![]() I'm sure you guys have also heard about military medicine being a thing on the real test. If you're still studying, I encourage you to review answer explanations with the mindset of, "well if the correct choice weren't an available answer choice, but I got this same question, what might the next best answer be?" Another thing that NBME does is that they’ll word answers differently than the textbook UWorld answer, presumably in an attempt to test deeper understanding of concepts rather than simple recall. To add to the ambiguity, the test writers will often leave off the textbook answer for "next best step," so you'll need to figure out what the marginally next best one is. Otherwise, if I had a management question where I wasn't sure what the best answer choice was, and there were multiple answers that made sense, I always picked the least invasive one. Instead, what they do on Step 2 is give you a vignette where it's pretty obvious what's going on (i.e., what the diagnosis is), but the answer choices are all vague and you need to pick the "most correct" or "least incorrect" answer. Given that I was basically studying for Step 2 all year with shelf prep, I very rarely encountered questions on the real test that were totally alien to me. I don't think that the real test is so much of a knowledge test, much like Step 1 was, but rather a test of one's test-taking abilities. I firmly believe my focus and confidence were the reasons I overperformed on test day. However, there's only one test that matters, and I firmly believe that test day mindset is the biggest determining factor for ultimate performance - sleeping well, staying adequately caffeinated, trusting your prep, and being confident that you have it within you to answer every single question correct. Obviously review and learn from your mistakes. Test day advice: I'll start by saying that people put too much stock into their practice test scores. There's more to life than a silly little exam. I averaged about 100 questions a day, and the most I ever did outside of UWSAs was 140. I worked out or played soccer basically every day, and I went to one of my best friend's weddings three days before my test. I see the value of doing them, as they're written by the same people who write Step 2, but I didn't feel that the stress, frustration, cost, and time were worth it.ĭefinitely also protect your mental health during dedicated. ![]() I didn't do any NBMEs because they severely underpredicted me for Step 1 (never broke 230), and because I heard that they repeated questions between forms and had outdated questions. Amboss is great for reminding you about random medicine topics (e.g., heme disorders, immunodeficiencies) that are heavily tested on the real deal.Īmboss SA 244 (~5 weeks out, took this toward end of my surgery clerkship), UWSA 1 254 (12 days out), UWSA 2 250 (8 days out), Free 120 78.3% (2 days out), Step 2 265 I spent much of dedicated running through Amboss timed random 40 question blocks, supplementing with UWorld questions I hadn't done a first pass of (e.g., biostats, family/emergency medicine). Instead, I created Anki cards for UWorld incorrects during M3 that I reviewed to prepare for shelves, and then during dedicated I set aside 2 separate days to review all of those cards.Īs for dedicated qbank, I think Amboss is great. Took a 3 week dedicated after finishing third-year clerkships.ĭedicated: I don't believe UWorld second pass is a good idea, as I don't think repeating questions you've already done trains your brain to handle ambiguity and unfamiliarity as well, which is largely what test day entails. Honored all shelves except family medicine during M3. Background: US MD student who scored 251 on Step 1.
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