Want to destroy Step II CK

[studentdoc911]

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I'm aiming for a top specialty and didn't do very well on Step 1 🙁...mainly due to poor planning. I really want to nail this test and score 260+ to make up for my low Step I score. I've seen many people "step up" on Step 2. I've barely just started M3 (orientation only) and want to do whatever it takes to achieve this score. I know this is an ambitious goal but I know I'm not a total ***** since I killed the MCAT.

For Step I, the ones who destroyed it did 2-3 Qbanks (Rx, Kaplan, and finally UW) and had gotten very familiar with the different ways a question could be asked. I know UW is very high yield for Step 2. However, what would you recommend as a plan of action throughout M3?

I apologize if this is a newb thread since I just migrated over here from the Step I section and there aren't really any stickies.

 

[SoFarBehind]

You really don't need a lot of time to prep for CK if you make the most out of third year. My advice would be to find study material that helps you excel on the shelves (retired NBME questions). I would highly recommend pre-test. I would do the entire book in the first part of the course, taking short notes on all the q's I got wrong. Then I'd go through pre-test a second time.

I would also highly recommend a few of the first aid book series for specific clerkships. Especially for the following:
-Psych (literally 100 pages, memorize it and you'll get a >95% on the shelf)
-Int Med
-Surg
-OB/GYN

I often would refer back to these during my step 2 CK studying when the CK book was too non-specific.

 

[combat]

I'm aiming for a top specialty and didn't do very well on Step 1 🙁...mainly due to poor planning. I really want to nail this test and score 260+ to make up for my low Step I score. I've seen many people "step up" on Step 2. I've barely just started M3 (orientation only) and want to do whatever it takes to achieve this score. I know this is an ambitious goal but I know I'm not a total ***** since I killed the MCAT.

For Step I, the ones who destroyed it did 2-3 Qbanks (Rx, Kaplan, and finally UW) and had gotten very familiar with the different ways a question could be asked. I know UW is very high yield for Step 2. However, what would you recommend as a plan of action throughout M3?

I apologize if this is a newb thread since I just migrated over here from the Step I section and there aren't really any stickies.

I am in your position as well, didn't get my step1 result yet but i know my score is not going to be good ***sigh***

 

[combat]

You really don't need a lot of time to prep for CK if you make the most out of third year. My advice would be to find study material that helps you excel on the shelves (retired NBME questions). I would highly recommend pre-test. I would do the entire book in the first part of the course, taking short notes on all the q's I got wrong. Then I'd go through pre-test a second time.

I would also highly recommend a few of the first aid book series for specific clerkships. Especially for the following:
-Psych (literally 100 pages, memorize it and you'll get a >95% on the shelf)
-Int Med
-Surg
-OB/GYN

I often would refer back to these during my step 2 CK studying when the CK book was too non-specific.

Couple of questions :

1) when you say retired NBME's are those the one school has, or are they nbme forms like step1, because my school has retired nbmes.

2) http://www.google.com/products/cata...a=X&ei=8SoqTqDwG4nV0QGWsamLCw&ved=0CEUQ8wIwBQ . Is this pretest you talking about?

3) Instead of using FA for psych, IM, surgery and OB-GYN, can i substitute them with master the board for step2?

 

[Valadi]

In my experience I found pretest was horrible. FA is definitely all you need for psych. Is good for surgery too, but also pick up NMS surgery casefiles. Didn't use it for anything else. Step up to Medicine was all I used for IMed and FMed. Blueprints for obgyn, peds, and neuro. Pick a Qbank to use throughout the year for questions and then do world and DIT to study for step 2 to maximize your score. The best way to prepare for step 2 is to demolish your clinical rotations.

 

[killinsound]

Get these books

Surgery - NMS +/- pestana cases
OBGYN - Case Files and Blueprints textbook
Psych - First Aid +/- Casefiles
Peds - Casefiles + Pretest
Medicine - Step Up to Medicine + MKSAP
Neuro - Blueprints cases
If you have family - Family casefiles is all you need
Using only those + UWorld throughout the year, i got 95th+ with 4 99th's on all shelfs with 1-2 hours studying MAX a day. Waiting on Step 2, but hopefully will reflect (although I feel nervous about it)

if you do that, and learn from your patients, you should need minimal study time for step 2

 

[myhandsarecold]

i second the guy above. i got a 252 on step 2 and several >95th percentile on shelves but used slightly different combos below:
Surgery: NMS, NMS Casebook, High Yield Surgery
OBGYN: Blueprints, uWise qbank
Psych: First Aid, Blueprints
Peds: NMS, Pretest
Medicine: Step up to Medicine, MKSAP qbank 2, 3, 4
Family Medicine: Blueprints, Pretest
Step 2: UWorld, USMLERx, Step up to Medicine, High Yield Surgery

I definitely used more books than others but I found them all necessary. I would recommend buying Pretest for the IPhone/Ipod which I found very useful during downtime in the wards. goodluck!

 

[PokerDoc]

personally, I thought the blueprints series were atrocious. But as you can see.. its not necessarily the texts that make one great, its the dedication. And also lots and lots of questions! I used UW during the year and reset it for my step 2 studying now.. i dont remember most of the questions, I don't regret it at all.. I am usually one who always remembers questions too.

 

[killinsound]

Get these books

Surgery - NMS cases +/- pestana cases
OBGYN - Case Files and Blueprints textbook
Psych - First Aid +/- Casefiles
Peds - Casefiles + Pretest
Medicine - Step Up to Medicine + MKSAP
Neuro - Blueprints cases
If you have family - Family casefiles is all you need
Using only those + UWorld throughout the year, i got 95th+ with 4 99th's on all shelfs with 1-2 hours studying MAX a day. Waiting on Step 2, but hopefully will reflect (although I feel nervous about it)

if you do that, and learn from your patients, you should need minimal study time for step 2

Step 2 - 270+, Step 1 - 260

My Step 2 study material: Step Up to Step 2 (Book is absolutely horrible would not recommend), Master the boards (good, but doenst cover much), and UWorld. Would probably do Secrets + UWorld in retrospect. I used Step up to medicine as a reference and used First Aid for Step 1 for a few pages (glycogen storage/galactose/fructose/lysosomal diseases, immunologic, and nerves - this all took maybe 1 hour total).

I had medicine in the very last rotation so I knew medicine pretty well. With that, I felt like I was peaking on the 9th-10th day of studying. I would read Step up to step 2 for 3-4 hours in the morning, then do questions for 6-8 hours.

 

[killinsound]

personally, I thought the blueprints series were atrocious. But as you can see.. its not necessarily the texts that make one great, its the dedication. And also lots and lots of questions! I used UW during the year and reset it for my step 2 studying now.. i dont remember most of the questions, I don't regret it at all.. I am usually one who always remembers questions too.

I generally agree, but I thought blueprints for OB was great. blueprints cases for neuro was alright. I did not use the textbook for neuro and heard it was awful.

 

[end stage fibro]

don't take it in soviet russia then

 

[ThePursuit]

So.... troll through the relevant threads for each shelf you take. Study to destroy each shelf, then it's an easy review process for step2ck. It's more intuition and responding to questions based on experience of what you saw in a similar situation during rotations vs. stupid regurg of random facts like step 1. The longer you delay it after M3 the worse you'll do. The later in your M3 year you have IM the better you'll do (I had IM last). I used step-up to medicine (great resource) to add to step-up to step 2. I agree this book is not ideal and has errors (look online for corrections from DIT etc.) but it's the best all inclusive outline of M3 out there. It's written by an ortho resident though... kind of sketch.