First Aid for Step 2 CK 8th edition reviews please

[jman131]

Hello I am taking step 2 in a couple of weeks and I am looking for a comprehensive resource to study for step 2 and I wanted to get some reviews from people who have used First Aid for Step 2 ck 8th edition.

If you have any other suggestions for Step 2 CK review sources, please let me know.

Thanks.

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[jman131]

any advice please?

 

[jman131]

bump

any reviews?

 

[futuredoctor10]

I'd be interested to hear from folks as well. From what I hear from those I have talked to, this book is good if supplemented with World. Sorry that is not very specific nor a review of the book, but hope that helps

 

[CDI]

By the time you get an answer the next edition will be out.

 

[kdhmed]

I'll chime in. Bear in mind my scores should be in this week so I can;t comment on how effective it was, but...

I liked the book. Many of the same tables and figures and mnemonics as step 1 which was nice to see. I like how they present it: brief overview, history/physical, diagnosis, then treatment. It's in color. Bullets. Similar format that I was used to. I enjoyed the rapid review section. Overall it had a majority of the information that you need. Combine that with UWorld and it was great - plenty of room to annotate in the margins.

Some critiques. Many times when they explain how to diagnose but they don't give you the best first step. They just throw out labs and tests to run but not in which order to do so. This is where Uworld helps. Their electrolyte section is horrendous. I suggest using Step up to Medicine to suuplement. I would also supplement biostats with FA Step 1 if you need to brush up on it like I did. Muskuloskeletal may have been lacking compared to what I saw on my exam, so you might want to supplement with FA Step 1 there as well.

Other than that it was a good resource. I'll update with my score here when I get it, but in my opinion FA + UWorld + selected sections in Step Up to Medicine should be all you need.

 

[Trogghunter]

I have yet to take 2 but I like FA because I'm used to it from step 1. The room to write in the margins is what sealed the deal for me, but as far as being concise, it isn't. Its lacking some topics from every system so I supplemented with various FAs and wrote in qbank stuff. IMO it's a good shotgun approach on its own, but it does not stand alone.

 

[jman131]

I'll chime in. Bear in mind my scores should be in this week so I can;t comment on how effective it was, but...

I liked the book. Many of the same tables and figures and mnemonics as step 1 which was nice to see. I like how they present it: brief overview, history/physical, diagnosis, then treatment. It's in color. Bullets. Similar format that I was used to. I enjoyed the rapid review section. Overall it had a majority of the information that you need. Combine that with UWorld and it was great - plenty of room to annotate in the margins.

Some critiques. Many times when they explain how to diagnose but they don't give you the best first step. They just throw out labs and tests to run but not in which order to do so. This is where Uworld helps. Their electrolyte section is horrendous. I suggest using Step up to Medicine to suuplement. I would also supplement biostats with FA Step 1 if you need to brush up on it like I did. Muskuloskeletal may have been lacking compared to what I saw on my exam, so you might want to supplement with FA Step 1 there as well.

Other than that it was a good resource. I'll update with my score here when I get it, but in my opinion FA + UWorld + selected sections in Step Up to Medicine should be all you need.

Thanks for the responses, I am currently using SUTS2 but I am thinking of using FA S2CK with Secrets and using selected parts of FA S1 (Biostats, MSK) and SUTM or MTB (for further clarification on some IM stuff)

 

[kdhmed]

Thanks for the responses, I am currently using SUTS2 but I am thinking of using FA S2CK with Secrets and using selected parts of FA S1 (Biostats, MSK) and SUTM or MTB (for further clarification on some IM stuff)

Ended up with a 260+ using UWorld + FA Step 2 + Selected sections of Step up to Medicine. So.. I stand by using FA definitely!

 

[futuredoctor10]

Thanks to everyone posting in here! Helpful for all of us studying for 2CK to hear the reviews

 

[jman131]

Ended up with a 260+ using UWorld + FA Step 2 + Selected sections of Step up to Medicine. So.. I stand by using FA definitely!

what sections of step up to medicine did you use?

 

[cbcb00]

Using step up to medicine for step 2 prep right now and must say that the heme onc section rocks. Way better than MTB and SUTS2. Would also be interested in hearing what sections other rec from this book.

 

[kdhmed]

What I felt were high yield, big topics (CHF, COPD, CKD) - mainly cardio, pulm, renal and anything I felt particularly weak on or FA was lacking. In all I finished maybe 1/2 the book.

 

[jman131]

Can anyone else post their reviews of FA S2CK 8th edition? Do the IM sections hold their own?

 

[Auriga]

I'm interested in what people feel about it too. I'll give my two cents even though I'm only several days into 5 wks of study. I am using UWorld, Kaplan HY CK lectures, and was using Master the Boards at first.

I got First Aid for CK before rotations and read the Peds, OB/GYN, Psych, and Neuro sections during rotations. I liked it as a rotations outline well enough.

But when I heard residents and upperclassmen raving about Master The Boards, I bought it. It goes perfectly with the Kaplan HY lectures program that I bought (on a huuuuuge sale 😀) and it goes perfectly with the lectures. I like the book a lot for its high yield points of first steps, most accurate, empiric therapy - but it is almost ONLY just high yield points. After doing half of the ID chapter and annotating with UWorld info, I realized that there are many details that MTB is completely lacking. I was writing in tons of key details. For example, it gives a one-liner about the top organisms responsible for meningitis and % of cases, but not divided by age or risk factors. I want details...just not excessive details.

I then tried to use Step Up to Medicine for the IM parts, but was overwhelmed with the amount of details (as someone said it really is more detailed than even the shelf exam required, for which I used MKSAP). I looked at a friend's StepUpToStep2, which I liked for its organization, but she was unhappy that it was somewhat incomplete in having too little info on "next steps" and "best" tests in a lot of places. Those are important for me to be reminded each time I look at a topic.

I finally just went back to FA today and will let you know how I feel about it after a few days. At the very least, the visual organization is better than MTB, which looked much less "neatly" structured. And I'll be reviewing what I've already read too.

I told myself I'd pick something and stick with it, but I'm just not happy enough with the light-weight MTB.

 

[1Cor1557]

Lots of ppl have pointed out MTB 2 + 3, and that is a great [my favorite] combo. I also did FA CK. I did like thebold in FirstAidCK, as well as their margin notes, tables, and rapid review in the back. That is plenty. If you feel insecure about that, which I think is sufficient, then a comprehensive read for your first pass might smart while highlighting, so in future re-reads, you can only read what you highlighted along with the emphasis the book already includes (bold, margin, etc.), or else reading the increased ESR/CRP, fever/chills/fatigue + every single non specific finding you can think of under every disease in the book over over will destroy your precious study time, as that is the biggest con of the book, (and strength of MTB series).