If you had a year to prepare for rotations, shelf exams, and Step 2CK, what would you do? (Reformatted)

[PathNeuroIMorFM]

Between M2 (preclinical) and M3 (clinical) US-MD.

Taking a research year. Things are going well and publications are going strong, but I don't want to return to rotations and be the dumbest guy in class (again). Step 1 and preclinical killed me, but I figured out why I sucked and mostly got much better as a student and a person.

Step 2CK is now the new Step 1 in terms of residency selection, so I would like to be ultra overprepared to properly compete with my peers.

My ideas to stay on top of things:

1. Keep all clinically-relevant material from Step 1 Anking unsuspended
2. Begin unsuspending some Step 2 Anking material to get a head start
3. Retain clinical skills by shadowing my PI on wards
4. Passively listen to Divine Intervention High-Yield Review.
5. Purchase Amboss Qbank to stay sharp on clinical material

Any thoughts on this process?

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[PathNeuroIMorFM]

Bumping this thread with some major changes to hopefully be more applicable to the average 3rd/4th year student and recent grads.

 

[operaman]

I think your plan is pretty solid. The only issue might be the value of keeping up with the Step 1 stuff - maybe worth doing if you've really worked the deck and the daily volume is manageable without crushing your soul. Otherwise, maybe worth prioritizing the other things.

Key things I would do:

1) Learn how to present a patient well. If your PI will let you shadow and especially if they'll let you start presenting, it will go a long way toward letting you shine. You will be starting alongside other new clinical students so if you come in able to present well from memory with minimal notes, you'll be ahead of the game.

2) Practice seeing/interviewing patients. Same as above - this is one of the newer skills you haven't had a chance to develop yet so any time you get to do it will be helpful

3) If your PI is willing to work with you, ask if you can practice writing some notes on clinic patients. They're slightly different than inpatient notes but not by much. Writing good notes is another way to look good plus it's a skill that will serve you well into residency and beyond.

4) Start working some step 2 ck questions and prep material. Truthfully this is probably higher yield and a better use of your time than maintaining step 1 knowledge. Answering these questions also takes a very different approach than step 1. For example, I was a very strong student and did very well on step 1. I was used to hitting 90% on Step 1 UWorld blocks. When I did my first Step 2 CK UWorld block a few weeks later for my surgery shelf, my first time I got 40% correct. I found that however I approach stems for step 1 wouldn't work as well for step 2, so I had to recalibrate a bit and did fine from then on, but I think it's a cautionary tale on how the exams are different and may require slightly different approaches. If you could work through a good Step 2 question bank this year, you'd be well ahead of the game for shelf exams as well.

 

[PathNeuroIMorFM]

I think your plan is pretty solid. The only issue might be the value of keeping up with the Step 1 stuff - maybe worth doing if you've really worked the deck and the daily volume is manageable without crushing your soul. Otherwise, maybe worth prioritizing the other things.

Key things I would do:

1) Learn how to present a patient well. If your PI will let you shadow and especially if they'll let you start presenting, it will go a long way toward letting you shine. You will be starting alongside other new clinical students so if you come in able to present well from memory with minimal notes, you'll be ahead of the game.

2) Practice seeing/interviewing patients. Same as above - this is one of the newer skills you haven't had a chance to develop yet so any time you get to do it will be helpful

3) If your PI is willing to work with you, ask if you can practice writing some notes on clinic patients. They're slightly different than inpatient notes but not by much. Writing good notes is another way to look good plus it's a skill that will serve you well into residency and beyond.

4) Start working some step 2 ck questions and prep material. Truthfully this is probably higher yield and a better use of your time than maintaining step 1 knowledge. Answering these questions also takes a very different approach than step 1. For example, I was a very strong student and did very well on step 1. I was used to hitting 90% on Step 1 UWorld blocks. When I did my first Step 2 CK UWorld block a few weeks later for my surgery shelf, my first time I got 40% correct. I found that however I approach stems for step 1 wouldn't work as well for step 2, so I had to recalibrate a bit and did fine from then on, but I think it's a cautionary tale on how the exams are different and may require slightly different approaches. If you could work through a good Step 2 question bank this year, you'd be well ahead of the game for shelf exams as well.

Perfect. Great advice.

There's a fraction of Step 1 cards that apply to Step 2, and fortunately I just found out yesterday how to separate them. It shouldn't be a major inconvenience, but I'll be sure to be flexible on this.

 

[WashingtonR]

If you've got the time, Q-banks + anki. With Q-banks, it's not enough to just do the questions. You have to do them under timed conditions and thoroughly read the answer explanations. Here's where anki comes in. I think that writing your own anki cards as you review your Q-bank sets will force you to read the explanations with greater focus than you otherwise could. It takes deeper understanding to write questions. I wrote roughly 4 anki cards for each u-world question. The anki cards should cover the diagnosis, the pathogenesis, the treatment, and key expected exam/lab findings. This is time consuming. But if you've got the time, it'll lead to better outcomes. I would also encourage you to read UpToDate to get a practical understanding of how to approach common clinical scenarios. Step2 is full of zebras that won't be of tremendous help in clerkships.

 

[rebuilteva]

Hey so just saw this thread, and took Step 2CK 2 weeks ago so my memories of the process are still fresh. Here is your priority list reordered by highest yield to lowest yield (attached below).

1. Purchase Amboss Qbank to stay sharp on clinical material
2. Retain clinical skills by shadowing my PI on wards
3. 
   
4. (big gap in terms of how high yield below items are)
5. 
   
6. Begin unsuspending some Step 2 Anking material to get a head start
7. Passively listen to Divine Intervention High-Yield Review.
8. Keep all clinically-relevant material from Step 1 Anking unsuspended

Basically, for Step 2CK, QBanks are a lot more HY than Anki or passive review like Divine. If you can finish the entire Amboss QBank before you head back to clinicals you'll be in a great spot to do well on the shelf exams and Step 2 (no guarantees - you still need to work hard grinding out UWorld and the NBME CMS forms before each shelf, +/- incorrects). Also, consider doing Zanki for Step 2CK over Anking - did Anking for psych and it was awful - wouldn't recommend; Zanki is so much more concise, and frees up your time to do more questions which is king.

Bottom line is that QBanks are astronomically more valuable than Anki for 3rd year and Step 2CK; all other resources are IMO kind of crappy.

 

[PathNeuroIMorFM]

Hey so just saw this thread, and took Step 2CK 2 weeks ago so my memories of the process are still fresh. Here is your priority list reordered by highest yield to lowest yield (attached below).

1. Purchase Amboss Qbank to stay sharp on clinical material
2. Retain clinical skills by shadowing my PI on wards
3. 
   
4. (big gap in terms of how high yield below items are)
5. 
   
6. Begin unsuspending some Step 2 Anking material to get a head start
7. Passively listen to Divine Intervention High-Yield Review.
8. Keep all clinically-relevant material from Step 1 Anking unsuspended

Basically, for Step 2CK, QBanks are a lot more HY than Anki or passive review like Divine. If you can finish the entire Amboss QBank before you head back to clinicals you'll be in a great spot to do well on the shelf exams and Step 2 (no guarantees - you still need to work hard grinding out UWorld and the NBME CMS forms before each shelf, +/- incorrects). Also, consider doing Zanki for Step 2CK over Anking - did Anking for psych and it was awful - wouldn't recommend; Zanki is so much more concise, and frees up your time to do more questions which is king.

Bottom line is that QBanks are astronomically more valuable than Anki for 3rd year and Step 2CK; all other resources are IMO kind of crappy.

Thanks.

I'll look into shelling out the money for a QBank. I'll probably pass on Amboss, just because the cost is absolutely bonkers, and try for Kaplan or USMLERx.

I did decide to start reviewing dual tagged Step 2-Step 1 cards, just because some major things started to slip my mind as the months drag on (ex: SIRS criteria). I think it's fine as the workload is low (less than 250 cards/day) and I'm already 2400 cards out of 8200, set to have them all reviewed or matured no later than December.

I'll definitely look into Zanki vs Anking Step 2, because that's a magnitude of 5k cards vs 13k, which is pretty hefty lol.