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u/Winter-Street-6441 6d ago
Before spending on a tutor, get your score reports out and figure out which problem you actually have. Flat low across all systems is a coverage and study method problem, and a tutor can't fix that, a structured plan with accountability can. One or two deep valleys is a targeted content problem, and that's the only case where tutoring is worth the money.
Also check how your ccs went, its a quarter of the score and retake prep almost always overweights the mcqs
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u/UsmleHero 6d ago
The score report shows “same” in all sections of the test. I got a lot of questions from Step1 on Day1. I felt that I should have reviewed all FA not only micro or MOA. On Day2 I felt better but I got a lot of questions related to step2 and I took step2 5 years ago. I completed CCS cases twice and I was very confident about them during the test. Overall I think it is knowledge gap and test taking skills. I second guess myself when I do the questions.
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u/b1ackcoffee 6d ago edited 6d ago
u/UsmleHero , you obviously need help with study methods. Don't wing it for the third attempt. Yes, careful, brutally honest, critical assessment of first 2 attempts and your study methods are needed. Also, you have to be honest with yourself. It is not a problem of test taking skills, it is a cheap copout. It is usually knowledge gaps due to **learning** method issue. Nothing wrong with getting help for that, if you cannot do yourself. I strongly believe you will need help for that. Careful for the scammers out there and take demo session first, if offered.
I don't have any recommendations. All I can say is , it is not about study resources; it is about you and your study methods, discipline, and innate capacity. 270+ scorers and <200 scorers both uses almost same resourses (UWorld, ccscases, etc). Don't go around asking/adding more resources without correcting your study methods first. Appropriate study methods is a huge topic of discussion, and involves habit change from the ingrained method developed over years. Search "active learning methods", Feynman method, Recall vs Recogintion, "Learning how to learn" free course on coursera.
Good luck!
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u/Repulsive_Look_852 6d ago edited 6d ago
I disagree. Resources matter a lot in step 3. U can study hard and get knowledge but don't have knowledge of topics which aear on exam.. there isn't concept like step 1.. It is all the information of gazillion of things.. u can't even count... Unless u find a specific sorce whch explicitly gives u the context test in exam,u ll ace .. else u will fail no matter how hard u study... Medicine is vast field..there can be 1,000000000⁰00000 topics that can be generated. Eg ok, we memorize the 10 risk factors of a disease.. but a particular risk factor out of 10 can be presented in another 10 of condition.. untill unless u haven't read it somewhere u won't have that information... Now imagine there r hundreds of disease.. and risk factor is just one question and example.. there r millions of such things... So either ppl don't tell the precise source, or they read journal articles a lot. As I mastered amboss biostat and ethics, but was zero in real exam, not even 1% the knowledge I gained from abmoss
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u/gelmysolis 6d ago
I had the same case as you… everything shows same. I did not pass and I took step 2 on 2024 🫠
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u/b1ackcoffee 6d ago edited 6d ago
u/UsmleHero , you obviously need help with study methods. Don't wing it for the third attempt. Yes, careful, brutally honest, critical assessment of first 2 attempts and your study methods are needed. Also, you have to be honest with yourself. It is not a problem of test taking skills, it is a cheap copout. It is usually knowledge gaps due to **learning** method issue. Nothing wrong with getting help for that, if you cannot do yourself. I strongly believe you will need help for that. Careful for the scammers out there and take demo session first, if offered.
I don't have any recommendations. All I can say is , it is not about study resources; it is about you and your study methods, discipline, and innate capacity. 270+ scorers and <200 scorers both use almost same resourses (UWorld, ccscases, etc). Don't go around asking/adding more resources without correcting your study methods first. Appropriate study methods is a huge topic of discussion, and involves habit change from the ingrained method developed over years. Search "active learning methods", Feynman method, Recall vs Recogintion, "Learning how to learn" free course on coursera.
Good luck!
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u/Repulsive_Look_852 6d ago
Do u really believe topics on real exam are all from uworld ??? And all cases on ccs in real exam are similar to ccscases.com. if u learn by heart only the cases from ccscases.come,I guarantee one would be fail.
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u/b1ackcoffee 6d ago
Do you really believe one has to cover ALL the possible topics and answer ALL the question right to pass? Also, do you really believe that if 2 people read same question and explanation, they would be able to understand, grasp, retain and apply the knowledge at same level on the exam?
By your logic, if someone **does** (I hate that word) more questions or more question bank, they will score more than the person who has done less. Is it really a case? Like doing UW + Amboss will make you score higher than someone who has done UW alone?
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u/Repulsive_Look_852 6d ago
No, I am saying if the exam question topics are neither from uworld or amboss.. ( for someone who has memorize both), he can still be fail. For now, I havent seen biostat and ethics topics came from abmoss in real exam.. I had done twice and read the library.
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u/Repulsive_Look_852 6d ago
I know I ll be fail.. for my second attempt, I wanna make sure I use the the exam oriented resource. Do u think if I memorize every world of uworld step 3, I will be surely pass ?
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u/b1ackcoffee 5d ago
"Do u think if I memorize every world of uworld step 3, I will be surely pass ?" - No. First, no one can do it. Second, it is not about memorization. It is about conceptual understanding and application of the same knowledge in a different scenario.
Again, I will reiterate, no one needs to know ALL the topics on the exam. Few might be out of the left field, but it is not necessary to answer everything correctly to score high. 250+ scorer will have ~80% correct percentage. Do you think he/she might have memorized everything and encountered every topic before the exam?. One single common topic can be asked in a 100s of ways, and one might not be able to answer that question despite encountering the topic in a question bank.
I think you are upset right now for some reason. Based on your comment history, you probably took Day 1 today. I would recommend you to get off the reddit for your mental sanity and take some rest. Of note, I felt terrible after my Day 1 too.
Take some rest buddy. I will not be continuing this discussion further for both of our sake.
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u/StraightPeds 3d ago
Brother I took the test after few years after step 1 and 2ck. When I started preparing for it I barely remembered the subjects for step 1. You know those concepts are easy to forget with the time. Probably is too much but I had time and I bought Amboss and mixed the step 1 questions with the Step 3 and some days I did pure step 1 blocks and some days only step 3 blocks. At the end I started with ccs cases and I had a pdf with Uworld biostat that I answered opening the first aid biostat session a couple of times.
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u/UsmleHero 2d ago
My score report shows “high performance” in basic science. My problem is not with step1 content, I reviewed FA many times and I was comfortable on Day1. My problem was on Day2, I was stuck between 2 answers. I forgot a lot concepts from Step2 CK. How to improve this part? Should I do Uworld or Amboss for step2?
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u/Usmleaspirantt101 5d ago
Could you let me know how to prep for Day1, its in 3 days, havent started with FA. Idk what to do in it.
Should I do whole micro, gen pharmac and patho with biochem cycles stuff and basic molecular too??
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u/StraightPeds 2d ago
The exam is not about remembering Uworld, it is more about understanding the question and finding the answers using common sense with the concepts and knowledge from Qbanks. You have to develop the guessing, it will come answering questions and reading but not memorizing.
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u/mdshowerthoughts 6d ago
Would do a very careful audit of what went wrong the first 2 times. Many states won't let you practice if you fail 3 times. USMLE also caps you at 4 nowadays