Organizing to Study for the USMLE Step 2 CK

The USMLE Step 2 CK is not as easy as you may hear. You may have heard that the hardest part is USMLE Step 1, that could be partly correct but it’s not totally accurate. Studying for the Step 2 CK is not the challenging part, the challenges is finding the right resources. For the USMLE Step 1, USMLE World and First Aid was all you need at the end once you established the basic science foundation. But for the USMLE Step 2 CK, you cannot rely on just one source. You actually need more than USMLE World for Step 2 CK. What’s frustrating is each source has its positives and negatives and so you need multiple sources to cancel out the positives. For example, you could use the book Step Up to Step 2 for the conceptual things, but for what is the next step in management you will need Master the Boards books. For Master the Boards you need both books for Step 2 CK and for Step 3. A lot of the information is missing in the Step 2 CK version, which is on the Step 3 book.

Honestly, it’s just an incredible challenge to balance rotations and studying everything well enough for the USMLE Step 2 CK. However, if you have the will you have the way so, study hard.

In Addition

You should also make sure you have your First Aid for the USMLE Step 1.  You will need it to look back for references.