A Collection of the Best Step2 Advice I Got on this Sub (230s plateau —> 260)
I did this for the MCAT years ago and folks found it helpful, so I wanted to try to share back some of the advice that I found most useful on this sub for Step2
Scores:
5/12 NBME 9 = 215
5/18 NBME 10 = 216
5/24 NBME 12 = 220
5/28 NBME 13 = 223
*started full time dedicated*
6/1 NBME 14 = 219
6/7 NBME 11 = 229
6/9 Old Free 120 = 73%
6/12 New Free 120 = 85%
6/15 NBME 15 = 222
6/17 NBME 16 = 248
6/20 Real Deal = 260
About me: USMD, took step2 after a year LOA where I did nothing medical, struggled with step1, low to average shelf scores, ADHD so anki is my flirtatious lover that I never ended up in a relationship with, aries aries cancer
My dedicated schedule: First 4 weeks very light every other day studying 3-4 hours to try to refill some of my old knowledge back (I had to do it light because of health issues, needed to regain endurance). Then a “dedicated” of about 8 weeks of inconsistently trying to study 6 hours a day but with huge gaps of several days with days off until the last three weeks when I was doing 6/7 days a week about 10 hours a day. So I’d say a “full time” dedicated of maybe 4 weeks if you total up the partial time.
Caveats: Like all the other advice on this thread, I am just one person who has my own strengths and weaknesses. In addition to working hard, I also have seen that for prometric tests I usually score higher than all my average practice tests with a pattern of low score plateau to sudden surge on test day (MCAT, step1, step2) - that doesn’t invalidate this advice for you, but just wanted to fairly say that it’s not just how I studied it’s also how my brain works. Which brings me to point 1:
1) Half the advice on this sub will not apply to you. Don’t try to force someone else’s study solution to your own just because their post has high scores. You need to figure out what works with your brain and body- thankfully I feel like M1-M3 taught me how I learn, but it was still hard to trust that when there’s so much conflicting advice on this sub. It’s not that one person is right and the other wrong, it’s that people are saying what worked and didn’t work for them.
1b) Don’t waste time trying things that you know don’t work for you. You have a limited amount of time. I found myself wondering often if I needed to give Anki another try or do 120 random UW q’s a day when that wasn’t helping me because everyone talks about it and I didn’t want to be wrong. But I KNEW anki has never been something that worked for me because fact recall or system switching is something I can’t absorb. I am big picture and I need big picture learning. That’s okay. Whatever you need to *get it* is okay.
2) Trust your gut. Not just for the answer choices, but I know that you know where your weaknesses are. I know you know after all this time in medicine that there are some systems or types of questions that just make you ???? on test day. You have one of two choices: either make those systems your strengths so they don’t trip you up again or allow yourself to take the L on that system or question type and just allow that, forgive yourself for it, and move on- don’t waste time wringing your hands about your weak points if you’re not going to do anything about it.
I don’t recommend the latter for high yield stuff. Here’s an example: I found that I absolutely suuuucked at pancreas/biliary/hepatic and I would constantly confuse issues or not be able to tease stuff apart using symptoms or lab clues. But I knew that was going to show up repetitively on my examand I was sick of feeling clueless or uncertain on those questions. So I think I spent a full day determined to learn them repetitively so well that those questions went from “?? ah fuck!” to muscle memory. I used a combo of Boards & Beyond, UWorld systems based, Amboss systems & keyword based, and ChatGPT to come up with questions targeting my weaknesses. I answered almost every question in those banks on cholecystitis vs cholelithiasis vs pancreatitis vs pancreatic cancer vs yada yadda. I learned all I could about symptoms, treatment, markers, differentiators until I was now excited to get those questions like a little puzzle to be solved because I knew I had prepared for them (still got scattered by a few toughies on test day but we try what we can.
On the flip side, I also knew I was going to get auscultation questions. We know it. They tell us. I tried listening to dirty medicine’s auscultation video and I just slammed my laptop shut after 5 minutes in frustration. Instead of wasting time agonizing over it though I just accepted it and on test day when I couldn’t pick apart the murmur based on the text itself, I clicked my best guess and moved on to pick up more points elsewhere.
3) Step2 is an adult game of pick up sticks. There are a certain amount of points/sticks on the ground. you don’t have to get all of them - you have to get enough to get the score you want. On test day, keep that mentality and tell yourself there are still points to get even after a rough block. Still so many sticks on the ground! I literally said this to myself in the mirror in the testing center bathroom after a nightmare section.
4) Focus on systems and big picture. Example: instead of memorizing lists of murmurs that are systolic or diastolic or increased/decreased with whatever maneuver I would try to understand the why behind those - knowing that if I understood the mechanism it would help on high yield cardiac questions. It seems so simple to not have learned before but I found that some things I had memorized categories for instead of why a murmur was diastolic or systolic. I went over things like RAAS and coagulation stuff not to memorize factoids but to really be able to walk through the body process and identify the breakdowns - this helped a ton.
Like I said before, I can’t process random factoids or system switching for learning so even though that’s how the test is it’s not how memory works. So I did UW systems based only for weak points to hammer (I never got close to finishing UW, I think I did 60% total during M3 and maybe 500-600 questions during dedicated?) I couldn’t do disconnected learning, even though I panicked at times wondering if I was studying wrong - see point 1b
5. Listening to Divine Intervention during outings really really helps. I tried finding high yield playlists on spotify and listening to them when I was driving or mowing or doing woodworking. I absolutely picked up points just from these.
6. CMS & NBME are king. Yes some of the questions are easier/harder than what’s on the real deal BUT if you focus on the topics themselves and not just the factoid you got wrong, you will learn what the NBME wants you to know. I did systems based most recent CMS after B&B review for each topic. Then I focused entirely on NBME questions. The score switch you see at the beginning of June for me is when I started tracking my topic weaknesses in the NBME and hammering everything I could possibly learn about high yields for that topic (like if I got a vasculitis question wrong not for just a dumb reason I would go back over the vasculitides and learn the pathophys, treatment, differentiators, and then practice with 10-20 questions just on that topic to cement it , then move onto review the next question. While I reviewed my NBMEs I kept a running list of all the topics I got wrong which helped me track which ones showed up repetitively- I tackled those using the strategy listed in point 2 until I wasn’t getting them wrong
EDIT: For example if the NBME says “what’s asthma exacerbation treatment” and you *just* review the asthma treatment then you will have holes. If you instead say “okay NBME is for sure testing asthma- let me go and review PFTs, asthma management and when/how to escalate, what’s the physiology and some of the high yield complications” that’s the approach that helped me jump way higher
6b. Give yourself grace. Each practice NBME is a learning experience, I visualized it as patching holes in a ship - every question wrong was an opportunity to turn that topic into a strength. But really really try to forgive yourself for dumb mistakes, know this is a hard test, be proud of yourself for all your hard work every single day no matter how your scores are, and give your body the care it needs by resting, sleeping, eating well. Your brain is working hard for you, be kind to it. You are doing amazing things ❤️
7. Test day - the day before I took entirely off. I read fiction and rested in a hammock half the day and worked on a carpentry project the rest. I let my body and brain rest the same way marathon runners do before a race. On test day, I had my go-to snacks & meds that I’ve used for every standardized test. I called my friend in the middle for a pep talk and I tried to stay positive for the whole day even though I felt like I was getting wrecked. I kept saying “you’re in this now, you can’t change how much you studied, you can only pick up as many points as you can”. Attitude was the only thing I had control over at that point, so I worked to use it to my advantage.
Thank you to this sub for all the help!! Best of luck to everyone.