Step 2 CK

Well, I’m making my way up the ladder, slowly. Finally finished Step 2CK after a couple of postponements. Overall, it was a more enjoyable test than Step 1, because everything was more clinically relevant with not as much route memorization.

I began studying for the test in May during a radiology rotation but was only scoring in 40-60 percentile on the exam.  I then went home in June and was studying about 5 hours a day, thinking that I would be ready to take the test by the end of the month. However, I was quickly reminded of my knowledge gaps after failing COMP in late June, so I postponed the exam.  I took the exam again in July and passed with a score correlating to approximately 200. In July, I was doing a busy family medicine rotation, so I did not devote as much time to studying as I had planned.  I finalized a date of August 23^rd.

Due to my subpar performance on Step 1, I was paired up with a mentor provided by Ross who had performed well on Step 2 CK. I met with him weekly leading up to the exam on August 23, and he helped my stick to and create a study plan for myself.  Having someone hold me accountable was a tremendous help.  It is not a good feeling to meet in consecutive weeks after not accomplishing the goals you have set for yourself, so it pushed me to study more. I bumped up the studying to 8-12 hours/day in August, when I did not have any rotations.  I set goals for the week such as going through internal medicine questions that week on going through a certain number of online med ed videos by splitting up the videos each day.

Overall I met my goals of going through UWorld questions 2x and subsequently going through incorrect questions until there were none left.  I must have done some of the same questions at least 4 times before I finally got them right. I’m so stuck in my ways.  I watched all the online med ed videos, which were immensely helpful for general understanding despite how well or poorly I may have done on the exam, I am glad I watched these videos.  I also looked through the notes, which were well worth the $90, without watching the videos.  I read through Master the Boards, some seconds twice, but this did not stick with me nearly as well as the Online Med Ed notes. I took 3 NBME exams and did the free 150 question exam.  This helped to get my timing down and build stamina for the actual exam.  My scores on NBME were 183, 200, and 230.  I also took Uworld self assessments 1 and 2 with scores of 183 and 215 respectively. 2 days before the test I rushed through USMLE secrets, which got me a few points on the actual exam, and I also rummaged through forums for high yield images, including ophthalmology, which also got me a few points. I did a much better job this time around of limiting my resources as opposed to step 1 when I used multiple question banks and multiple review books.

The actual test didn’t feel as long as even the 4-6 hour practice tests I did.  Probably because I took a quick break after each section, I didn’t feel as fatigued after the test was over. My snacks were 2 pb &j sandwiches, a trader joe kale, broccoli, chicken prepackaged salad, and trail mix. This gave me good energy throughout the test.

I recognized a good amount of questions from uworld, and I didn’t run out of time on any of the sections. And just did my best to not second guess myself and trust that I know the material.

I was so happy for the test to be over, and return to a somewhat normal life. Then I took a trip to Vegas with some friends and put the test in the back of my mind until my score comes back in a few weeks.