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TL;DR: Help your fellow classmates by sharing your experience with Step 2 CS. Template below.
Hello Everyone,
I know I speak for others when I say the mental anxiety I felt waiting for my Step 2 CS score was probably unmatched in my 4 years of med school. Only thing that came close was waiting for Step 1 and that was only a 3 week wait whereas this was almost 2 months for me and 3+ months for others. We all know USMLE/NBME does not care about our feelings when it comes to Step 2 CS. They will continue to be vague, force long wait times for scoring reports, remain with 5 centers, make scheduling impossible for 4-5 months out, and continue to charge whatever price they want to make their top leadership richer.
This thread is to help our community during one of the most anxious times of medical school. Especially for those like myself who had taken this exam stupidly late in the summer while going into my match year. I highly recommend for future readers to take this stupid exam as early as possible as your school allows so in the case you do fail you have ample time to re-schedule. Failures happen even to the best medical students and we never know why. There is zero transparency in this process. So, if you passed this exam I implore you to help your fellow classmates out and share your experience. Even if you failed I ask that you contribute as the more data we can acquire the more likely we can try to figure out what they possibly care about. Do I expect to figure something out from this? Probably not as the exam scoring feels arbitrary but this is ultimately to help ease the nerves of many people who are worried they failed. At the end of the day, the test does not and will never define the amazing doctor you will be. I've outlined a template for everyone to use and I'll start us off. Feel free to copy and paste and fill out as appropriate to you. The template is exhaustive for a reason as the more information we can get the better. Hopefully one day our generation will make this test obsolete. Thanks!
Template:
Date, Test Site, Attempt #:
US-MD or US-IMG (Carribs) or Non-US-IMG:
Wait time for score report:
Result on School Mock OSCE/CS and Date Taken: e.g: Bottom quartile, average, above average, two stds above mean, etc.
Test Result: Pass or Fail (if failed please include component(s) failed)
Study Time/Resources:
Test Performance: Feel free to include screenshot of your performance. I recommend using imgur and just inserting link. Or let us know exactly where your stars fell.
Initial Post-Exam Feeling: Everyone might feel like they failed as the days go by as our memory tends to remember only our mistakes but I was split 50/50 right after I left the center because I thought there were some things I did right and I got some diagnosis right.
Mistakes Made: Try to think from an objective point of view. Be honest and as thorough as you can. For those who passed, I feel it's easier to spill the beans and mention all our mistakes. But, if you failed I know our first gut reaction is to say "But, I did everything possible" and maybe you did but often times people are not able to see their mistakes right away or need some time to cope with their emotions first.
Things You Think You Did Right: Whether this be heart and lungs on everyone or thorough patient note or whatever you consistently did and still earned the grade of pass (or fail).
Misc: If this is your 2nd or 3rd attempt, please share what improvements if any you made.
Hello Everyone,
I know I speak for others when I say the mental anxiety I felt waiting for my Step 2 CS score was probably unmatched in my 4 years of med school. Only thing that came close was waiting for Step 1 and that was only a 3 week wait whereas this was almost 2 months for me and 3+ months for others. We all know USMLE/NBME does not care about our feelings when it comes to Step 2 CS. They will continue to be vague, force long wait times for scoring reports, remain with 5 centers, make scheduling impossible for 4-5 months out, and continue to charge whatever price they want to make their top leadership richer.
This thread is to help our community during one of the most anxious times of medical school. Especially for those like myself who had taken this exam stupidly late in the summer while going into my match year. I highly recommend for future readers to take this stupid exam as early as possible as your school allows so in the case you do fail you have ample time to re-schedule. Failures happen even to the best medical students and we never know why. There is zero transparency in this process. So, if you passed this exam I implore you to help your fellow classmates out and share your experience. Even if you failed I ask that you contribute as the more data we can acquire the more likely we can try to figure out what they possibly care about. Do I expect to figure something out from this? Probably not as the exam scoring feels arbitrary but this is ultimately to help ease the nerves of many people who are worried they failed. At the end of the day, the test does not and will never define the amazing doctor you will be. I've outlined a template for everyone to use and I'll start us off. Feel free to copy and paste and fill out as appropriate to you. The template is exhaustive for a reason as the more information we can get the better. Hopefully one day our generation will make this test obsolete. Thanks!
Template:
Date, Test Site, Attempt #:
US-MD or US-IMG (Carribs) or Non-US-IMG:
Wait time for score report:
Result on School Mock OSCE/CS and Date Taken: e.g: Bottom quartile, average, above average, two stds above mean, etc.
Test Result: Pass or Fail (if failed please include component(s) failed)
Study Time/Resources:
Test Performance: Feel free to include screenshot of your performance. I recommend using imgur and just inserting link. Or let us know exactly where your stars fell.
Initial Post-Exam Feeling: Everyone might feel like they failed as the days go by as our memory tends to remember only our mistakes but I was split 50/50 right after I left the center because I thought there were some things I did right and I got some diagnosis right.
Mistakes Made: Try to think from an objective point of view. Be honest and as thorough as you can. For those who passed, I feel it's easier to spill the beans and mention all our mistakes. But, if you failed I know our first gut reaction is to say "But, I did everything possible" and maybe you did but often times people are not able to see their mistakes right away or need some time to cope with their emotions first.
Things You Think You Did Right: Whether this be heart and lungs on everyone or thorough patient note or whatever you consistently did and still earned the grade of pass (or fail).
Misc: If this is your 2nd or 3rd attempt, please share what improvements if any you made.
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