Things I changed to improve more than 20 points for my USMLE STEP 2 CK Exam

The list below is some of the things I did that I think made an impact on my studying and improvement of my test score!

• Taking notes on my incorrect questions from qbanks
• Going over my notes continuously
• Tried to test myself by seeing just the topic and for some, tried to memorize the location of the notes and its information (location memorization technique)
• Not stressing out about not being able to finish premade Anki cards
• Made my own Anki cards on notes and questions I had a hard time remembering or getting wrong often
• Went over NBME exams at least twice and tried to go over NBME exams for each clinical rotation at least once (felt I saw very similar questions and concepts on the real exam)
• Did Uworld at least twice fully and my incorrect and marked questions till I had none (some questions I went over 5 times) – this method may not work for some people because some remember the answer with the question and not necessarily the concept of the question. I think I must have short term memory because there were times I felt like I was reading a whole new question I’ve never seen before…
• I wish I didn’t just passively read through questions or my notes for STEP 1

I think having someone to teach or to go over general concepts or questions together would also help a lot with understanding questions/answers. I tried to explain things to my husband to help me study, however, it was hard to do with a non medical student.

I had also just bought an Ipad to help study for STEP 2 (or so I told my husband that I needed it just for STEP 2 studying) and used Goodnotes to write all my notes for my incorrect Uworld questions. This actually really helped me organize and write my notes a lot better because I could move around my notes to different areas and add images that I wanted to review. I wish I had it since the beginning of medical school and for STEP 1 because it would’ve helped me a lot more with focusing on writing notes that I only needed rather than trying to memorize everything on all the powerpoints we got from our professors…But the past is the past.. ☹ 

I think the way I studied for STEP 2 compared to STEP 1 is one of the reasons why I was able to increase my score more than 20 points higher.

 

The resources I used for my USMLE STEP 2 studying will be in another post and will explain those resources there!