GYNE and Psych. I would not be surprised if I use FA for Neurology and certain Medicine sub-specialties as well. For the four sections listed above, FA is excellent and the corresponding section in Secrets is worthless. FA was better, by far!! Maybe you might want to pick up FA for certain sections!! Good luck!!

Manning- have you taken step 2 yet? or was this based on your looking through both sources as you prepare?
just curious
streetdoc

 

[manning18]

I have yet to take Step 2-CK, though I am currently preparing to do so and am scheduled for 8/1/06. My thoughts regarding Secrets versus First Aid (FA) are, as you said, the result of having used both sources thus far in my preparation. I would highly recommend FA or another more detailed source, at least for the 4 sections I mentioned above and possibly Neurology as well. I think a lot of what Brochert covers in Secrets relates to the exams he took specifically more than solid, well-rounded preparation overall. I think it would be great for all of us if Secrets were enough but, in my opinion, it's not!

 

[me454555]

Can anyone whose taken step II and used FA and Crush comment on the level of detail needed

 

[mriguy]

Are the questions on the actual exam as detailed like USMLEworld? Ive done about 500 questions on USMLEWORLD, and it seems like they give a large amount of excess info and distractors that are not pertinent to the question. Also, some of the questions try to trick you into picking the wrong answer based on the nit-picky wording. Ive had a number of questions which i answered wrong, not because I didnt know the right answer, but because I skimmed through the vignette too quickly. On the actual exam, there is no frickin way I'm reading every single word. Anyone else feel the same?

 

[wwspeeds]

first of all I think that correlating a UW world score into a Step2 score is a fallacy. Factors like test-anxiety, fatigue, gender and intoxication have to be considered during the real tests -- factors that usually aren't present during UW sessions. A 9 hour test simply isn't the same as 1 or 2 or even 3 hour blocks.

Don't let anyone tell you that "X is all I needed to get a 250 or whatever" because while that may be true, it sorta neglects to mention all the studying he did during M3 year ; that's kind of important to keep in mind. I studied extremely hard during my 3rd year and I think it helps for some of these UW questions.

That being said, I think B&W is fantastic. It's a got a ton of little details and ways to differentiate disorder X from Y. I've also read Crush and Step2secrets (the same book, again) and found them helpful to keeping my mind on the big super high yield topics. I just use UW answers to fill in the knowledge gaps and add minutiae

ww

 

[manning18]

For those of you who have yet to see this, the "conversion" btwn UW scores and
Step 2-CK scores is as follows:

Step 2-CK = 2.3(UW average) + 84

According to this formula, which I think is a bit generous, a UW average of 50% is a 199 and a 60% UW average predicts a 222 on the actual Step 2 exam. I'm not too familiar with B&W. I did, however, think Secrets and Crush were too general. That said, my M-3 year was spread out and I've done quite a bit of M-4 year before seriously starting to study for Step 2 (goofy schedule; long story). That said, much of my knowledge has dissipated over time and my baseline was pretty low. There are probably quite a few people who can just take Step 2 the Monday after M-3 year and at least pass, maybe even score 200+. Because of this situation where my baseline knowledge level was weak, bare bones review books like Crush and Secretes have not been very useful. If you feel you're pretty strong going in, then Crush and Secrets might be enough. Otherwise, just use UW to guide your studying and fill in the rest with a more thorough source, like FA!

 

[sophiejane]

first of all I think that correlating a UW world score into a Step2 score is a fallacy. Factors like test-anxiety, fatigue, gender and intoxication have to be considered during the real tests -- factors that usually aren't present during UW sessions. A 9 hour test simply isn't the same as 1 or 2 or even 3 hour blocks.

This is very true. Sometimes I have both gender AND intoxication issues at the same time. I blame this for my occasional 36%.

Focus on understanding and I think you will put that extra energy to a lot better use than to spend it on worrying about getting a certain percentile on a certain test bank.

I agree--B&W is great.

Contrary to an above poster, I've heard from RECENT step 2 takers that FA was excellent. But again, all the books have the same info--it's about what format you prefer and what helps you retain...