Step 2 ck study materials and exam experience??????????

[berdugo75]

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Does anybody have a USMLE STEP 2 CK experience that they would like to share with the rest of us??? What were your study materials?????

 

[wahoo2009]

I took my step 2 ck a few months ago.

For me my major way of learning is by doing questions. I took two weeks and completed usmleworld's question bank. While doing that question bank I realized there was a couple of subjects I really needed to work on - OB and peds. Since these seemed to be my weaknesses, I supplemented. I read OBGYN case files and peds case files ( I happen to LOVE the case files series, I guess it goes along with learning by doing questions/cases). This strategy worked out well for me as I got in the 260s. And in the end OB ended up being one of my stronger topics in the real thing.

Anyways, don't stress too much about this test. If you got through the beast that was step 1 you will be fine! 😉

 

[PlayFair]

I used Crush as prep material, I don't think that it is enough to get you a great score on its own. But one thing that I really liked about Crush was that I found podcasts (free on iTunes) that a recent grad made of each section from Crush and USMLE Secrets. He did it in a question & answer format that really made me work through what I had read and highlighted earlier. I have to confess that I did about 9 months of workouts listening to these podcasts and I think that it really helped me commit things in my mind.
I didn't really use First Aid.

USMLE World was also vital for me, did that solely for about a month, writing down everything I learned from the answer explanations.

Net result: 60 point increase from Step 1 to Step 2

(Yeah, you read correctly, I did really badly on Step 1 and rocked Step 2)

Good Luck

 

[BOHICA-FIGMO]

I did CS, CK, and the shelf of my final 3rd yr rotation all in the same month. I did USMLW 95% of questions in random, timed mode with a 59% correct rate. I read USMLE Step 2 secrets twice, and read First Aid for CS once.

Final result, A in the class, pass CS, and 26 point improvement over my step 1 score.

For me, the key was finding something easy to read that you can get through more than once. Repetition is the key. On questions, timed mode using ALL unused questions seemed to work better for me. Each block of 46q took one hour to complete and one hour to review. For step 1, I did section by section in tutor mode and just barely passed. Everybody is different, but that's what worked for me.

 

[Noondoo]

I did Crush and B&W and took notes on both. At same time did USMLE world on random, 46 Q sets (59% avg.). I kept a running list of facts that i missed from USMLE world and would read this list at least once every 2/3 days. for me, USMLE was the key. i did 100% of it and thought is was very high yield. I did not even buy first aid b/c i thought i was past random lists with bullet points, but that's a prefernce issue. all together had about 3 weeks of non stop studying. went from step 1 212 to step 2 ck 234. big dif for me was doing many more questions. hope this helps someone.

 

[jdinovit]

I basically just read "crush step 2" three times and did 400 Kaplan practice questions from the Q book. Then I read USLME step 2 made ridiculously simple one and a half times. Then I studied some extra pharmacology. I got a 205 (84%). I took off that month and studied about 2-4 hours a day for a month.

 

[7blueskies]

i bought firstaid but found it pretty hard to read. very, very boring. only read 2 sections. then switched to usmle world because it's a more active. did about 1000 questions, read answers very carefully. used both timed and tutor mode in 30-46 question segments, about an hour at time. 6 hours per day for 2.5 weeks. was getting in 60%'s.

was delighted to get a 252, 30 points up from step 1.

 

[PlayFair]

I had a few questions about where I got the podcasts from, so I thought that I would be more specific here.
I searched "USMLE" in iTunes, and the guy that did them goes by the name "mcmumbi."

Best of luck to everyone.

 

[DragonWell]

I had a few questions about where I got the podcasts from, so I thought that I would be more specific here.
I searched "USMLE" in iTunes, and the guy that did them goes by the name "mcmumbi."

Best of luck to everyone.

http://www.gcast.com/user/mcmumbi/podcast/main