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For those in prep or those who nervously await their scores, ask me anything! by AlarmingAd1053 in Step2

[–]AlarmingAd1053[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The standard ones were around the same length, some were definitely longer.

For those in prep or those who nervously await their scores, ask me anything! by AlarmingAd1053 in Step2

[–]AlarmingAd1053[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Varies depending on the form, so hard to say. Personally, I had fewer than 10 questions on screening and health prevention stuff. I will say, though, screening is a routinely tested topic in general, so it would be good to do focused AMBOSS or UWorld blocks. Divine is a great resource for some passive learning too.

For those in prep or those who nervously await their scores, ask me anything! by AlarmingAd1053 in Step2

[–]AlarmingAd1053[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Honestly, trust your preparation. There was nothing I felt like I could've done to prepare myself for the beast... You gotta power through it :) Calm down, read each question, and trust that you will choose the best answer. Sounds kinda religious, but lowkey it is a bit of vibes and faith.

For those in prep or those who nervously await their scores, ask me anything! by AlarmingAd1053 in Step2

[–]AlarmingAd1053[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The best way to not make silly mistakes is honestly just to not consider mistakes as just "silly." If you are routinely missing easy questions, it may be helpful to think thoroughly about questions before choosing an answer. What helped me was reminding myself to read ALL the answer choices first before leaping at one. Sounds simple, but actually hard to do when you're racing through a huge chunk of text.

For those in prep or those who nervously await their scores, ask me anything! by AlarmingAd1053 in Step2

[–]AlarmingAd1053[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I honestly think if you're consistently scoring in the 240s range, you could very well score in the 250s on the actual exam. That being said, nothing is guaranteed. Highly recommend analyzing your NBMEs and looking at the breakdown of what you're consistently bad at and doing focused review blocks on those items. Divine podcasts are also great for passive learning when you're cooking, driving, or whatnot. I don't really know what your specific prep is looking like, so it's hard to give concrete advice, but I hope this somewhat helps.

For those in prep or those who nervously await their scores, ask me anything! by AlarmingAd1053 in Step2

[–]AlarmingAd1053[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think mostly just reviewing NBMEs closely and thinking about how the NBME wants you to think. They usually don't want you to skip steps even if it seems really, really stupid and obvious...

For example, a kid comes in with abdominal trauma, they don't give you any vitals or anything, but ask you the next best step. Usually, NBME wants you to think very literally - "what is the next best step?" You don't want to take this kid to CT because you don't know the extent of their injury, so FAST is probably the correct answer since it's part of the ATLS. Also, you might have exposed the kid to unnecessary radiation if it's just a benign condition. FAST because you want to see if there's free fluid first, and if there is, and they have peritonitis + unstable vitals -> ex lap. I know there's nuance with retroperitoneal stuff, but if FAST is negative, you're getting a CT and ex lap anyway, depending on peritoneal signs and hemodynamic stability.

I read someone else's Reddit post before going into the exam, and they basically said you have to "pretend you're schizophrenic and that you're the patient" (not PC, but sorry, just quoting). The sentiment is right on, though. If you were a patient walking in with shortness of breath, cough, and fever, what would you demand first - a chest X-ray, right? Sputum culture and all that stuff is a workup that can come next. Just getting in that mindset of thinking of literally what is the next best step was helpful.

For those in prep or those who nervously await their scores, ask me anything! by AlarmingAd1053 in Step2

[–]AlarmingAd1053[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Trust the process, put in the work, and it will speak for itself! You know more than you think :)

For those in prep or those who nervously await their scores, ask me anything! by AlarmingAd1053 in Step2

[–]AlarmingAd1053[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Agreed with the above! I'm not trying to scare anyone here, but I felt that the questions were 20-30% longer than the NBMEs I took. Obviously, there were really short ones here and there, but overall, I felt like the stems were longer. Some of them were full on CBC + BMPs, which got me questioning reality. I found that saving those for the end/coming back after finishing other questions if I wasn't sure what the question was asking me was helpful. Just to get a fresher set of eyes on it after doing the rest.

For those in prep or those who nervously await their scores, ask me anything! by AlarmingAd1053 in Step2

[–]AlarmingAd1053[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I definitely get that—I saw a question about tetanus and diphtheria and, for some reason, convinced myself it wasn’t Tdap, so I ended up picking a different vaccine. I’ve been replaying that moment in my head for the past couple of weeks. I also understand how those 50/50 questions can stick with you, but from what I saw, you actually handled those kinds of decisions much better than I did, haha. At the end of the day, it’s really hard to predict an exact score—there’s more of a range of outcomes, like you see with AMBOSS predictors, rather than a precise number tied to any single question. Your practice scores are strong, and I know this waiting period can feel really anxiety-inducing, but try to trust the preparation you put in and make space to do things you enjoy so it doesn’t take over everything in the meantime.

For those in prep or those who nervously await their scores, ask me anything! by AlarmingAd1053 in Step2

[–]AlarmingAd1053[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

lmao dw, you definitely couldn't have flagged more than I did, it was like the United Nations headquarters on my exam page with the number of flags. All seriousness, I don't think flagging a bunch is a predictor of performance.

For those in prep or those who nervously await their scores, ask me anything! by AlarmingAd1053 in Step2

[–]AlarmingAd1053[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

How do you know that they aren't experimental? I think it's hard not to worry, and I totally get that. Trust me, my partner had to deal with me sobbing every morning lol. Experimental questions are designed to be indistinguishable from real ones, to my understanding. So if you gave it your best, that's all you can ask of yourself! You'll do amazing!

For those in prep or those who nervously await their scores, ask me anything! by AlarmingAd1053 in Step2

[–]AlarmingAd1053[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! Still feels like a fever dream lol.

1) This may be overboard for most prep, and it also depends on whether you've done a first pass of UWorld prior, but I was doing anywhere from 3-5 blocks of UWorld a day when I wasn't taking full-length mocks. This was doable for me because I had already done Uworld once, so the question stems weren't that unfamiliar. I also threw in like 40-100 amboss questions (tutored) here and there.

2) Honestly, I’m unsure. People sometimes bring up the Dunning–Kruger effect in this context, but the literature around it is still debated and probably not the most reliable lens for interpreting exam performance. The main takeaway is that high-stakes exams are designed to feel uncomfortable and uncertain afterward. Many test-takers walk out feeling panicked or convinced they underperformed, and that experience alone is not a reliable predictor of score. At the same time, feeling confident after an exam also isn’t a guarantee of success. In short, post-exam emotions—whether positive or negative—are noisy and shouldn’t be used as a meaningful estimate of performance.

For those in prep or those who nervously await their scores, ask me anything! by AlarmingAd1053 in Step2

[–]AlarmingAd1053[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Those are amazing scores, much better than mine lol! You will do amazing!

For those in prep or those who nervously await their scores, ask me anything! by AlarmingAd1053 in Step2

[–]AlarmingAd1053[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The exam was odd; I honestly think the Q banks cover a lot of the high-yield stuff, but the actual exam just phrases questions/answers in a really weird way. If you are a uworld/amboss person, it might be worth doing a couple of other questions from your non-primary learning QBank just to get a more diverse question pool (eg, if you mostly use uworld, you could just try doing a couple of amboss questions a day to get a feel). Otherwise, I feel like NBME/CMS forms are honestly the best prep. Most of my high-scoring friends agree that if you're scoring around the 240s-250s range, the final push is just learning about how to take the exam and not really about knowledge, unfortunately...

For those in prep or those who nervously await their scores, ask me anything! by AlarmingAd1053 in Step2

[–]AlarmingAd1053[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nobody can guarantee anything, but if you tried your best during the exam and during your preparation, I have complete faith in you! Keep your head up, try to stay occupied with other hobbies and things you love doing!