I am an international medical student from Mumbai, India. I appeared for the USMLE Step 2 CK in December of 2018. Through this post, I want to share my USMLE Step 2 CK experience with the hope that it will help you in your preparation.
I have also written a book titled How to Crack the USMLE Step 2 CK which is available on Amazon Stores all over the world as an eBook. I have discussed my strategies in greater detail in this book.
My Background
The last year of medical school in India is formally called as “Internship”. This is a one year training period where we work in the hospital setting and learn skills. To be honest, it is a lot of scut work. It is also very time consuming and tiring as well as dealing with a lot of shit from your seniors.
Anyway, I decided to take my exam during internship because I wanted to get done with the exam before the elective and residency application process would begin.
It was February of 2018 and I decided that I will start studying from March. I still hadn’t recovered completely from the mental exhaustion of giving Step 1. Starting to study for another exam seemed like a daunting task. However, I gathered the courage and decided to find out all that is needed to study for the exam before March when I actually start studying.
What are the resources that I should use?
Unlike Step 1 where everyone gave you the same “First Aid and UWorld” advice, things were very different for Step 2 CK . There are so many different views about the resources to be used that it can leave you confused.
Speaking to people who had given the exam gave me the three most commonly used names of review books – MTB, First Aid for Step 2 CK, and Step up 2 Medicine.
Everyone had used a different combination of resources. However, there was one name common to all – UWorld . So that was one thing I decided I’m going to do for sure.
After going through the pros and cons of the different resources, I decided to do MTB 2 as my review resource.
So, the resources that I used finally were MTB 2 and UWorld. I bought the one year subscription of UWorld because I wasn’t sure when I will be giving the exam and also because you can reset the bank if the subscription is more than 6 months.
I would also recommend using MTB 3 for Pediatrics and ObGy as they are covered more in depth in these books.
To summarize
- Review Book : MTB 2 (You can also use First Aid)
- Peds and ObGy: MTB 3
- Question Bank : UWorld, UWorld, UWorld!
How I studied : USMLE Step 2 CK Experience
I started to review MTB. The book is quite simple and everything is given in the form of bullet points . It is quite easy to understand. However, use this book only to quickly review the topics covered in each section. Do not try to memorize the contents. You will end up spending too much time for something that is not required.
After reading the topic I would solve a block from UWorld. The most important thing about UWorld is making notes once you have finished solving the questions.
Always do the block in TIMED mode only!
I made separate notebooks for each topic of UWorld notes. Make sure to use the flashcards feature of UWorld. They are quick and easy to revise before the exam.
I have discussed about how to solve UWorld, how to effectively make notes and question solving strategies in my book. Since they are out of the scope of this post I will not be discussing them here.
Another important thing I discuss in great detail is the “spaced repetition timeline”. This is basically a way by which you end up revising the stuff you have read and make notes about again and again.
Repeating what you have learnt at regular intervals helps you remember the vast amount of information that you need to know for this exam. This is something that goes a long way to help you on exam day.
August
Balancing prep with internship was difficult. However, I finished my first round of UWorld around August. After this, I took a break for a couple of days and then I reset my UWorld subscription.
I strongly recommend doing a second pass of UWorld since it is impossible to master UWorld in one go. Also it is such an important resource that it would be injustice to do a half ass job on that.
This is also the time I had some confidence that I will be able to give the exam by the end of the year. I went through my timetable and decided that I will give my exam in December since that was a relatively light month for me.
I strongly recommend that you have a rough idea of when you will be able to give the exam depending on your schedule.
2nd Pass of UWorld
The second pass of UWorld was in Random and Timed mode. Although the review process was faster , I still felt that there was a lot of information that I had missed the first time. Since, the notes were already made, I just added the extra stuff.
Tip : Make sure you keep saving your flashcards and make a separate deck for tables and images so that it is easy to revise close to exams.
Booking my test date
Since I had already decided the month in which I will be giving the exam, the next step was to book my test date. I had already started doing UWorld the second time and was fairly sure I will be done by the start of December.
I zeroed in on the 6th of December and started my application process. I would recommend that you give at least 2-3 months so that you can finish the application on time. Keep in mind potential delays at the level of your medical school as well.
Once you book a test date, I strongly recommend that you stick to it so that you don’t risk getting burnt out. This is one more aspect that I have discussed in my book – What is burnout and how to avoid it in your CK prep.
Practice tests
Around a month and half before my exam date I started to take my practice tests. I solved NBMEs 6,7,8 and UWSA 1,2. I scored between 250 and 260 in all of them.
I was now fairly confident about giving the exam on time.
The last month
I spent the last month finishing off the remaining 2nd pass of UWorld, solving practice test, reviewing flashcards, reviewing important information from MTB.
This was also the time that I slowed down my pace a little to avoid the burnout since I had been studying since March along with internship. However, it is important to be consistent and keep studying.
Tip : I would recommend that you take atleast the last week before you exam completely off. This is to make sure you are completely focussed on the exam and you are under less stress that you would be if you were working simultaneously.
Tip : Try not to solve any practice tests 5-7 days before your exam date.
The day before the exam
Under a lot of stress obviously. I tried to keep it under control. I had made some strategies in my head which I went through.
It is important to have in mind how you are going to solve questions, what food you are going to carry, what are you going to wear, how are you going to take your breaks.
Although they may seem trivial, they play a huge role on exam day. Each of these strategies has been discussed in great detail in my book.
Exam day
The exam day. The D day. You are obviously going to be stressed. But, try not to freak out. Have trust in yourself, you have worked a lot.
Remember, this is a 9 hour exam and you are going to be tired (exxxtreeemeeelyy tired) by the end of it. You start off all fresh but by the time you reach the 5th block, you are half dead.
The questions are quite long and the options are really close. Some of them are outright vague. Make sure you manage your time well. The last thing you want is not finishing the block on time.
Then it is almost as if you are solving questions on autopilot. Make sure you take breaks. Carry coffee !
Make sure you have practiced so much that even though you are tired, you solve the question correctly.
When you come out of the exam hall, you feel like the entire life has been drained out of you. It is also normal to go back and think about which questions you are going to get wrong, etc.
You need to actively block such thoughts. No one knows what the right answer was and you did your best. Try to relax. You ahve given one of the toughest exams of your life.
This exam is tough, but with the right knowledge of how to master the resources you have, the spaced repetition timeline and strategies, I think you will do well.
All the best. If you need a more thorough guide about the things I have mentioned, you can find them in my book, click the button below!