I am sharing this experience; hoping it can be beneficial for one of you.
USMLE step 2 CK - 253 July 3, 2019
Hadn’t taken step 1 before and almost Had used UWorld only as a source.
I am Qays Alajlouni from Jordan, I graduated on may 2018 from The University of Jordan with a gpa of 2.81/4 (good). Later I decided to take the US journey.
UWSA 1 - 267 18 days before
UWSA 2 - 255 8 days before
Free 120 - 86.6 % 16 days before
IFOM CS Exam - 699/800 I did this exam to apply for a residency program in Qatar after UWorld first pass.
Total time of preparation 8 months - 2 month dedicated and 6 month with an average of 4-5 hours a day.
UWorld first pass untimed (in 75 days) 68.9 %
UWorld second pass untimed 93.7 %
I stopped studying between the two passes for 3 months - this is not recommended.
I made thousands of flashcards containing all the tables and photos and educational objectives and some important pieces of information.
I revised my flashcards before every exam - I recommend a revision on daily bases (like 2 hours a day).
I made some notes while revising my flashcards for the information I hadn’t remembered (and it helped a lot)
UWorld is a great source of knowledge; it is enough but “every” single word is important.
I used 100 cases in medical ethics by Conrad Fischer - I recommend it.
The only other source was First aid for biostatistics (8 pages I think) also UWorld biostatistics review.
Exam day:
The exam was not from another planet as everyone says, maybe stress plays a role in this point of view. More than 50% are easy to answer; not more than 10% are really difficult. The others are not typical and make you unsure; your only choice is to use exclusion in these questions; and there is a good probability that you answer correctly. I took breaks after every block; but Last two blocks I did them together ( break time was out). Time management is something you should train on. In abstract questions (biostatistics) I am not sure I answered 1/6. I think the only subject you need to review from other source is neurology - at least from my exam experience -.
No doubt doing step 1 before step 2 is the best plan, but if you decided to do step 2 before for any reason; you can do that.
Plan well, work hard, and go for it. Wish you all best of luck.
For time-efficient online tutoring send me a direct message here on Facebook . I will try to answer all of your questions in the comments.