Step 2 studying

[Tsutsugamushi]

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hey guys, i was wondering if people use the review books that they had used during their clerkship rotations to study for the step 2? From what i have read in the forum it seems as though most people only use books like boards and wards, first aid, crush, secrets etc. Are those enough?

I guess basically what i am trying to ask is whether books such as blueprints and casefiles are used towards step 2 studying? If not then do you guys make notes on what you have read from blueprints, casefiles etc. in preparation for step 2 studying so you don't have to go back and read the books?

As you can see i am a bit confused in terms of the approach towards studying/prepping. Any feedback is most appreciated.

Thanks!!!!

 

[tfom08]

I think most people don't have time for all the individual sources during step 2 studying because there is typically less than a month to study, so they just use a general review source and then focus on a question bank.

 

[Pewl]

If you could use only either Crush, boards and wards, or First aid, which would you choose?

 

[Pure Anergy]

If you could use only either Crush, boards and wards, or First aid, which would you choose?

I got the impression that you should go to the bookstore, look at them all, and pick whichever one you like the best because any of them (or Secrets) is good. You don't need Secrets and Crush both because they have the same info. No matter which book you pick, you should definitely use UW. I think I just summarized all of the info in this entire forum in one post.

 

[jocg27]

hey guys, i was wondering if people use the review books that they had used during their clerkship rotations to study for the step 2? From what i have read in the forum it seems as though most people only use books like boards and wards, first aid, crush, secrets etc. Are those enough?

I guess basically what i am trying to ask is whether books such as blueprints and casefiles are used towards step 2 studying? If not then do you guys make notes on what you have read from blueprints, casefiles etc. in preparation for step 2 studying so you don't have to go back and read the books?

As you can see i am a bit confused in terms of the approach towards studying/prepping. Any feedback is most appreciated.

Thanks!!!!

Hey--
I flew through a few Casefiles books that I had heavily used for rotations during the year (seriously, flew -- very quick) before starting UW. It does seem that not many people do this and I was wondering if I was wasting my time, but honestly in the end I thought it was kind of worthwhile. This is just me though and definitely not a universal strategy -- I'm not a huge fan of first aid and these kinds of books -- I didn't even use first aid for step 1, so wanted to avoid that and similar books for step 2. Seriously, if you do decide to do use individual review books, do it quick though, and don't spend too much time on it, just a fast run through. I'm definitely glad I spent most of my time n UW questions, and if I could do it again I'd do even more (finished 80%) I read a couple rev books, but found that it should be personalized to what will help you the most...it's definitely most helpful for rotations that (1) are from earlier in your third year schedule and (2) that you were weaker in at the time. For me the one that fit this and was definitely worth reading before getting started on UW was OB-Gyn which I took as my 2nd rotation of the year and never cared for or really did any studying beyond necessary for. I was definitely glad I put the time in on that one on a review book just for that topic. I went through peds too which helped as well but not quite as much (I was starting out in pretty good shape for peds and had taken it more recently), and surgery which I probably could have done without...for medicine, I had just come off my clerkship and studied for the shelf largely with casefiles, so I did very little extra step 2 medicine studying after that. I guess my point is don't feel like you need to back through individual subject review books, but if you do don't feel like you're the only person in the world and wasting your time.

(I don't know yet how it all worked out -- am waiting for my grade...but I'd definitely be happy with a score anywhere near that predicted by my UW score)

 

[blkkd]

In my eyes it just takes up too much time, I tried it for a week but it was just going so slow I switched to just doing crush and UW. Just took Step 2 friday and I felt fully prepared and my NBME scores have been pretty good (220 and 245).

 

[Tsutsugamushi]

Thanks guys for the input. I guess i'll try to study as much as i can for the rotation and do whatever i can to prepare for the step 2 at the same time so i can limit the amount of intensive review that i'll have to do when studying for the step 2.

I'm sure you guys did great on the step 2!!!! Let me know how things go, if you don't mind.