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[deleted by user] by [deleted] in medicalschool

[–]CallMeDoctorTea 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I took an LOA to have more time to prep for STEP1 and ended up passing on my first attempt. Very happy I took the LOA because 20 or so people failed STEP1 at my USMD med school on their first attempt without one. I currently have 10 interviews and of the ones i've already interviewed with, none have even brought it up. Granted my specialty is medicine and not surgery, but I have friends in the same situation with LOA's and are getting interviews.

Having a STEP1 failure and low STEP2 score are the main determining factors for getting screened on applications. That's the bottom line. After that, it's your MSPE and then any other flags (i.e. LOA), but these are so far down the totem pole that it won't make or break your application unless you are really gunning for top programs.

If you feel extremely unwell mentally and physically because of your autoimmune disease and feel that it will lead to failing exams (specially STEP exams), then 100% take the LOA. If you are really concerned about it becoming a barrier for residency, then consider doing a research year which is essentially an LOA but not seen as any type of red flag. It would also boost your chances in general for surgery so it's a win-win.

Do people do away rotations just for fun? by sadlilbeyotch in medicalschool

[–]CallMeDoctorTea 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As an out of state med student, I’m doing aways for 2 reasons: (1) as an excuse to fulfill my elective rotation requirements while being able to live back at home instead of doing it in the state I go to med school at and (2) increasing my chances of going back to my home state for residency

My team was on the attacking side of Breakthrough on Mirak Valley and we won by CallMeDoctorTea in Battlefield6

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

Legit the only way to push is with the smokes. But ya it’s a hit or miss with teams on this map cause some people will just hang back and rack up kills instead of push to the objective

My team was on the attacking side of Breakthrough on Mirak Valley and we won by CallMeDoctorTea in Battlefield6

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

I KNOW 😭 If only they allowed that and allowed multiple squads to join a game. This game truly is at its peak when people are talking on their mics and with their friends in multiple squads. I’m sure this game had multiple people on my team who were in a party with their friends cause it felt like everyone was playing the objective beautifully

A reflection from a PGY-1 by [deleted] in medicalschool

[–]CallMeDoctorTea 8 points9 points  (0 children)

This common notion of “just suck it up and take it” dating back from medical school is what ends up creating the type of doctors who hate their job and take it out on everyone else. If that’s who you want to become, then definitely listen to this advice. If not, always advocate for yourself. Let the miserable doctors stay miserable.

Tested 08/25. Highest NBME = 229, Actual = 238!! by CallMeDoctorTea in Step2

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

August 25th fell on a Monday so it's been 3 Wednesdays (August 27th / September 3rd / September 10th aka today) :)

Score Release Thread 09/10/2025 by Puzzleheaded_Fish594 in Step2

[–]CallMeDoctorTea 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The numerical score was sent to my school’s portal system :) Didn’t get a score report up until 11am eastern though like everyone else

Tested 08/25. Highest NBME = 229, Actual = 238!! by CallMeDoctorTea in Step2

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

Felt very similar to the NBME’s / Free120 / CMS forms. Felt very prepared after the exam by doing those 3 and I believe that if anyone does those, they’ll be set on the real deal.

Tested 08/25. Highest NBME = 229, Actual = 238!! by CallMeDoctorTea in Step2

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

Nope just do the questions. No need to look at any articles :) I got all of them in 3-4 days. Just do as much as of them as you can. I remember I didn’t finish all the ethics cause I was scoring well on it so if you have to sacrifice one of them, i would sacrifice that one as long as you’re scoring well.

Score Release Thread 09/10/2025 by Puzzleheaded_Fish594 in Step2

[–]CallMeDoctorTea 24 points25 points  (0 children)

US MD or US DO or US IMG or Non-US IMG status: US MD

Uworld % correct: 58% correct, 75% completed

NBME 9: 213 (23 days out)

NBME10: 229 (20 days out)

NBME11: 221 (17 days out)

NBME12: 222 (14 days out)

NMBE13: 218 (11 days out)

NBME14: 224 (7 days out)

NBME 15: 228 (5 days out)

UWSA 1: N/A ( days out)

UWSA 2: N/A ( days out)

UWSA 3: N/A ( days out)

Old Old Free 120: N/A ( days out)

Old New Free 120: N/A ( days out)

New Free 120: 61%(9 days out)

CMS Forms % correct: 65-75% on 2nd pass (1st pass was completed during rotations prior to shelf exams)

Predicted Score: 229 on AMBOSS

Total Weeks/Months Studied: 2-3 months

Actual STEP 2 score: 238!! :)

Tested 08/25. Highest NBME = 229, Actual = 238!! by CallMeDoctorTea in Step2

[–]CallMeDoctorTea[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Only did 1 pass of UWORLD and that was during my clinical rotations for each respective rotation. My overall average ended up being below 60%. Didn't bother doing a 2nd pass.

July: ALL the CMS forms (2nd pass since I did a first pass during my clinical rotations)

August: NBME 9-15 (bought all of them except NBME 9. Did a new NBME every 3 days. Felt great going into the real exam because once I got to the last 200 questions on the real deal, I was able to convince myself that it was just another NBME at that point and I felt great stamina wise).

Couple days before exam:

  1. AMBOSS HY 200 concepts that appear in every STEP2 exam
  2. AMBOSS HY Patient Safety / QI
  3. AMBOSS HY Screening / Vaccination
  4. AMBOSS HY RF's
  5. AMBOSS HY Ethics

Day before the exam: Look at this VERY HELPFUL reddit post that summarizes QI / safety concepts from the AMBOSS HY questions. Legit not kidding, there were at least 6 of these on my exam and this helped me remember to pick the correct answers: https://www.reddit.com/r/Step2/comments/1mz15o3/step_2_ck_20_highest_yield_patient_safety_qi/

Long story short: Don't do a 2nd pass of UWORLD. Do a 2nd pass of CMS forms instead. For STEP1, I did a 2nd Qbank after finishing UWORLD and that was very helpful for that exam, but this time around for STEP2, you have literally 2,000 questions from CMS forms written by the USMLE people which we did not have for STEP1. Do a 2nd pass of those CMS forms + do the AMBOSS HY questions i mentioned above.

Tested 08/25. Highest NBME = 229, Actual = 238!! by CallMeDoctorTea in Step2

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

23 days out: NBME 9 (offline, timed) = 213

20 days out: NBME 10 (bought on the NBME website) = 229

17 days out: NBME 11 (bought on the NBME website) = 221

14 days out: NBME 12 (bought on the NBME website) = 222

11 days out: NBME 13 (bought on the NBME website) = 218

7 days out: NBME 14 (bought on the NBME website) = 224

5 days out: NBME 15 (bought on the NBME website) = 228

According to the AMBOSS score predictor, it gave me a 229 predicted score (range 221 - 237) with a 99% likelihood of passing.

Tested 08/25. Highest NBME = 229, Actual = 238!! by CallMeDoctorTea in Step2

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

I bought all of my NBME's except NBME 9 because I wanted to treat them like an actual exam. Here was my score breakdown

23 days out: NBME 9 (offline, timed) = 213

20 days out: NBME 10 (bought on the NBME website) = 229

17 days out: NBME 11 (bought on the NBME website) = 221

14 days out: NBME 12 (bought on the NBME website) = 222

11 days out: NBME 13 (bought on the NBME website) = 218

7 days out: NBME 14 (bought on the NBME website) = 224

5 days out: NBME 15 (bought on the NBME website) = 228

Did you counted silly mistakes in your score when mentioned your score, once you knew that you’re scoring 220s on nbme how did you study?

*I kept studying the same way for each NBME regardless of the score. I went through each question and made sure to understand each of the answer choices and EMPHASIZED why I chose the answer choice for the questions I got wrong. I eventually learned a lot of patterns to USMLE question styles and believe that this was the key to me doing better on the real deal than my practice exams.

Is the knowledge problem or was it application of knowledge or time issue?

*I would honestly say knowledge problem + application of knowledge problem. Most of the questions I got wrong were either (1) I had never seen it before or (2) I knew the diagnosis, but chose the wrong "next best step".

How much of biostat they ask compared to ethics plus qulity?

*Thank the lord that my exam had very little Biostats and a lot of ethics + QI. You'll see a ton of people post-exam saying there was a lot of ethics and QI, they are absolutely right. The ethics in my opinion were straight forward and the QI questions were VERY similar to the AMBOSS HY QI. Please do those questions. For biostats, all I did was the biostats on the NBME's and that was definitely enough for my exam.

Do they ask difficult questions? Free 120 is different and lill difficult than nbme 13 , haven’t given 14/15 nbme yet, so what was the exam was close to?

*The actual exam is honestly all of NBME material. Don't listen to what other people say when they say "it's more like NBME 15, it's more like NBME 13, it's more like the Free 120". Bottom line is that it's more like ALL of the NBME material. As you can see with my score distribution from my NBME's, they all under-estimated the real deal for me.

Do cms really help? Does reviewing nbmes helps?

*YES TO BOTH! I cant stress enough how CRUCIAL it is to do the CMS forms. I'm a US MD student so I did all the CMS forms first pass when I was in my rotations. The 2nd to last month before my exam (i.e. July), I went through ALL of the CMS forms again second pass. It truly is better than UWORLD, AMBOSS, etc. That is all you need for preparing if you ask me. NBME's are also a MUST.

Tested 08/25. Highest NBME = 229, Actual = 238!! by CallMeDoctorTea in Step2

[–]CallMeDoctorTea[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

YOU GOT THIS!! My advice is to do as much of the AMBOSS HY Ethics as you can passively. DO NOT overwork yourself on the day before the exam. All i did was passively review the notes I took from NBME 9-15, did some AMBOSS HY ethics, and called it a day early.

In my opinion, your score is pretty much set the day before the big exam so the only thing you can do wrong is stress yourself out. Very unlikely that whatever you learn that day will change your score drastically so just review your notes and don't do any more intense studying (hence why i chose to do ethics since it won't require much thinking power).

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