Solving the whole Qbank again is a mistake, because you’ll rem | Usmle step 2 experinces

Solving the whole Qbank again is a mistake, because you’ll remember the questions and answers and you’d be wasting time. Better off: revise the tables and your notes.

This is a hard phase and the questions are long and exhausting, but the quality of your studying is what’s going to get you the scores.

Other Qbanks are not recommended. Most of the info you’ll need are buried inside UW. Revise your notes and revise the tables better than answering other Qbanks.

Studying phase II) Revision
After answering UW and re-answering the wrong questions, it’s time to assess yourself. Assessments are important because they guide you in this important phase. Reading the same stuff over and over again is not helpful. Instead, if you’re weak on something, this is what you should focus on.

Read the tables for the third time together with your notes then take a self-assessment. The score you’ll get should give you an idea about the quality of your studying. Which SA you should take? We’ll talk about that later

After taking the SA you should revise your weak spots, read from Kaplan or some other source, use UpToDate if you can in topics you want to look up on, solidify your already studied concepts, revise again and take another SA.

Keep doing these steps until you feel you’re ready to take the test. Don’t feel down if you got a bad score, instead; figure out why you fell and work on it. This is better than living in delusions.

This phase is stressful but we all went through with it. Focus on the UW tables and algorithms, they contain the most important concepts you’ll need. And work on yourself.



Shelf exams / self-assessments


NBME has a couple of exams, the most predictive is NBME4. NBME 6 is good but is a bit easy. NBME7 some found it hard, including me. Downside is that the questions are shorter than the real exam.
UWSA is more like the exam, but a bit easier. They say it’s the most predictive.

My scores were:

UWSA: 259 8 weeks before the exam
NBME 4 : 254 4 weeks before the exam (19 wrong answers)
NBME 7: 231: 2 weeks before the exam (39 wrong answers)
NBME 6: 1 week before the exam (offline) 16 wrong answers + FRED in the same day (9 wrong answers)

I hated NBME 7. It broke my spirit and shattered my confidence. But I revised it and realized that my problem was anxiety and not reading the stem well. So I worked on that.

CMS are okay. They have no answers so you have to google stuff. There are some groups with very useful discussions, and on the EAMTAR group we’re working on providing explanations for them and some are already done.
I used UpToDate in most of the questions which helped me a lot. Solidified my information and gave me new concepts. CMS questions are not mandatory and they are probably retired questions from old exams. Take them as an assessment of as a source of refreshing your info, also as a means to learn how to think about the questions.

If you’re short on time answer the psychiatry blocks. Maybe ObGyn too.

Now regarding the answers, as I said people are trying to form some reliable answer key. I have some notes for each block that some people might find it useful. Also some UpToDate screenshots from CMS topics. I will upload them if anyone is interested.



Tips and Tricks about the last 10 days:


RELAX. You’ve done your best, now is not the time to panic. Revise the tables and algorithms, don’t do MTB.

At least once, answer 8 blocks in the same day to prepare yourself for the big test. I did NBME6 + FRED in the same day which was exhausting but important to do.
Sport will take your mind off things; I used to run every other day. Also try to ditch negative thoughts, I got 231 on NBME 7 which shattered my confidence, but I got over it Alhamdulillah.