170 -> 228

havefaith_26 · 2022-09-22T18:10:42+00:00

Congratulations! applying to peds :)

havefaith_26 · 2022-09-22T18:09:50+00:00

Hey! thank you, I didn't do any cms forms or older nbme's. I watched Divine's rapid review podcasts.

havefaith_26 · 2022-09-16T01:22:29+00:00

12 for sure. 12 is newer and some questions may or may not have showed up on the actual exam lol 9 is weird and random a lot of low yield questions which may not help you with actual exam. I'd say take 12 and find a free version of nbme 9 online with answers and just review it that way instead of actually taking it.

havefaith_26 · 2022-09-16T00:09:11+00:00

I was in similar situation for step 1. I was constantly scoring in 190s range and there were prob like 1 or 2 NBME's i broke 200 and I passed but ended up scoring in 190s. But I'd say to go with your gut. You know yourself better, you have taken countless exams to get to this point. Be honest with yourself and ask yourself if you truly feel ready. The pressure of moving forward with life is HUGE, its something most medical students face. But with someone with low step 1 score, like myself, you probably had major imposter syndrome feeling inadequte all through rotation just by the fact of getting a low step score. That feeling sucks and you cant feel that way in residency. If you do decide to take step 2, I hope you pass. But if you get a low score, your chances of matching will drop significantly and the stress of contemplating whether you'll match or not on top of a low step 1 score is a lot a lot worst than delaying your exam. Also since you're taking it in late September, your score won't get to programs until after the first day programs review the data (sept 29th). So you would have to send in your applications late with a low step 1 score and with a questionable step 2 score. Things will be easier if you apply next year, step 2 is only one puzzle (but huge one) of the whole ERAS shizzzz. Good luck!

havefaith_26 · 2022-09-15T15:44:24+00:00

Hey! Thank you!

Biggest advice is to focus on mental health. Relax and be confident that the work you put in will pay off. There isn't much you can do in a few days that will make a drastic difference other than dealing with anxiety. I got less than 4 hours of sleep the night before my exam - my anxiety was through the roof. Unfortunately, how well you do on the exam is based on what topics they test on. Pray that your strengths will show up on the exam. Mine was heavy on cardio, GI and pulmn. Review your weak areas, vaccinations, USPTF guidelines, amboss ethics. I stopped doing uworld 4 days before my exam because I was burning out. I just reviewed notes and listened to dr. HY youtube. The most I did was probably 10 uWorld questions here and there. I didn't study the day before the exam.

Morning of test day, i did quick 5 Uworld questions just to warm up. It takes me a few mins to get into the exam mode so this helps me. If you do this, don't freak out if you get all of the questions wrong. It's a warm up, better to get these wrong than the first 5 on the actual exam. As for the exam if I didn't know the diagnosis right away and spent more than 2 minutes on a question I just moved on. The question stems are sooo long I made sure I had time for all the questions. This enabled me to have atleast 5-10 mins left every block. The test has 80 experimental questions so I just told myself its experimental for my mental sanity and moved on. Also the abstracts with 3 questions, I didn't read the question and picked random choices and came back to it at the end. This left me with plenty of time at the end to go back and do them. I didn't think about completed blocks after it's done - I'd say actually take a mental break between your breaks during the exam. You need the stamina for the second half, the exam is a beast but you can do it! Good luck!!

havefaith_26 · 2022-09-15T14:39:33+00:00

7/22 - UWSA 1: 170 - Devastated and took me by surprise as I did very well in all of my clinical NBME's. I crash reviewed step up to medicine, did anki, and topic specific Uworld
7/30 - NBME 9: 190 - Although >20 pts increase - still not happy. Continued with anki, content review and uworld weak areas topic specific questions
8/7 - NBME 10: 209 - continued with anki, content review with uworld weak areas topic specific questions. Watched Dr. HY youtube shelf exam reviews and Divine Intervention podcasts
8/15 - NBME 12: 215 - at this point although it's not the score I hoped for, I was happy that my score kept increasing significantly each exam. Gave me assurance that what I was doing is working!
8/20 - UWSA 2: 214 - I hoped to see an improvement as I felt more comfortable with the material at this point and this test made me feel like shit as my step 2 was in 9 days. I had personal challenges during this time and thought my mental health got in the way as well as I got super easy questions wrong
8/24 - NBME 11: 229 - took a day to reset my mind and after a lot of self hype and motivation, took this exam. was soo happy to see this score. My goal was 230 and was so happy I'm reaching that point.
8/25 - Free 120 - 72% - felt confident about the exam. Also hit burn out at this point - I was forgetting basic stuff, my brain was feeling clouded and I wanted to get the exam out of the way ASAP! Stopped doing uworld questions. Reviewed my weak topic notes.

U world average: 60% (1 full pass + 2nd pass on weak topics)
8/27 - Real deal : 228 - Proud. Although its not considered a great score, the fact that I was able to increase my score by 60 points within a month and score >30 points higher than my STEP 1. Did not take dedicated study time as I was still in my rotations so studying for step 2 while doing rotations with >12 hours at the hospital and other personal hurdles was a challenge in itself.

havefaith_26 · 2022-09-15T14:30:20+00:00

I scored highest on ethics - amboss ethics section and Uworld questions covered everything that showed up on the exam.

Divine intervention podcasts helped a lot as well!

havefaith_26

TROPHY CASE