STEP 2 CK TIPS

Congrats on finishing your core rotations!! COMP and STEP 2 CK are are coming up! This exam builds on Step 1 knowledge and a lot of questions focus on the best next step in management. Just like Step 1, I recommend to keep your resources simple and trust your practice exam scores.

FORMAT

9 hour exam divided up into 8 blocks (each block has 40 questions) with a 1 hour break (if you don't use the full 15 minute tutorial time at the beginning of your exam or end a block of questions early, it get's added to your break time).

STUDY RESOURCES

I had already done content review using UWorld and OME during my core rotations.

I used UWorld and my high-yield notes that I created during my core rotations as my 2 resources for COMP and Step 2 studying specifically. Having a concise set of notes is so helpful to refresh the high-yield information.

UWorld - https://www.uworld.com/

USMLE High-Yield Notes - https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B097FDGXSS/allbooks?ingress=0&visitId=5861e2e7-022a-4785-af04-7e2dbd17fc15&store_ref=ap_rdr&ref_=ap_rdr

STUDY PLAN

Each day I would consistently do the following 3 things:

- PRACTICE QUESTIONS (UWorld - do the questions timed and random then reviewed each block)

- REPETITION (Read my High-Yield Notes)

SCHEDULE

Have a timeline and target date for your exam. An organized study period will be very helpful for you to excel on this exam. I annotated a calendar that included the number or questions that needed to be completed each day, the number of pages of pages of notes I needed to read and completed practice exams to track my progress. This helped me stay on track and finish going through the resources in a timely manner.

Organizational Tool/Daily Journal -

https://www.amazon.com/Journal-Through-Medicine-medical-self-care/dp/B097BJX5YF

ASSESSMENT

NBME exams are the best way to predict your readiness for the real exam!

The more practice exams you do, the better! I recommend doing the Free 120 on the NBME website a few days before your exam as well. Some of the questions are very similar to the real exam.

I did the following practice exams:

- Kaplan Simulation 1

- CCSE

- Amboss practice exam

- Form 9

- UWSA 1

- Kaplan Simulation 2

- Form 10

- Free 120

- Form 11

NBME Practice Exams - https://www.mynbme.org/s/login/

Free 120 Questions - https://orientation.nbme.org/Launch/USMLE/STPF2

Sample Study Day:

6:00 am -7:00am - Breakfast

7:00 am -8:00 am - Read notes

8:00 am -10:00 am - Review yesterday's UWorld Questions

10:00 am-12:00 pm - Do UWorld Questions

12:00 pm - 1:00 pm - Lunch

1:00 pm - 4:00 pm - Review UWorld Questions

4:00 pm - 6:00 pm - Do UWorld Questions

6:00 pm - 7:00 pm - Dinner

7:00 pm - 9:00 pm - Review UWorld Questions

9:00 pm - 10:00 pm - Read Notes

TEST DAY

Try to get a good night's sleep before your exam. Place ID and scheduling permit in your backpack in advance to ensure you don't forget anything. Bring water and snacks/food with you to the exam.

Have an idea of when you want to take breaks (I completed 2 blocks then took a snack break, another 2 blocks and had lunch, and took a quick stretch break between each of the remainder blocks. See what works for you!

Relax, trust your studying and hard work. Do not overthink the questions!

AFTER THE EXAM

Yay you made it!! Waiting for the results and thinking about the exam questions will be nerve racking. Take a break, do something fun! This is one of the most intense exams ever and you should be very proud of yourself for getting through this :)

It took me over a month to get my exam results back because I did it during the exam score reporting delay period, but it can vary. Results are released on Wednesday morning.

Good luck with 4th year!! <3

- Med Tutor Hussain