For any people that have taken Step 2 CK recently, I know UWorld is seen as the holy grail, but did you find there were any important topics you saw on your exam that the qbank did not cover?
Thanks!
Thanks!
Any UWorld Holes for Step 2 CK?
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I will be taking Step2 soon and would like to know this also.
Every testing experience is variable, of course. I noticed there were many questions revolving around hormones. UWorld and even Kaplan didn't sufficiently help on that.
There's the obligatory Number Needed to Treat questions, which requires quick thinking (and therefore practice) that the Qbanks are weak on helping you with. The problem with the stats questions is that the answers will be very wordy (they go, "which of the following is true" and have big answer choices that suck your time up). So you have to read what the answer choices are actually trying to get at, find the number, and see what applies. Be superfast with stats. I'm actually good at stats, and I still ran out of time on a question because I didn't amp up my speed.
UWorld's heart sounds honestly are pretty lame, and Kaplan doesn't even have them. UWorld usually does S3, S4, or their valve problems are obvious in the question stem. That's not really the case on CK. You'll want to Youtube some of the valve diseases so you just have a good short-term memory of what you want to find.
Remember that UWorld cases will show up on the exam as seen, but not in the same format. You have to make some loose associations sometimes. I remember there was a Placental Abruption on UWorld presented as an auto accident. I think UWorld emphasizes the dramatic a little bit much. It's worth remembering that trauma is trauma, whether it's just a fall or it's a polytrauma car crash.
On the NBME's (and as well as on the CK), you might get unusual presentations for otherwise classically described situations. I'm pretty certain there was an elderly man with appendicitis on the NBME's, as well as a male Anorexic. Those do pop up, and UWorld doesn't help you on them too much.
Did you know long-term Rheumatoid Arthritis leads to atlantoaxial instability? I was blown away that this showed up literally everywhere I looked. Kaplan's QBook is where I first saw it. Then on UWorld, then Kaplan's QBank, and then... well, it's pretty crazy.
Derm photos are there, and UWorld does a fair job on those. They're inevitably going to show you something you have no idea about. But it seems like the trick is that they want to scare you with the wording. If something as simple as Herpes is mixed in with a list of Erythema _______, it's almost certainly going to be Herpes (just as a heuristic, not a law).
That's just some vague advice, just so not to give out concepts rather than answers. UWorld is good, and you'll see a lot of stuff word-for-word the same as seen on CK. Kaplan helps you read through the "what the heck are they getting at" moments. You're going to get stumped on a few things, and that's ok. Your goal is to minimize those experiences rather than unrealistically obliterate them.
There's the obligatory Number Needed to Treat questions, which requires quick thinking (and therefore practice) that the Qbanks are weak on helping you with. The problem with the stats questions is that the answers will be very wordy (they go, "which of the following is true" and have big answer choices that suck your time up). So you have to read what the answer choices are actually trying to get at, find the number, and see what applies. Be superfast with stats. I'm actually good at stats, and I still ran out of time on a question because I didn't amp up my speed.
UWorld's heart sounds honestly are pretty lame, and Kaplan doesn't even have them. UWorld usually does S3, S4, or their valve problems are obvious in the question stem. That's not really the case on CK. You'll want to Youtube some of the valve diseases so you just have a good short-term memory of what you want to find.
Remember that UWorld cases will show up on the exam as seen, but not in the same format. You have to make some loose associations sometimes. I remember there was a Placental Abruption on UWorld presented as an auto accident. I think UWorld emphasizes the dramatic a little bit much. It's worth remembering that trauma is trauma, whether it's just a fall or it's a polytrauma car crash.
On the NBME's (and as well as on the CK), you might get unusual presentations for otherwise classically described situations. I'm pretty certain there was an elderly man with appendicitis on the NBME's, as well as a male Anorexic. Those do pop up, and UWorld doesn't help you on them too much.
Did you know long-term Rheumatoid Arthritis leads to atlantoaxial instability? I was blown away that this showed up literally everywhere I looked. Kaplan's QBook is where I first saw it. Then on UWorld, then Kaplan's QBank, and then... well, it's pretty crazy.
Derm photos are there, and UWorld does a fair job on those. They're inevitably going to show you something you have no idea about. But it seems like the trick is that they want to scare you with the wording. If something as simple as Herpes is mixed in with a list of Erythema _______, it's almost certainly going to be Herpes (just as a heuristic, not a law).
That's just some vague advice, just so not to give out concepts rather than answers. UWorld is good, and you'll see a lot of stuff word-for-word the same as seen on CK. Kaplan helps you read through the "what the heck are they getting at" moments. You're going to get stumped on a few things, and that's ok. Your goal is to minimize those experiences rather than unrealistically obliterate them.
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USMLE World has a lot more zebras than the real thing. At least that's what I found on my exam a few days ago. If you do most of your studying out of USMLE World, I'd recommend doing a couple of days of review of Crush or Secrets to remind you what the high yield stuff is. To be honest, I found about 95% of the Step 2 questions came from stuff that I really should have known and very little in the way of factoids...
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I am wrapping up with UWorld right now, and I can say that whoever on the UWorld staff wrote the answer explanations for the Hepatology questions needs to chill the f*** out. Answer explanation 15 paragraphs long for every hepatitis / cirrhosis / HCC question is ridiculous... by the time I get through the whole explanation, and all repetitive/redundant explanations for all choices A through J, including every complication that has ever happened to any patient who has ever had a hepatic adenoma, I pretty much forget what the original case was.
I'm doing tutor mode and every time I get a question about some Mexican 40 year-old with jaundice, or an IV drug user alcoholic with pruritis, I seriously want to punch a hole through my computer screen.
I'm doing tutor mode and every time I get a question about some Mexican 40 year-old with jaundice, or an IV drug user alcoholic with pruritis, I seriously want to punch a hole through my computer screen.
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I know exactly what you mean. I've been doing marked Q's for the past week (taking the test tomorrow) and suffice to say, I'm lucky there's no broken phalanges. Hope it doesn't happen at the prometric center tomorrow
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I only used UWorld for Step 2, and it led to a >30 point jump from step 1 to step 2 for me. I opened FA, but it seriously sucked, so I never opened it again. SUTM is way overkill, even for areas of weakness. I tried this for heme/onc, and stopped again. Maybe for isolated diseases, but not as a subject review certainly. I never used Crush, Secrets, and whatever else people claim are absolute musts.
The key to step 2 is doing well during third year clerkships. I scored in the 90s on every shelf exam and that probably set my foundation up to do well.
If you do UWorld, read every single painfully long explanation, you should not need any other resource. Even if you could get a question right while in a coma, read the explanation from top to bottom. The point is not whether you get an isolated question right or wrong, it's if you know the other concepts related to it. Often times reading through the wrong answer explanation will teach you 3-4 more points.
Also, UWorld does a great job of testing everything a minimum of 2-3 times. Nothing ever shows up just once. So if you are missing the same concept more than once, you are not studying appropriately. This happened to me early, and I caught on, and became more focused. I only studied for 3.5 weeks, but I studied hard and well.
Step1 mid 230s, Step2 high 260s.
The key to step 2 is doing well during third year clerkships. I scored in the 90s on every shelf exam and that probably set my foundation up to do well.
If you do UWorld, read every single painfully long explanation, you should not need any other resource. Even if you could get a question right while in a coma, read the explanation from top to bottom. The point is not whether you get an isolated question right or wrong, it's if you know the other concepts related to it. Often times reading through the wrong answer explanation will teach you 3-4 more points.
Also, UWorld does a great job of testing everything a minimum of 2-3 times. Nothing ever shows up just once. So if you are missing the same concept more than once, you are not studying appropriately. This happened to me early, and I caught on, and became more focused. I only studied for 3.5 weeks, but I studied hard and well.
Step1 mid 230s, Step2 high 260s.
