USMLE Step 2 Blog

USMLE World Blues

2007-06-17T21:30:00.000-07:00

Having completed over 50% of USMLE World, I'm constantly fighting an overwhelming desire to destroy my computer. It's not that I don't like my computer. In fact, I quite like it. But the questions on UW are just driving me crazy. It's not like I'm that dumb. I'm not. Well, I, at least I think I'm not. And my mom says I'm not as well, so there. So far, I've resisted the urge, but my poor, poor mouse. That little left mouse button just couldn't hold out any longer, and alas, succumbed to the repeated stress of my index finger. It's final resting place, in a plastic bag surrounded by leftover pizza scraps, a banana peel and 3 empty wrappers of mini-toblerone. That mouse deserved better.

Hmmmm

2007-06-03T12:03:00.000-07:00

So I did my first block of UW. I did ok. 67%. Made some dumb mistakes that could have easily taken me over 70%. So, I'm thinking, I can beat this thing no problem. Right? Wrong. Next block...50%. Yikes. I'm beginning to regret not actually reading my books before starting the questions.

USMLE World Begins

2007-06-01T12:37:00.000-07:00

Well I finally got around to buying the online question bank at USMLE World. The interface is slick, just like the one FRED put out. It's very unlike the crappy Kaplan one that I used in Step 1, which, while functioning like like FRED, looked nothing like it. Haven't done any questions yet, but I hear I'm in for a real treat.

Step 2 Mock Exam

2007-04-27T07:40:00.000-07:00

So, I'm happily working on the USMLE Step 2 Mock Exam. As I mentioned before, it's written the the same author as the Crush Step 2: The Ultimate USMLE Step 2 Review and the USMLE Step 2 Secrets books. So what can I say about the Step 2 Mock Exam? The first few had some inhumanely long questions. Like seriously long. I hope the real thing isn't like that. But by about block 3, most of the question lengths were quite reasonable. The questions are completely random, which I prefer and seem to have good coverage of all topics. I don't know if the questions are easier, or if I'm getting smarter, or maybe I'm actually focusing better, but my block scores are pretty decent these days - high 70's to mid 80's. It's doing wonders to my confidence, which, apparently, is going to get a proper butt-kicking once I start UW.

First Aid CS

2007-04-16T07:31:00.000-07:00

Got my First Aid CSin the mail today! Yay! I haven't really talked about CS because I was trying to avoid thinking about it. I have scheduled CS sometime in June, which gives me plenty of time to mull over the cases. Plenty. Plenty? Yeah right. Just to be clear, I'm not one of the foreign grads who takes 12 months of to study for the steps. I'm IN medical school right now, and I have final exams coming up. I'm also in the middle of scheduling electives which, as it turns out, is a colossal pain in the butt. So there, I'm probably just as busy as you are.

First Aid CK

2007-04-13T16:53:00.000-07:00

Got my First Aid CKin the mail today! Yay! Now I can actually read the topics before I do questions on them. How exciting. Now I can start annotating the crap out of it with all the useless pearls of knowledge that I am sure I've forgotten most of already. We'll see.

New Book Discovered

2007-04-05T13:22:00.000-07:00

Step 2 Mock Exam. It's written by the same guy who wrote Crush and Step 2 Secrets -- Adam Brochert. Everyone says that the book sucks. I've done the first block of 50 questions and here's what I think and what I've been told. Lots of questions are those crappy 'which of the follow DOESN'T apply' type, so you have to think in reverse to get the answers correct. Apparently, the real exam doesn't use this line of questioning. Also, the questions in this book are extremely long. Like seriously long. Most of the time, I just read the last sentence which contained the actual question. Then I read the appropriate sections of text above, trying to find clues on how to answer the question. Very tedious work, and to be honest, I don't need tedious at this point in my life. I'm going to try a few more blocks, and we'll see if this one gets tossed into the paper shredder. By the way, finished that first block with a 74%.

Qbook done

2007-03-29T21:42:00.000-07:00

Phew, Qbook is done. Every single question. I can't say that I learns tons, but I feel like I know a bit more than what I started with. For the most part, I was getting mid 60's low-mid 70's on each block of 50. Ok, the odd score in the 50's too. But this ain't going to get me down. Actually, I'm not too disappointed with these scores, considering that I have yet to open a book in surgery or medicine -- just going on plain old intuition for these topics. I think a couple good days studying for these subjects should put me in good shape. My biggest problem is, I have finals coming up for school right now. While all my classmates are cramming for school exams, I have do study for school exams PLUS Step 2 CK AND CS! My days are fun. And no, oddly enough, studying for school does not really help in terms of studying for the steps. Why? Because my school is dumb, we are examined in a way that requires us to regurgitate vast amounts of knowledge in the form 'essays'. Seriously. My days are fun.

Kaplan Qbook Surgery

2007-03-16T15:55:00.000-07:00

Ok, am I the only one that is finding the Kaplan Qbook Surgery questions ridiculously tough? A stellar 56% on the first block, followed by an equally amazing 64% on the second block. I guess this is what I get by putting the cart in front of the horse -- I've actually done the questions before reading any surgery resources. I'm hoping that a little studying in the area will do the trick. But will it? See, this is my problem. The textbooks don't tend to tell you what's the next step in management, which is the area I'm finding the most difficulty in. Textbooks are great for telling you epidemiology, pathophysiology and all that stuff that you think you've forgotten, but really have lurking deep, deep inside that thing you call a brain. But I find that my books seem to lack a cohesive treatment plan for these diseases. I need a nice flowchart. A really nice one. Someone make a flowchart. Please?

Which Qbank to use?

2007-03-03T11:43:00.000-08:00

With the emergence of USMLERx for Step1, there has been much debate as to which Qbank to use. In Step2, there appears to be much less of a debate: USMLE World, or, as it is lovingly referred to by the masses: "UW". It looks like I'm going to get the one month subscription for $90.00. Yay! More questions, but sadly, less time. No, I don't work for them.

First line antibiotic

2007-02-17T19:30:00.000-08:00

I tired of questions that have no universally correct answer. Questions like which antibiotic is your first line choice for community acquired pneumonia. I've seen different answers for this question from 2 different question books - Pretest vs Kaplan. Kaplan says good old penicillin, Pretest likes quinolones (moxi, gati). I like chocolate.

More from Kaplan Qbook

2007-02-03T16:17:00.000-08:00

Referring to Kaplan Qbook, I'm guessing that the good folks at Kaplan have designed this book to mimic the actual exam: 8 Blocks of Internal Medicine, 2 Blocks Obs/Gyn, 3 Blocks Peds, 2 Blocks Psychiatry, 2 Blocks Surgery. Ergo, the bulk of this exam appears to be focused on internal medicine. Does this mean I'm going to have to memorize Kumar and Clark? I hope not. So far, I've completed 2 blocks of the Internal Medicine section, with scores of 68% and 70%. Doesn't sound too inspiring, and to make matters worse, I'm told by several friends that these Qbook questions are actually quite easy compared to other question banks. Time to pull the socks up.

Incompetent

2007-01-17T11:21:00.000-08:00

I really didn't think it was possible, but the good folks at my medical school office have proven to be even more incompetent that last year. It's taking them forever to sign my papers. I think the problem is that they keep getting pregnant and someone has to come in and replace them every 6 months. Studying has been going ok, slow and steady wins the race, right? Right?

The best way to spend $2000.00

2007-01-07T10:11:00.000-08:00

I did it! Finally. I am now officially signed up for Step 2 CK and CS. Wow, what a freaking waste of money this is. With the imminent arrival of my credit card bill, I finally feel the pressure to get studying. Now here's the thing. I think I hate my Kaplan books. I took a peek at a friends Blueprints series and I think I like it. I'm going to give Blueprints Psych a shot today. We'll see. I hope it's better than Kaplan because reading Kaplan has been a real pain. Oh, and it's Form 183 all over again. You would think they would have my photo on file from the last time I applied...

Christmas studying

2007-01-02T10:06:00.000-08:00

Well I thought I would be the model student for once and took home about 5kg of books over the holdays. I would spend a few hours each day reading these over the next two weeks? Right? Wrong. Two weeks later, I'm no closer to starting these books than when I originally dragged them home. Well, actually, I did manage to read about 3 pages of pediatrics while waiting in line at the post office. Now that's progress...

Can't get motivated

2006-12-10T09:55:00.000-08:00

There are many problems with studying well in advance for an exam. For one, there is a serious lack of a real test date, so, for the moment (at least that's what I keep telling myself), there actually is no Step 2 exam for me. It makes slacking off quite easy to do. I am thinking to take Step 2 CK in June, that's a full 7 months ahead of schedule. I guess I need some pressure to get into gear. First things first though, I need to actually sign up for the exam.

Done Obs...sort of?

2006-11-21T14:21:00.000-08:00

Well, over a month after I began reading the Obs book, I have finally finished reading it (once, just once). I don't think I really took much of it in, however, I did spend the past few hours doing block 1 of Obs/Gyn in the Kaplan Qbook. Guess what? If the Qbook is any indication of the real exam, then Step 2 is going to be SMOOOOOOTH sailing. Seriously, the questions, for the most part, were pretty easy and straight forward. Common sense rather than any specific knowledge of Obs was used for most questions. I'm moving on to pediatrics next. Will keep you posted...

Obs/Gyn

2006-11-11T16:50:00.000-08:00

Getting through the Kaplan Obs/Gyn book has been very much like eating day old pizza. It has a bit of a familiar taste, like you sort of know the material, but it just doesn't go down like the stuff the delivery boy drops off 30 minutes after you order it. The book has about 170 pages total, I'm now on page 70. That's 70 pages in about 20 days. Not very impressive. I'm actually a bit shocked now that I've mentally done the math. I've got to pick up the pace.

Studying Blues

2006-10-30T08:46:00.000-08:00

Studying has proven to be something of a challenge. It's not that we're terribly busy at school. If I haven't already mentioned this in my Step 1 Blog, here goes: Despite teaching medicine for nearly 200 years, my school is slightly retarded. The school remains determined to give us as little clinical exposure as (in)humanly possible. Also, we don't really learn medicine. We don't really learn anything actually. We do, however, spend an inordinate amount of time sitting in poorly ventilated lectures re-learning everything from 3rd year all over again. By the time I get home from class, I'm pretty pooped. Then I get to make dinner, and do laundry. Suddenly it's 10pm and I'm just about falling asleep at my desk. Something has got to change. I'm thinking at this point, I'll just give up going to class and stay at home and study for Step 2.

Kaplan Books

2006-10-19T12:17:00.000-07:00

I finally got my hands on the Step 2 Kaplan books. There are 5 in total, covering internal medicine, surgery, pediatrics, epidemiology (puke) and obs&gyn. I've just flipped through them for now, and so far, they seem pretty reasonable. If you used any of Kaplan books for Step 1, it's the same sort of format. Nicely spaced out, not at all like BRS. I'll post some more details as I get a chance to actually read them.

Getting Smart

2006-10-09T13:51:00.000-07:00

For whatever reason, my school does not teach us much of anything until our final year of medical school. We don't even do any general medicine/surgery rotations until next year! It's going to make studying for Step 2 even harder because I'm going to have to teach it all to myself. Although there are 2 parts to Step 2 (CK = clinical knowledge and CS = clinical skills), most people say CS is a cakewalk with over 90% of people passing on their first try. Ergo, the majority of my time will be devoted to Step 2 CK.

So, what does this mean for me? It means I'm going to have to start studying as soon as possible. Possibly next week (which, oddly, is exactly what I said last week). No, seriously...I'm in the process of assembling my master book list and once I have then, I can start right away. My American friends swear by Kaplan, while the Canadians seem to like the Toronto Notes. I think it might be a good starting point to get First Aid for the USMLE Step 2 CKand Kaplan USMLE Step 2 CK Qbook

First Post!

2006-10-06T17:04:00.000-07:00

After receiving my Step 1 score, I've decided to start...the Step 2 blog! There are actually 2 parts to Step 2 (CK = clinical knowledge and CS = clinical skills) and I'm going to have to do both parts within the next year...sounds like fun :P