Is Step 2 curve>Step 1 Curve?

[diamonddoc]

Hi guys.
Just took Step 2 (overall not bad, made some stupid mistakes) I was wondering since many people seem to do better on Step 2, is there a higher curve going on Step 2? 182 is passing for both. Just curious.

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[ckent]

Yeah, I kinda wondered this myself. I suspect that what happens is that all of those people who did really well on step I take step II late and don't study very hard for it, thus lowering the curve for the rest of us. Also, because step I scores don't always correlate with clincal grades, I think that some people who did well on step I have difficulty learning in the clinical environment for whatever reason. Thus, they do worse on step II too. Step II really does test basic clinical concepts that you pick up on third year or by doing practice questions, it's very dififcult to sit down and read a book for step II because the questions were specific enough that they oftentimes weren't covered in review books (except by concept only), but they were broad enough that you would know it if you saw it in the wards. That's why I think that people who score high in the wards have a good chance of scoring high on step II.