Seeking Advice for Step 2 CK

[StudentDoc91]

Hey all!

I’m nearing the end of my third year and I want to start studying for Step 2 CK & take it in September. I did UWorld form 1 for Step 2 and got a 207 which took me right back to my struggles during my Step 1 days unfortunately.

Anyways, I noticed that my lowest score was in General Principles. Would you suggest that I go back and study Physiology from Step 1 to build that foundation, or does anyone have any suggestions on how I should get that part of the score much higher? I got a 221 on Step 1 & I’d like a 241 on Step 2, so I’m hoping if I start now, I can achieve that by September.

Thanks so much for any insight you all can provide!

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[Tunnelvision_1]

Hey all!

I’m nearing the end of my third year and I want to start studying for Step 2 CK & take it in September. I did UWorld form 1 for Step 2 and got a 207 which took me right back to my struggles during my Step 1 days unfortunately.

Anyways, I noticed that my lowest score was in General Principles. Would you suggest that I go back and study Physiology from Step 1 to build that foundation, or does anyone have any suggestions on how I should get that part of the score much higher? I got a 221 on Step 1 & I’d like a 241 on Step 2, so I’m hoping if I start now, I can achieve that by September.

Thanks so much for any insight you all can provide!

Hello! First of all it's absolutely possible to break 240 by September and it is possible to go higher (250s & 60s) depending on how much effort you put in. You have time on your side. I think going over all of step 1 physiology will be too much indirect studying and inefficient. I would suggest you start with UW for step 2. Since you have a lot of time, please read ENTIRE explanations for ALL the questions and make your own notes/flashcards as you go along. Try to hammer home all the info in the COMPLETE EXPLANATION. Not just the educational objective or tables or algorithms. The main stem of explanations and the explanations for wrong as well as right answers are all very very imp. I once read someone saying that while for step 1, FA is the single best knowledge body and UW the best practise, for step 2 UW serves BOTH purposes by itself. I would strongly recommend spending the vast majority of your study time learning from questions and question explanations (there is more reading material in UW than any book you can imagine; one page explanation per question for 2400 or so questions; you literally do not NEED any othe reading material, except looking up stuff or doing a very focused review of something that you are getting wrong in UW despite understanding and thoroughly reading all the answer explanations. After a full pass, do the incorrects and a review of your notes. I personally believe that instead of doing a whole second pass it would be better to do just the incorrects/flagged questions and then do NBME CSSA self assessment forms (for these you can look up explanations for questions in forums or take the more laborious path of digging up the explanations yourself from uptodate/medscape), but please do these if possible. Oh and by the way you asked about general principles, I am confident you will cover most of what you need for the test via UW and also please remember your percentage in UW DOES NOT MATTER especially at the beginning. What matters most is to milk each question and extract as much value out of each question explanation as possible. You can periodically monitor your progress via NBMEs and USWA