Failed CS.. About to take Kaplan Live Prep.. Advice?

[Chris C]

Hi Everyone,

Unfortunately, I failed the CIS component of my Step 2 CS, and have to retake it. I felt very comfortable while taking the test, and thought that I probably did the best on the CIS part of the exam and worst on the ICE portion of the exam. Well, I did great on ICE and failed CIS.

Now, I am retaking the exam in a few weeks and am looking into taking a review course in order to get a better idea of how I can improve, and to gain more practice with the SPs. I was about to sign up for Kaplan Live 5-day prep, but it is very expensive, and there is not much feedback about prior experiences. I also saw a review course called goldusmlereview, which is cheaper, but not sure if it is legit.

Does anyone have any experience with either review course that they can share, or any advise as to which may be a better option for me?

Thank you very much for any help or suggestions!

Chris

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[HelpPleaseMD]

Hi Everyone,

Unfortunately, I failed the CIS component of my Step 2 CS, and have to retake it. I felt very comfortable while taking the test, and thought that I probably did the best on the CIS part of the exam and worst on the ICE portion of the exam. Well, I did great on ICE and failed CIS.

Now, I am retaking the exam in a few weeks and am looking into taking a review course in order to get a better idea of how I can improve, and to gain more practice with the SPs. I was about to sign up for Kaplan Live 5-day prep, but it is very expensive, and there is not much feedback about prior experiences. I also saw a review course called goldusmlereview, which is cheaper, but not sure if it is legit.

Does anyone have any experience with either review course that they can share, or any advise as to which may be a better option for me?

Thank you very much for any help or suggestions!

Chris

sorry to hear that. Try practicing the CS cases with friends and ask them to give you honest feedback. Most people have trouble with the ICE portion unless your IMG.

 

[Shirin2004]

Hi Everyone,

Unfortunately, I failed the CIS component of my Step 2 CS, and have to retake it. I felt very comfortable while taking the test, and thought that I probably did the best on the CIS part of the exam and worst on the ICE portion of the exam. Well, I did great on ICE and failed CIS.

Now, I am retaking the exam in a few weeks and am looking into taking a review course in order to get a better idea of how I can improve, and to gain more practice with the SPs. I was about to sign up for Kaplan Live 5-day prep, but it is very expensive, and there is not much feedback about prior experiences. I also saw a review course called goldusmlereview, which is cheaper, but not sure if it is legit.

Does anyone have any experience with either review course that they can share, or any advise as to which may be a better option for me?

Thank you very much for any help or suggestions!

Hi Chris,
I am looking for study partner .if you like to practice cs cases,please send me an email at:[email protected]
Thanks

 

[NYDO2014]

I have a few IMG friends who took Kaplan and did well on CIS component.
From what I heard, the live course in Chicago and Newark is the better than other locations.

 

[gujuDoc]

This was from another guy's post in the thread called step 2 CS freakout. I'd take it seriously

1) I entered every room and said patient's name immediately, shook hands, then asked if I could sit.
2) Immediately after the chief complaint, I said I'm sorry to hear that and showed sadness on my face
3) After questioning, I always explicitly asked "What is the biggest concern of your illness right now, and how can I help you best"
4) After this, I always explicitly asked "If you could put your finger on what was going on, what would you guess it is."

Doing the two above almost always brought out the challenge question and made the rest of the encounter in terms of information literacy and where to focus much much easier.

5) Did a more full social history on each patient, and during the social history explained why I thought the chief complaint might be affecting some part of their life (either some activity, work, ability to diet etc.)
6) Didn't counsel every patient, but did ask them their willingness to change. If they said no, I let it go instead of trying to convince. Some were receptive and then did counseling for them. Don't think it's necessary to do it in every patient, or even that it's warranted (as we learn in med school).
7) Asked about patient's job more while washing hands before exam
8) After exam summarized findings
9) Gave patient 1 or 2 ideas of what may be going on, and asked if they thought that could be what it was
10) Gave and idea of 1 or 2 things we could do to determine (even if it was just a future visit), and asked if they had any questions on that
11) Asked if they had any questions again
12) Told them I'm sorry they are going through this, but how I was concerned for their health and as a "team" we would figure out how to help them best
13) Tried to incorporate some aspect of the encounter as an ending joke (either about a book we both read or some aspect of their job, or kids, or etc.)
13) Left the encounter

Every patient was pretty much smiling by the time I left the room, which I think should be the goal of CIS. Even in one case where I felt bad about how the encounter ended, I pretty much followed this rubric minus the joke at the end and more emphasis on teamwork.

Of course this all has an aspect of personal style to it, but it gets at each of the things that the USMLE says it explicitly wants on their website for the 5 domains CIS is now graded on.

 

[Phloston]

Hi Everyone,

Unfortunately, I failed the CIS component of my Step 2 CS, and have to retake it. I felt very comfortable while taking the test, and thought that I probably did the best on the CIS part of the exam and worst on the ICE portion of the exam. Well, I did great on ICE and failed CIS.

Now, I am retaking the exam in a few weeks and am looking into taking a review course in order to get a better idea of how I can improve, and to gain more practice with the SPs. I was about to sign up for Kaplan Live 5-day prep, but it is very expensive, and there is not much feedback about prior experiences. I also saw a review course called goldusmlereview, which is cheaper, but not sure if it is legit.

Does anyone have any experience with either review course that they can share, or any advise as to which may be a better option for me?

Thank you very much for any help or suggestions!

Chris

Isn't the Kaplan course 3 grand? No matter how good it might be, Kaplan always finds a way to steal people's money.

 

[Zully]

I haven't done the Kaplan course myself but there are videos of the course floating around, I'm sure you can find them. I think it's a 5 day online course or something.

 

[gujuDoc]

Isn't the Kaplan course 3 grand? No matter how good it might be, Kaplan always finds a way to steal people's money.

I actually did the kaplan course and thought it was a waste. I did it bc I was off cycle and my school was originally going to ake me do my year 3 osce later months after I had scheduled CS. THey eventually moved it up since there were enough of us who needed to still do it to november but I had already paid so I did it.

The Kaplan course was a waste but some of its tips were useful.

The real thing you need ot do is learn to study that bok inside and out and do what that guy did that I posted above above. I passed CS fine and it was not because of Kaplan it was because I practiced with a few people and my year 3 osce cuz the Kaplan course lost my attn halfway through and I did not do half of what they said and still [passed with flying colors.

 

[snamuh]

Ximedus was great - >99% pass rate. Tons of time 1 on 1 with SPs. Wonderful people. I honestly think you will be golden if you take Ximedus. I have heard some mixed reviews about kaplan.

 

[gujuDoc]

I haven't done the Kaplan course myself but there are videos of the course floating around, I'm sure you can find them. I think it's a 5 day online course or something.

Thre's a website that sells the course for 40 dollars. I don't know if it will get me in trouble to post what it is up here. So you can message me if u want to know.

but again having done the whole classroom course its a huge huge huge waste.

All you need to do is learn first aid step 2 CS book inside and out and find a partner to practice with. And for communication follow the advice I stated above. There is not much more to it. I'm not the highest ranked person in my class but I passed with minimal days studying. Even when I was in the kaplan thing half the time I was focusing on doing my annotations for uworld then paying attn to them except for the interactive stuff. Its a huge waste what they say and they try to make it sound harder than it is. The cases Kaplan put for practice were much much much more difficult then what you'd get on the real deal except for their cholelithiasis case and their perforated PUD case which were more representative

 

[Zully]

@gujuDoc thank you, I have actually taken the test and passed it already. I was suggesting that the OP look into the FREE videos available online. There are 5 of them, 2hrs each. It's an accelerated course designed for people whose first language is English. If English is your problem, you might wanna take the live course instead. Again, I haven't done either myself, but I hear people like the online course.

 

[gujuDoc]

@gujuDoc thank you, I have actually taken the test and passed it already. I was suggesting that the OP look into the FREE videos available online. There are 5 of them, 2hrs each. It's an accelerated course designed for people whose first language is English. If English is your problem, you might wanna take the live course instead. Again, I haven't done either myself, but I hear people like the online course.

I understand that. I'm suggesting the OP stay away from Kaplan because its a huge waste of time and money and truly unnecessary.

The important points of CIS were outlined above and a plan of attack. I did not gain anything having done the Kaplan course and want the OP to know not to bother bc is really not a great course at all. Its useless bc the cases they use are over the top compared to the real deal. Its useless bc they overanalyze things. Its useless bc the CIS components and advice they give can be gained from reading First Aid Step 2 CS alone. Even for a Foreign med graduate I think its only marginally helpful as it gives them one live osce to do but otherwise that's all.