DIP Episode 573 - The Pathway To A High Score On Step 2 (How to Use The DI Podcasts in 2025; Deep Discussion)

Welcome, this is episode 573 of the Divine Intervention Podcasts. 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 2. In this podcast, I'm going to be focusing on how to use the Divine Intervention Podcasts in 2020-25. 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 2. We're going to talk about how long your dedicated peer should be, ideally for Step 2. I'm going to talk about how you should handle your dedicated peer from week one, all the way to the end of your dedicated. And then, at the very end, I have some other pieces of other things that I'm going to talk about. 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 peer. The thing is, I'm going to talk about how to use the Divine Intervention Podcasts in 2020. I'm going to address all those topics in this podcast. I'm going to address all those topics in this podcast. I'm going to talk about how to use the Divine Intervention Podcasts. I'm going to talk about how to use the Divine Intervention Podcasts. I'm going to talk about how to use the Divine Intervention Podcasts.

I'm going to talk about how to use the Divine Intervention Podcasts. I'm going to talk about how to use the Divine Intervention Podcasts. I'm going to talk about how to use the Divine Intervention Podcasts. I'm going to talk about how to use the Divine Intervention Podcasts. I'm going to talk about how to use the Divine Intervention Podcasts. I'm going to talk about how to use the Divine Intervention Podcasts. I'm going to talk about how to use the Divine Intervention Podcasts. I'm going to talk about how to use the Divine Intervention Podcasts. I'm going to talk about how to use the Divine Intervention Podcasts. I'm going to talk about how to use the Divine Intervention Podcasts. I'm going to talk about how to use the Divine Intervention Podcasts. I'm going to talk about how to use the Divine Intervention Podcasts. I'm going to talk about how to use the Divine Intervention Podcasts. I'm going to talk about how to use the Divine Intervention Podcasts. I'm going to talk about how to use the Divine Intervention Podcasts. 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? Now, 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 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, right? Because the USML is, they've won 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 the 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 believe in 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 benefits. 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 example 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 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 coordinating 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 this day, these days. Right? Way more information these days. So honestly, it's just really, really hard to pack in 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 hire, you can probably get away with a one month dedicated period. So 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 periods. 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're with 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 my website, divine intervention podcast.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 two, CK and step three. So how do you go about this first week? Well, take one day of this week, they won't of this week. Basically watch my piz video and my OB game video. They are on You Tube. If you go on my You Tube channel, you're going to find my piz video. That's a piece of 21 and my OB game video. That's a piece of 22. The only thing is if you go on my website, you're going to find that these podcasts have slides, right? They actually videos, but you have slides. So go on my website, divine intervention podcast.com and download the slides from there.

And then as you're watching these videos on You Tube, follow along with the slides, follow along with the slides. So you can say, okay, in the morning, I'll do piz in the afternoon, I'm going to do a big guy, right? In the afternoon, I'm going to do a big guy. That's your job for today for the day. And then what the thing you can do in the evening is, so in the morning, you've like watched the piz video, you've gone through the slides. In the afternoon, you've watched the OB game 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 piz slides again. You don't have to rewatch the video. Just go through the piz slides again, episode 21. Go through your big guy slides again, episode 22. Right. Now what do you do on the two of week one, the two? 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, I mean, you have like almost 600 podcasts. How do I start scrolling down on 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 postcard. 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, after you've chilled, relaxed and everything, I'll encourage you to go back, review those surgery slides again, review the slides, 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. 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 when I promise you 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. Well, 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 on my website, the slides are, the videos on my You Tube channel, the slides are on my website, right. The notes are also on the episode notes. Again, full 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. So four days are gone, so far gone. Right. So you're like, hmm, okay. Wow, 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, the five, which is, you know, the five, review the slides from Obi-Gai not Pids in the morning and the review the site slides from psych and surgery in the afternoon.

So Obi-Gai not Pids 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 bio statistics podcast. Listen to that podcast full along with the slides that are there. Okay. Do that. And that will be a wise thing to do. And then 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 the six, one other thing I want you to do is to listen to episode 446. Episode 446. It is titled Divine Patch. Basically, it's a podcast where I give updates on things that may have been outdated, like measure things that may have been outdated from past podcasts before then. But I just say, 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. It may have been, what I said in episode 200 and something may have been accurate, but guidelines have changed. Like for example, lung cancer. We start screening for lung cancer these days at each 50, right? We start screening for colorectal cancer at each 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 the 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 MBM E9. Literally go ahead and take MBM E9. Many people say, well, I'm not going to do all the MBM E's. Again, you're literally shooting yourself in the foot, right? What are the people that are writing the exam that you're going to be taking? It's the MBM E's. 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 two or three percent that's going to kill you. And here's the thing. You're going to notice as you listen to the Vine 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, maybe out of date, you're going to see them discussed in the future during your study plan. And I'm the thing I will also say is this. And the thing I will also say is this that may 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 Q banks, the major ones, the URL, the ambus, they will say certain things that are true. Yeah, absolutely true.

But for USMLE purposes, the USML Es are like, no, that's not what we want to do. This is like a classic thinnye address in many of my classes. I say that, hey, this is what Q bank A and B says you should do. Is the truth. Is the most recent recommendation. But our friends at the ambus want you to do this instead. Right? So it's just something I want to keep in mind. The fact that a Q bank says that something is true and that something is true, does not necessarily mean that'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. We didn't do any Q bank questions in week one. Calm down. Calm down. The time for doing Q bank questions is going to come. Just be calm. It's going to happen. Okay. It's going to happen. All right. So now let's roll into week two. So what are you going to do in week two? Well, they want to week two. Basically, in the morning, review your peds slides, episode 21 slides. And then right after that, you know, take like a five-ton-minute break and then do one block of your work peds questions, 40 questions. Do not do mix questions. Just do literally 40 peds questions. Be done by noon and take a rest. What are you doing the afternoon of day one? Spend you afternoon. Review the OB guys slides, episode 22. You're not rewatching those podcasts. You've watched them carefully in week one.

You see the work of week one is going to stop paying off in week two. Right? And then do a block of your world OB guys questions, 40 questions. Review them. Right? Again, do not do mix questions. Be done, rest. Be done by six pm rest and have a good day. And then you may wonder why you divide. Why are you saying don't do things mix? Here's the thing. When you do things subject based as I'm recommending. And honestly, our recommend just do it in time to tutor mode. But if you're pressing that struggles with timing, then you should do the whole block on the 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 review in a block of 40 year old questions. You may wonder divine. This is not possible. Like I literally spend four or five six hours or even one year old 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 MBM 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 hope that if you're taking the USML is you're not used Google literally typing divine intervention. How to review your world and MBM questions efficiently. It's going to 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 was strongly encourage you to listen to episode two thirty nine. Episode two seventy eight. Episode two twenty three. And episode three twenty six. Two thirty nine to seventy eight to twenty three. And three twenty six. 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. Don't bother taking notes on this podcast. Just listen and get the understanding. This podcast and capsule things like OB-GYN risk factors, immune rare, pizza cardio, right, and newborns. These are things that kind of reinforce some hard trouble. Some 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 they want. Right. But in the morning do surgery, right. So go through the slides for episode twenty four. Do after that, take a five-taminy break and then do forty your surgery questions. And then in the afternoon, do psych, episode twenty three. Right.

And then do forty psych your order questions, right. And review it. Right. And then in the evening, listen to episodes one eighty three seventy seven. One sixty four. And three forty nine. I'm going to reel that off again. One eighty three seventy seven. Right. And then in the evening, one eighty three seventy seven. Right. And then in the evening, one eighty three seventy seven. Right. And then in the evening, one eighty three seventy seven. Right. One sixty four. Is about toxicology three forty nine is about psych pharmacology again reinforcing what you've learned earlier in the day. And I was strongly encourage you if you can try to make it a habit to get up at like seven seven thirty in the morning and get your day going. You know, if it's eight a.m. You start studying. That's wise. The thing is you want to get into a grooving to routine and I'll address this in more detail later in this podcast. Right. 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 routine, you tend to be just more successful with life stuff is just just common sense. Right. But again, I'm going to let that go. All right. Now what do you do on the three? What's your job on the three.

Talk about the one talked about the two D three in the morning, read the notes for episode 29. That's my first. I am video read the notes and in do 40 internal medicine, you were questions in the afternoon. And obviously since you're doing to know 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 I am video number two. And then do 40 year old internal medicine questions. And then in the evening, listen to two podcasts that I highly recommend. 554 554 is an antibiotic podcast. I'm I kid you know, that is such a high your podcast for your exams. And then episode 445. So 554 and 445. 445 talks about my complications. Those are heavily tested on the USM. 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 I am video number three and do 40 year old. I am questions in the afternoon. Read the notes for episode 32. And it do 40. I am you were questions. 40. I am you were questions. Right. In the evening, listen to episode 539 and episode 503 539 and 503. Right. And again, maybe like, man, the fun you've made us go through the I am videos. For example, as of this point of your dedicated. So this probably like day 11, you would have gone through the I am stuff like. So let's see one, two. So you did it once you listen, 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 the beginning week to 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 my week three by week four by week five by week six. You're going to know this material and no code, right? If you're truly following this process. All right. So what you do on day five of your dedicated period. What do you do on the five? One day five. Listen to episode 143. That's the bio starts podcast. Right. And review the slide. You know, review the slides. Review the slides. So listen to it again. Review the slides. And then after that, take your world self assessment number three. Your self assessment number three. And they review it. Right. The thing is, you may wonder why you say take you WSC number three. This early might dedicate it. Well, here's the thing. QWC number three. Just in my experience. Sometimes he 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 into your dedicated period. Right. And then what should you do on these six on these six is a big testing date. 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 master series. Those parents. Those are the series. Those practical exams. I would encourage you to do CMS form number five for internal medicine for peeds for surgery and for a big guy for internal medicine for peeds for surgery for a big guy. Do that in the morning. Like, literally just wake up in the morning and do these things back to 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 going to 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 these seven of week two on these seven a week two. Listen to episode 400 and then do a BME 10. Listen to episode 400 and do a BME 10. Right. And let me say something here that may be helpful because on who may be like divine. I like to take one rest a week. Well, if you're going to take one rest a week. Then you did a period is the beginning six weeks, make it seven weeks. Right.

So that you can like work for like seven days, take a day off or for another seven days, take a day off or for another seven days, take a day off. All right. That's what I do if I read. 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 a BME 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 PZ, you were questions, OB guys, slides in the afternoon, 40 OB guy, you were questions, right. The only thing that's going to change from day one to day four at the evening podcast. So basically, whatever you didn't week two, they want to day four. That's clear what you're going to be doing in week three. They want 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, 4 day, 2, what are you doing 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 the 221, 304, A and B, 452 and 453. For the three, listen to episode 100 and 104, 104, 104, D4, listen to episode 135 and 251, 135 and 251.

When you actually listen to this podcast, you will see precisely why I am teaching all these specific podcasts for your dedicated period. And then what do you do on D5 on D5 do MbMe 11, B Me 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 own and MbMe questions efficiently, right. And then in the evening, listen to episode 228, 230 and 234. So in the evening of D5, 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 I am for peeds for surgery and for OBE guy for I am P surgery and OBE guy just doing the morning and then reviewing the afternoon. And then on D7, what do you do on D7, listen to episode 400, listen to episode 400, get your head in the game. And then do you WC number one do you WC number one. All right, I was jumping to week four. So what should week four look like again and week four. Basically again, we're trying to make routines here and stick to them. And week four basically follow the plan for these one to four from week two. But again, the evening podcasts 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 472 and 250, 470 and 250 for the 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 is a cortical steroid podcast. You're going to get multiple questions right from your exams from this one podcast. There's literally a reason why there's a worksheet with this with this podcast. And then before listen to episodes 129 and 404, pieces 129 and 404. And then what do you do on the five on the five doing me 12 in the morning, reviewing the afternoon. Right. And then in the evening, listen to episodes 268, 275 and 123. Okay. 268 to 75 and 123. All right. Now what do you do on these six of week number four on these six do CMS forms number seven. Right. Again, this is like a 200 question day for internal medicine, for the first surgery and for the guy do those in the morning and then reviewing the afternoon and then the seven. What do you do listen to episode 400 get your head in the game again, you're establishing good habits, good habits and in 20 and number 13. All right. It's going 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 the stuff on you exams. Right.

For day two, listen to episodes 184 and 325 184 and 325 is the screening guidelines podcasts. Remember, I said, colon cancer, we now screen at age 45. We start screening at 45 long cancer, start screening at age 50. I believe I may have addressed those in the divine patch podcasts. Right. Now for day three in the evening, listen to episodes 399 and episode 36. episode 36 is one of my earliest podcasts on my website is 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 address the topics of cancer of auto antibodies and nephrodisiac and nephrodisiac syndrome. Very high your topics to know for your exams. And then what you don't be five of week five. What do you don't be five on day five? Do you mean me 14 in the morning? And reviewing the afternoon, right. And then in the evening of that day, listen to episodes 276 277 and 530 to 76 to 77 and 530. And then on the six, what do you do? Do CMS form number eight? Right. Number eight for internal medicine, for peeds, for surgery, for a big guy, do those in the morning. In the afternoon, review those. And then on the seven, listen to episode 400. And then do you WC number two? UWC number two. UWC 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 peeds review the slides for OB-GYN and peeds 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. They too. What do you do? They too review the notes from episodes 29 to 32 review the notes for episodes 29 to 32, the four internal medicine videos. Day three, take mbm 15. And review all the questions right after that. Take mbm 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. 2037 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 these six. You're going to see what I'm saying. Use the PDF instead of the website interface. See, 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 the of the five. And then what do you do on these six on these six 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 the way to a question 120. Okay. You can find all the podcast numbers. It's about 14 parts. Under the step two step three tap. So again, go to my website, divine intervention podcast.com. Click on the exam topics list. Go to the step two step three tab of the spreadsheet and then scroll all the way down. You're going to see a step two free 120 series. You're going to see the episode numbers. Right. I literally going 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 are 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 discuss so many testing principles and it's got so many wonderful things in that podcast. And then the seven of weeks six should be like a rest day. Right. It's probably the day before your exam. You know, you chill out. You rest your 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 pressing that works out or you're pressing that drives a lot during the day. Well, 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 podcasts. My rapid review series. I have so many rapid review podcasts. And again, you can find the exact episode numbers on the step two step three tab on my website under exam topics less. Exam topics less. Right. So if working out or driving or some mindless activity is part of your day, you can literally be listening to those rapid review podcasts to just get some extra knowledge in. Cring those up, work through those. Just work through as many as you can. You're probably not going to be able to finish it, but just work through as many as you can. Make it a daily habit. Now, one thing I'm going to say here is kind of unusual advice, but I promise you 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 on 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'll 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 complex exam. Right. The thing is, there are so many changes that have come to the USML Es. This class will literally help you get in the mindset, the right mindset for this exam. Right. 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 that class has been revamped because there's a lot of changes that have really happened just with the way the USML Es set things up. Right. So again, it's a broader recommendation I have for anyone taking any USMLE exam. Now, in another podcast, I also discussed my other classes and the advantages of my classes over my podcast because you may wonder, why should I take your classes. I addressed that in my podcast where I talk about the classes I'm offering. Right. So like, for example, you may notice, February 2025, step one, two, step three, view classes, I talk about all my classes and what you stand to gain from from them. Right. I'll leave that discussion for that podcast, but my podcast, my classes have helped many people do extremely well on the 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 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 bio stats class, my social science class, my last minute review, my 20 hour class, my 25 hours, 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 work with this plan. Oh, divine. Uh oh, uh oh. What are you saying, divine? What are you saying, divine? Right. You will not be able to finish your work 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 Q bank in a sense, just something to keep in mind. All right. Another piece of advice. You may say divine. Can I swap out you world with ambus instead? Like ambus works better for me. You can. There's nothing wrong with that. Ambus is also very good. Right. Your world is just more of a personal preference for myself. And if I were taking the exam, your world 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. Right. Now, oh, divine.

Um, how do I feel comfortable with my prep for my exams? Well, like 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 would want to be on your real exam, it should be good to go. Right. So don't base. Oh, this is how I'm going to do on my exam based on one practice test. No, if you take two to three practice tests. I you're scoring around where you 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. Where you may need more specialized help. You should probably reach out to me for some more guidance. Right. Or you probably take a longer dedicated period. Right. Because, uh, chances are if you really follow this plan, you should probably be good. Right. But 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 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 acquitted by by week two is like, oh, I did you WS 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 with two scores. Although, you may do so poorly on them that is going to give you all the motivation. You need for the remaining weeks. Right. Those those exam scores is pretty like MBM in a year WS number three. They can really whip you into shape and provide the motivation you need to study to study hard. 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 only talk about day one to day six. Right. Take this 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. Isn't your episode 400 again. Okay. Now, one thing I'll just say is stay away from people on test. They that will kill your spirit. Right.

I really tell people, you know, stay in your car until is, you know, time to start your exam. Right. Don't hang around the people that are going to be taking the test. You're going to be because you're going to be seeing a bunch of anxious people. A bunch of panic people is not helpful. Right. Basically, keep a calm, quiet spirit. Right. Again, if any of you know about the Los Angeles Cleppers, they're not my team at all. I do not support them in any way. Shuffle form, but I love one player on their team. Kawai Leonard. Keep a Kawai Leonard demeanor. Right. Keep a Kawai Leonard demeanor. And pray. If you're a person that prays pray. Right. For me, I know that before every USM exam, I prayed. Right. Many of you know, I'm a Christian. I prayed. Right. Just to have that piece of God in my heart. Right. So pray, pray, pray, pray. Right. Go downstairs prayers. Right. Now next piece of advice. Getting to routines and you see me say this so many times, getting to 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 you exam starts by 8 a.m. Like your real test days, it may be starting to start in each day at 8 a.m.

You know, you're just going to 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 very good tracking examples 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 to pack my lunch or whatever that night before I got up when I wanted to get up like it's like, hey, the one your real test is next week started at 8 a.m. Plan to get up at 7 a.m. I got up at this at that exact time. I literally drove to the more parametric. I didn't set for the net. I just drove to the parametric and then drove back home and took the last practice exam. I think back then it was AMC level 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 level back then, which was actually a good score. Thankfully, I'm not going to talk about that right now. 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 is usually counterproductive. And I generally don't recommend it is 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 somebody I'll teach them for free. You don't waste your time with those people, right. Studying on your own, you're going to be taking you see, let me tell you this, you're going to be taking you exam on your own. You're not going to be taking you examine a group. Loose 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 baggage. All right. Next piece of advice, still of the interwebs, still of still of Reddit, still of You Tube, right. Still of 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. Put boundaries. If you want to read a book that really helped your life, maybe do this after you get a period of free time, it's literally a book title boundaries. Hi, it's one of the books I read earlier this year and this book just literally changed my life. Literally just have boundaries on your life. Have boundaries on when you use your phone.

Literally have boundaries. Trust me, I'm a person that, ooh, 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 check. All right. Now, why do I say still of the interwebs? The thing is, many people on the, especially on these Reddit subs, on the USML Es or an SDN, they have like these very fatalistic mindsets. 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 going to say is, you know, some people's medical say, just do questions. Just do questions during your day. That's all you need to do. Huh?

Men have I heard that story so many times and men have I had so many people absolutely just bonked their dedicated periods by following that piece of advice. See, doing questions alone will not help you on the USM. I'm going to say that again for people in the back doing questions alone will not help you on the USM. 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 I'll there's some people because I know some people be like divine, but my buddy, my friend, my friend only did your questions or whatever and they crushed the exams. They didn't even do any of me 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 taking 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 can 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 USM in exams, pathophys matters, context matters. Just memorizing factoids is not going to get you there. That's just the truth. Right? And then I'll 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 feel it? Would it not be good to have some more time? What if you're like, wow, okay, I 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, ooh, I need to score two, seven, even I'm not going to match into any specialty. That's a big, both face fat lie. See, two 40s will keep you in the running for most disciplines. That's the truth. Two 40s 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 to 40s to 50s, 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 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, the, the, see, don't just look at scores.

There are other things that factor into your ability to match, right, like, hey, 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, divine makeup 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 two. Obviously, this podcast also applies to level two. This is not for level two. You should probably also spend time doing is not probably you should spend time spend time studying OMM, right, osteopathic and manipulative medicine. Right. But again, this podcast is really helpful. Right. So share this with your friends. It's really going to help them succeed on their test. Right. When you have good news like this, why should you hide it? Right. Why should you hide it? All right. So thank you for listening to me. Again, I offer one or one to learn from all the US Emily exams step one to three, all the complex exams level one to three. And I also have classes for step one or the way to step three.

I have an MBA me testing strategies class that's one and a half hours long, a bio stats class that's four hours long, a social sciences, hospital medicine, quality improvement and ethics review that's five hours long. Right. Those are for step one or the way to step three. I actually have the test taking class starting today, right. Bio class class tomorrow social science class on on Thursday. Right. 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 ticketing and they're like, wow, the mind this class is so helpful. I thought I was I didn't know three hours just disappeared. Right. And then I have a 20 hour class next week is a 20 hour step to step three review. And then in the month of June, the first two weeks of the month of June, I have a 50 hour step to step three review. And then I have a 25 hour step one 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 on your foundation is weak, your foundation is bad. That class is going to be perfect for you. And then I also help with your 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 You Tube channel that I also post the videos that I make.

And then I have another website called divine intervention life lessons.com divine intervention life lessons.com every week I post like two or three podcasts were from a biblical perspective address a life lesson. There's actually an Apple podcast associated with that is called the divine intervention life lessons podcast. Many people have listened to this podcast. Many people listen to these podcasts and 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 will see you in episode 574. So God bless you and bye for now. Thank you.

Five to six weeks.

It must be a "foundation week," establishing a strong base before moving into advanced topics.

After watching the videos and following the slides, dedicate evening time to re-reviewing those specific slides/notes for reinforcement.

Do questions subject-based (e.g., only 40 Peds questions), rather than mixed, and do not spend more than 100 minutes reviewing a block of 40 questions.

Never assume that what a Q-bank says is exactly what will be tested on the USMLE; always maintain critical evaluation.

Take scheduled breaks (e.g., 5-10 minute breaks) to prevent burnout and optimize focus between subject blocks.

To establish a strong foundation, as poor foundations will compromise later learning efforts.

Group study can be counterproductive and inefficient; studying alone promotes focus and efficiency for the exam setting.

They serve as "software updates," addressing outdated guidelines or changes in medical recommendations since previous content was created.

Take it early in the dedicated period (e.g., Week 2/3) to get it out of the way and prevent deep discouragement later on.

Two 40s or higher (240+) will keep a student in the running for most specialties.

Take it early, rather than delaying until the last minute, to build a margin of safety and avoid unnecessary anxiety during the dedicated period.

To establish a strong foundation, as poor foundations will compromise later learning efforts.

Group study can be counterproductive and inefficient; studying alone promotes focus and efficiency for the exam setting.

They serve as "software updates," addressing outdated guidelines or changes in medical recommendations since previous content was created.

Take it early in the dedicated period (e.g., Week 2/3) to get it out of the way and prevent deep discouragement later on.

Two 40s or higher (240+) will keep a student in the running for most specialties.

Take it early, rather than delaying until the last minute, to build a margin of safety and avoid unnecessary anxiety during the dedicated period.