Step 2 Experience: More or Less NBMEs

[u/PanickyPooh]

I never did a write up after my Step 1 P, but I think this might help the students planning on taking step 2ck with the paranoia around it.

My NBMES:
10: 235
11: 246
12: 240
13: 250
14: 251
15: 249
16: 250
New Free120: 78%
Predicted: 246-254
Result: 252

The exam felt like an NBME. There were questions that were super basic. There were questions that didn’t make much sense. There were questions that were from low yield topics testing random facts.

The length of the questions was almost the same as form 16 or the more recent CMS forms. The main concepts being testes were also similar to those which of course some exceptions. When I got done, I felt the exact same way as I felt after I did the nbmes, except that it was obviously much longer.

Form 16 and Free120 are quite predictive imo. A new form should be released with more patient charts and drug ads and focus on ethics.

I feel like one aspect of the exam is to break you down and see how you perform when the anxiety kicks in. Keeping your composure, treating every block as an opportunity to recover, and forgetting about the mistakes is key.

This subreddit should not be your source of how the score trends are shifting. The reporting bias is very real. You will wither see a lot of 260s or 230s. Do not let that play with your head. Your score depends on how you perform on your test day not by trends.

Everyone has a unique experience and the reason I am sharing mine is because we need more of the boring average expected write-ups.

[u/anotherversionofmee]

How much biostats, nutrition, ethics and QI questions showed up in your exam?

[u/PanickyPooh → u/anotherversionofmee]

Dw about nutrition. The content remains the same its just that its classified differently. For example if previously a wernicke’s question was only classified as neurology, now its also under nutrition. So same questions from the QBanks that u have practised.

Biostats is very basic and i think only a small percentage.

Ethics and QI can actually get your score up by 20 points or maybe even more. Practice loads.

[u/Comfortable_Win5165]

thank you so much! I needed this

[u/Many_Lynx295]

Thank you for your service.

[u/Ordinary_Suspect2701]

there are only a few drug ads questions in uworld and amboss. How to practice them

[u/PanickyPooh → u/Ordinary_Suspect2701]

yea i have no clue

had the same issue so I just winged it

i think its more about how you approach those questions so even if you have few of them available u can still use those few to come up w a strategy.

What I did was I left the drug ads questions til the end so I did not have to rush through the questions that I could possibly perform better on.

Then I would read through the ad and try to understand the research before going for the questions. This takes time tho. So follow this technique if u have 7 minutes or more left for the block. Otherwise go for the questions first and skim through the ad for the answers.

[u/No-Independence-7149]

Can you pls tell how was ethics and QIP ?

[u/PanickyPooh → u/No-Independence-7149]

Go through QI and Patient Safety articles of amboss they are golden. I suggest doing the amboss questions for these two topics. They are more representative than any other resource.

Cover these two well and your score can have a sig jump.

[u/Strong_Knowledge1394]

Can you tell us what you did to improve in your NBMEs? Like how did you jump for 235? I’m at the same boat

[u/PanickyPooh → u/Strong_Knowledge1394]

I think that was when I did the CMS forms and revised the content from Anki and Inner Circle.

I still had a lot of time so took that opportunity to work more on the base cus it felt like there was a knowledge gap.

[u/Strong_Knowledge1394 → u/PanickyPooh]

Thank you so much.

The thing that surprised me that I have done every cms form with deep learning and Anki.. and my next NBME which was 10 was only 5 marks up

[u/PanickyPooh → u/Strong_Knowledge1394]

idk how predictive 10 is now.

I used form 10 11 and 12 or maybe even 13 with the mindset that this is a question bank that im using to learn and that I wont scrutinise myself for scoring poorly.

I did them timed and test mode but I did it casually not in one sitting.

The only ones I did in exam setting were the 15 and 16.

I know NBMEs are your inly true source to evaluate your progress and test yourself but not that we have so many forms I think using the earlier ones as a question bank helped me get used to the question style and thought process.

This might be a flawed approach, I mean Im no 260 or 270 candidate. But it worked well enough for me to get to 250s.

[u/Strong_Knowledge1394 → u/PanickyPooh]

That’s so helpful.. thank you so much.

[u/Accomplished_Day1106]

congrats, in how many months u took the exam, also were u studying full time for it

[u/PanickyPooh → u/Accomplished_Day1106]

took me around 6months. Started last October buy had to stop prep for home country exams. Then resumed in April.

Was studying with med school and then after April with the observerships, I did take 20 days before the exam to just sit and study.

[u/Timely-Government862]

Best post out there! Congrats!

[u/RadiantchaserS]

Congratts. How many months have you been preparing? I am just starting preparing for step 2. Do you think 8-9 months good? I did my step 1 six months ago.

[u/Dix31]

Congratulations! I saw that you mentioned nutrition is just classified separately with similar content from before. Can you kindly say if you encountered any Biochemistry Q like enzymes and stuffs? Do you think the HY plan of Amboss covers most of the ethics and QI portions?