What books do you recommend for Step2 studying?

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drizzlinstars

drizzlinstars

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Hi
I was wondering if you know what combo of study resources was the best way to go about studying for the step2? I have 3 weeks to study.. I am currently doing Uworld questions. Still have another 80% to do. I have step up to medicine, First Aid Step 2, Master the boards, the kaplan notes and videos. I am not sure what to use.
Please help!!
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drizzlinstars said:
Hi
I was wondering if you know what combo of study resources was the best way to go about studying for the step2? I have 3 weeks to study.. I am currently doing Uworld questions. Still have another 80% to do. I have step up to medicine, First Aid Step 2, Master the boards, the kaplan notes and videos. I am not sure what to use.
Please help!!
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Recommend first aid and usmleworld.... i got a 246 3 wks of styding and i didnt do well in the past, or on shelfs
 
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I used Crush and USMLE secret, which are almost the same materal but my score didnt improve much on Uworld. i only have 20% left on it and im doing average. The first aid, unfortunately doesn’t have any good rating and feedback based on previous posts and various book sailing websites, so that why I didnt use it. But i think i should give it a try. :xf:
 
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i think i might have said this in another post, so i apologize if i am sounding like a broken record. i wasn't planning to use FA but after i'd get a UW question wrong i'd look it up in FA...most of the time the material would be right there in FA. i know thats kind of anecdotal, but for me crush/secrets was kind of superficial
 
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kemper6036 said:
i think i might have said this in another post, so i apologize if i am sounding like a broken record. i wasn't planning to use FA but after i'd get a UW question wrong i'd look it up in FA...most of the time the material would be right there in FA. i know thats kind of anecdotal, but for me crush/secrets was kind of superficial
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I second this. I thought Crush was very superficial and really didn't have much worthwihle information. I used Kaplan notes too, but at times the amount of detail was overwhelming. First Aid is not bad, it could have more detail but I think it would be sufficient to use with USMLEworld.
 
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First aid doesnt have a surgery section! for those who are using first aid, what are you using for surgery?
 
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BIG Daddy#1 said:
First aid doesnt have a surgery section! for those who are using first aid, what are you using for surgery?
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if you read first aid, the surgery content is kind of mixed in everywhere. i wasn't a big fan of this but it got the job done
 
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So has anyone used or knows someone that used "Step up to Step 2"
 
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Rubyc said:
So has anyone used or knows someone that used "Step up to Step 2"
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no, but if you've looked through it and like what you see, why not use it? i think its pretty obvious by reading all the posts here what some of the more popular resources are. is there a reason you dont want to take that advice? you can be a trail blazer i guess on the other hand :p
 
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Rubyc said:
So has anyone used or knows someone that used "Step up to Step 2"
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I've been using it for a couple weeks now. It is definitely missing some stuff, but I don't really care since I'm essentially annotating all of UW into it. The reason I chose Step Up to Step 2CK is because I'm gonna start DIT next week and it's the text they use. If there's one thing I learned from Step 1 studying, it is that I do terribly when I spread myself out too thin over a ton of books...so I figure if I gotta read Step Up anyway, might as well stick to it from the beginning. I also figure there must be something to it if DIT chose it over FA (although FA has definitely got some advocates on this forum).
 
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vicinihil said:
I understand that FA 2CK and UW are essential to doing well. Did people find Secrets "more" helpful? What about Kaplan lecture notes? Are they necessary for non-FMG's?
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Kaplan Lecture Notes are ridiculous no matter where you went to med school.
 
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why not? its a good book. and it matches up with uw....it's almost like uw opened that book and created questions from it.
i thought secrets was aight, didnt like the format.
med from kaplan is crap
peds crap
psych crap/overkill
obgyn solid
surg solild
overall kaplan is not needed,
uw and fa is all it takes.
 
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Why not? Because I'm pretty deep into my studies and my test is soon. I don't want to "start a new/another source".
 
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not sure how i was supposed to know that but ok....
what are you using?...keep using it if it works:thumbup:
keep on keepin on!
 
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Knicks said:
Why not? Because I'm pretty deep into my studies and my test is soon. I don't want to "start a new/another source".
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if you are happy with how world/NBMEs are going, no need to change sources....just keep on plugging
 
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Captopril said:
I don't get why DIT didn't use FA if this is the case
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I'm curious about the same thing. Dr. J definitely knows what he is talking about IMO. One thing that concerns me is that Step up was published in 07. I emailed both DIT and the publisher and got conflicting info about a new edition. DIT said a new edition will be coming out in December; however, the publisher (or whoever emailed me from there), said that there is no plan for a new edition...

I start rotations in a couple weeks, so I want to pick up a primary source and use that throughout the year. Seem like FA is the better option judging from previous posts, but I do want get through DIT again.
 
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markglt said:
why not? its a good book. and it matches up with uw....it's almost like uw opened that book and created questions from it.
i thought secrets was aight, didnt like the format.
med from kaplan is crap
peds crap
psych crap/overkill
obgyn solid
surg solild
overall kaplan is not needed,
uw and fa is all it takes.
Click to expand...

I really wanna know how u did on the exam? I was thinking of starting kaplan notes. Also do u recommend listenening to the videos?

Thanks.
 
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2??/8? is how i did..
not no 275/99.
i dont be that smart.
like i said, what worked for me was uw and fa2ck.
i did actually think the obgyn and surgery books from kaplan were pretty good.
i hated the peds book and the medicine. read half of each and dumped them.
in terms of the vids, yeah i had them.... only watched the pulm. and nephro., both of which were helpful...neither of which were conrad fischer, whom i find very annoying, and fluffy when he lectures.
so those were the only vids..oh yeah i did watch the peds.. about half,...what an idiot, all he does is read the peds book to you which sucks anyhow.
the surgery..pestana is rock solid.... he's awesome, good book.
same with obgyn. honestly tho, obgyn in fa is plenty for the exam..and although i thought kaplan surg was good. i had jack squat for surg. on my exam..just trauma stuff.
so...
- fa2ck
- uw
- kap. renal and pulm vids
- kap. obgyn and surgery books...
should put u in a good spot to do well.
like i said, i aint too bright..so that combo should get u in the low 90's somewhere..hovering around a 220 if u work hard.
gl:thumbup:
 
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ok

for a solid sure 99 will FA2CK + step up to medicine + UW be a good deal??

i even have kaplan lecture notes but am dicy about them
 
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Kaplan notes as a good foundation.
FIRST AID daily with Crush.
A QBank. Lots of online searches.

Repeat these
 
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