Sitting here mulling over the questions i got wrong while waiting for my score, figured id do a write up and just update it later.
US MD
Shelf exams (percent correct/raw)/prep during the year:
Medicine (first one): some SUTM, mostly uworld and uptodate - shelf 85+
Surg: de virg, pestanas, uworld - shelf 85+
Obgyn: uwise, uworld, blueprints - shelf 90+
Neuro: not much studying - shelf 95+
Peds: uworld, some brs, utd - shelf 90+
Psych: uworld and first aid psych - shelf 95+
Dedicated was about 4 weeks. Basically just uworld and UTD. Repeated uworld (finished it during the year) and then did my 100 or so incorrects again. Took notes throughout but didnt review them (big mistake as i missed a few i couldve gotten by just reviewing).
NBME 8 - 282 - not sure why i crushed this one honestly. Thought it was really easy and very diagnostic based, which is my strength. Didnt really put much stock into this score, expecting it to overpredict by at least 10.
UWSA 1 and 2: low 270s (first taken as a diagnostic and 2nd 2 weeks later). Took my time reviewing these as they really often do teach new info that can come up.
Exam experience: did not sleep well which is typical for me but unexpected here as i wasn’t particularly nervous. Exam day is quite long. Its very easy to lose focus so being well rested helps a lot id imagine, especially for those darn article Qs.
Most of the questions tested things weve all been familiarized with already and either went the easy route to the answer or a difficult route like a 2nd line treatment. Some questions really test your clinical reasoning (ie the scenario is something maybe weve never seen but we are all familiar with the choices as they are basic - cbc etc). Id say i answered around 40% with ease, another 30% or so with some lack of confidence, 20-25% very difficult (narrow down to 2-3 and pick one), and 5-10% random stuff ive never heard of that i just had to work through. My ethics Qs still haunt me til today.
I had about 5-10 minutes at the end of each section to review, which i felt would have been best used by going back to specific Qs i couldve reasoned through and tackling them head on. This is something i always do on tests but i couldnt really get it going on this one, not sure why. Maybe it was the stress, maybe just the overall uncertainty of so many questions. I ended up kinda just flipping through my marked Qs and ensuring i had decent reasoning for the answer i put without considering others much.
I left the test feeling defeated and i knew i made a bunch of mistakes i would instantly regret making by googling, but i did it anyway. Ive counted about 10 that i definitely got wrong and 5 more that i likely got wrong. These are just the ones that i can remember that werent strange electrolyte Qs or whatever. I did recall about 10-15 that i was unsure of that i ended up getting right, however, so thats a plus.
I left step 1 with the same feeling and ended up scoring at my practice exam average so im hoping ill have a similar experience here, but this test felt different for some reason. I do think step 2 is a harder exam but i wont go into that as hindsight bias can really impact my take on things.
I felt that my study methods were probably sufficient and idk if i wouldve changed much. Perhaps i wouldve used uptodate more, especially the summary sections. I also wouldve reviewed my uworld notes. As others have said, clerkship year is very important for building a great foundation if you want to crush step 2. Dedicated for step 2 is a different beast and, i think, unlike in step 1, its very hard to make up for poor studying throughout. I think this is exemplified by the reddit data showing study duration has little impact on score for step 2. I personally found it hard to study during the year and didnt do this well.
Good luck everyone! Ill update when my score is out.
Update: scored in between my uworlds and nbme exam once again. Trust your practice scores people.
