scheduled for step 2 ck on august 4th. Doing uworld now. Read MTB2 and using FA step 2 ck for now. anyone use the Kaplan online review course for IM? and if so did that help because i don't want to shell out like a thousand dollars and not have it be worth it. Also i technically have less than 2 months now. any suggestions? thanks
I'm an recently graduated IMG, scheduled for CK on August 20th and currently taking the Kaplan IM Board review course live, halfway through it today. I find it helpful for a few reasons, but there are a few things to be aware of just so if you do decide to take it, you aren't surprised if you have certain expectations that aren't met. Basically, it's nine or ten days long, 3 different lecturers, and it only covers the Internal Medicine portion of the exam for CK, so you need to have another solid source for ob/gyn/peds/surg, etc. They do touch a bit of preventive, biostats and EMed in the class too, but it's coming in the next few days for me, so I can't comment on that yet.
-The course is not at all a content review - it's basically a huge workbook with "drill" type questions and the questions that people most commonly get wrong on all of the exams (step 2 ck, step 3 and IM boards). There are little explanations at the end of each chapter that give you the answers if you didn't catch them during the discussion.
-It's set up by systems/diseases, so for example, you are presented with an angina or a CHF vignette, and they give you 5 or 6 most commonly tested questions about those topics, and he walks you through the management algorithms - first step in management, best initial test, most accurate test, most effective therapy, etc. It works like that for basically every disease, which is good because it keeps things organized.
-Ideally, you should use it with a content review source like kaplan lecture notes or merge it with wherever you are taking notes for your UWorld explanations. That's how I've been able to benefit from it since it helped to fill in some gaps in my knowledge base. The way to best use the course is as a supplement or a step up to cram a bunch of facts before you approach a qbank, or if you notice yourself consistently getting certain things wrong in uworld, this will probably help you iron out where your mistakes are coming from.
-I was told in no uncertain terms, that the best way to use the workbook is straight up memorize those most commonly tested things that are listed in the workbook and beyond that, there is no easy way to do it. People who've taken the class before me have said that their scores went from around 210s to 235s after this class, so I think it's worth a try.
Hope that helps!
