Welcome. This is episode 573 of the Divine Intervention Podcast. And this podcast is going to be titled, The Pathway to a High Score on Step 2. the pathway to a high score on step two. In this podcast, I'm going to be focusing on how to use the Divine Intervention podcast in 20... 2025, okay? How to use the Divine Intervention Podcast in 2025. This is going to be a very, very deep discussion. And in today's podcast, we're going to be addressing a few things. We're going to talk about step two.
We're going to talk about how long your dedicated period should be, ideally for step two. I'm going to talk about how you should handle your dedicated period from week one all the way to the end of your dedicated. And then at the very end, I have some other pieces of advice, some other recommendations. And in this podcast, I will specifically talk about like podcasts you should listen to.
the number of your questions you should do, how you should space out your practice exams. I'm going to address all those topics in this podcast. So obviously we know that... Most people that are studying for these exams need to take some kind of dedicated period. The thing is, this is a very important time.
Before you start your dedicated period, you want to make sure that you have some sort of a plan going in. And that's what this podcast will help you achieve. Have a plan going in, not get to your dedicated period, be in your dedicated period, be failing practice exams before you start making changes.
So as we all know, Step 2CK as the exam is an eight block exam. There's 40 questions in each block. Or there are some that have fewer questions, like 38 or so, because they have like drug ads in them. And step two CK, I can easily tell you it's arguably one of the most important parts of a residency application these days, right? And here's the thing.
You know, if you failed step one, all hope is really not lost. That's the truth. I actually work with a lot of people that have failed step one and then they redeemed themselves on step two and they're good, right? So doing well on step two is paramount.
Now, if you failed step two, honestly, things are a lot tougher. But again, all hope is not lost. You'll still need to do extremely well on your retake, right? And one thing I'm just going to sound as a note of warning is don't be so quick to do your retake. right don't don't don't rush it because you see people they rush and then they fail again that's really bad right that's really really bad
So let's get right into how to use this podcast to your best benefit, especially with the newer exams. So consider this advice to be advised that, man, this thing is really going to be applicable to me if I'm taking the exam like any time this year.
because the USMLEs have undergone quite a number of changes over the last few months. So this podcast, the goal is to position you very, very nicely for these changes. Now, I want to... throw out a disclaimer right so please take everything i say in this podcast with a grain of salt right you literally have to do your own due diligence you literally have to do your own due diligence
If you've listened to my podcast for any length of time, you know I'm not a big person on just blindly believing what a person says. No, I literally offer no guarantees whatsoever, right? Because I'm not sitting with you in your home seeing exactly what you're doing, right? But... I can tell you that I've seen this advice I'm about to give play out time and time again with many, many students for their benefit.
Again, I work with lots of students. I've been doing this for many years. I probably work with thousands. It's not probably. I have worked with thousands of students at this point, right? I literally work with tons of people taking this exam like every single week, right? So... I think I have some expertise. Again, I'm not saying I know everything, right? But I think you should at least give me your listening ear. You may get something from this. All right. So.
First question we're going to answer, what is the ideal length of a dedicated period for step two? What's the ideal length? The ideal length, honestly, is five to six weeks. Five to six weeks. Honestly, five weeks is cutting it pretty close. six weeks is what i consider to be just right you know the thing is back in the day many people just took a one month dedicated period for step two and that was more than enough but
The thing is, step two tests way more information these days, right? Way more information these days. So honestly, it's just really, really hard. to packing what you really need to learn in a four-week period that is just the truth right the only person i would recommend saying okay you should be safe taking a month
is the individual that did really, really well on shelf exams. You know, you crushed your shelf exams. You were like in the high 80s or thereabouts on your shelf exams. You can, or higher, you can probably get away with a one month dedicated period.
For this podcast, I'm going to be assuming they're going to be studying for six weeks. I'm going to be assuming you're going to be studying for six weeks. And again, please don't run away after I've talked about week six. There's some other very good pieces of advice I want to give on dedicated. period. So what should your week one look like? Honestly, your week one of your dedicated should be a foundation lane week. It should be a foundation lane week, right? And honestly,
This is easily going to be the most important week of your dedicated period. Many people think that the later weeks are the important weeks. No. The way you start, that foundation really matters. Because if you think about a building, if the foundation is not good...
Even if you build this pristine, amazing building on it, that building will fall apart. You're going to start seeing cracks down the line, right? So if you whiff with this first week, it will set the tone for how well or how poorly the rest of your dedicated period will go. Right. So how do you go about this? Literally go on my website, divineinterventionpodcast.com. Right. Click on exam topics list. Right. And then go to the step two, step three tab.
It lists all the podcasts I have available for Step 2CK and Step 3. So, how do you go about this first week? Well, take one day of this week. Day one of this week, basically, watch my Peds video and my OBGYN video. They're on YouTube. If you go on my YouTube channel, you're going to find my Pete's video. That's episode 21. And my OBGYN video, that's episode 22.
The only thing is if you go on my website, you're going to find that these podcasts have slides, right? They're actually videos, but they have slides. So go on my website, divineinterventionpodcast.com and download the slides from there. And then as you're watching these videos on YouTube, follow along with the slides. Follow along with the slides. So you can say, okay, in the morning, I'll do peds. In the afternoon, I'm going to do OB-GYN, right? In the afternoon, I'm going to do OB-GYN.
That's your job for the day. And then what the thing you can do in the evening is, so in the morning, you've like watched the Pete's video, you've gone through the slides. In the afternoon, you've watched the Obi-Wan video, you've gone through the slides. In the evening, just make one more pass.
to solidify that material in your brain. Go through the Pete slides again. You don't have to rewatch the video. Just go through the Pete slides again, episode 21. Go through the Obi-Wan slides again, episode 22. All right. Now, what do you do on D2 of week one? D2... basically same thing you did as day one just deal with my psych and my surgery videos my psych video is episode 23 my surgery video is episode 24 the good thing is again
There is slides for those. There's literally slides for those. So you can say, okay, I'll do surgery in the morning since surgery is a tougher subject. Do surgery in the morning and then do psych in the afternoon. Again, as you're going through these videos. go through the slides that go with them.
right and some people may wonder divine i mean you have like almost 600 podcasts how do i start scrolling down all the way to episode 20 whatever no let me tell you the easiest way to find these things literally go on google google.com type in like divine intervention episode 23 the first search result that pops up is going to be the direct link to the podcast. Just click on it and pull up the podcast, pull up the slides, right? So do surgery in the morning, do psych in the afternoon.
follow along, right? And then in the evening, you know, after you've chilled, relaxed and everything, I will encourage you to go back, review the surgery slides again, review the psych slides again and be done. All right. Now, day three, what do you do? Day three, you're going to my two internal medicine videos.
You're going to do my two internal medicine videos. I have four videos in all, but you're going to do the first two, episode 29 and episode 30. This is going to be quite the intense day, but I promise you it's going to be well worth your while. It's going to be quite the intense day, but I promise you it is well worth your while. It is well worth your while. It is well worth your while. Now, episode 29 and 30, right? Now, the thing is...
For these videos, there's slides, but the slides just have the questions on them. They don't have the answers. So one thing you can do is you can go to my website, divineinterventionpodcast.com. and click on episode notes. Click on episode notes. You're going to see a link to a Google Drive where there is notes.
for at least these videos and a bunch of my other podcasts, right? Again, I will encourage you, don't just say, oh, I'm just going to read the notes. I'm not going to bother listening. You're kind of wasting your time. Listen to the videos so that you can get the understanding. Again, don't mess up your week one. You're literally laying a foundation for the future of your dedicated period. So in the morning, do episode 29. Read through the notes for it. In the afternoon, do episode 30.
Read through the notes for it. It's just a wise thing to do, right? And then in the evening, read the notes for episode 29 and 30 just to reinforce what you just heard in the morning and in the afternoon. All right. Now, what do you do on day four? On day four, do the next set of internal medicine videos, episode 31 and episode 32. Again, the videos are on my website. The slides are...
The videos are on my YouTube channel. The slides are on my website, right? The notes are also under episode notes. Again, follow along with the notes in the evening. Read the notes for both, right? So you do episode 31 in the morning, 32 in the afternoon, and you're good to go, right? So four days are so far gone.
So you're like, hmm, okay, well, there's three more days in the week. What should I do? Play video games? No, not play video games. So what should you do? Well, basically, day five, which is, you know, day five, review the slides from OB-GYN and PEDS in the morning.
And they review the slides from psych and surgery in the afternoon. So OB-GYN and PEDS in the morning, psych and surgery in the... afternoon and then in the evening i will encourage you to listen to episode 143 episode 143 episode 143 that is the biostatistics podcast listen to that podcast follow along with the slides that are there okay do that and that'll be a wise thing to do and then uh on the six what should you do on the six basically
go through the notes for episodes 29 to 32, 29 to 32, my four internal medicine videos. So notice by the end of, and actually in the evening of these six, one of the things I want you to do is to listen to episode 446, episode 446. is titled Divine Patch.
Basically, it's a podcast where I give updates on things that may have been outdated, like major things that may have been outdated from past podcasts before then that I just, hey, let me talk through this so that you can just get that update. I kind of look at it as like a software update where I just... address certain things where oh the time i may have made episode 200 and something um it may have been
What I said in episode 200 and something may have been accurate, but guidelines have changed, right? Like, for example, lung cancer. We start screening for lung cancer these days at age 50, right? We start screening for colorectal cancer at age 45, right? Those are things I believe I talk about in episode 446. So I'll just encourage you, listen to that divine patch on day six, the evening of day six, the evening of day six, the evening of day six. All right. So now we have one more day.
left right one more day in week one what should you do on that one more day well what you should do is go ahead and take mbme nine literally go ahead and take mbme nine take mbme nine many people say oh i'm not gonna do all the mbmes again you're literally shooting yourself in the foot right
Who are the people that are writing the exam that you're going to be taking? It's the MBMEs. Even if it's an old exam, it does not matter. Go ahead and take that, right? And I know some people may be like, wow, divine. Some of your podcasts are old. You know, is the material up to date? See, let me tell you this. Those podcasts are probably like 97, 98% accurate. It's not the 2 or 3% that's going to kill you. And here's the thing.
You're going to notice as you're listening to Divine Patch, I address many of those major areas that are out of date, right? And the thing is, as you're following this plan as... crafted and constructed, those things that, ooh, may be out of date, you're going to see them discussed in the future during your study plan. Another thing I will also say is this. Another thing I will also say is this.
kind of help you along those lines, is that sometimes, and I just want to almost sound this as a note of warning. Sometimes the two banks, the major ones, the URL, the AMBUS, they will say certain things that are true. They are absolutely true. But for USMLE purposes, the USMLEs are like,
No, that's not what we want to do. This is like a classic thing I address in many of my classes. I say that, hey, this is what QBank A and B says you should do. It's the truth. It's the most recent recommendation. but our friends at the NBMEs want you to do this instead, right? So it's just something I want to keep in mind. The fact that a QBank says that something is true and that something is true does not necessarily mean that it's going to be true.
on the USMLE exams. I just want to throw that note of warning out there. So we've pretty much completed week one, right? And I know some people will be like, ooh, divine, divine, ooh, we didn't do any Cuban questions in week one. Calm down.
calm down the time for doing cuban questions is gonna come just be calm it's gonna happen okay it's gonna happen all right so now let's roll into week two so what are you gonna do in week two well day one of week two basically in the morning review your peds slides episode 21 slides and then right after that you know take like a 5-10 minute break and then do one block of your work peds questions 40 questions do not do mixed questions just do literally 40 peds questions
be done by noon, and take a rest. What do you do in the afternoon of day one? Spend your afternoon. Review the OBGYN slides, episode 22. You're not watching those podcasts. You've watched them carefully in week one. You see the work of week one is going to start paying off in week two, right? And then do a block of UWorld OBGYN questions, 40 questions. Review them, right? Again, do not do mixed questions. Be done.
Rest. Be done by 6 p.m. Rest and have a good day. And then you may wonder, why are you saying don't do things mixed? Here's the thing. When you do things subject-based, as I'm recommending, and honestly, I would recommend just do it in timed tutor mode.
But if you're a person that struggles with timing, then you should do the whole block under time conditions. After you're done doing the block, then go ahead and review the block, right? You go ahead and review the block. So by doing things subject-based, after you've just reviewed the slides,
you'll be a lot quicker with your reviews. That's the truth. You'll be a lot quicker with your reviews, right? And let me say something here. Try not to spend more than 100 minutes. You heard me right. 100 minutes. That's an hour and 40 minutes reviewing a blog. of 40 euro questions you may wonder divine this is not possible like i literally spend four five six hours reviewing one euro block if you're doing that let me tell you something right now you're doing it wrong you're doing it wrong
Let me give you some piece of advice. Listen to the podcast on how to review your world and MBME questions efficiently. It's one of my Motivation Monday podcasts. I'm pretty sure I made that on the 30th of August, 2021. Again, literally.
go on google i'm sure i would hope that if you're taking the usmles you know how to use google literally type in divine intervention how to review your world and mbme questions efficiently it's gonna pop up as your first result all right now what do you do on the evening of day one on the evening of day one I would strongly encourage you to listen to episode 239, episode 278, episode 223, and episode 326. 239, 278, 223.
And 326. Just listen. Don't bother trying to take notes. Honestly, for all the stuff I've been saying to do, do not bother trying to take notes. Just don't bother. The only time you should be taking notes is when you're
doing your questions or whatever, right? Don't bother taking notes on this podcast. Just listen and get the understanding. These podcasts encapsulate things like OB-GYN risk factors, amenorrhea, Pete's cardio, right? And newborns. These are things that kind of reinforce some hard...
troublesome subjects you may have seen in the morning and in the afternoon all right now what do you do on day two of week two on day two of week two pretty much follow the plan as day one right but in the morning do surgery right so Go through the slides for episode 24. After that, take a 5-10 minute break and then do 40 U-World surgery questions. And then in the afternoon, do psych, episode 23, right? And then do 40 psych U-World questions, right? And review it.
right and then in the evening listen to episodes 180 377 164 and 349 i'm gonna rail that off again 180 377, right? 180 addresses hematology. That'll be very helpful from a surgical perspective. 377, I think, is a GI Bleed podcast. 164. is about toxicology. 349 is about psychopharmacology. Again, reinforcing what you've learned earlier in the day. And I will strongly encourage you, if you can, try to make it a habit to get up at like 7, 7.30 in the morning.
and get your day going you know if it's 8 a.m you start studying that's wise the thing is you want to get into a groove into a routine and i'll address this in more detail later in this podcast right um i usually tell people you have some kind of routine like for me my routine is i get up in the morning i pray i read my bible i work out
And then after that, I kind of start my work for the day, right? So just have some kind of routine, right? The thing is when you train yourself to follow a routine, you tend to be just more successful with life stuff. It's just...
It's just common sense, right? But again, I'm going to let that go. All right. Now, what do you do on day three? What's your job on day three? We talked about day one. We talked about day two. Day three, in the morning, read the notes for episode 29. That's my first IM video. Read the notes.
And then do 40 internal medicine in your world questions. In the afternoon, and obviously, since you're doing internal medicine, you know, do all the specialties, palm, cardio, renal, endocrine, stuff like that, right? Now, in the afternoon, read the notes for episode 30. right that's im video number two and then do 40 u world internal medicine questions and then in the evening listen to two podcasts that i highly recommend 554
554 is an antibiotic podcast. I kid you not. That is such a high yield podcast for your exams. And then episode 445. So 554 and 445. 445 talks about MI complications. Those are heavily tested on the USMLEs. All right. And then day four, what do you do in the morning? Read the notes for episode 31, right? Read the notes for episode 31. And that's IAM video number three. And do 40 URD IAM questions in the afternoon. Read the notes for episode 32.
And they do 40 IMU World questions. 40 IMU World questions, right? In the evening, listen to episode 539 and episode 503. 539 and 503, right? And again, you may be like, man, you've made us go through... the im videos for example as of this point of your dedicated so this is probably like day 11 you would have gone through the im stuff like so let's see one two
so you did it once you listened you read the notes in the evening of the day you listen that's two you read the notes again towards the end of week one that's three you're reading again in week two that's four do you see all this repetition what do you think is going to help you with it's going to help train your brain It's literally going to help train your brain and it's going to help you with remembrance. Remember, you're not taking notes.
Well, because of all these repetitions, that material is just going to stick in your brain so well. And this is just week two. Imagine the repetition that I've got into by week three, by week four, by week five, by week six. You're going to know this material.
and know a code, right? If you're truly following this process. All right. So what do you do on day five of your dedicated period? What do you do on day five? On day five, listen to episode 143. That's the BioStats podcast, right? And review the slides, you know, review the slides. Review the slides. So listen to it again. Review the slides. And then after that, take your self-assessment number three, your self-assessment number three, and then review it.
right the thing is you may wonder divine why are you saying take uwsa number three this early my dedicated well here's the thing uwsa number three um just in my experience sometimes it may not be the most predictive practice test. You know, people tend to do lower on it than they do on their real exams. So it's better to get it out of the way now than later so that you don't crush your spirit.
deep deep deep into your dedicated period right and then what should you do on d6 on d6 is a big testing day there's no your world on this day but You're going to be doing CMS forms. You're going to be doing the clinical mastery series, those practice shelf exams. I would encourage you to do CMS form number five for internal medicine, for peds, for surgery.
and for OB-GYN, for internal medicine, for PEDS, for surgery and for OB-GYN. Do that in the morning. Like literally just wake up in the morning and do these things back to back to back to back, right? It's 50 questions. Each one is an hour and 15 minutes, I believe.
So that's gonna take you like five hours. Just finish it and then take like a two hour break or something, right? That's like 200 questions. It's just a very good way to build stamina for your test and then review them in the afternoon, all right? And then what do you do on the seven of week two?
on day seven of week two, listen to episode 400 and then do MBME 10. Listen to episode 400 and do MBME 10, right? And let me say something here that may be helpful because some people may be like, Divine, I like to take one rest day a week. Well, if you're going to take one rest day a week, then...
Your dedicated period is not making it six weeks. Make it seven weeks, right? So that you can like work for like seven days, take a day off. Work for another seven days, take a day off. Work for another seven days, take a day off, all right? That's what I do if I were you. All right, so on the seven of week two.
Listen to episode 400 first. It is literally titled Get Your Head in the Game and then do NBME number 10. All right, now let's jump to week three. What should week three look like? Week three, basically, you're going to follow the plan for day one. to day four from week two. You're literally going to do the exact same thing. Like, ooh, Pete slides in the morning, 40 Pete's eye, your questions. Obi-Wan slides in the afternoon, 40.
OBGYN, Europe questions, right? The only thing that's going to change from day one to day four are the evening podcast. So basically, whatever you did in week two, day one to day four. That's literally what you're going to be doing in week three, day one to day four. Again, getting that repetition in and still pounding through your old questions, right? But the evening podcasts are going to change. So what are the evening podcasts? For day one of week three,
Listen to episode 459, 531, and 173. 459, 531, and 173. For day two, what are you doing in the evening? Listen to episodes 221. 304 A and B, so 304 A and B, right? Those are all trauma podcasts. And then 452 and 453, 452 and 453. So D2, 221, 304 A and B, 452 and 453. For day three, listen to episode 100 and 104. 100 and 104. Day four, listen to episode 135 and 251. 135 and 251. When you actually listen to this podcast, you will see precisely why...
I am dishing out these specific podcasts for your dedicated period. And then what do you do on day five? On day five, do MBME 11. Do MBME 11, like try to do it in the morning. And then, you know, in the afternoon, review that MBME 11.
Use those principles I talked about from How to Review Your World and MBME questions efficiently, right? And then in the evening, listen to episode 228, 230, and 234. So in the evening of day five, listen to episodes 228. 230 and 234 and then on d6 what do you do on d6 you're going to do the cms forms
do form number six. For what? For IM, for peds, for surgery, and for OB-GYN. For IM, peds, surgery, and OB-GYN. Just do it in the morning, and then review them in the afternoon. And then on day seven, what do you do? On day seven, listen to episode 400. Listen to episode 400. Get your head in the game. And then do UWSC number one. Do a UWSC number one. All right. Now we're jumping to week four. So what should week four look like? Again, in week four...
Basically, again, we're trying to make routines here and stick to them. In week four, basically follow the plan for days one to four from week two. But again, the evening podcast will change. The evening podcast will change. So for day one, what should you listen to in the evening? Listen to episodes 467 and 104. 467 and 104. Day two, listen to episodes 470 and 250. 470 and 250. For day three, listen to episode 539.
Listen to episode 539. You may notice that you've done this podcast before. Do it again. Do it again. And do the worksheet that comes with it. It's a corticosteroid podcast. You're going to get multiple questions right from your exams from this one podcast. There's literally a reason why there is... a worksheet with this podcast. And then day four, listen to episodes 129 and 404. And then what do you do on day five? On day five, do MBME 12 in the morning, review it in the afternoon.
And then in the evening, listen to Epistles 268, 275, and 123. 268, 275, and 100. 23 all right now what do you do on day six of week number four on day six do cms forms number seven right again this is like a 200 question day for internal medicine for peds for surgery and for a big guy do those in the morning And then review them in the afternoon. And then day seven, what do you do? Listen to episode 400. Get your head in the game. Again, you're establishing good habits.
good habits. And then do MBME number 13. All right, let's go to week five. What are you doing week five? What are you doing week five? Basically, Follow the plan for day one to four from week two. But again, the evening podcasts are going to change. The evening podcasts are going to change. So for day one, what do you do? Listen to episodes 37 and 97.
These are risk factors podcasts. These things are so high yield. You're going to see numerous questions from this stuff on your exams, right? For day two, listen to episodes 184 and 325. 184 and 325. 325 is the screening guidelines podcast. Remember I said colon cancer, we're now screening at age 45. We start screening at age 45. Lone cancer will start screening at age 50.
I believe I may have addressed those in the Divine Patch podcast. All right. Now for the three in the evening, listen to episodes 399 and episode 36. Episode 36 is one of my earliest podcasts on my website. It's an ophthalmology podcast. You really should listen to that. And then for day four in the evening, listen to episodes 102, 161, and 169. 102, 161, and 169. I believe this podcast addressed the topics of cancer.
of autoantibodies and nephrotic and nephrotic syndromes. Very high-yield topics to know for your exams. And then, what do you do on day five of week five? What do you do on day five? On day five, do MBME 14 in the morning and review it in the afternoon. right and then in the evening of that day listen to episodes 276 277 and 530 276 277 and 530 and then on day six what do you do do cms form number eight
Number eight, for internal medicine, for peds, for surgery, and for OB-GYN. Do those in the morning. In the afternoon, review those. And then on day seven, listen to episode 400, and then do UWSC number two. UWSC number... two. UWSE number two. All right. Now, that's week five. See, we're almost done. Let's go to week six. What are you doing week six? Okay, week six is different. Okay, week six is different.
First day of week six, in the morning, review the slides for OB-GYN and PEDS. Review the slides for OB-GYN and PEDS. In the afternoon, review the slides for psych and surgery. For psych and surgery. All right. That's your job. Okay. And then in the evening, review the slides for episode 143 again. Review the slides for episode 143 again. All right. Day two, what do you do? Day two, review the notes from episodes 29 to 32.
Review the notes for episodes 29 to 32, the four internal medicine videos. Day three, take MBME 15 and review all the questions right after that. Take MBME 15 and review all the questions right after that. And then day four, review the slides for episode 143 again, right? And then re-review episode 37, 97, 184, 250, and 325. I'm going to say that again.
37, 97, 184, 250, and 325. All right, we've done four days now of week six. What do you do on day five of week six? On day five, do the free 120 with a PDF. literally do the free 120 with a pdf okay do the free 120 with a pdf okay try not to use the website interface or you can try the website interface but do it with a pdf you know i'm saying that because of the six you're gonna see why i'm saying use the pdf
instead of the website interface. C, if you want to get exposure of the website interface, you can do it on your own time. You know, maybe like later in the evening or whatever of D5. And then what do you do on D6? On D6, listen to my free 120 series. It starts with episode 518. It's a 14-part podcast, and they don't necessarily go sequentially, but I literally start with question one.
And I go all the way to question 120, okay? You can find all the podcast numbers. It's about 14 parts under the step two, step three tab. So again, go to my website, divineinterventionpodcast.com. click on exam topics list, go to the step two, step three tab of the spreadsheet, and then scroll all the way down. You're gonna see a step two, three, 120 series. You're gonna see the episode numbers, right? I literally go in order from question one all the way to question 120.
It's so helpful, right? Study early in the day. I'm telling you this, you're pretty much shooting yourself in the foot if you don't do it. It's about eight hours of lecture. but I promise you it's well worth your while. I discussed so many test-taking principles. I discussed so many wonderful things in that podcast. And then day seven of week six should be like a rest day, right? It's probably the day before your exam. You know, you chill out, you rest, you relax. All right.
So what are some other recommendations I'm going to give in this podcast as we begin to wrap up? Well, first things first, I'm going to say this first part is, so say, for example, you're a person that works out or you're a person that drives a lot during the day.
Or you just have like some time during the day where you have like mindless activity. One thing you can do is to listen to my rapid review podcast, my rapid review series. I have so many rapid review podcasts. And again, you can find the exact episode numbers.
under the step two, step three tab on my website, under exam topics list, exam topics list, right? So if working out or driving or some mindless activities part of your day, you can literally be listening to those rapid review podcasts to just get some extra knowledge in.
Crank those up, work through those. Just work through as many as you can. You're probably not gonna be able to finish it, but just work through as many as you can. Make it a daily habit. Now, one thing I'm gonna say here is kind of unusual advice, but I promise you, it'll actually really help you.
If you can swing it, I highly, highly recommend taking my test-taking strategies class. It's two and a half hours long, but I highly, highly recommend taking my test-taking strategies class. It applies to people taking step one all the way to step three.
Ideally, take it before your dedicated period begins. But if you don't take it then, take it as early as possible in your dedicated period. Here's the thing. The earlier you take this class, even if it's months before your dedicated period starts, the better you'll be. Why? Because you basically have more time to practice the principles I'm discussing with more questions, right? I'm telling you this, this class specifically will really help you become a lot better.
at navigating through MBME questions very successfully, right? This is a broad recommendation I have for everyone taking any USMLE exam or taking any COMLEX exam. The thing is, there are so many changes that have come to the USMLEs. This class will literally help you get in the mindset, the right mindset for this exam. in the right mindset for this exam. Again, I really tell you this is a class that will really help you. I have one coming up tonight.
I promise you it will really, really, really help you, right? And the thing is the class has been revamped because there's a lot of changes that have really happened just with the way the USMLEs set things up, right? So again, it's a broad recommendation I have for anyone taking any USMLE exam. Now, in another podcast, I also discuss my other classes and the advantages of my classes over my podcast because you may wonder, Devine, why should I take your classes?
I address that in my podcast where I talk about the classes I'm offering, right? So, like, for example, you may notice, oh, February 2025, step one to step three review classes. I talk about all my classes and what you stand to gain from them, right? I'll leave that discussion for that podcast.
My classes have helped many people do extremely well on their exams, right? Again, I'm not saying this just because I'm trying to sell a product. Yes, I am. But I've had people with really bad stories, really bad dedicated periods, you know.
really poor scores, and these classes have really literally helped to resurrect the exam performance, right? My biostats class, my social science class, my last minute review, my 20-hour class, my 25-hour step one class, right? And then also my 50-hour class.
that's taking place in the first two weeks of June. But again, I talk about those in separate podcasts. Check those out. Now, let me continue with some other pieces of advice. So let me tell you this. You will not be able to finish your world with this plan. Ooh, divine.
uh-oh, uh-oh, what are you saying, divine? What are you saying, divine? Right? You will not be able to finish your world with this plan, but that's okay. Don't sweat it. You would have done a sufficient number of questions to get yourself in good stead.
And don't forget that you're also doing 800 questions from the CMS forms. That's like doing like an MBME QBank in a sense. Just something to keep in mind. All right. Another piece of advice. You may say, Divine, can I swap out UWorld with Amboss instead? Like Amboss works better for me. You can. There's nothing wrong with that. AMBUS is also very good, right? UWorld is just more of a personal preference for myself. And if I were taking the exam, UWorld is probably what I'm going to be using.
Because I'm just more used to your world, right? I'm just more used to it. Just personal preference. All right. Now, ooh, divine. How do I feel comfortable with my prep for my exams? Well, I feel ready to take the test. Here's the litmus test I give people again. It doesn't work for everybody. Remember I said, take everything I say with a grain of salt, but...
If you take two to three practice tests and you're scoring around where you'd want to be on your real exam, you should be good to go, right? So don't base, oh, this is how I'm going to do all my exam based on one practice test. No, if you take two to three practice tests.
and you're scoring around where you'd want to be on your real exam, it should be good to go, in my experience, in my experience. Now, if you're doing all these things I say in this podcast and you're still not improving, then you may need more specialized help. You may need more specialized help. You should probably reach out to me for some more guidance, right? Or you should probably take a longer dedicated period.
right because chances are if you really follow this plan you should probably be good right but you you may need a longer dedicated period and that's not a that's not a stinker on you right Some people just need more time to study. That's just the truth. Why may you need more time to study? Well, maybe because you have a very poor foundation, right? Or let's say you failed quite a number of shelf exams and things like that.
right? You may just need a little more time and that's okay, right? That's okay. It's better to do this and do it once and do it right and succeed and move on with your life, right? All right. Now, the thing is, in my experience, everyone varies.
But you should start seeing some big gains by like week three, week four of this plan, right? So don't be so fast to quit, right? Don't be a quitter by week two. It's like, ooh, I did your WSA number three. I didn't do so well. Calm down. Literally calm down. Right. In fact, I tell you this. Don't read too much into your week one and week two scores, although you may do so poorly on them that.
it's gonna give you all the motivation you need for the remaining weeks, right? Those exam scores, especially like MBME 99U, WSA number three, they can really whip you into shape and provide the motivation you need to study hard. All right, now. I generally do not recommend doing mixed questions. I just don't. I just don't, right? The thing is, you're going to get mixed questions from the full-length exams. It's going to give you all the mixing that you need.
Right. And again, you may have noticed that week six, I only talk about day one to day six. Right. Take day seven off. Right. Ideally, take your exam on day one of week seven. Right. And as you're going to your exam center, listen to episode 400 again.
listen to episode 400 again okay now one thing i'll just say is stay away from people on test day that will kill your spirit right i usually tell people you know stay in your car until it's you know time to start your exam right don't don't hang around the people that are going to be taking the test because you're going to be seeing a bunch of anxious people a bunch of panicked people it's not helpful right basically keep a calm
quiet spirit, right? Again, if any of you know about the Los Angeles Clippers, they're not my team at all. I do not support them in any way, shape, or form, but I love one player on their team, Kawhi Leonard. Keep a Kawhi Leonard demeanor. Keep a Kawhi Leonard demeanor. And pray. If you're a person that prays, pray. For me, I know that before every USMLE exam, I prayed. Many of you know I'm a Christian. I prayed. Just to have that peace of God in my heart. So pray, pray, pray.
Pray, right? God answers prayers, right? Now, next piece of advice, get into routines. And you've seen me say this so many times. Get into routines of when you start studying for the day and roughly when you end. right? You're pretty much trying to do some kind of brain training, brain training, right? Like for example, one piece of advice I give to people I work with one-on-one is this, hey, if your exam starts by 8 a.m., like your real test day is 8 a.m.,
Maybe start your study niche day at 8 a.m., you know? It's just gonna get you in the groove of your brain is functioning big time around the same time your brain should be functioning on your real test day, right? You're just training your brain. You're literally just training your... training your brain training your brain right i remember i did this back in the day
For many things, actually, a very good striking example is when I took the MCAT, when it was still like three and a half hours long. I remember back then, the Saturday before I took my real exam, right? So my real exam was on a Saturday, I believe. What I did is... The Saturday before, I literally packed my lunch or whatever the night before. I got up when I wanted to get up. Like, it's like, hey, Devine, your real test is next week Saturday at 8 a.m.
Plan to get up at 7 a.m. I got up at that exact time. I literally drove to the Prometric.
I didn't set foot in it. I just drove to the Prometric and then drove back home and took the last practice exam. I think back then it was AMC 11 or something like that. That was like the test back in the day. And then I... took it got my score and that was it right just that practice run was really helpful i think i literally ended up scoring about as well as i did on amc 11 uh back then which was actually a good score thankfully i'm not going to talk about that right now all right
Now, studying with other people, right? So I'm just giving some random pieces of advice as we wrap this up. Studying with other people is usually counterproductive. It's usually... counterproductive, and I generally don't recommend it. It's a way to make your dedicated period less efficient because when you see people request, well, I want a study partner, they're basically asking for someone that will teach them for free. Don't waste your time with those people, right? Study on your...
own. You're going to be taking, see, let me tell you this. You're going to be taking your exam on your own. You're not going to be taking your exam in a group. Lose that comfort of the group early. Study on your own. Make your dedicated period more efficient. right i'm telling you this some people just pick up some baggage along the way that just holds them down during your dedicated period studying with a group of people is one of those classic forms of of baggage all right
Next piece of advice, stay off the interwebs, stay off Reddit, stay off YouTube, right? Stay off those things. Put your phone in another room. Literally, your phone, your device should not be in the same room as yourself. while you're studying for your exam. It shouldn't, right?
Put boundaries, right? If you want to read a book that will really help your life, maybe do this after your dedicated period if you have free time. It's literally a book titled Boundaries. It's one of the books I read early this year and this book just literally changed my life, right? Literally just have boundaries on your life.
life right have boundaries on when you use your phone right literally have boundaries trust me i'm a person that oh i like to scroll the interwebs every now and then but for most days of the week i have boundaries it's like hey divine before xyz time in the day you should not go on this website it's just a boundary i placed and it just really helps keep me in in check all right now um Because why do I say stay off the interwebs? The thing is, many people on the...
especially on these Reddit subs on the USMLEs or on SDN, they have like these very fatalistic mindsets, right? They're like, ooh, the exam was so hard. You know, I only knew 20% of what I saw. Well, maybe because you didn't study well enough, right? The thing is, if you do most of what I'm telling you to do in this podcast, that will not be your testimony, right? That will not be your testimony. If you do it and do it right.
That should not be your testimony, right? So the thing is, most of these people's testimonials is usually very inaccurate because the stress of an exam, under stress, people do not think straight.
and people tend to be like a little crazy in what they say right so most times these people's piece of advice is pretty useless right so just be careful about that right and one thing i'm gonna say is you know some people's med school say just do questions just do questions during your day okay that's all you need to do oh man have i heard that story so many times and man have i had so many people uh
absolutely just bonk their dedicated periods by following that piece of advice. See, doing questions alone will not help you on the USMLEs. I'm going to say that again for people in the back. Doing questions alone will not help you.
on the usmle exams it will not help you it will not back in the day that may have been useful advice now that is not useful advice you actually need to spend some time like actually studying outside of just doing practice questions i kid you not you may think that man this advice is pretty typical but i promise you like and are there some people because i know some people be like divine but my buddy my friend
My friend only did your world questions or whatever, and they crushed the exams. They didn't even do any MBME practice tests. That is just your friend. I can almost promise you, if you take... a hundred people that just take that piece of advice you will notice that they will probably not do as well as your friend
right so don't just extrapolate one person's experience to an exam that's taken by i think more than 20 000 people every year it's just not wise right of course there's going to be lots and lots of biases when you again see When you're taking advice, just actually like critically evaluate what the advice is, right? I just feel like sometimes people need to use some degree of common sense. I'm going to leave it at that.
All right, next piece of advice I'm going to give is ignore pathophysiology and context at your own peril. Ignore pathophys and context at your own peril. For the USMA exams, pathophys matters. context matters just memorizing factoids is not going to get you there that's just the truth right and then i will encourage you try not to take step two at the last minute you see some people
This is literally February of this year. And they're saying, I'm just going to plan to take my test in September. You know, first week in September. No, that is not wise. It's better to take it earlier. Because see. When you're literally building anxiety into your study period by delaying when you take your exams. You're literally building anxiety into your dedicated period. It is not worth it. It's not worth it.
right? Why don't you take your exam early? At least give yourself a margin of safety. God forbid, what if you take the exam and fail it? Would it not be good to have some more time? Or what if you're like, wow, okay, I've spent six, seven weeks on this thing. I need a little more time. Well, if...
wow, you're doing six weeks and end of week six is like first week in September, you're going to be in a precarious situation, right? It's usually a massive mistake for many people. So try to take your exams on time, right? Take your exams on time. right and you're more likely to find more testing spots as well right that's closer to your home if you do that all right now the thing is oh divine what kind of score should i be targeting let me just tell you this
Because again, this is something that people are very fatalistic on. They're like, oh, I need to score 270. I'm not going to match into any specialty. That's a big, bold-faced, fat lie. See, 240s will keep you in the running for most disciplines. That's the truth.
240s or higher will keep you in the running for most disciplines, internal medicine, family medicine, psychiatry, all those things. But if you're really shooting for a competitive discipline, right, or you're like an IMG, right, an international medical graduate, then you should... probably try to be shooting for high 240s, 250s at least, right? So if you're shooting for like dermatology, you know, dermatology, ophthalmology,
neurosurgery, and all these high-powered disciplines. Again, nothing against internal. We need more internists. We need more family medicine specialists, right? I'm just saying, right? I'm just being realistic. I'm not trying to be a... politically correct in this podcast. I'm just giving you straight facts and the truth, right? For the competitive disciplines, you want to be in the 250s, right? If possible, right?
Now, 260s or higher are gravy on top. Some people believe that I have to be in the 260s or higher to match into my discipline. That is not true, right? The thing is at that point, see, don't just look at scores. There are other things that factor into your ability to match, right?
research, your personality, who you are as an individual. There are many other things you got to consider. All right. So I think I'm going to go ahead and stop here. But this is the end of this podcast. But again, this podcast, I know it's long.
But I promise you this podcast is very useful. This is something I want to listen to. I really sat down, said, hey, Devine, make a podcast that will help people literally succeed on their exam. That's why I titled this podcast, The Pathway to a High Score on Step 2.
obviously this podcast also applies to level two this is that for level two you should probably also spend time doing it's not probably you should spend time spend time studying omm right osteopathic and manipulative medicine right uh but again this podcast is really helpful
So share this with your friends. It's really going to help them succeed on their test. When you have good news like this, why should you hide it? Why should you hide it? All right. So thank you for listening to me. Again, I offer one-on-one tutoring for all the USMLE exams, step one to three.
all the complex exams, level one to three. And I also have classes for step one all the way to step three. I have an MBME test against strategies class that's two and a half hours long, a biostats class that's four hours long.
social sciences hospital medicine quality improvement and ethics review that's five hours long right those are for step one all the way to step three i actually have the test taking class starting today right biostats class tomorrow social science class on uh on uh thursday And then for step two and step three specifically, I have a...
last minute review this Friday. It's a three hour last minute review. Many people have taken it and they're like, wow, Devine, this class is so helpful. I thought I was, I didn't even know how three hours just disappeared, right? And then I have a 20 hour class next week. It's a 20 hour step two, step three review.
Then in the month of June, the first two weeks of the month of June, I have a 50-hour Step 2, Step 3 review. And then I have a 25-hour Step 1 class that's taking place in the first week of March. Basically, it's a class for people taking step one or if you're taking step two or step three and your foundation is weak, your foundation is bad, that class is going to be perfect for you. And then I also help with ERAS applications, mock interviews, personal statements and things of that nature.
And then I have this podcast on Apple, Google, and Spotify. So check that out. I have a YouTube channel that I also post the videos that I make. And then I have another website called divineinterventionlifelessons.com.
Divine Intervention, lifelessons.com. Every week I post like two or three podcasts where from a biblical perspective... address a life lesson there's actually an apple podcast associated with that it's called the divine intervention life lessons podcast many people have listened to this podcast many people listen to these podcasts and they find them to be helpful i actually have more than 300 podcasts on on there so
Thank you for listening to me today. Have a wonderful rest of your day. I'll see you in episode 574. So God bless you and bye for now. Thank you.