Kaplan or Becker videos for Step 2 ck?

[abelabbot]

Hey guys I need the foundation of good videos and lecture notes for Step 2 ck. How are the Kaplan videos? Any specific video edition you recommend(i hope the most up to date ones are the best, otherwise I'll purchase the course but watch older videos instead)? If Kaplan isn't that great, would you recommend Becker/Falcon videos as an alternative?

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[Phloston]

I haven't used any videos for 2CK (nor did I use any for Step 1), and I personally wouldn't recommend using any. Just do questions, seriously.

 

[abelabbot]

I haven't used any videos for 2CK (nor did I use any for Step 1), and I personally wouldn't recommend using any. Just do questions, seriously.

1) Thanks for your response Phloston. I've will be/have been doing Uworld through out 3rd year, alongside reading casefiles, pastana, etc. After my 3rd year is done, is it wise to then go to Kaplan Step 2 ck qbank, and USMLERX qbank, before finally going back to Uworld a month and a half before my exam? I know you've said that usmlerx step 2 ck has a higher proportion of stupid to good questions as compared to its step 1 version. I also know you've said that kaplan qbank is annoying and can test low yield concepts. Is it worth the switch to those two after completing Uworld? and then finally going back to Uworld at the very end?

2) Have you been annotating any resource with all the question bank material, like you did for Step 1?

 

[Phloston]

1) Thanks for your response Phloston. I've will be/have been doing Uworld through out 3rd year, alongside reading casefiles, pastana, etc. After my 3rd year is done, is it wise to then go to Kaplan Step 2 ck qbank, and USMLERX qbank, before finally going back to Uworld a month and a half before my exam? I know you've said that usmlerx step 2 ck has a higher proportion of stupid to good questions as compared to its step 1 version. I also know you've said that kaplan qbank is annoying and can test low yield concepts. Is it worth the switch to those two after completing Uworld? and then finally going back to Uworld at the very end?

2) Have you been annotating any resource with all the question bank material, like you did for Step 1?

I've done Rx, and I actually don't think it's that great for 2CK. The Step 1 and 2CK study plans don't parallel each other as much as I would have originally thought. I also purchased a subscription to Kaplan QBank, but all of the questions I get wrong are ridiculous "Kaplan questions" testing things that would never show up. So I stopped doing Kaplan. I'm on UWorld now and it's pretty good. I'd say for 2CK, just UpToDate and UWorld is the way to go (apart from a few texts, like Pestana's here and there).

 

[abelabbot]

Oh wow, so the costs outweigh the benefits when considering adding kaplan qbank and usmlerx to ones study plan? I thought that maybe I'd benefit from the good quality questions that those 2 banks have to offer(while ignoring the poor quality ones). Kaplan has a high yield mode too, no?
:-/

 

[Rac65]

Oh wow, so the costs outweigh the benefits when considering adding kaplan qbank and usmlerx to ones study plan? I thought that maybe I'd benefit from the good quality questions that those 2 banks have to offer(while ignoring the poor quality ones). Kaplan has a high yield mode too, no?
:-/

Setting aside the issue of financial burden, I'd like to point out that Kaplan is extremely useful assuming you are one of the people who can benefit the most from it; what I mean by it is that if your medical school did (or is actively doing) a poor job of providing you with the foundation from which you're supposed to be deriving your CK-specific-knowledge (which is, ideally, only a fragment of what you've been taught in school) - Kaplan will be happy to "fill the void". The reason I'm saying this is because I didn't really manage to figure out what student category you're in and what you're hoping to get from Kaplan. If you're only looking for a way to review that which you already have a grasp on - staying away from Kaplan due to time restrictions probably makes sense and simply going through UW with perhaps MTB is (probably) the most popular way of doing things.
With that being said, if you're in a different category - the one in which you feel like you need to start from scratch (more or less), there are no alternatives to Kaplan in terms of comprehensive review. Watching all the videos (a few times most likely) and going through UW (a few times, most likely...) is very unlikely to leave you unprepared for the exam.

Just to clarify, I never tried the Kaplan QBank and I didn't use the lecture notes for most subjects, which means that every time I used the name "Kaplan" I was referring only to the videos; I also never used any of the other review courses you've mentioned. I'd also like to point out that, as you probably know, UW is no walk in the park, especially if you're planning on deriving the most from it - some would argue that using UW as your only source is indeed all that's required, assuming you make the most of it. (whatever that means, right?)

 

[abelabbot]

Setting aside the issue of financial burden, I'd like to point out that Kaplan is extremely useful assuming you are one of the people who can benefit the most from it; what I mean by it is that if your medical school did (or is actively doing) a poor job of providing you with the foundation from which you're supposed to be deriving your CK-specific-knowledge (which is, ideally, only a fragment of what you've been taught in school) - Kaplan will be happy to "fill the void". The reason I'm saying this is because I didn't really manage to figure out what student category you're in and what you're hoping to get from Kaplan. If you're only looking for a way to review that which you already have a grasp on - staying away from Kaplan due to time restrictions probably makes sense and simply going through UW with perhaps MTB is (probably) the most popular way of doing things.
With that being said, if you're in a different category - the one in which you feel like you need to start from scratch (more or less), there are no alternatives to Kaplan in terms of comprehensive review. Watching all the videos (a few times most likely) and going through UW (a few times, most likely...) is very unlikely to leave you unprepared for the exam.

Just to clarify, I never tried the Kaplan QBank and I didn't use the lecture notes for most subjects, which means that every time I used the name "Kaplan" I was referring only to the videos; I also never used any of the other review courses you've mentioned. I'd also like to point out that, as you probably know, UW is no walk in the park, especially if you're planning on deriving the most from it - some would argue that using UW as your only source is indeed all that's required, assuming you make the most of it. (whatever that means, right?)

Yes in that case I would consider myself the perfect candidate for Kaplan videos. Although I am doing my required reading and Uworld and preparing for each rotation the best I can, I feel like I am not getting a proper exposure. Just browsing through the kaplan videos, I felt that they kept things interesting(since all I've been doing is reading) so I think it will be a good idea to go through them.

Yeah I'm not a fan of MTB, I'd rather read the more comprehensive Kaplan notes, or something like casefils instead. I just can't learn from short bulletpoint books, although there are some sections of MTB which are really good.

I really appreciate you taking the time out to reply to this post. Thank you