r/Step2

Hi everyone, I’m about 4 weeks away from my exam and honestly… I feel completely lost right now.

I’ve done NBME 11–15, UWSA1, and a good number of CMS forms.
The weird thing is - my CMS scores are actually not bad at all:
IM: ~82–84%
OBGYN: ~84–88%
Psych: ~82%
Peds: ~78%
etc.

So I thought I was on the right track.

But every time I take a full-length practice exam, my scores are just… terrible.

I started taking them in early March, about one per week, and my scores have been:

220
233
232
238
236
233

I’m basically stuck in the 230s and not improving at all.

I genuinely feel like I’ve lost direction.
I’m doing Anki every day, and whenever I identify weak areas from NBMEs, I go HARD on them. I’m also mixing in Amboss and CMS between practice exams.

But nothing seems to push my score up.

Has anyone been in a similar situation?
I feel like I don’t even know what I should be doing differently at this point… and postponing isn’t really an option for me.

At first I was aiming for 260+, but now honestly I’d be beyond happy with a 250.

Would really appreciate any advice — seriously, anything helps. 🙏

Hey everyone,

Quick question about biostats prep

I’ve been using AMBOSS and honestly… the biostats questions there feel insanely hard and sometimes super niche 😅

A lot of people say AMBOSS is a must for biostats, but when I do practice exams (NBMEs/UWSAs), I barely see questions at that level or style

So what does the real test look like

I took CCSE on 3/3 and got a 204. I started seriously studying on 3/10 and am scheduled to take step on 4/24.

Below are the scores I’ve gotten despite studying 6-8 hours a day:

Form 10 - 3/13 - 183 Form 12 - 3/20 - 210 Form 13 - 3/27 - 220 Form 14 - 4/4 - 222 Form 15 - 4/11 - 217

It takes me all day just to do 40 UWorld questions and 2 days to review one NBME, and I don’t know why. How are you all getting through all this material so quickly?

I have Anki, Amboss, and UWorld.

I’m applying FM so I don’t need my score to be out of this world, but I have academic red flags and would like to score at least average.

I’m open to any and all suggestions and/or criticisms, whether it’s a comment or direct message.

Thank you in advance.

Hey guys,

I just got 79% with 42 incorrects.

How does that translate to the real deal?

Testing in 4 days, stressed out, I’ll appreciate feedbacks

Hello everybody. Step 2CK is in 3 days. I reviewed Amboss artircles and associated questions (including quality improvement, palliative etc) + Amboss study plans on Biostat, Ethics, Risk factors, Screening. What else should I cover from Amboss related to those questions?

So I just took NBME 10 and got a 203… is this a good baseline? Our school doesn’t have a dedicated study period and I plan on taking July 18, i’ll have an easy rotation that month with no shelf exam

I need a resource solely for drug ad questions where I can hammer a good amount back to back, I feel like uworld and amboss dont have much of them unless im looking at the wrong places then can someone direct me in the right way? Thanks!

Has Anyone from Pakistan/India travelled to the U.S during their dedicated time and gave their Step2 in the US?? I really need some guidance as I'm really anxious about giving my exam in the US. Thankyou

I recently had an older NBME question go something like this:
17yo male presents 1 hour after a 2cm LLQ stab wound which is penetrating underlying fascia with HR: 130 and BP: 110/70.

The options included: CT Abd w Contrast and Laparotomy among others

My concern: Currently, guidelines for penetrating trauma management consider expectant (non operative) management over laparotomy in hemodynamically stable patients with penetrating abdominal wounds. (Reference: Medscape Article Here)

The correct answer in this question was Laparotomy but recent guidelines as far back as 2020 would suggest this patient may be able to tolerate a CT Scan. Even amboss has a flow chart where this patient would get a CT before going to surgery.

So, when does the USMLE change the answer to match current guidelines? Whats the ground truth for us essentially? Im sure this applies to many other questions where guidelines and active research is evolving the field so how do we handle these algorithmic updates?

second pass of UW

or amboss sp plss

Does anyone have the NBME 16 form answer key (w/explanations preferably)? I have the question form, just no answers, so doesn't really provide me much value when planning to take it next weekend.

this might be the first of its kind post here but oh well, I have 2 practice tests left and honestly every minute that passes is driving me crazy due to stress and other factors playing in, i keep overthinking and getting scared that maybe ill forget stuff by the end of this week since im taking the exam in 5-6 days depending on when you read this post.

should I just move forward my exam and do the last 2 tests tomorrow and the day after and sit for the exam by like Tuesday or Wednesday? is it even possible to move ur exam closer not further away? has anyone ever faced a similar issue and had success with moving their exam closer?

in terms of the prev practice test scores I’ve been in range of the score that I want

any advice would be great

Hello folks!

What resources are best for infectious diseases?

Hi, I’m looking for very serious study partner for step 2 ck UW. Goal is to take in next 4 months. Anyone interested please DM. Resources we will use- uw and CMS forms.

Hey everyone, I’m preparing for Step 2 CK (exam early June) and starting an intense review phase from May 5. Plan is mainly UWorld + rapid review, focusing on doing as many questions as possible and staying consistent daily. Also currently reviewing pediatrics for a rotation exam (May 4), so open to doing some peds review before that. Just wanted to see if anyone else is on a similar timeline and how you’re structuring your prep. Would be great to stay accountable and share progress.

I'm getting confused on the NBME approach to the most appropriate next step questions. In this example, a 6 mo baby has chronic constipation with no stool in the rectal vault. The answer was to get a rectal manometry.

I figured getting a quick blood TSH testing to rule out a possible hormonal deficiency before more invasive testing was more appropriate than rectal manometry (which sounded invasive to me)... how should I be approaching these kinds of questions?

how are we feeling with NBME15? for those who have recently taken the exam, is it still as predictive and helpful as it was a year ago? i hear some ppl say the exam is diff now and your score doesn’t carry over as much

Hi everyone,

M3 finishing up my last rotation in surgery. I was hoping to get some advice on step 2 studying. I really need to get a mid 250+. I'm 2 weeks away from my last shelf exam and jump straight into 4 weeks of dedicated afterwards. I've only done 50% of all of uworld throughout dedicated and scored in the 80-89 range for shelves. How doable is this? I haven't kept up with anki after shelf exams either so paired with the fact that there's still so much of uworld left I'm a bit worried. What are some strategies I should use? Should I reset my uworld? If so, do I do it now or after my last shelf since I still have a good amount of surgery questions left? How do I get a good gauge on where I am? Should I incorporate amboss? How many questions should I do a day in dedicated and what NBMEs do I need to take and when? Sorry for all of the questions, everything just seems overwhelming at the moment since I'm a late switch into general surgery and need a good step 2 to balance out my lack of research. Any advice would be much appreciated!

Hi everyone i was ready to take my exam in Nov of last year however due to some issues with ECFMG i couldn’t take the exam. Now my issue is solved but the problem i got interrupted and now almost have forgotten half of what i knew. I finished UW in october and did one NBME SA and two UW SAs at the time my last UWSA was 250

From November till now i have done around 200 amboss questions and 2 latest CMS forms of each system inconsistently

I took NBME 12 today got 66% correct which around 220?

For those who’ve taken the exam, what did you find was the best way to tackle these types of questions?