Wow huge improvement! Congrats! What did you do differently to prepare for level 2?
A lot of different things, some within my control and some out of my control:
Step/Level 1: I used UWorld and FA, but I definitely did a lot more reading the first time around and a lot fewer questions (I only did one pass of UWorld). Also, when I was doing questions, I didn't really actively engage and try to learn the concepts. I didn't use a dedicated COMLEX qbank, which I think was detrimental. The question styles are just too different. I had 4 weeks of dedicated study time, and I got nervous and postponed my exam. Mistake. I had already peaked.
The curriculum for the first two years at my school is traditional, non-integrated. I found that I just don't learn that way, and spent a ton of time just cramming for the insane amount of exams we had (2-3/week). I learned so much more physiology and anatomy this year by learning about disease processes and how they affect systems. In retrospect, a systems-based curriculum would have been much better for me.
Step/Level 2: I again used UWorld. I bought a year long subscription and worked on it throughout the year on my rotations to prepare for my shelf exams. I also really liked the case files series and used those for my shelf exams. This time, I made notes on every question that I got wrong in UWorld, or parts of the answer explanations that I did not understand. I went over these notes about once per week, and every day for the last week of studying.
When my dedicated study period rolled around (3 weeks this time), I had already finished UWorld once and was working on my second pass, while going over things that I was weak on. I read through MTB once, and used onlinemeded videos for weak areas (endocrine and nephro for me) to reinforce concepts that I struggled with. I also purchased a 3 month subscription to COMBANK and went through about half of that in the final couple weeks to get myself used to the quirky way that COMLEX writers ask questions. I browsed the green book for OMM and knew my chapman's points and viscerosomatics cold because those are easy points.
Hope this helps! Good luck to everyone!
