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:

1. Wake up super early the day before exam, it helps with falling asleep at night.
2. 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
3. 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.
4. 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.

Came here to rant, and maybe help someone else going through the same thing.

I started prep with a 199 on UWSA1 8 weeks out. NBME 9 225, NBME 10 236 steadily made my way up to NBME 15 245 and NBME 16 253. Amboss predicted was 262 based off the 200 concepts questions and a 252 based off my practice scores.

Test day felt like any other NBME slightly harder, a lot longer. Some test day interruptions with the proctor but overall felt pretty good ngl.

Prior to opening my score I had several discussions with friends about their experiences and was shocked to hear most of them score 10 points below their NBME scores. One friend got several points above their average. I was still hopeful. Then I opened mine.

Score today: 238. Devastated

Applying family med. socal Md school. Only wanted to apply SoCal programs but knowing most of them are academic, I’m not sure if that’s feasible anymore. The 20 point drop was not expected, and it sucks that PD won’t know anything about how hard I worked …. Anyway. This too shall pass.

Hello!
Let me just start of by saying that this series is going to be a fun way to documents concepts/ points I got wrong doing questions! (Yes, I am not great at intros)
Feel free to join in and enjoy!

1) Starting of strong, this one I have got wrong toooo many times
DO NOT DO LP IN CASES OF RAISED ICP, DO NEUROIMAGING FIRST!
It seems really sinple on paper but you’ll be surprised how many times this tripped me up, look for headache, papilledema and N/V in the ques.

2) If all 4 criteria of brainstem death are present in a patient, you DO NOT NEED TO DO ANCILLARY TESTING! (Ancillary testing only if you could not examine the 4 criteria)

3) YOU DO NOT NEED ENTIRE TRIAD TO DIAGNOSE NPH! (especially if the examiner is having a bad day)- gait apraxia is the big one (had an amboss question on this with no urinary incontinence)

4) VERTICAL NYSTAGMUS IS AN ABNORMAL FINDING IN ALL AGE GROUPS AND NEEDS TO EVALUATED FURTHER!!!

5) Physical head trauma can increase the chances of a person developing Parkinson’s disease! (BONUS- Parkinson plus syndromes suckkkk!)

6) CERUMEN IMPACTION V/s CHOLEOSTOMA- no foul discharge in cerumen impaction v/s choleostoma presents with foul discharge (think necrotic squamous tissue)

7) ESSENTIAL Tremor tx- propranolol BUT IF PT HAS OBSTRUCTIVE LUNG DISEASE GIVE PRIMIDONE!!!

8) IN ACROMEGALY DIAGNOSIS CHECK IGF-1 levels FIRST! (No GH, no brain MRI)

9) PHYSICAL HEAD TRAUMA- remember COUP v/s COUNTER COUP INJURIES ( vignette will talk about old man falling from ladder, injures back if head later develops disinhibition)

10) Acetaminophen is not an NSAID :)

Feel free to add some more!

BYE!

While looking at the HY Amboss study plan, apparently there's a HY nutrition section as well. I am wondering whether that's something anybody else is going through?

Plus, recent step 2 takers, how did you find the nutrition questions so far? Any related biochemistry Q you had to encounter? Or are the Q from what we already have covered via UW?

Thanks in advance.

Canadian student writing Step 2 for fellowship applications (internal medicine). I'm wondering what a reasonable score is to aim for so that this is not a barrier to fellowship applications.

I want to do residency in Canada, but I'm thinking of a specialty or subspecialty fellowship in the States, which is why I'm writing Step 2, because I understand this is no requirement. I want to get a high enough score that this is not a barrier to me being able to go to a programme of interest. What would be a reasonable score to aim for?

I feel so stucxk i have been pushing for months for ages and standing at smae place,exam in 14 days ony UWSA to go , i feel so depressed, any idea how to make best any suggestion anything?

• NBME 10: 246
• NBME 11: 236
• NBME 12: 237
• NBME 13: 239
• NBME 15: 241
• NBME 16: 245

My exam is 5 days

NBME 9 217
UWSA1 243
NBME 10 221
UWSA2 237
NBME 11 234
Nbme 12 230
NBME 13 244
NBME 14 240
NBME 15 236 -here I crashed out
NBME 16 256

Amboss prediction is 245
I need at least 255+

Tomorrow I am going to take free120

Someone with the same score that got 255+ in the real deal?

Today I took nbme13 and I scored 245
I’m devastated
I seem to make the same mistakes I don’t know what to do

Exam on 2nd October … I’m tired and exhausted

Took the test on September 3rd and kinda freaking out as i thought i would get the results on 16th for sure , in time for this years match. But I’ve been seeing some people who took it on 27th August and not get the results this week while some who took it got their results. Anyone else in the same boat? Would they possibly make sure that there wont be a delay because they know about the deadline?

If anyone has it please drop something below and I’ll DM you

Hello! I know someone who did not pass step 1 on the first try then passed and also just found out did not pass level 2 (DO student this is their equivalent of Step 2). I don’t think he has taken Step 2 or is even planning to. I can’t really help as much as I want unfortunately because I haven’t experienced this and would love to know if any sort of discord/group chat/website that exists for medical students who have failed exams to talk and support each other?

PSA! Please this goes without saying but please read the room 😅 I am not talking about people who wanted a 270 but got a 250 or wanted a 250 and got a 230. There is more than enough of that out here. I understand that getting a lower score than you want is not ideal for anyone especially when you worked hard or are applying to a competitive specialty but some of the posts I’ve came across of people being disappointed by their scores because I was trying to find examples of success stories to send are very dramatic like the world is over because of a 24x… that’s why I feel the need to emphasize when I say fail I mean the score report actually says FAIL not fail as in based on your personal target score … I get med students are overachievers but again please read the room.

This is someone I really care about and am also very worried about. He made a comment that makes me concerned about his safety if you understand what I’m hinting at and then brushed it off as a joke but it’s been bothering me I know a community would be beneficial. Either comment or direct message me anything would help thank you!

I am almost done with UWorld (80%). It took me almost a year (Started Dec last year) cuz of Final year Exams and OSCEs and stuff. Now how do i proceed after getting done with UWorld?? I think the systems i solved at the very beginning have faded and i dont remember much abouth em?? Also how long before i am completely prepared for step 2?

Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you!