terid5
Forum Newbie
Topics: 9
Posts: 21
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Hello
I did step 2 two weeks ago; a very bad experience. I started very well. I remember I was surprised the questions were quite short, and only few qqs were longer. the difficulty level was okay. I also expected 50 questions instead of the 46 I found.
The problems started after 6 hours. My eyes became progressively painful, tearful and I started to suffer blurry vision and spasms on my eyelids. It has been very difficult for me to concentrate in the last three blocks; And the time ran fast, as it always does when you lack it. I don't even remember how I found the strength to continue, what were the questions and how I answered to them. I had done a 4 hours simulation before but never experienced 9 hours in front of a computer.
Since that experience I feel so depressed that I'm not even interested on the results. After the exam, I had to prepare for step 1 but it's very difficult to study in this situation.
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terid5
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| chemamr
Moderator and PGY1
Topics: 703
Posts: 4,441
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i understand how you feel, everybody has done an exam like yours (i mean,before), cheer up buddy!!  itīs just an exam, i know you studied for it but fortunately
1) itīs just an exam and you can repeat it if you donīt pass it
2) if you pass it with a low score, you can get high scores in the other steps
So, anyway, there are forms to improve your probabilities. Donīt give up. In fact you even donīt know which is your score. I have seen people here that say they felt very bad in the exam and they got >90, thatīs true. Good luck buddy !
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Any time something is written against me, I not only share the sentiment but feel I could do the job far better myself.
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| Malaysian
Forum Guru
Topics: 28
Posts: 778
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Hi terid5....I gave the exam today......had a completely different situation.More than 80% of my questions were 3/4 to a page long and in almost all my blocks I ran out of time(escpecially my first one where I couldn't even attempt 2 questions due to lack of time since I never expected such long complicated questions!).Quite alot of the questions were tricky and the choices were so similar(unlike my expereince in step 1 where you can clearly spot the answer).I really don't know how I did but have my fingers crossed.
I know what you mean about getting tired.....just hope your answers are right plus its not tht bad since your first half of the exam went quite good.....All the best
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| terid5
Forum Newbie
Topics: 9
Posts: 21
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Thanks very much guys
The only thing that remains to me is HOPE. But this waiting is terrible.
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terid5
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| chemamr
Moderator and PGY1
Topics: 703
Posts: 4,441
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youīre welcome, we are in touch ! 
Please tell us the result, later. Good Luck !
___________________
Any time something is written against me, I not only share the sentiment but feel I could do the job far better myself.
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| drkpp
Forum Guru
Topics: 45
Posts: 882
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come on terid5. anyways no body concenetrates as well as u can in the fist few blocks so i am sure u did ok
good luck to u
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| rashi
Forum Senior
Topics: 14
Posts: 43
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Hey Terid5,Malaysian Can you tell us how were the Questions on Actual exam as compared to UW Questions? I mean difficulty level.....
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| Malaysian
Forum Guru
Topics: 28
Posts: 778
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I didn't do UW.The questions on my exam were far more difficult than the USMLE CD and more complicated than Kaplan Qs.Answers were quite picky and like mentioned above.....long winding questions which needs time to interpret and(unfortunately).It was a race against time for all my blocks barely finishing on the last second.I guess I must have gotten unlucky getting the more difficult set of the exam....I just hope my performance was adequate to receive a decent score.
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| terid5
Forum Newbie
Topics: 9
Posts: 21
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thanks drkpp. rashi, I didn't do UW. As I said before, my questions were quite short. In every block I had only 2-3 very long questions, 6-7 very short questions (3 sentences). I remember I was very surprised to see these short questions I had never met in the simulations.
The other point of my exam is that obs/gyn represented 60% of all questions;
pediatrics: 20%; psychiatrics:5-7%; surgery: 3-5%; trauma 3-5%; inf disease: 2%
I found only 1 or 2 questions of rheumatology; about 5 questions of gastro; 1 question of nephrology, ophtalmology and neurology, dermatology. In the first 3 blocks they asked me 3 questions of hematology. All similar with the same answer. "a patient has altered PTT and BT, normal PT" what is the diagnosis? 1. def vit K 2. liver insuff 3. von willebrand 4. platelet def
6 questions were of preventive medecine. 3 about calculation of negative/positive pred value, odd ratio etc., 3 about the differences between the studies (cohort, retrospective, etc.). There were no statistical questions
Another point is 90% of all the questions was "what is the next step in management? what is the next course of action? I think the very high percentage of this kind of questions compensated the shortness of the questions I found in my exam. As a matter of fact, I really lacked time in all the blocks because I had a too small percentage of easy-answer questions: what is the diagnosis? statistical questions? what is the treatment? I had to reason in 90% of the questions I found and even though they were short, they were not written in a simple way. The answers were not obvious.
I found 5 questions of step 1. exemple: which of the following process happens in the nucleus? 1. transcription 2. translation 3. elongation 4. etc.
Only 2 or 3 questions were so complicated that I had to guess (very rare syndromes or weird questions).
Last point-VERY IMPORTANT. I did not do any break. We have 9 hours that we have to manage as we want. At the end of the first blocks, I used to take 3-5 minutes to recover. After 4 blocks, I noticed that I had spent 25 minutes of my one-hour-break. I decided to continue directly without break and spend the last 35 minutes I had between the last 4 blocks. After 9 hours I started to feel pain on my eyes and it was very difficult to remain concentrate in the questions.
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terid5
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| qyxcjh
Forum Newbie
Topics: 3
Posts: 10
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I have always complained that the refreshment rate of the monitors in the test center is set way too low, I think it's 65Hz.
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| mnhakeem
Forum Senior
Topics: 19
Posts: 90
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did u get the score???????
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