Best resources for Step 2-CK

[manning18]

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Good afternoon. I am scheduled to take USMLE, Step 2-CK in early August
(8-1-06, actually!). I would appreciate other peoples' comments on what they thought were the most useful resources to prepare for Step 2-CK, both with regards to i. Books/Sources of Information and ii. Questions.
As of now, my plan is to gather my information from:
i. First Aid for Step 2-CK (which came out with a relatively new edition in Sept. 2005)
ii. USMLE Step 2 Secrets.
iii. Deja Review for Step 2, which maybe a little lesser known, but got sweet reviews on Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071448764/103-1504072-7547063?v=glance&n=283155

I plan to us USMLEworld for questions, instead of Q-Bank.

Please comment on what you thought was or was not useful and what you think of my strategy. I have plenty of time, as I'm not very bust between now and my test date (long story). Thank you very much!

 

[TommyGunn04]

I approached CK from a minimalist perspective, as I felt I tried to use too many books and sources for Step 1 and ended up spreading myself too thin. It's not that I did poorly on Step 1, but I felt that in retrospect, my time would have been spent better focusing on a few really good sources. So the only book I used this time around was "Crush Step 2," and I did about half of the USMLEWorld questions. I preferred this book to First Aid, as I felt it was much more succinct and presented only the most relevant and high-yield facts, whereas Firs Aid for CK is a bit too long and detailed for my tastes, given the amount of study time I had. I studied part time, off and on, for 3-4 weeks, and improved my score from Step 1 by about 10 points. Then again, I took CK after the match, so it was much less of a pressured situation as I already had my match result in hand.

My 2 cents: be careful not to use too many books. Going through First Aid or Crush a number of times and doing lots of USMLEWorld questions is a really great strategy. I think this is a much better approach than trying to get through 3-4 different books but knowing their content in a much more superficial way.

 

[neutropenic]

I liked Kaplan's ck qbook (not bank which costs bank). It has ? 850 questions many of which are extremely similar to questions on the real exam.

 

[bigfrank]

I liked Kaplan's ck qbook (not bank which costs bank). It has ? 850 questions many of which are extremely similar to questions on the real exam.

👍

I concur -- found the book VERY helpful with some near-repeats on my exam.

 

[manning18]

Thanks for the advice thusfar! Do people think that Crush Step 2 has ENOUGH information to do well on Step 2, say 90 or higher? I think that's roughly 220-225 on the 3-digit scale. I think Crush is efficient and well written but, from what I've seen, it lacks in detail fairly often. I agree with TommyGunn and the "minimalist" strategy as I, also, prefer to master 1-2 sources of information instead of reading more sources, but not learning them as well. I am, for now, going to focus my learning from First Aid and Deja, with USMLE world for questions. I do have Q-Book and, thanks to these recommendations, will go through it as well. Thank you!

 

[drRumi]

👍

I concur -- found the book VERY helpful with some near-repeats on my exam.

Thanks for returning my PM from like a month ago regarding this, bigfrank. 🙄

 

[manning18]

I just purchased USMLEworld questions. I have heard of some people studying for Step 2-CK using questions as their SOLE source of preparation. For example, a friend of mine used Q-Bank and went through the entire pool of questions (along with the explanations) in detail. He did this WITHOUT reading any sources of information (i.e. First Aid, Crush, etc.) What do people think of this idea? My target score is a 2-digit score of 90. Would I be able to reach this target if I did only questions? I have a lot of time (roughly 12 weeks) to prepare. Thanks!

 

[Wednesday]

I thought that Crush was good, but lacked detail. I used it in conjunction with Boards and Wards which I thought had a perfect amount of detail.

 

[4424]

Thanks for the advice thusfar! Do people think that Crush Step 2 has ENOUGH information to do well on Step 2, say 90 or higher? I think that's roughly 220-225 on the 3-digit scale. I think Crush is efficient and well written but, from what I've seen, it lacks in detail fairly often. I agree with TommyGunn and the "minimalist" strategy as I, also, prefer to master 1-2 sources of information instead of reading more sources, but not learning them as well. I am, for now, going to focus my learning from First Aid and Deja, with USMLE world for questions. I do have Q-Book and, thanks to these recommendations, will go through it as well. Thank you!

i believe that crush and step2 secrets are the same in different formats, so you already have secrets, stick with that

 

[manning18]

Yes, Crush and Secrets are, essentially, the same content in a different format. I was just tyring to gauge others' opinions on whether or not Crush had enough informational content. I was also hoping that people could comment on what they thought about using USMLEworld and other questions as one's ONLY source of preparation? Is this practical, or "dangerous" in the sense one would not have a strong enough factual base. If I did this, I would read the explanations carefully and reference books such as First Aid on a PRN basis, but I would refer to them in the contect of questions/explanations. A friend of mine did this using Q-Bank and scored 243/98. He's a smart guy and, just because he did this, doesn't mean I or anyone else would have the same result, but I thought the idea was worth tossing around. I was thinking of doing maybe 100 or so questions/day and, as I am reading the explanations, I can reference that speicfic section of First Aid, Secrets, etc. as I go along. For some reason, I'm just not in the "sit down and read for hours" mode right now, so I'm trying to find other ways to study that will also be beneficial. Please share your thoughts. Thank you!

 

[drRumi]

I liked Kaplan's ck qbook (not bank which costs bank). It has ? 850 questions many of which are extremely similar to questions on the real exam.

neutropenic, just to be clear.....is this the one you're talking about?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743273443/102-9655654-9723308?v=glance&n=283155