- Joined
- Dec 3, 2007
- Messages
- 22
- Reaction score
- 1
Just venting about my Step 2 CK experience here. After doing thousands of prep questions for Step 2 CK, there still were some things during the actual exam that left me shaking my head.
1. Abundance of Step 1 style questions. "What's the molecular mechanism of disease x, y, z?"
2. Questions asking "next best step in management" that have two entirely valid answer choices that might be different standards of care depending on the hospital/doctor.
3. Media questions. TOo much time spent swapping headphones with earmuffs, readjusting volume sliders/switches so you can actually hear what you need to hear (this was even after the pretest volume calibration...which turned out to be ~6dB too soft from what i actually needed).
4. Shaky computer screen! Imagine your screen shaking every 10 seconds while you're trying to read paragraphs. Whenever the guy next to me, or even two seats down from me wrote on their scratch pad, leaned on their desk, or typed on their keyboards, my own desk and computer screen would shake or vibrate. I had to keep one hand on my monitor to dampen the movement at times. Thanks, Prometric.
5. Graffiti-style dry erase markers!!! Extra-wide tip only... WTF!?!? I'm not trying to tag up my hood, I'm just trying to figure out this dude's serum osmolality and maybe calculate a sensitivity or two. There were no fine-tipped markers available at the test center.
6. Crappy mouse w/ hemiballismus. My cursor tended to unexpectedly jump to the upper left corner of the screen, usually when I was highlighting a passage.
7. Outer layer clothing policy. You cannot put on or remove your outer layer inside the testing room. You have to wait until your quesiton block is over in order to take an official break to dress in layers.
8. No cable-ties policy. There were all kinds of electrical wires on the floor at my feet I had to avoid. I thought I was either going to accidentally yank my power or simply get electrocuted (i.e., "irregular behavior").
9. The dude who's only at the testing center for 30 minutes tops, and his screen's got "-2 < X+5 < 20. What is X?" on it in huge font
anyway, feel free to share your Step 2 frustrations.
1. Abundance of Step 1 style questions. "What's the molecular mechanism of disease x, y, z?"
2. Questions asking "next best step in management" that have two entirely valid answer choices that might be different standards of care depending on the hospital/doctor.
3. Media questions. TOo much time spent swapping headphones with earmuffs, readjusting volume sliders/switches so you can actually hear what you need to hear (this was even after the pretest volume calibration...which turned out to be ~6dB too soft from what i actually needed).
4. Shaky computer screen! Imagine your screen shaking every 10 seconds while you're trying to read paragraphs. Whenever the guy next to me, or even two seats down from me wrote on their scratch pad, leaned on their desk, or typed on their keyboards, my own desk and computer screen would shake or vibrate. I had to keep one hand on my monitor to dampen the movement at times. Thanks, Prometric.
5. Graffiti-style dry erase markers!!! Extra-wide tip only... WTF!?!? I'm not trying to tag up my hood, I'm just trying to figure out this dude's serum osmolality and maybe calculate a sensitivity or two. There were no fine-tipped markers available at the test center.
6. Crappy mouse w/ hemiballismus. My cursor tended to unexpectedly jump to the upper left corner of the screen, usually when I was highlighting a passage.
7. Outer layer clothing policy. You cannot put on or remove your outer layer inside the testing room. You have to wait until your quesiton block is over in order to take an official break to dress in layers.
8. No cable-ties policy. There were all kinds of electrical wires on the floor at my feet I had to avoid. I thought I was either going to accidentally yank my power or simply get electrocuted (i.e., "irregular behavior").
9. The dude who's only at the testing center for 30 minutes tops, and his screen's got "-2 < X+5 < 20. What is X?" on it in huge font
anyway, feel free to share your Step 2 frustrations.
