Reasons why I took Step 2 early and (counsel MS4’s that I work with to do the same):
- You won’t want to study as hard for this exam as the year goes on. By the end of MS4 year your so burnt out from studying, doing well clinically, and interview season. That studying for yet ANOTHER USMLE exam is going to be at the bottom of your list.
- Residency programs won’t come right out say this on their website, but some programs . won’t consider your application complete unless you’ve take step 2. Have a score report to send them on your ERAS application. I specifically remember hearing that one program didn’t offer any interviews to applicants that didn’t have a Step 2 CK score back at the time that ERAS opened.
- IMO why risk not getting a potential interview from a program or multiple programs because you hadn’t scheduled your test early enough.
- Unless your doing a whole bunch of Internal medicine rotations, the info that you learned from MS3 year won’t be retained in your head. You’d be surprised how fast information can fall out of your head.
Now that Step 1 is Pass/fail applicants don’t have to worry about “not doing better” on Step 2 than Step 1.
Additionally it may be a good thing for programs to see how well. You do on a standardized exam that carries a score with it. Trust me, this pains my soul typing that last sentence but unfortunately to most (not all) programs scores matter somewhat in application process. Just try your best. That’s what I did, and I have made it thus far.
Let’s get down to it here is my top advice on how to study for Step 2 CK in 2022.
Resources that I used:
- UWORLD: Unfortunately you may have deleted the UWorld app from you computer and phone after studying for Step 1 but nows the time to redownload it and get back at it. UWORLD is the best test bank and quite frankly the only test bank I used prepare for step 2. If you’ve already used some or most of UWorld throughout third year I suggest resetting the Q-bank leading up to the exam and using that as a resource. I always found that keeping a notebook with all of the questions/concepts that I get wrong doing questions and writing down the answers after reading the explanation is very helpful for my learning. I still do this today and I was able to score >65 percentile on my Anesthesia ITE (CA-1 year). Note: 65 percentile does not equate to 65% on the exam haha. I’ll save that study tip post for later for those of ya’ll going into Anesthesia.
- Master The Boards Step 2 CK: (Click bolded item to see actual book) At my medical school we were required to complete two IM rotation one during third and forth year. During my MS4 month prior to taking Step 2 I used this book as a resource. I took notes in it and even wrote some important concepts that I learned from UWorld in it. I essentially used this book as my “First Aid” book during this process. It’s a good book if your looking for a fast review of a concept with basic high yield facts.
Uworld practice exams:
- I remember reading mixed reviews on whether the NBME or UWORLD practice exams were more predictable of your actual step 2 score. At the time I took step 2 I found that UWorld was more accurate so I decided to take those exams instead of NBME. UWorld practice exams also comes with your subscription so you don’t have to pay an additional fee for them, which is an added bonus. The idea of the practice exam isn’t to necessarily just see what your score is. It’s to get in the practice of taking such a long exam again. A lot of these exams is mental you need to mentally have stamina to keep going even when you don’t feel like things are going well. Pep yourself up, once you click an answer, move on and focus on the next question. I know it’s so hard and I still struggle with this but trust your gut. If YOU KNOW something is wrong then change the answer but if you’re unsure just stick with your first answer and keep it moving.
- The first practice exam that I took I felt like things went okay and then I got my score back and freaked out. It looked like I barely passed! I was SO confused since I felt like things went well. Once I got the courage to go back into the room that I sat in for the previous 8-9 hours, I actually refreshed my UWorld app.
- To my relief the initial score wasn’t actually accurate and I got back a score that I believed reflected my test performance. I say this in hopes to save another med student from a having a mini meltdown or panic attack haha. My real score was actually within 5-10 points of my practice UWorld score which was nice.
- First Aid for USMLE Step 2 CK: So unfortunately this resource just isn’t as good in comparison to the first aid Step 1 “bible” you are used to studying from. I tried to like this resource when I first started studying but then I ended up putting it away and focusing on the above resources.
My last tip is that, if you keep getting a specific type of questions wrong, then go back even to your step 1 USMLE book and review the basics. Then work your way up to doing some additional targeted studying in that area. For me, this was OB, I forgot the difference between placenta accreta placenta, previa, molar pregnancies and etc. Basically I forgot most of OB since I had done it earlier so I just went back and reviewed.
How much time should you take off to study for step 2 CK in 2022?
I did some light studying over my MS4 Radiology rotation which was 4 weeks. I really focused on studying using Master the boards, ~20 UWorld questions a night, and reviewing incorrect concepts/questions that I had written down from the previous days during my away rotation which was also 4 weeks. My timeline is different since I slowly spread out my studying over the course of 8 weeks while doing two rotations. But most of my classmates took ~3-4 weeks during an elective to dedicate to studying for step 2.
I think its really up to how much you feel like you’ve retained from MS3 year. But overall everyone’s situation is unique so do what is best for you!
MS4’s who just matched did I miss anything? Drop a comment below with any additional resources you found helpful for our new/rising MS4’s.
Xoxo,
TheActiveMedic