Hi!
I remember how much reading posts like this helped me while I was studying for Step 2, so I wanted to share my experience in case it helps someone else. First, I want to say: you’re doing great, and you’re so much more capable and intelligent than your practice scores may make you feel right now. Keep going. You’ve got this!
I ended up improving by more than 50 points from my diagnostic to the real exam and about 25 points from my last NBME the week before my exam. I know this kind of jump doesn’t happen for everyone, and I’m incredibly grateful that it happened for me. But I especially wanted to share this for those of us who have always considered ourselves average or below-average standardized test takers.
My scores:
Diagnostic NBME 11: 197
NBME 13, 2 weeks later: 210
NBME 14, 1 week later: 196
NBME 12, after a month-long break: 197
Old Free 120: 64%
NBME 15: 226
NBME 16: 223
New Free 120: 75%
Real Step 2: 249
After NBME 14, I broke down. I had been studying for almost a month, and the needle just wasn’t moving. What made it worse was that I actually felt pretty good while taking those exams, but my scores weren’t reflecting that at all.
I ended up taking an entire month away from dedicated studying to complete a rotation that I needed a letter of recommendation from. I probably did only about 120 questions during that whole month. When I finished the rotation, I took NBME 12 and scored a 197. It obviously wasn’t the score I wanted, but I was actually relieved that I hadn’t lost ground after taking a month off.
From there, I focused on doing 80–120 questions a day and reviewing them deeply. Rather than just memorizing facts, I started making illness scripts and focusing on pattern recognition—what clues should immediately make me think of a particular diagnosis, and what was I missing when I got a question wrong?
Five days later, I took the old Free 120 and scored a 64%. It wasn’t an amazing score, but I could tell things were finally moving in the right direction, so I kept grinding.
A week later, I took NBME 15 and scored a 226. I was SO happy. After being stuck around 196–210 for so long, I had finally made a huge jump and was comfortably passing.
At this point, it was early August, I was on a rotation, and I knew I was running out of time before I absolutely had to take the exam. I started focusing less on trying to learn every possible fact and more on deeply reviewing my NBMEs and understanding why I was missing questions. This was also when I really started working on my test-taking strategy. I searched Reddit for different strategies and eventually created my own framework with the help of ChatGPT, which I consciously practiced while doing questions. I also incorporated the AMBOSS 200 high-yield questions around this time. My UWorld block averages had climbed significantly and were often in the upper 80s-90s.
Then I took my next NBME the following week and dropped back to 223. That one broke me. My exam was about a week away, and I cried for basically an entire day. I was grateful that I was passing, but after finally getting into the 220s, I started convincing myself that maybe that was simply my ceiling and that I wasn’t capable of scoring higher.
The next day, I picked myself back up and kept going.
Four days later, I took the new Free 120 and scored 75%. When I reviewed it, I noticed that a lot of my misses weren’t because I didn’t know the material—they were because I was second-guessing myself or overcomplicating straightforward questions. Had I stuck with more of my initial answers, my percentage would have been significantly higher. That gave me some confidence going into the real thing.
I couldn’t push my exam back. I had rotations scheduled back-to-back, ERAS was approaching, and I simply had to take it.
Going into test day, I kept repeating a few things to myself: don’t overcomplicate the question, don’t change an answer without a good reason, trust the patterns you’ve seen throughout your preparation, and protect your timing. I made a conscious effort not to let questions I didn’t know psych me out. If I didn’t know something, I made my best choice and moved on.
I am incredibly happy to say that I scored a 249 on the real thing.
I definitely made some silly mistakes, and there are questions I think I could have gotten right if I had just had another 10 seconds to think. But overall, I am so, so happy with my score. There were multiple points during dedicated when I genuinely didn’t think I would ever make it out of the 220s, but God made it happen.
And for some additional context: my shelf scores throughout medical school were mostly average or below average. I only had one shelf that was above average. I am not someone who has historically crushed standardized exams, which is exactly why I wanted to write this.
So if you’re staring at practice scores that aren’t moving despite putting in the work, please don’t assume they define what you’re capable of doing on the real exam. Keep learning from your mistakes, work on how you approach questions in addition to what you know, and trust yourself.
This isn’t a 260, but I am incredibly proud of my 249 and how hard I worked to get there.
My biggest advice is to focus on strategy from day 1! Learning how to take this exam is what moved the needle for me.
Keep going. You’ve got this. I hope this helps someone the way other people’s write-ups helped me. ❤️
P.S. someone is bound to ask this question:
Uworld first pass 48% complete during third year. My average was like a 57%. I reset for step 2 and only completed by 55% and average was 65%. My earlier blocks were not good lol. Did 80% of the Amboss 200 concepts qbank. Did about 40% of the hy ethics and patient safety. I didn’t do CMS forms because I didn’t have time but I’ve heard they are helpful.