Thoughts on "Step Up" for 2CK

[Captopril]

I'm a believer in the Doctors In Training way, after it got me a 99 on Step 1. After viewing their Step 2 CK intro video, I found out that the DIT course for that exam uses "Step Up to Step 2CK". I went ahead and ordered it, just got it recently. It is a really, really slim book (I think it's <250 pages).

Is this tiny book really sufficient for the exam prep, along with the obligatory qbanks?

Also I noticed that many people here refer to Secrets/Crush for 2CK. How does Step-Up compare to these books?

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[Captopril]

bump (still trying to figure out which book to focus on)

 

[Doctor4Life1769]

Seems to be good to me. Crush is around 300 pages. I don't know about FA - I imagine it's like 500 (kidding).

Honestly, not sure what's good and what's bad. I use Crush and see topics right from it on UW and wish I'd used it more. I see topics from my IM shelf in Step Up to Step2CK and wonder WTF ... and why it's not in other review books. I think it's a toss up - if you're doing DIT, might as well stick to the source they use.

 

[Captopril]

Seems to be good to me. Crush is around 300 pages. I don't know about FA - I imagine it's like 500 (kidding).

Honestly, not sure what's good and what's bad. I use Crush and see topics right from it on UW and wish I'd used it more. I see topics from my IM shelf in Step Up to Step2CK and wonder WTF ... and why it's not in other review books. I think it's a toss up - if you're doing DIT, might as well stick to the source they use.

Thanks dude. Don't wanna get caught screwing myself over by sticking with an inferior source, but I guess for this test the qbanks matter more than the texts.

 

[Doctor4Life1769]

Thanks dude. Don't wanna get caught screwing myself over by sticking with an inferior source, but I guess for this test the qbanks matter more than the texts.

Yeah. When are you taking Step 2?

 

[Captopril]

Yeah. When are you taking Step 2?

end of july

 

[kazuma]

Seems to be good to me. Crush is around 300 pages. I don't know about FA - I imagine it's like 500 (kidding).

Honestly, not sure what's good and what's bad. I use Crush and see topics right from it on UW and wish I'd used it more. I see topics from my IM shelf in Step Up to Step2CK and wonder WTF ... and why it's not in other review books. I think it's a toss up - if you're doing DIT, might as well stick to the source they use.

Actually FA is just over 500 pages after subtracting the intro pages. It's pretty dense compared to Step Up and I've found a number of topics that SU doesn't have that FA does have. I'm not sure if these topics are not high yield or not. For example, it seems like lysosomal storage diseases and viral exanthems should be included in SU.

I bought FA 7th ed last fall when I bought UW (year subscription) and had been annotating it with topics from UW (75% completed). I decided to go ahead with DIT this spring and since SU is the book they follow I bought it as well. I will be starting the DIT program around June 3rd and will be taking the COMLEX/USMLE step 2 exams the second week of July. I have been taking notes from UW in SU now that I have it and I will probably only use FA for reference and my previous UW notes that I had written throughout the book. Personally, I think SU is a better written book from what I have seen so far. However, I do like some of the ways in which FA is organized.

I'm really hoping that this DIT program ends up being as great as they say it is because I'd really like to be sitting at a 245 USMLE or greater when it's all said and done. It sure wasn't cheap, but if it helps me get a higher score then it was well worth it.

 

[kazuma]

FWIW, I have Crush too. That was the first book I bought because I had heard all the rage about it. I found it very easy to read and it flows well. However, I found it missing a lot of the topics covered in UW and I was having to write too many additional notes, so I bought FA.

In the end, I think nailing down UW is the most important thing to do. I have a hard time just reading a book for hours on end. I find myself being able to stay more focused and having better retention when I'm doing questions.