MED STUDENT VLOG (USMLE STEP 2 CK EXPERIENCE)

Hello everybody and welcome to this new video of me tackling my Step 2 exam. You guys saw me tackle my Step 1 exam and you guys really wanted to see me do Step 2. I just got done volunteering, so I'm here at, I bet a lot of you can guess. I have my phone, I'm going to leave it in my car. So I packed some sweats and a jacket. Sweats so I don't have to wear my slacks, and a jacket in case it gets cold. Hopefully we can do a lot of work today. My goal every day is to do 80 year old questions with the occasional online med ed video that I need to review. Okay, we are here. Let me show you guys what I've been using to study. So of course, we need a laptop, cushions down, and a few books. Now online med ed just came out with a whiteboards book, which is basically they have snapshots of all of their whiteboards in here, and you can take notes and stuff, which I have been using. They just came out with this though, like a month ago, and I have been using them for the past year. So since I didn't have this a year ago, I had this notebook, which is where I basically wrote the whiteboards notes in a journal. It's so beautiful. Here, I'll give you an example. Coronary artery disease. If you watch the video, they go over all of these diagrams, and then you just kind of write your notes on the sides, and then they have this extra page like right here. I've already been able to catch up on my psychiatry notes. Ooh, yes, my smoothie just arrived. And then on my laptop, I have UWorld, of course, and as you can see, I've already completed all of the UWorld questions. There are 2,894. There's a lot. What I'm trying to do now is do all of the ones I've done incorrect, get them to be green or correct, so that I will have two green spheres going on right here. I've been doing about 80 questions a day, and then putting extra notes from UWorld into this book so that this is kind of like my go-to notebook. So yeah, I'm just going to enjoy this smoothie and get to work. America Revere in her natural habitat. Okay, this test was super hard. Oh, nice. Alright guys, I did 40 questions, but I am getting a little bit tired of all of this noise, so I'm going to go ahead and head home. Hey guys, so I plan on uploading a video today about what residency I'm choosing. By the way, it's general surgery, if you didn't see that video already. But after I upload this and edit it and post it on YouTube, I'm going to be doing a practice NBME test. Now, I didn't do practice NBME tests for Step 1. There were just so many things I didn't do for Step 1. I didn't finish UWorld for Step 1. I didn't do practice NBMEs. All things that would have been helpful. This time around, I finished UWorld, and I'm going to do a practice NBME tonight so I can see what my score is. If it's really low, I'm going to push back my Step 2 exam until I can get my grade higher. And if it's pretty good, then I'm just going to stick with it and keep studying. I have no idea what my score is going to be. Hopefully I'm passing. If I'm not passing, then that's a real big problem. Hopefully it's around 237, which was my Step 1 score. Everybody should score about 8-7 points more on their Step 2 exam than their Step 1 exam because the Step 1 exam is notoriously harder, and the average Step 1 exam is a 230, and the average Step 2 exam is like a 238-240. I'm super nervous. While this uploads, I'm going to go to H-E-B and get some snacks because you guys know I work better when I have food. Calyx is over there resting, living his best cat life. Resting is for the weak though, Calyx. I'm just kidding, no. Alright guys, I'm going to go get some food and be right back. Success! Finally, I'm done editing the video, but now it is time to take my practice NBME. I'll be taking the NBME Comprehensive Clinical Science Self-Assessment, Form 6. It's $60. I'm pretty used to spending exorbitant amounts of money on things that I don't want to do, but I'll be doing Form 6. I hear that that one's really close to what you might actually get on the test. Alrighty, getting ready to take my test. I'm turning my phone off. Alright guys, my hair is up. I have water. I am ready. I am super, super nervous. It helps that this isn't really my grade, but it doesn't help that much. How long is this test? I think it's like four hours long, and it's 11 right now, so I won't be done until three. Pressing start your assessment. What's going to happen? I don't know. Oh God! It looks just like all of my shelf exams do. Oh my gosh! This is five hours. I'm not going to be done until four in the morning. Maybe this wasn't the best idea, but I did wake up at three, so, I mean. This is the overview of the assessment. The tutorial is 15 minutes, and you can add it to your overall time if you skip it, which I am. Then there's a one section, two sections, three sections, and four sections, and they're each 46 questions each, which is kind of a weird random number, but sure, why not? I'm going to be doing standard paced so that it more closely emulates the actual exam. The actual exam is nine hours long. This is just a halfway assessment to see how I'm doing. Alrighty, I am skipping the tutorial, so I'm going to press okay, and when I do that, my actual test will start, and I will have no choice but to finish this test. Wish me luck, everybody. I will come back to you on my break when this next section is over. Bye! Okay, guys. I finished the first section with 16 minutes to spare. I'm going to go take a break, like go on my phone, or post this YouTube video, actually. Compared to UWorld test, that was a pretty easy section. Ugh, only two more break minutes. It's just me and Calyx, huh? Such good stress relief. Okay, guys. I believe my time is up, so let's see how many seconds I have left. Great! Okay, guys. Time to start the new section. I will see you guys in an hour and eight minutes when I am done. Goodbye! Okay, literally, I'm on a question, and I have to listen to something, and I have Flash Player installed, but it still won't let me listen to this, so how am I supposed to get this question right? Okay, guys. Finished this section with 13 and a half minutes to spare. Time for a much-needed break. I am officially halfway done. Life ain't easy, huh, Calyx? Okay, break time is officially over. I have like one minute left. All right. 30 seconds. Let's do this! All right, guys. About 30 minutes into block three, and I'm losing stamina. Okay, guys. Okay, so I just finished the third section. I have nine minutes left. This section was a little bit harder. Time for a break! Nine minutes of glorious break. I don't take it for granted. Hanging out with Calyx again. Calyx, you look so unhappy to see me every time I bother you. He's like, do I have a test to take? Oh my goodness. I am actually getting super-duper tired. It doesn't help that it is 2.30 in the morning. 40 seconds left till my test starts again, but enjoy some grapes. I'll see you when the test is over, and we can see my score together. So, woo! Let's go! Oh my gosh. Okay. Nine questions left. 30 minutes left. Your girl is dying. Okay, guys. I have officially finished my test. It is 3.38. I am ready to end it all. All right. It says, your assessment is complete. Thank you for your participation. Click next to view your performance profile and score interpretation guide. All right, guys. All right. Here I go. I'm very nervous, because this was horrible and agonizing, but yeah, I'm hoping for above a 2.37. Let's go. Okay. So, I suck at a few things. I scored a 5.40, which is, let's see. Please be good. I really don't want to be doing this all day. A 2.47? Awesome. Well, a 2.47 is not bad, and if I got that on my actual step two exam, I would not be upset. These are the things that I need to go over. Respiratory, female reproductive, endocrine, and multi-system processes and disorders. I can just focus on that by redoing online med ed videos and the Uworld questions on those specific categories, but for now, it is 3.44 in the morning, and I am trying to go to sleep. So, good night, everybody. See you tomorrow. All right, guys. It's a new day. The videos that I need to review are the videos over respiratory, female reproductive, and endocrine. So, I am starting with all of the pulmonology videos on online med ed to review. Asthma is a fairly common obstructive lung disease affecting about 5% of the population in the United States. Asthma later on in life, but they're likely to be diagnosed as a child, whereas someone who has COPD will be diagnosed in adulthood. Now, could you get COPD younger than 65? Kayla's enjoying the 4th of July. When your brain's like, I want to watch TV. I don't want to study anymore. And you're like, okay, we can watch TV. Thyroid disease is actually a fairly complex topic. Oh, yeah. So, exciting day. It is 1 o'clock in the morning. This will be the first day of my plastic surgery sub-irrotation. Also, the first day of my 4th year. So, I have to go to sleep, which I don't think I'm going to be able to because I'm so excited. I'm super scared. I feel like people are going to expect a lot out of me since I'm a 4th year. Or maybe people will treat me just like a 3rd year med student. So, I'm just excited to see how things go tomorrow. I pray that my resident is super nice. I already know all the attendings, and they're all amazing. I hope everything goes well, and I will keep you posted. Bye, guys. So, morning of my first day of 4th year. I am all dressed up, and now I've got to head out because I'm running a little bit late. So, I am done with my first 4th year shift. And man, that was insane. We just had a 10-hour operation. So, currently outside on the patio where it's warm, having some Dr. Pepper. Today, since I was a 4th year, I'm doing what I want on my plastic surgery sub-eye. It's what I find interesting. And then I also helped the 3rd years go home early. I always told myself that when I grew up and I had the power to let medical students go early, I would let them. And it felt great to help my fellow med students get home and study for the board. I didn't sleep at all last night, so I'm trying to stay at school and do homework because when I get home, I will most definitely pass out. Gonna do some UWorld questions here, where I'm safe and can't pass out. Hey, guys. So, I'm in the middle of another day at my sub-eye, and I'm just loving it. I love it. My resident just told me, okay, America, so you're a 4th year. You have a little bit more responsibility than the 3rd year, so I hope you're okay with that. And I was like, heck yeah! Like, I am so ready to be the boss of something. Currently enjoying some pudding, or at least I will, because today's just one of those days where you just need some pudding in your life. Surgery and makeup. Not the best combo. But I still look good. Alright, guys. Another late night of watching good old television. Hello, everybody. I'm currently in line for a bus going to Houston to go see my family for the weekend. And I brought my backpack so that I can study all along the way. Hey, guys. I'm on the bus. But today, something awesome happened. I've completed all of the UWorld questions. Even the ones I haven't done, the ones I got incorrect, and the ones I've marked. What a joyous day to be done with that. Alright, guys. I'm back at home practicing my suturing with some shoelaces and watching online med ed. Isn't that one nice looking suture? Hello, guys. So I am in the middle of taking a UWorld self-assessment. I'm taking number two right now. And it's pretty late. I think it's like one in the morning. And I'm getting wrecked. So many of these questions, I don't understand. I don't know. I'm in between two choices. I'm running out of time. And I never run out of time. I always have a few minutes at the end of every UWorld block. And I just straight up don't know what questions are asking. What causes increased pressure in the head and also causes increased calcium and also causes lung disease? I don't know. Alrighty, guys. My time is officially up. And I am done with the assessment. But now it's time to go over here and look at my performance. I feel really bad about all of this. I've never had to flag so many questions. I've never had to run out of time so often. I've never looked at a question and been like, what? As much as this test, I definitely felt so much better about the NBME. So let's just look at my performance. What? Wait, hold up. Oh my gosh! No way! What? There's no way! Alright, well, that's good news. Hey, guys. I am for my UWorld test. Doing a sub-I and studying for sub-2 is totally possible. You've just got to be a little bit more conscious of all your decisions. Alrighty, guys. I've got a lot of TV to watch. So I am ready on the couch over there with my food, water. Oh, and let me get my notes. Alright, guys. So it's about 9 o'clock. And I'm going to sleep early because I like to be alert and awake for my residents and my sub-I. So I'm taking my laptop to my bed. And I'm going to review UWorld questions in bed. And hopefully fall asleep soon. So that's my day. And then I'll let you follow me all day tomorrow to see what it's like to be a sub-I. Alright, guys. So I start the morning getting a little beat. Oh, beating my face. Okay, that also sounds weird. I start the morning with Kayla in the bathroom doing my makeup because look good, feel good. So it's something fun to do in the morning and wake me up. You know, I'm not really a morning person. Alright, guys. I am headed to work. I will see you there. Okay, ready? So we just got done being in the Physician's Lounge. And it was amazing. So right now I am studying on my laptop in the hospital right now. I have to go back to lecture in like one hour. So I'm just doing some reading before I have to go back. Alright, guys. In the operating room right now. Just finished with the case. Finished with all of our cases of the day. And it's about 2.30 so it's pretty early. It's time to get home and start doing some last minute studying for the StepExam. We're going to be talking about coronary artery disease. Disorders of sodium. Acid base is a really hard topic. Think of ovarian cancer. In this video about hyperpigmentation. When you begin studying antibiotics. Good morning, everybody. So today is the final day. I woke up super early because I might have slept 14 hours after work yesterday. Obviously, I've been very tired. But today I'm going to be doing some last minute topic reviews. So I have some food here. I bought a whole bunch of Lunchables. They're small. I love them. They're cheap. Portable. I think this will be a great little meal that I can have in between. I also brought some Dr. Pepper. So I have that for tomorrow. Lunch is packed. I am beyond, beyond excited to get this test over with. I'm definitely not going to have a nervous breakdown like I almost did before my Step1 exam. This time I don't feel nervous at all. I'm just like, this is a test. I need to take it. I have done pretty well on my practice test. So if I get anything like I've gotten on my practice test, that's great for me. I've been very busy the past few weeks. I'm almost done with SSI. I'm going to take my Step 2 exam. I have a few research projects I'm probably going to finish in the next couple of weeks. Things are going super well. I'm going to go over online med ed videos about subjects that I found particularly difficult, including Biostats, getting Dr. Pepper on deck, and I might have stocked up on my favorite pens. Oh my gosh, I might have to listen to this ad one more time. Calyx, I'm sorry to do this, but I need some moral support right now. Oh, goodness. This thing is huge. You know, Calyx, they say everybody needs somebody. I bet if I were to let Calyx go and not have him around my arms, he would get up and run away. So let's see. Guys, exciting news. I just received this in the mail. It's called ChemCaps, and this is a company that specializes in making surgical caps. This is the one that I got. I got the one with unicorns on it. I'm sure that will help surgeons take me even more seriously than they already do. This is what it looks like. It has, obviously, the cap part is for your head. And then there's this part in the back that you wrap around your hair. So this is specifically made for people with long hair, like myself. And then you can wrap it all using this ribbon. Alrighty, guys. That's it. It's officially over. I reviewed my last UWorld block. I'm not going to look at one more online med ed video or one more UWorld question for a very, very, very, very, very long, long time. I was about to say for the rest of the day, but I just realized that I never really have to do that again considering I pass tomorrow. So I'm going to put my laptop away. I'm going to spend the rest of the day watching a movie and relaxing before the pig day tomorrow. Excuse me. Before the pig day tomorrow. Sorry, I'm a little excited. It's just like, why does it have to be nine hours? Some people start and finish an entire business day. And that's literally just me taking a freaking test. Nine hours? That's absolutely insane. Good morning, everybody. The day is finally here. It is step two, taking time. So I went to sleep at nine and was super well rested. So that's already a big difference between this and step one. And step one, I had no sleep. I feel good. I feel like I can take on the world. Hey, Alex, do you feel any excitement about this day? Or is today just another cat day for you? Yep. Today sounds like a lucky shirt and sweatpants kind of day. Also bring a jacket because you never know how cool these things are. And for shoes, not to sound crazy, but I'm going to be wearing my clogs because they're just that comfortable. Of course, I need to take my testing permit, my wallet, make sure that my ID is in there because you need an ID to get into this testing center. And then for my food, I have five Lunchables, three Diet Cokes, a banana, and a cooler that I'm all just going to put in this plastic bag. There are eight one-hour blocks of 40 questions. And there's an hour break that you get to divvy up between all of your breaks. What I'm thinking is I'm going to take a really short break between block one and block two so that for the rest of the blocks, I have like a 10-minute break where I can enjoy a Lunchable or a drink and just unwind. Because I really feel like breaks revamp me, get me ready for the next block. My makeshift lunchbox is ready. I'm going to take this time to review some of the BioStats stuff, like the equations. These equations are super annoying. Attributable risk is A over A plus B minus C over C plus D. All right, well, that goes that. It's super locked down. They wand you, and then they check your ID, and then you have a locker. And you're not allowed to go to the locker until you're on your break and your test is over. It's super, super prison-like. Pro tip, put your hair in a nice, loose ponytail because this getting in the way is going to take away test time. All right, everything is packed up over there. I think I have everything, including myself, my brain, my ID, my jacket, my food. The only thing left is to have a very quiet, relaxing breakfast. Okay, guys, well, I'm done with my cereal, and it's time to go. So let's get on the way over there. All right, guys, so I'm about to head on my way. I just need to make sure I make this trip safely and all in one piece. Okay, we are here. My stomach hurts. I'm stressed. I have no idea why I continue to subject myself to all of this distress. But alas, we are here, and when I am done, it will all be worth it. Wow, it is as traumatizing as I remember it looking. Getting in my last bit of sunshine before I'm deprived for nine hours. Okay, I'm done. For now, I'm in Detourville. Goodbye, everybody. Family medicine, who would have thought I would like it so much? Hopefully appear very fun and approachable for the children, and I'm really excited to see kids. I am out. I am done with gyne. I am done with gyne-on. Maybe this will be my career. This is only just the beginning. Maybe I'll never see another psychiatry clinic again. This week, we are tackling internal medicine. Maybe even practice my suture in fun. This week is going to be about my rotation in neurology, starting my emergency medicine clerkship. I wanted to love other things, but when I got to my surgery rotation, it just became an undeniable truth that this was the one I loved the most.