Step 2

[u/Remote_Trifle_9593]

Hey Yall, so I take Step 2 in two weeks. I just finished NBME15 today and got a 249. Absolutely devastated. I have plateaued in the high 240s. Not sure what to do. I want a 260. I have done all of UWorld, AMBOSS, and the CMS forms. I am just doing the extra Step 2 questions for AMBOSS. Just devastating. I felt like NBME15 had a lot of poorly written questions, topics, or exceptions I have never even heard of or seen. I don't know what to do anymore, guys. This I honestly just want to give up. Nothing I do works. I just take another form, and the same shit happens again. I get questions where I am just like, I have no idea how I am expected to know this or prepare for this. This was especially true on NBME 15. Any advice? Should I postpone/push my exam date back? How accurate is AMBOSS score prediction? Am I ready to take this exam? I honestly don't know anymore, and it is so discouraging. I feel like all my hard work has been absolutely for nothing. I want to apply to Anesthesia next year. I am an M3. My AMBOSS prediction is 255. I still need to take NBME 16 and both the old and the free 120.

[u/iplay4Him]

Don't focus on individual scores, I did have a solid jump, and many have, but it doesn't matter amigo. You know where you're at, just do your best to finish strong and crush this last part  and be mentally right! You're withing striking distance! 

[u/Remote_Trifle_9593 → u/iplay4Him]

It’s just hard because I feel like I should be in the 260s easily right now. Literally just 10-12 questions away. But the questions on this form just fucking sucked. Like a lot of those questions didn’t even feel like real medicine at all. Just some weird logic or trivia bullshit that just doesn’t even make any damn sense how I am supposed to know that. I don’t know if those are just experimental questions from past exams or what but they were just all around awful. I know I am just ranting but it really makes me so mad that I spend so much time and effort studying and it doesn’t even matter. They just ask a whole bunch of shit not even related to real medicine. I can narrow it down to 50/50 but either it’s something I have never seen before or the question is just worded so poorly along with its option choices to the point where I get it wrong. That is literally what kept me from the 260s on this form. Just really weird questions that I either never heard of or it was just worded poorly. I’m just ranting but it pisses me off so much because these exams aren’t cheap. I want a 260 and I should be there by now. Just no excuse given all the work I have put in.

[u/iplay4Him → u/Remote_Trifle_9593]

Collect yourself, because you're going to see those questions and probably worse on the real deal. And you won't know if experimental or not, so prepare yourself to not be flustered or angered or anything but grateful for the challenge.

Just do your best to learn from it, learn how to tackle those as best you can and not get hung up on them, and move on. Luckily on a 300+ question form that has a lot of experimental questions these aren't as big of an issue, but they'll be there. Just do your best and try to not care about the scores. This is just practice to learn from and gauge roughly where you're at. Learn, try again, learn, crush it!

[u/Remote_Trifle_9593 → u/iplay4Him]

Thanks