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Just wanted to post up my reviews of the resources I used for Step 2 CK. What follows is my biased opinion. YMMV, so take what is said below and use your preferred learning style to find the resource(s) that work best for you. UWorld is essentially mandatory, after that it isn't as clear. My opinion is that OME and First Aid for Step 2 CK are the two best other resources out there. Warning: Massive wall of text incoming.
OnlineMedEd
I maintain that buying into Dr. Williams' system may have been the best thing I did for my medical career. He explains things extremely well and his algorithms are spot on. CK asks lots of questions that have you come in during a workup, so just knowing "best test" or "first test" isn't always enough. You need to know the entire workup start to finish. OME does that better than anyone.
For the paid resources, I found the QuickTables to be the best value and the most useful. If you are going to use OME, buy the QuickTables. They're a summary of the notes and are handy to take notes in while you watch videos. I liked the Qbank, but these are questions to be used right after you watch the material. If you try to use it like a true Qbank making blocks and then answering questions, it would be the toughest Qbank out there. The questions are difficult but are meant to reinforce the knowledge and encourage retention. The Flashback cards were nice since they came back up 2 days later (very handy with the app) but I didn't find the quality anything to write home about. The notes helped flesh out the lectures more and are meant as pre-reading. They're pretty good, but not completely necessary.
Overall, I thought OME was well worth the money I spent on it. I appreciate what Dr. Williams is doing for medical education and would rather give him my money than Kaplan or some other company. If you're strapped for cash, I would just buy the QuickTables. Use this throughout third year with UWorld and you should rock your shelf exams/COMATs.
Sidenote: OME agrees pretty well with FA for Step 2. UW sometimes has some slight differences from them. I annotated what UW said next to what OME/FA had just so I knew it both ways. From what I remember, OME tended to be a bit more accurate for the actual exam but it is tough to say for certain as that was 4 weeks ago now.
First Aid for Step 2 CK
This gets very little love, but I found it very useful. I wish I had bought it earlier. Never made it all the way through, but I definitely wish I had been able to do that. VERY good complement to OME. It is more wordy and more dense than Step Up to Step 2 CK or Master the Boards. If you look back at First Aid for Step 1 vs Step Up to Step 1, First Aid is far more dense. The big difference with FA Step 2 is that they use more complete sentences. The chaff is still in there and hasn't been removed yet. I had trouble reading FA Step 1 (and actually didn't read it cover to cover) so I found this very nice and much easier to read than FA Step 1. Organization isn't perfect but it's decent (sometimes tables about a disease will be a page or two after the disease is covered in text). The organization part I liked was that they followed the general formula that OME also follows: Pathophys of disease, how the patient presents, diagnostic workup, finish with treatment. Short, sweet, to the point, and gives you what you need to know without lots of excess information. I know that I got several questions right because I supplemented OME with FA for Step 2.
UWorld
Use it. Learn from it. Love it. I only did one pass as I only finished 1/3 or so prior to buckling down my last clerkship before Step 2 and then dedicated. Especially if you will only get one pass in, get the most out of every question. Really understand the concepts they lay out.
Master the Boards
Not enough information. If you use OME, there is a lot of conflicting information, especially with MTB. I didn't find the best test and first test very useful from here. It is easier to read than FA for Step 2, but I didn't think that made MTB better. They had a couple good chapters that weren't in other resources (the radiology chapter comes to mind), but these are far from necessary.
Step Up to Step 2 CK
I didn't like the layout. After having the structure of OME, seeing the different lab tests strung out everywhere with treatments in weird places was off-putting for me. Some people may like it. Cannot comment on the content at all as I glanced through it briefly.
Step Up to Medicine
Better than Step Up to Step 2. I used it here and there for some other reading on weak areas (nephrology especially), but I think I sometimes would have been better served looking back in First Aid for Step 1 and Pathoma. I started doing that later in dedicated and virtually stopped using this resource. It is very dense, but has lots of good information. Would be difficult to read for the first time during dedicated, but a second pass during dedicated seems reasonable.
Pestana's Surgery Notes
I didn't end up using these as I felt very solid on surgery, but these were money for my COMAT. This plus OME and UW should easily get you honors there. It's also short enough that if you need a quick refresher for CK you should be able to do it in a day. Easy to read, information dense, very helpful. Use it for surgery at the very least.
Case Files (don't use to study for CK with these)
For most of my clerkships, I used Case Files if I thought I needed a supplement or if there wasn't any section in UW/OME (looking at you EM and FM). Also used it on OB/GYN as I'm awful at that. I appreciate case based learning, and loved that they had questions after each case to reinforce what you read. You also could just answer the first few questions and the main learning points and skip the in depth narrative if you're in a rush or if you know a topic quite well. They don't always hit every topic needed for the shelf/COMAT but I think that would be tough to do in one book. With OME and UW as supplement to Case Files, shelves/COMATs should be a breeze or at least very manageable. Too long for CK study, don't use them for that.
I prefer case files obviously, but any book series works well as a supplement as needed. Find one you like and try to stick with it. After using it for FM and OB/GYN, I could really utilize it well for EM, allowing a very high COMAT score.
OnlineMedEd
I maintain that buying into Dr. Williams' system may have been the best thing I did for my medical career. He explains things extremely well and his algorithms are spot on. CK asks lots of questions that have you come in during a workup, so just knowing "best test" or "first test" isn't always enough. You need to know the entire workup start to finish. OME does that better than anyone.
For the paid resources, I found the QuickTables to be the best value and the most useful. If you are going to use OME, buy the QuickTables. They're a summary of the notes and are handy to take notes in while you watch videos. I liked the Qbank, but these are questions to be used right after you watch the material. If you try to use it like a true Qbank making blocks and then answering questions, it would be the toughest Qbank out there. The questions are difficult but are meant to reinforce the knowledge and encourage retention. The Flashback cards were nice since they came back up 2 days later (very handy with the app) but I didn't find the quality anything to write home about. The notes helped flesh out the lectures more and are meant as pre-reading. They're pretty good, but not completely necessary.
Overall, I thought OME was well worth the money I spent on it. I appreciate what Dr. Williams is doing for medical education and would rather give him my money than Kaplan or some other company. If you're strapped for cash, I would just buy the QuickTables. Use this throughout third year with UWorld and you should rock your shelf exams/COMATs.
Sidenote: OME agrees pretty well with FA for Step 2. UW sometimes has some slight differences from them. I annotated what UW said next to what OME/FA had just so I knew it both ways. From what I remember, OME tended to be a bit more accurate for the actual exam but it is tough to say for certain as that was 4 weeks ago now.
First Aid for Step 2 CK
This gets very little love, but I found it very useful. I wish I had bought it earlier. Never made it all the way through, but I definitely wish I had been able to do that. VERY good complement to OME. It is more wordy and more dense than Step Up to Step 2 CK or Master the Boards. If you look back at First Aid for Step 1 vs Step Up to Step 1, First Aid is far more dense. The big difference with FA Step 2 is that they use more complete sentences. The chaff is still in there and hasn't been removed yet. I had trouble reading FA Step 1 (and actually didn't read it cover to cover) so I found this very nice and much easier to read than FA Step 1. Organization isn't perfect but it's decent (sometimes tables about a disease will be a page or two after the disease is covered in text). The organization part I liked was that they followed the general formula that OME also follows: Pathophys of disease, how the patient presents, diagnostic workup, finish with treatment. Short, sweet, to the point, and gives you what you need to know without lots of excess information. I know that I got several questions right because I supplemented OME with FA for Step 2.
UWorld
Use it. Learn from it. Love it. I only did one pass as I only finished 1/3 or so prior to buckling down my last clerkship before Step 2 and then dedicated. Especially if you will only get one pass in, get the most out of every question. Really understand the concepts they lay out.
Master the Boards
Not enough information. If you use OME, there is a lot of conflicting information, especially with MTB. I didn't find the best test and first test very useful from here. It is easier to read than FA for Step 2, but I didn't think that made MTB better. They had a couple good chapters that weren't in other resources (the radiology chapter comes to mind), but these are far from necessary.
Step Up to Step 2 CK
I didn't like the layout. After having the structure of OME, seeing the different lab tests strung out everywhere with treatments in weird places was off-putting for me. Some people may like it. Cannot comment on the content at all as I glanced through it briefly.
Step Up to Medicine
Better than Step Up to Step 2. I used it here and there for some other reading on weak areas (nephrology especially), but I think I sometimes would have been better served looking back in First Aid for Step 1 and Pathoma. I started doing that later in dedicated and virtually stopped using this resource. It is very dense, but has lots of good information. Would be difficult to read for the first time during dedicated, but a second pass during dedicated seems reasonable.
Pestana's Surgery Notes
I didn't end up using these as I felt very solid on surgery, but these were money for my COMAT. This plus OME and UW should easily get you honors there. It's also short enough that if you need a quick refresher for CK you should be able to do it in a day. Easy to read, information dense, very helpful. Use it for surgery at the very least.
Case Files (don't use to study for CK with these)
For most of my clerkships, I used Case Files if I thought I needed a supplement or if there wasn't any section in UW/OME (looking at you EM and FM). Also used it on OB/GYN as I'm awful at that. I appreciate case based learning, and loved that they had questions after each case to reinforce what you read. You also could just answer the first few questions and the main learning points and skip the in depth narrative if you're in a rush or if you know a topic quite well. They don't always hit every topic needed for the shelf/COMAT but I think that would be tough to do in one book. With OME and UW as supplement to Case Files, shelves/COMATs should be a breeze or at least very manageable. Too long for CK study, don't use them for that.
I prefer case files obviously, but any book series works well as a supplement as needed. Find one you like and try to stick with it. After using it for FM and OB/GYN, I could really utilize it well for EM, allowing a very high COMAT score.
( But at this point I don't feel like I'm gonna have enough time plus I just feel OME + UWorld is enough.
, it's frustrating and something I'm working on to resolve, however, time is finite , and I can't deal with that right now.. and anyway I'll definitely be back to OME again after I pass the exam and will watch the videos then before I start my intern year.
