Step Up to Medicine vs. First Aid Step 2

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BlondeCookie

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My strategy for Step 2 is to have one single high-yield Step 2 book (Step Up to Medicine or First Aid)that I will write notes in from other smaller review books. Both books are similar in content and heft, being about 400-500+ pages. I don't want to buy both of these books so which do you think I should buy?
:confused:

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Step up is a great resource, but it is HUGE and dense.. and probably impractical to go through for the Step II if you are on a limited schedule.

Also with step up, you probably wont need to write notes into it because it is fairly comprehensive. First Aid is more of an outline type book if you want to take notes.

Either book can be useful, but definitely have different purposes.
 
Oops. I didn't know that Step Up to Medicine wasn't actually an overview of all of Step 2. What else would you call it? An internal medicine book? And, what about a good Step 2 overview book? Do you guys use First Aid USMLE Step 2 for that?
 
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Popular options:

First Aid (most detailed, probably most painful to read)
Boards and Wards
Step 2 Secrets
Crush Step 2 (same author as Secrets, same content but different format)

I wouldn't recommend using more than one.
 
I used B&W and S2S - fantastic combo and easy enough to get through - took notes in B&W all through 3rd year and went through S2S twice prior to my test. UW for questions and I was very happy with the result.

J
 
I noticed that many of you don't use that many books for Step 2 studying. Is it because one book covers more than one subject? For example, my Step 1 prep involved using a review book for each of the 7 subjects (ex: Anatomy, Phys, Path, Pharm, etc) and then one overview book (ex: First Aid Step 1).

So, this strategy one review book for each subject + one Step 2 overview book was my plan. Maybe my thinking is flawed. Is this an appropriate strategy for Step 2? Just wondering why you guys don't use 1 review book for each subject within your Step 2 prep.
 
All of those books are probably overkill for step 2. I agree with jeebus that you really don't need more than one. A single comprehensive review book is good enough.

To be honest, your highest yield for boosting you score in step 2 is probably going to come from doing questions. If you really think about it, the clinical knowledge of a third or fourth year medical student is fairly limited, and they test appropriately (unlike step 1, when any basic science principle is fair game). For the most part, you aren't going to get a lot of "one-in-a-million" questions. They tend to stick to the bread-and-butter stuff that they want to make sure a medical student has a grasp on. Therefore, there are only so many questions they can ask, which makes doing oodles and oodles of them prior to the test important. Once you've seen enough of them, it's hard for them to surprise you with anything.
 
Agree with above.

I used UW - those questions are money and I *swear* two of my CK questions were IDENTICAL to two UW ones - then f/u with Step Up to Step 2 and Step 2 Secrets

dc
 
Oops. I didn't know that Step Up to Medicine wasn't actually an overview of all of Step 2. What else would you call it? An internal medicine book? And, what about a good Step 2 overview book? Do you guys use First Aid USMLE Step 2 for that?


I presonally heard FA for Step2ck sucks. from multiple people. i heard crush step2 was ok same with boards and wards.
 
What are some other good sources of questions people recommend besides UW? I'm looking to do a shizzload of questions, and minimal reading (perhaps Step 2 Secrets). I have Kaplan's Step 2 Qbook, and a bunch of PreTest books. Are those worth doing over again?

Has anyone tried Step 2 Qmax from USMLERx? If I'm not mistaken, I think Crush makes question books also. Any advice is welcome, thanks
 
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