:@

Step 2 CK experience
I am a graduate of 2013 class and currently work as a Tropical medicine and Infectious
Diseases Resident at Alexandria Main University Hospital, Egypt.

My credentials are step 1 241 (May 2015)

Step 2 250 (December 2016)
First of all I would like to begin by stating that 1 and half year is way too long for step 2
preparation, especially if you are recently done with step 1, however, due to personal
issues, I had a significant delay. I dont have an exact estimate on the optimal time
needed for preparation, but I think that 8 to 10 months is very sufficient.
Digging deep into the preparation plan, I feel obligated to mention that unlike step 1
that had First Aid ( step1 bible ), step 2 doesnt have a 100% trustworthy source for
studying and the best approach is to do a little jumping between several sources . I
personally used MTB2 and 3 as a basic source and have added to it as I went along.
Kaplan videos and lectures:
In my opinion, if your basic medical knowledge is good and/or you are recently done with
step 1, then you can probably skip internal medicine and pediatrics part or even listen to
topics that you feel needs more clarification, on the other side, OBY/GYN and Surgery notes
are very important and was of great relevance to the exam material.
 MTB 2 and 3 : like I pointed earlier these books are not sufficient on their own for
obtaining a good score , but when I began my preparation they were the only ones
known to me so thats what I used. I think its already clear the MTB 2 is better for IM
while MTB 3 is for the rest of subjects.

Step up for step 2 , crush step 2 , other review books : honestly I knew about these
books later on during my preparation and decided not to switch lanes after I begun
using MTB, but I strongly advice people still starting the road to quickly review these
books and other peoples experience with them and choose the best one.

More sources? : Maybe; its not that essential but I found that reading the Guidelines for
some of the hot topics on the exam , eg : Heart failure, was really beneficial .
I dont have any guidance on which topics to read guidelines for, I think it is a personal
choice.

Another very rich source was the Uptodate.com. I am really grateful to this site, topics
are easily reachable and neatly presented. Medscape is an acceptable alternative.

Question banks : UWORLD, UWORLD, UWORLD! Think about how important uworld was
in step 1 then multiply it by 10 . Explanations , tables , high yield questions , low yield
questions, all of it is very important , I really cant emphasize this enough.
 Kaplan Q Bank: a really tough Q bank that taught me a lot. It contains a lot of high yield
stuff that may appear on the exam, besides it opens your eyes to some hidden points
that you might have missed during studying.

CMS: doing them offline is sufficient and most of them do have a reliable answer key so
doing them online really is of no great benefit. The questions are helpful in exploring
further points in the important topics and I recommend doing them.

U World tables and charts : a great summarization of important U world topics and it is
better to start early with those during your preparation

Assessment tests: there has been many arguments lately made about the discrepancies
between UWSA NBME and the real score . Personally I didnt have that problem, my
NBME 7 score was 252 , UWSA was 254 and NBME 6 was 260 ( it is agreed that it is an
over predicting form ) . I feel that it is important to plan when to do them during your
studying as to be able to assess your progress accurately & lengthen your prep if need
be.

Exam day: I dont have much to say about it, every one has their own regimen, so stick
to yours. Just manage your break times efficiently and know that the questions
appearing on the exam day will seem to you as the most difficult you will ever see, not
 because they are truly hard, but as a manifestation of the amount of stress you carry
on that day knowing how much is at stake.

Finally I would like to sincerely thank my lovely wife and supporting parents as I
wouldnt have been able to do it without them and would like to say that although it
was a tough journey, it was also very informative and beneficial . I do aspire for the day
that our country would exhibit such an educational system and high class health care.