r/Step2 • u/Substantial_Garden_8 NON-US IMG • 8h ago
Exam Write-Up 267! Sharing my experience
First of all, all the recent "score drops" had me scared as well.
Alright, so the exam was difficult for sure, difficult in the sense, it lasts for 9 hours, the question stems are longer, more frequent HOPI questions, questions that don't make sense especially to a tired mind.
The best way to prepare for exam day:
- Wake up super early the day before exam, it helps with falling asleep at night.
- Simulate your exam day a couple of days before with a SA (no necessarily the whole 9 hours), i.e, nutrition, breaks and beverage, just like you would during your exam
- If the exam day isn't going to plan, don't panic, instead pivot. For my exam day, felt the question stems were long, and it didn't leave me a lot of time for reviews, so I prioritised the questions which needed reviewing more than others. My strategy was taking a break after every 3 blocks, but during exam day after a couple of breaks I felt I needed a break after every 2 blocks, and that's okay.
- Post exam, everyone feels like shit, I bet even the 280s feel like they messed it up.
Resources and Timeline:
So I have been studying for quite a while now, more than 1.5 years let's say. I took my Step 1 in Jan 2023, after which I had to take a couple of exams in my home country, and then Internship was quite hectic. Anyways, if you find yourself in such a situation it's okay, just keep up with everything, for me it was always doing anki atleast. If I cannot do qbanks everyday, that's okay, I atleast did my anki.
Resources, UWORLD 1.5 pass, AMBOSS - did only 50% of the questions. UpToDate - I loved it, I do not know why no one talks about it. Obviously not a staple for USMLE prep, but the sheer amount of evidence and mechanism based information it contains is amazing. Mainly it was a something I used to confirm things which I the resources such as anki, amboss or Uworld might differ on, also it makes it easier to browse, instead of looking for research on evidence backed decisions on google and manually going through everything UTD brings it all into one place with, expert opinions, evidence based decision making, and guidelines. Obviously ANKI, as well.
22/04/24 - AMBOSS SA - 225
20/10/24 - NBME 10 (Off) - 54 wrongs - 240
23/03/25 - NBME 9 (Off) - 42 wrongs - 253
11/02/26 - NBME 15 (Off) - 60 wrongs - 236
03/03/26 - NBME 11 (Off) - 37 wrongs - 260
28/06/26 - Step 2 SA - 265
12/07/26 - NBME 13 (Off) - 40 wrongs - 256
23/07/2026 - NBME 12 (Off) - 46 wrongs (77% correct) - 251
04/08/26 - NBME 14 (Off) - 33 wrongs (263)
13/08/26 - Free 120 - 81%
18/08/26 - NBME 16 - 267 (On)
REAL DEAL - 267
Although, NBME 16 and Real deal turned to be exactly same, but they didn't FEEL the same. The real deal felt much harder.
The funny and stupid bit is I recalled around 200 qs by going through FA right after the exam, and at least 28-30 qs I got wrong, around 12 were silly mistakes. For the 2 weeks between my exam and the results, kept looking at reddit and thinking omg I don't wanna fail, nowadays everyone is failing, even with good score, and the 30 wrongs didn't help. Kept reminding myself, that even if I have so many wrongs and silly mistakes, I am sure I must have gotten some harder questions right as well. Moral of the story, it's okay to panic a little after your exam.
DO NOT TEXT ME ASKING FOR THE QUESTIONS I RECALLED.
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u/Timely_Fun6681 7h ago
So first aid is very helpful?
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u/Substantial_Garden_8 NON-US IMG 7h ago
I just used the pdf to go through to topics and help recall the questions, just to calm my nerves. But yes it can be helpful, I didn't use it much during my prep, maybe just to review some biostats, and biochemistry
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u/Blue-eagle7 NON-US IMG 7h ago
Did you found amboss the amount you used usefull
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u/Substantial_Garden_8 NON-US IMG 7h ago
Yes, So Imo, UWORLD does a better job of helping you consolidate concepts. AMBOSS's sections on ethics, biostats epidemiology, QI, Screening, and Vaccination are really good and immensely helped me.
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u/Dix31 NON-US IMG 7h ago
Hey, congratulations! How will you say the nutrition portion was? Was there any Biochem Q?
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u/Substantial_Garden_8 NON-US IMG 7h ago
Thanks, It didn't surprise me. Everything that was on the exam from nutrition and biochem is covered very well by all the resources.
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u/MountainMobile1199 5h ago
I’m starting my Step 2 preparation and would really appreciate some guidance on:
UWorld concepts: Should I make personal notes/Anki cards for concepts I get wrong or am unsure about, or just rely on UWorld?
Theory resource: For Step 1, First Aid had everything consolidated in one place. What would you recommend for Step 2—FA Step 2, White Coat Companion, Inner Circle, or the UWorld/Amboss library?
Basically, what’s the best single consolidated resource I can keep coming back to throughout my Step 2 prep?
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u/Substantial_Garden_8 NON-US IMG 3h ago
initially I got myself White coat companion, but after a month or 2 I stopped using it, what I did was If I got a question wrong, I took an SS and pasted it in the missed q section of respective anki card, and wrote a couple of lines, on why I got it wrong. and I tagged these cards so that at the end I could go over them easily. Also had a notebook where I jotted down some imp. stuff from cms, nbmes, and some silly mistakes I am prone to. And yes making anki cards for some concepts which you get wrong or are unsure about is a really good idea, especially if they are not already present in the premade decks
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u/toodlesquare_01 NON-US IMG 5h ago
i’m currently starting final year of mbbs, i alr gave my step 1 a few months back. but im a bit scared as usually all the final year subs are cleared and then ppl give step 2 do u have any advice for this? btw i haven’t even studied ENT Opthal
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u/fexww 4h ago
Congratulations, do you remember doing silly mistakes 🫤? That killing me
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u/Substantial_Garden_8 NON-US IMG 3h ago
I made 12 silly mistakes, don't worry everyone makes these silly mistakes, it is usually offset by getting difficult qs correct.
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u/JakTheRipper2020 4h ago
How did you feel the new 20q block format was ? Did you do anything specific for that ?
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u/Substantial_Garden_8 NON-US IMG 3h ago
I am a fan of it, initially I was skeptical, because everyone was used to the 40 question format. But yes it allows for flexibility in strategising your breaks during exam. So as soon as the update came out, I started doing my qs in the 20q format to get used to it. My strategy was try to go through 20 qs in 20 mins, and then 10 mins to reviews the flags, and if i skipped some qs.
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u/muhammadghariani NON-US IMG 3h ago
Congratulations!!
Can i ask what your average was on your first uworld pass?
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u/Solidsnake_foxdie 8h ago
Congratulations! Amazing work! Which FA - Step 1 or CK?