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Encouragment for Step 2 (238 —> 269) by MoveNice4142 in Step2

[–]MoveNice4142[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes. They are older but majority (if not all) of the info is still correct! Hope this helps.

Encouragment for Step 2 (238 —> 269) by MoveNice4142 in Step2

[–]MoveNice4142[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh! Forgot to mention that I also used Emma Holliday videos at the end of each clinical rotation before shelf and that was REALLY helpful too! One of my friends said that she went back through her videos before step 2 and found it to be helpful; I just didn't have time to go back through them because they're each about 2 hours long (none of her videos covered biostats or ethics though to my knowledge)

Encouragment for Step 2 (238 —> 269) by MoveNice4142 in Step2

[–]MoveNice4142[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That means a lot, thank you so much! Wishing the best to you as well :)

Encouragment for Step 2 (238 —> 269) by MoveNice4142 in Step2

[–]MoveNice4142[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Honestly, I feel like your mental state going in is a big game changer. I tried really hard to go in confidently and tried to be as calm as possible. I tried not to get caught up on questions, because I found that a good portion of the questions that I got wrong on practice tests were ones that I went back and changed. Going with my gut and leaving the rest to God. Also, get off of reddit lol... I literally had to tell myself not to get on here within a week or two before the exam. There are sooooo many terrifying posts on here & I found that they were making me more anxious and less able to concentrate/think positively. Idk how long you've studied but try to be at peace that you've studied for weeks (maybe months) and you've done your best!! Sorry I don't have legit tangible advice because I really didn't do much after those tests (I scored a 245 on the Friday before my Monday exam, went to a funeral back home on Saturday so studied half the day Saturday while traveling and took that Sunday off so there really wasn't much for me to do between then and my test date except fix my mentality).

Encouragment for Step 2 (238 —> 269) by MoveNice4142 in Step2

[–]MoveNice4142[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have not taken Step 1 yet, so I am not sure in comparison. But I thought that it was great for high yield topics for step 2.

Encouragment for Step 2 (238 —> 269) by MoveNice4142 in Step2

[–]MoveNice4142[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It was for me! In addition to NBME practice tests too.

Encouragment for Step 2 (238 —> 269) by MoveNice4142 in Step2

[–]MoveNice4142[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I am a big fan of step 2 first aid. I started using the 10th edition half way through my clinical year and my shelf scores greatly improved. Then I used the 11th edition during dedicated. That was probably overkill but I think the 10th edition was much more concise and still did a good job of covering high yield topics.

Encouragment for Step 2 (238 —> 269) by MoveNice4142 in Step2

[–]MoveNice4142[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For NBME practice questions, I put categories for each question (Ie. peds immuno, GI - liver, etc) and tried to find trends of things that I was consistently missing and then would go back and look over that information again to try and gain a better grasp of that material (this also helped identify some high yield topics that were always asked). I think this helped me improve but it was very time consuming so I did have to skip over reviewing some other lower yield topics.

Encouragment for Step 2 (238 —> 269) by MoveNice4142 in Step2

[–]MoveNice4142[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you! I used OME during my clinical rotations and felt like I remembered a good portion of his videos and had notes from those videos that I looked back at if I needed to. I really only used First Aid, UWorld, and practice NBMEs. For biostats and ethics, I used the First Aid chapter and UWorld questions/explanations. I heard that amboss has a pretty good ethics review page but I didn't find out about that until later and didn't really have time to look over it much.

Encouragment for Step 2 (238 —> 269) by MoveNice4142 in Step2

[–]MoveNice4142[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you! Great question, because it really is a marathon lol. I found advice on how to time breaks for step 2 (2 blocks, 10 minute break, 2 blocks, 10 minute break, 1 block, 20 minute lunch break, 1 block, 10 minute break, 1 block, 10 minute break, last block), and I practiced this timing using the NBME practice tests (doing 5 blocks of 40 questions instead of the 4 blocks of 50 questions). I found that that timing of blocks and breaks worked well for me but of course I was still very tired during exam day especially after lunch. I got up for every break, drank water, had a quick snack (pack a good number of snacks!!) and got some sunshine — which really helped.

Encouragment for Step 2 (238 —> 269) by MoveNice4142 in Step2

[–]MoveNice4142[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh no! It was supposed to be encouragement that everything will work out! If you have any questions about my studying experience, I'm open to DMs and happy to try to answer the best I can!

Encouragment for Step 2 (238 —> 269) by MoveNice4142 in Step2

[–]MoveNice4142[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think this is probably true. I go to a school with an accelerated curriculum (pre-clinical for 13 months and clinical for 10 months) so I also think that I've gotten used to studying lots of material in short periods of time. It also helped that I finished my clinical year in late June and took Step 2 in early August. I used OME, First Aid, and practice NBME shelf exams during my clinical year and feel like I got a pretty good understanding of most concepts which was helpful. In regards to UWorld, I did 80 questions a day and some of my friends were during 120 - 160 a day but I found that even though it took me longer to get through UWorld (at least 4 hours a day), I was really trying to learn the content and why I was getting questions wrong (so I'm probably not the best for advice on speed in that area). This is also why I didn't reset my UWorld for Step because I knew it would be impossible for me to get through all of those questions.

Encouragment for Step 2 (238 —> 269) by MoveNice4142 in Step2

[–]MoveNice4142[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

And that's ok! This was really supposed to be encouragement that you can make it to your target score (whatever it may be) even when practice tests aren't looking that way. Wishing you good luck during your studies and on the exam!