Research yr: Best prep/refresher before clinical rotations

[mopitup85]

I've recently taken STEP 1. I'm taking the year to participate in a research program and would like to know what y'all think would be the best prep for clinical rotation pimping and STEP 2CK. Ideally, I'd like to get internal medicine rotation done early, so I don't mind focusing on that at first. If you had some time to prep before clinical rotations what do you think would be most helpful for review for shelves and STEP 2CK.

Would it be helpful to start with DIT for Step 2CK since I won't have taken any rotations and might need a refresher of the material from Step 1 (since I might forget some of that knowledge)? I feel like I would need something that I could understand easily without any clinical experience. I'd probably do at least 20 questions a day from UWorld internal medicine along with it.

Would a textbook be better? If so can you let me know your suggestions. I'm not the best test taker, so I'd like to know what I can do now to help prep for Step 2CK.

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[DocVapor]

Truthfully the best thing you could do for yourself is to take a break before rotations and forget half of what you learned. Once on rotations you will learn what is actually important, and that's what will give you the baseline you need to start studying for Step 2 further down the road.

 

[Leopoldovich1]

In all honestly, you should just kill 2 birds with one stone and start studying for Step 3 while you're at it.

 

[justin1390]

Agreed, don't be to ambitious here, you need time to prevent burnout. Here's what I'd do if it were me:

For rotation pimping, there are only two good resources out there:
-msgunner.com (high yield pimp questions only)
-pimp protector (book with a decent amount of pimping questions)

For rotations and step 2, I would utilize 1 or both of the resources below:
- Step 2 Secrets (book)
- Uworld

That's about it. I wouldn't be too crazy about studying. Honestly, if you like books, do pimp protector and Step 2 Secrets. If you like online, use Uworld and study the questions, then use msgunner for looking good during pimping sessions.