My Step 2 CK Experience:

Timeline:

I started my first read in July 2014. I gave a quick read to surgery and medicine up to sept. Then I had to go for rotation as well as CS exam to US. When I came back in january, I had my final exam prep. I did the remaining subjects during my preps.

Most of the time I would study in step 2 wise fashion. I finished half of the u world during my preps and exam. After getting rid of my exam in june, I scheduled my exam on 9 july. I finished the remaining u world offline, then bought a one month subscription and did one time online.

Materials:

Internal medicine. Kaplan/mtb2.

Kaplan contains too much detail which will make you confused. I suggest you do one time kaplan and then stick to mtb 2. Emergency medicine is given good in kaplan, do that well from kaplan.

I think if you study medicine only you are going to pass the exam but to get a good score you have to make the other subjects stronger.

Surgery. Kaplan x 2 time and mtb 3.

Kaplan is good but the questions tested are a little different. U world is imp source and try to understand every concept given there.

Ob/gyne. Kaplan/mtb 3.

Kaplan contains more informations than tested but still it gives you a strong base. Most of the questions are typical like abruptio placenta, Preeclempsia but they have recently included Ultrasound picture. Try to look that up somewhere before you go for exam if you want to get extra ordinary score.

Apart from that learn the electronic fetal heart tracing well.

Psych. Kaplan /mtb 3.

This will drive you crazy but the solution is you practice a lot of mcqs on it and learn the differentiating feature between different psychiatric disorders. If you are already done with step 1 then this will be much easier for you, you have to focus only on management.

Also focus on the association of one psychiatric disorder with another like Parkinsonism with depression. I had this on my exam.

Pediatrics. Kaplan/mtb 3.

Learn it well. The 2^nd most tested area apart from medicine. Read kaplan as well mtb 3 which is summary of Kaplan. Step 1 knowledge will help you a lot in it especially the differentl metobolic and genetic disorders.

Kaplan Q bank. I did in the start but at the end I had no idea what did I study there. I made some notes that I revised later. Should I suggest it? I think it would be better to focus on u world.

U world x 1 time offline and 1 time online.  Most important source I guess and the one you should do again and again if you have time. I didn’t make any notes from online u world b/c it seemed to me very time consuming. I did take pics of some of the explanation that I revised in the end.

Goljan. Just for some chapters where I would feel difficulty in understanding the pathophysiology.

Nbme 7 : 2 weeks before exam 254

UWSA.  5 days before exam. 265

Exam day : if you ask me I have to admit that it was one of the worst days of my prep for exam. I didn’t sleep well a night before test but still I performed well.

Moral: If you work hard you are going to nail it no matter what.

You don’t have time on the exam to read the whole scenarios. 1^st I would look for something in the scenario and the lab values that would give me a definite clue to choose the best answer. If I would not find that then I would go for the whole scenario.

I had 3 heart sounds and 3 ECGs on my exam, learn these well.

Tips:

Ø Always aim high. It doesn’t cost you anything!

Ø The important thing is to know when they are giving you a clue and when they are tricking you. Once you know the difference you are ready to go for exam. This will come through practicing a lot of MCQS.

Ø  Again there is no best way to study, everyone has his own way and you have to find the one that works best for you.

Ø  You must keep yourself motivated during the preps, try to read the first pages of mtb2 which gives you a boost.  

Ø  UWORLD. The single most important source that you must do again and again. Some of the guidelines for management changes as well as the diagnosis criteria and this will you only find in online u world. So don’t compromise on this. Do it well and do it as much as you can. Twice at least. I would suggest you do one time offline 1^st so that you don’t have to write everything while you are doing online.

Ø  Most of the exam is high yield stuff! So concentrate on there. How will you know that? When you are solving mcqs, the topic that is tested there is most likely high yield.

My method:

I can’t exactly say how much I would study/day. There are days I wouldn’t even study. But whenever I would feel like studying I would try to study even when I would be with friends. I had books in phone and during my prep I had two rooms and one study room each containing different books so everywhere I would go , I would try to revise something.

I would always do two subjects at a time when get bored from one subject I would switch to another.

This was all about my prep. If you are still confused about something feel free to ask.

                               Good Luck!