Boards and Wards vs. Secrets/Crush vs. First Aid

[AK_MD2BE]

For those of you who have taken Step 2 or are in the process of studying for Step 2, which of these three books (considering that Secrets and Crush are almost identical in content) are best for Step 2?

I realize that a lot of this is personal preference, but I am just trying to figure out what to study with in addition to USMLE World. Thanks for your advice. 🙂

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[gonogo]

I haven't taken the test yet, but I think neither B&W nor FA are particularly good (I haven't used secrets/crush). They're lacking lot of information and are just good to review the stuff that is really common sense and that you already know from your 3rd year. UW is way better than these two books.

Again, take this with a grain of salt since I haven't taken the test yet.

 

[Bill_Brasky]

am a DO student. First of all ditch FA for step II unless you need to start with the very very basics. Secrets (and I suppose Crush) had a broader scope of material, which you will need. I used FA after B&W and Secrets and it was a waste of money.

I finished world and went back over the 1200 questions I wanted 2nd exposure to and wrote out the explanation/scenario for myself. That too a long time but it was worth it just for the knowledge base for my future if nothing else. Secrets is good to review quickly before the test, read it to fill in the blanks.

B&W doesn't contain much secrets doesn't but it has the verbiage to help put in in context. In retrospect I could have gotten away without it and just used secrets and world.

 

[Osteojazz]

loved uworld and crush and secrets. first aid and b&w not so much. read crush twice, secrets once, all of uworld. read first aid and b&w once... (ok to go over once thru i guess) b&w is good because you can use it again for step 3

 

[gonogo]

Secrets is good to review quickly before the test, read it to fill in the blanks.

I read FA once and went through some topics in B&W as I was doing UW. My test is in 5 days and I'm wondering if I should get secrets now and go through it or if it's too late for that and I should just try to go through FA a second time. Any advice?

 

[Bill_Brasky]

I read FA once and went through some topics in B&W as I was doing UW. My test is in 5 days and I'm wondering if I should get secrets now and go through it or if it's too late for that and I should just try to go through FA a second time. Any advice?

At this point in time I wouldn't buy a new book, since you went through B&W and FA you have a great base of knowledge to start with and anything FA didn't cover B&W and UW did. Besides you are prob comfortable with FA and have the things you want to spend more time on highlighted.

All other things being equal, spend more time on UW, I had around 15-20 questions on the test almost exactly the same as ones in world. That'll save you some time, which seemed to be my limiting factor.

 

[derm83]

What about Step-up to USMLE Step 2?

 

[Bill_Brasky]

What about Step-up to USMLE Step 2?

personally I didn't use it so can't comment. Anyone else?

 

[Babycatcher2B]

personally I didn't use it so can't comment. Anyone else?

Seemed like an okay book (Similar to Step Up to Medicine, but with less detail since it covers it all). I bought it and returned it because #1 I wasn't gonna be able to read it in its entirety w/i the 4 weeks I had to study and do USMLE World questions. Honestly I think that Step up to Medicine might be much better than Step Up to Step 2 CK. Much of the "quick hits" in the margins were the same as the "educational objectives" for USMLE world.

 

[jdinovit]

Ditch everything and just study Crush. Crush is the best book written for step 2 in my opinion.