Step II CS: Resources & Prep Time

[futuredoctor10]

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Having finished Step 2 CK, it is now time to study/take Step 2 CS.

I was wondering
1) What resources do you recommend to use?
2) What is the amount of prep time required for this exam? [I know this will widely vary person to person, just curious to hear individual responses]

I have heard that First Aid Step 2 CS is essential, while others have recommended the Kaplan Step 2 CS Core Cases. Anyone compare the two and can recommend one? I will not have a lot of time to prep for this exam so was curious how long people usually take to study for it.

Thanks!

 

[Bagheera]

I take my exam next week. I hve been studying on and off for the past 2 weeks. will study a bit more in the comming days. I have looked at the cases with my buddy about 3 months ago so I am familar with the cases in first aid 2cs. I just have to review the most important questions to ask each case. so im going to go through all the cases again, and find the most pertinent questions to remeber to ask for classic cases like abdominal pain in a mid age women, vs ab pain in a young teenager as the questioning will be a bit diff. I will also work on getting the mnemonics down so I can be organized when I ask pts during the pt encounter. Otherwise, knowing the most common cases you would see, the questions to ask in those most common cases, and organizing yourself with mnemonics for what questions to ask prior to entering a pt encounter is what seems most important. Also id spend a day or 2 with a friend just getting down the PE for each system like heart,neuro, lungs ect. Make a script that is most comfortable for urself to show empathy to the pt, make it sound natural natural. Hope it goes well for you. I am still a bit nervous for this test....

 

[thefritz]

Having finished Step 2 CK, it is now time to study/take Step 2 CS.

I was wondering
1) What resources do you recommend to use?
2) What is the amount of prep time required for this exam? [I know this will widely vary person to person, just curious to hear individual responses]

I have heard that First Aid Step 2 CS is essential, while others have recommended the Kaplan Step 2 CS Core Cases. Anyone compare the two and can recommend one? I will not have a lot of time to prep for this exam so was curious how long people usually take to study for it.

Thanks!

I went in with no prep at all. I didn't even read the instructions on the website. I was told if you speak English fluently and did well third year, you will pass this exam. I'll get my score back in a few weeks, so we'll see.

 

[drzing]

I went in with no prep at all. I didn't even read the instructions on the website. I was told if you speak English fluently and did well third year, you will pass this exam. I'll get my score back in a few weeks, so we'll see.

If you do anything, do not do this. You will regret not preparing the second you walk in the first room, possobly leading to really stupid mistakes.

while the exam is easy, at least study first aid

 

[kwel]

so is first aid step 2 CS sufficient for CS? I plan to spend a couple weeks just reading, but I want to pick a book that is relatively comprehensive. Is FA step 2 CS the generally agreed upon resource? Thanks

 

[Esprit00]

so is first aid step 2 CS sufficient for CS? I plan to spend a couple weeks just reading, but I want to pick a book that is relatively comprehensive. Is FA step 2 CS the generally agreed upon resource? Thanks

I used both First Aid Step 2 CS and a few cases from Kaplan core cases. Kaplan Core Cases may have some of the same cases as First Aid but it also has a few that they don't have like health fair, prescription renewal, etc etc. I had combined First Aid Step 2 CS with Kaplan Core Cases. I practiced with a friend for 2 hrs a day, 5x a wk for about 6 wks. I also read the first 80 pages of Kaplan Core Cases which were super important. And I redid cases that I felt I needed practice on with my fiance over Skype. Also another thing my friend and I did were go thru the mini cases together. We had a third friend read the case and tell us the number of ddx and tests to come up with and then we tried our best to diagnose and come up with the ddx as well as the tests. I found that helped a lot too. Good luck! Practice using the software for note taking though as well.

 

[HelpPleaseMD]

I went in with no prep at all. I didn't even read the instructions on the website. I was told if you speak English fluently and did well third year, you will pass this exam. I'll get my score back in a few weeks, so we'll see.

lol. dont do this! yea as others have mentioned... read first aid. that should be enough but if your neurotic some practice with friends can't hurt 😛

 

[thefritz]

lol. dont do this! yea as others have mentioned... read first aid. that should be enough but if your neurotic some practice with friends can't hurt 😛

I just got my score. I passed, but was borderline. Theoretically if you're an AMG and your school says your OSCE was ok, you should be fine with no prep. I took the exam 6 months after the OSCE.

Looking back, I'm glad I didn't waste time with unnecessary practice for this silly test, but it was a huge gamble. It would make sense to spend a day going through first aid and get a friend and go through a few practice encounters and try to write a few notes as fast as you can (I didn't finish a lot of them).

So, bottom line, you can pass it fine with no prep, but it is not as easy as everyone says it is "just speak English and wash your hands." The consequences of a potential failure aren't worth the risk IMO.

 

[Kaputt]

It really depends on how comfortable you are in the OSCE setting. If you are a US MD/DO student who has been doing standardized patient encounters since first year, you'll need to prep less. But, always err on the side of preparing more because who knows what can happen on this test and the stakes are too high to fail.

First Aid for Step 2 CS is a decent run-down of the things you need to do with each encounter. Unfortunately, some of the changes they made last year to the exam (namely, SPs only grade with a PE checklist now instead of both a PE and HPI checklist, and you have to list supporting data from your HPI/PE with your differential diagnosis items), are not in the most recent version of First Aid. Thus, it is important that you go through the orientation materials on the USMLE's website.

If your school doesn't offer a simulation exam, it would be helpful to practice timed patient encounters with a friend, including writing the note. Timing is essential on the exam, and incomplete notes are the fastest way to fail the ICE component.

I'd say most US MD/DO students don't study very long for this exam (no more than 2 casual weeks), due to comfort with OSCEs. Lots of IMGs/FMGs study way more because they aren't as used to them.