Day 2 today

Mediocre test-taker here, did mediocre prep for the exam.

MCQ's Day 2: I really think that the UW is not enough. Read so many write-ups during my prep, they all said do UW Step 3 and you will pass, like who are you people? Maybe USMLE has updated their content/pattern of questions, that is the only logical reasoning I can come up with. BTW, in the same write-ups they said should've taken the exam as closer to Step 2 as possible? Pretty contradictory. I did one round of Step 3 UW, scored 60%. Thought I should do UW Wrong and then started scoring mid-60’s in that so I thought I am good. Came to the exam screen and first two blocks I struggled so much to be able to answer all concept-based questions. Like OMG. Less USPSTF, Less R/F, only thing that helped me was, in the last days I studied from my Step 2 notes. Only that.

CCS Day 2: MCQs I could do them, but CCS, I got really screwed in this section. I practiced CCScasesdotcom a lot. And I was scoring from 75-90 easy. I revised all the mnemonics well before the exam, even wrote all the mnemonics on the sheet in the time when I had done a block and there were a few minutes left. I started my first case, it didn’t have one complaint, it had 3-4 complaints from different systems. At one point it was suggesting Multiple Myeloma, and at one point it was suggesting lymphoma, I did SPEP and what not only to find negative results. I started writing all the complaints/ exam findings on the sheets and started ordering least invasive tests to rule out those conditions. Only then I started getting good updates. And that I did after completing 6 cases full of negative updates. They weren’t like CCScasesdotcom, not straightforward at all, not pointing to one thing at all. All cases were very ambiguous.

Lastly, I genuinely believe I will fail the exam. It was exceptionally challenging, particularly on day 2. CCScases was the sole factor that has been enabling people to pass and achieve better scores. Unfortunately, I performed poorly in that section.

I don’t intend to instill fear; I merely want to warn people against the pitfalls I’ve encountered.