Students, or candidates, who wish to practice medicine or clinical sciences in the United States or Canada, are required to write licensing exams that would allow them to practice. One of these exams is the USMLE Step 2.
Acing the USMLE Step 2 exam is no small feat. As you might already expect, it’s much more difficult to pass than Step 1, and you need better preparation. In this article, we’ll consider some tips for passing the USMLE Step 2 exam.
What Is The USMLE Step 2
The United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 2 tests both your theoretical and practical knowledge, to determine whether you are eligible enough to practice medicine within the United States and Canada.
The USMLE Step 2 exam assesses candidates on their knowledge in various aspects of the medical field they are specializing in, which is the main goal of the exam. While the USMLE Step 1 takes you through an array of medical topics, ranging from anatomy, physiology, biology, pharmacology, microbiology, and a host of others, Step 2 focuses on specific aspects of medicine, be it Family Medicine or Clinical Medicine, to test your knowledge and skills on this field.
USMLE Step 2 seeks to examine a student’s capacity and readiness to interact with patients in a clinical setting. So, it’s extremely important that you study the aspects of successfully applying patient care and health maintenance, diagnosis, and management before attempting to take the exam.
How Do You Pass The USMLE Step 2
Candidates who are preparing for this exam often have this question weighing down on their tongues and mind, as it is evident that the exam is not to be taken for granted. But for an exam that cuts across various medical topics, perceived to be difficult, studies have another thing to say about candidates’ performance in the exam.
According to a 2023 study, in the USMLE performance data, 99% of US/Canadian MD Degree (Doctor of Medicine) candidates pass their exams on the first attempt, with only less than 1 percent coming back for a repeat test. And for DO degree holders (Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine) candidates, 98 percent pass their exams on their first try, with only 2 percent coming back.
For non-US/Canadian candidates, 91 percent pass on the first attempt, with 62 percent taking a repeat exam and passing it. So, how do these candidates achieve this kind of feat? Well, the answer is not too far off.
Have a study plan
It is imperative that all areas of the test have been taken into light and studied to the point of being broken into small areas. This would enable you to make proper preparations and assessments on the kind of approaches that would be incorporated into tackling the questions you might meet on the day of the test.
Time, materials and discipline needed for the exam are the necessary ingredients you need to apply in order to have a chance at passing one of the ultimate exams in medical history.
Source for needed materials
Platforms and centers responsible for offering the examination have made materials available for students and candidates who want to sit for the test. Centers like the Medical Council of Canada (MCC) and Practice Ready Assessment (PRA) have all provided worksheets and study guides for students sitting for the exams.
These worksheets and study guides have been tailored to meet the student’s needs and expectations regarding the test, even though it might not be 100 percent the expected format. Students are advised to source question banks from trusted platforms like CanadaQbank, which have questions that could rest both their empirical and theoretical areas of practice.
Websites for these questions are always readily available and active for all candidates.
Practice with others in your field
Verily, there would be those within your area of study who would be sitting for the test, and looking for these people can prove useful to acing the exam. A small study group can be formed, and questions shared and answered collectively, further amplifying your chances of success. This is one of the ways students can get a better chance at doing well on the exams.
As it has been said, no man is an island on his own, a maxim often pushed around for figurative and didactic purposes. If one wishes to go far in what he knows, learning from others could be a great way to rein in what he already knows, adding to it.
This could be done through social media like Zoom or Skype, or even physical meetings, where everyone gets to share their knowledge with everyone, increasing their overall chances of success.
Practice the exam methods
While students are overly focused on passing the exam, many of them pay too much attention to the content of the test alone. The exam is not only designed to test your theoretical and cognitive skills but also your practical skills and how these skills can be utilized.
While the theoretical aspect is the largest part of the test, it is crucial to also practice how to be a good test taker. This typically means that a candidate has to be able to carefully read and think through a USMLE question and create a workable differential diagnosis before working through the answer choices as systematically and as methodically as he can.
Failure to do this could mean dire consequences for the exam taker.
What Is Your Score Expectations
There are different score expectations for the three exams a candidate should write. And yes, the USMLE is divided into three different parts, or rather steps, each with its own varying degrees of methods and approaches. But for Step 2, the score expected of a candidate is not something to be scared of.
As stated earlier, 99 percent of candidates in the United States and Canada pass their exam on the first attempt, which means a candidate is likely to score the required 210 marks expected of him or her.
The USMLE Step 2 takes 9 hours of exam time to complete, broken into two parts, and taken one hour at a time, with breaks in between. It comprises over 300 questions cumulatively, so it makes sense that 210 is the minimum you can score. However, the average score for the exam is 240, suggesting that a candidate should try and beat the minimum score as much as possible.
Want to learn how to pass USMLE Step 1 and the MCCQE parts? CanadaQbank is a comprehensive question bank that also simulates practical questions and scenarios prior to the exams, allowing you to understand the underlying concepts.