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- Apr 22, 2009
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So, although I knew that Step 2 CK didn't seem as important as Step 1 scores did, I still wanted to know the material well for residency. I decided to bite the bullet and spend the ~$800 on the Doctors In Training for Step 2 CK, 2012 version.
The Book: The book arrived before my course was scheduled to start. The book is okay quality, but it's mainly just a spiral-bound book, everything was black and white. The quizzes are on a dark gray background, which actually makes it a bit hard to read, and even harder to take notes. There was also a lot of additional material that they add to the Step Up to Step 2 book, much of which was helpful, but quite a lot of it was really detailed, and I think that about 25-30% of it was too detailed for Step 2. It might be good for residency, but I felt like it was too specific for Step 2.
The videos: The videos were just okay. They've divided the material up into a bunch of videos that are anywhere from 20 to 55 minutes each. There were a ton of them! I tried to get through 12 a day, and that was a struggle for me. They've gotten away from just using Dr. Jenkins as the sole lecturer, and now use several lecturers. Some of them are seen for only 1-2 lectures, and some teach the majority of them. Dr. Jenkins only did 1-2 lectures, I think. The lectures also had little moments in them with little skits which were meant to be a fun way to review quick tidbits of material, but were pretty stupid, but then again, I think they're meant to be funny-stupid! Some of the mnemonics they recited in those skits were helpful.
Concerning the lecture material, it would have been nice if they pointed out the most important aspects of each disease, but I sometimes felt like they were just reading the entire list of symptoms and labs out of the book and then adding, "So make sure you know that." I didn't feel like it was helpful to me.
Overall: I didn't really feel that this course really did much for my Step 2 CK score. I think I would have been better off focussing solely on the USMLE World question bank and looking things up that I didn't know. I scored well for Step 1 (245), but I just got an average score on Step 2 CK after taking this course. I probably memorized every little tidbit of information given in the materials used by this course (even most of the "extra" information given in the supplementary book), and yet I still don't think it prepared me as well as just doing questions would have prepared me. So, if you ask me, I would say just buy the question bank and do questions.
But, then again, realize that I probably learn in a different manner than you do, so the course may be excellent for you, but I didn't feel that it was a great preparation method for me.
The Book: The book arrived before my course was scheduled to start. The book is okay quality, but it's mainly just a spiral-bound book, everything was black and white. The quizzes are on a dark gray background, which actually makes it a bit hard to read, and even harder to take notes. There was also a lot of additional material that they add to the Step Up to Step 2 book, much of which was helpful, but quite a lot of it was really detailed, and I think that about 25-30% of it was too detailed for Step 2. It might be good for residency, but I felt like it was too specific for Step 2.
The videos: The videos were just okay. They've divided the material up into a bunch of videos that are anywhere from 20 to 55 minutes each. There were a ton of them! I tried to get through 12 a day, and that was a struggle for me. They've gotten away from just using Dr. Jenkins as the sole lecturer, and now use several lecturers. Some of them are seen for only 1-2 lectures, and some teach the majority of them. Dr. Jenkins only did 1-2 lectures, I think. The lectures also had little moments in them with little skits which were meant to be a fun way to review quick tidbits of material, but were pretty stupid, but then again, I think they're meant to be funny-stupid! Some of the mnemonics they recited in those skits were helpful.
Concerning the lecture material, it would have been nice if they pointed out the most important aspects of each disease, but I sometimes felt like they were just reading the entire list of symptoms and labs out of the book and then adding, "So make sure you know that." I didn't feel like it was helpful to me.
Overall: I didn't really feel that this course really did much for my Step 2 CK score. I think I would have been better off focussing solely on the USMLE World question bank and looking things up that I didn't know. I scored well for Step 1 (245), but I just got an average score on Step 2 CK after taking this course. I probably memorized every little tidbit of information given in the materials used by this course (even most of the "extra" information given in the supplementary book), and yet I still don't think it prepared me as well as just doing questions would have prepared me. So, if you ask me, I would say just buy the question bank and do questions.
But, then again, realize that I probably learn in a different manner than you do, so the course may be excellent for you, but I didn't feel that it was a great preparation method for me.
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