Step up to Step 2 Vs Master the Boards Step 2?

[Feyer Feyeter]

Hey, I realize that there is already a poll concerning the best step II resource, but I was hoping to get input from those that have used these two texts, as they are the two that I'm considering using. Has anyone used both of these and found one to be superior? I'm leaning toward Step up to Step 2, as I'm gonna use Step up to med for IM and assume the format is similar, but I keep hearing that MTB's is very good. I know some people are using both of them to supplement the awesome format of MTB with the more detailed Step up (at least thats what I hear, correct me if Im wrong), but Im not sure I'll have time for that, so I'd prefer to just use one of them plus Secrets and World for questions. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!!

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[MDpride]

interested in knowing too.

 

[theRainmaker78]

deleted my original post - sry, decided that i should only post after taking my test and getting back the result

 

[Feyer Feyeter]

deleted my original post - sry, decided that i should only post after taking my test and getting back the result

I appreciate you not wanting to comment until you have some data to back it up, but at the same time, I'd appreciate hearing your comparison of the two texts. I've briefly glanced through both of them, but I haven's started formal studying for step 2 yet so its hard for me to really compare them at this point. It would be really helpful to hear from someone who has done some intensive studying with both of them.

 

[theRainmaker78]

I appreciate you not wanting to comment until you have some data to back it up, but at the same time, I'd appreciate hearing your comparison of the two texts. I've briefly glanced through both of them, but I haven's started formal studying for step 2 yet so its hard for me to really compare them at this point. It would be really helpful to hear from someone who has done some intensive studying with both of them.

Ok since you are facing the same dilemma, I'll try to go ahead and do my best on this. Fact is, I'm still preparing these days, so my opinion continually changes on these books and quite frankly is meaningless unless I do well. And my only experience with mcq's is some Uworld practice- I have not taken the step 2 yet. And my final disclaimer is that Im a US IMG - went abroad for med school. Thus I'm not in the same position as all the AMG's on this site who just do 2 weeks of Uworld and get 250+ on this test...

Alright, I read through MTB initially and then did about 1000 Uworld questions at the start of my prep for a couple of weeks. Since it didn't help, I switched over and took the DIT step 2 course because I felt I needed help. People claim MTB has "everything" in it u need to know. The facts might be squeezed in there, but it doesn't really help you by itself.

For example to take something simple, MTB will mention "heat stroke", expect you to know how the pt. will present and then for treatment says "IV fluids, evaporation".... Ok so its there right.
Now for a person like me, I don't really know what is supposed to be the best way to cool a person down when every book lists "IV fluids, cooling blankets, Ice packs, Evaporation, blah blah"
But in the DIT lecture, the guy says "Let me EMPHASIZE, Evaporation cooling is the best method to cool a patient down". Later that day on Uworld that exact question showed up and I remembered that line. So thats a simple example


MTB also tries to oversimplify everything too. Sort of like ABC everything. But in doing that, Kaplan dumbs it down too much. I mean they say

Subacute Combined Degeneration of the Spinal Cord - from B12 deficiency OR syphilis; You lose position and vibratory sensation ONLY (dorsal column)

While Step up to step 2 says u lose dorsal column function in tertiary syphilis but dorsal column AND corticospinal tract in B12 deficiency (which is actually more accurate).

For the people who took the Kaplan course and already know everything (concept wise) and now want a quick run through for memory sake, it might work. But I went with taking the DIT course
I have to warn you, however, that in DIT, he adds A LOT to step up 2 and corrects A LOT of things too so i can't wholeheartedly recommend step up 2 either, even though its a decent book.

 

[PistolPete]

Thanks for that post. I'm gonna be going from MTB Step 2 soon, so it'll be interesting to see what I think of it. But just glancing quickly through it, it looks pretty good, although like you said, maybe a bit oversimplified when compared to Step Up to Step 2. We'll see how MTB translates to UWorld questions percentages.

 

[Feyer Feyeter]

Ok since you are facing the same dilemma, I'll try to go ahead and do my best on this. Fact is, I'm still preparing these days, so my opinion continually changes on these books and quite frankly is meaningless unless I do well. And my only experience with mcq's is some Uworld practice- I have not taken the step 2 yet. And my final disclaimer is that Im a US IMG - went abroad for med school. Thus I'm not in the same position as all the AMG's on this site who just do 2 weeks of Uworld and get 250+ on this test...

Alright, I read through MTB initially and then did about 1000 Uworld questions at the start of my prep for a couple of weeks. Since it didn't help, I switched over and took the DIT step 2 course because I felt I needed help. People claim MTB has "everything" in it u need to know. The facts might be squeezed in there, but it doesn't really help you by itself.

For example to take something simple, MTB will mention "heat stroke", expect you to know how the pt. will present and then for treatment says "IV fluids, evaporation".... Ok so its there right.
Now for a person like me, I don't really know what is supposed to be the best way to cool a person down when every book lists "IV fluids, cooling blankets, Ice packs, Evaporation, blah blah"
But in the DIT lecture, the guy says "Let me EMPHASIZE, Evaporation cooling is the best method to cool a patient down". Later that day on Uworld that exact question showed up and I remembered that line. So thats a simple example


MTB also tries to oversimplify everything too. Sort of like ABC everything. But in doing that, Kaplan dumbs it down too much. I mean they say

Subacute Combined Degeneration of the Spinal Cord - from B12 deficiency OR syphilis; You lose position and vibratory sensation ONLY (dorsal column)

While Step up to step 2 says u lose dorsal column function in tertiary syphilis but dorsal column AND corticospinal tract in B12 deficiency (which is actually more accurate).

Basically MTB didn't work for me. For the people who took the Kaplan course and already know everything (concept wise) and now want a quick run through for memory sake, it might work. But I went with taking the DIT course
I have to warn you, however, that in DIT, he adds A LOT to step up 2 and corrects A LOT of things too so i can't wholeheartedly recommend step up 2 either, even though its a decent book.

My final proble, is kaplan's famous approach of studying "best initial test, most accurate test, best initial therapy, etc." for each disease.
USMLE questions and the real world doesn't exactly work that way. I mean your gonna get a case with a couple of signs or symptoms where a diagnoses actually may not be clear and then come up with management - it has more to do with clinical sence and accumen than memorizing the best initial test for each disease. I dun know if I'm getting my point across but I feel that Kaplan's approach is slightly off.

Thanks for the info. I'm actually happy to hear that this was your impression of the two books, because after skimming through them, I was leaning toward step up for the very reasons you have listed above. In terms of your DIT course adding a lot to step up, do you think that annotating high yield info into step up for step 2 from step up to med would be helpful. I was planning to do this during my IM rotation that starts in a few months, although I don't really have a concept of what is and is not high yield at this point, so Im not sure how well that plan is going to go. Anyway, thanks again!

 

[kryptik]

i think the most efficient way of using the two step up books would be to use step up to medicine for all the medicine topics and the step up to step 2 for the remaining non medicine courses.
there is just not enough space in step up to step two to annotate also some conditions in step up to medicine are not even mentioned in step up to step 2.

 

[Feyer Feyeter]

i think the most efficient way of using the two step up books would be to use step up to medicine for all the medicine topics and the step up to step 2 for the remaining non medicine courses.
there is just not enough space in step up to step two to annotate also some conditions in step up to medicine are not even mentioned in step up to step 2.

I'm actually using First Aid for all of the non-IM chapters, it seems to be sufficient so far. I was planning on then using Step Up to Step 2 for the IM chapters, but I have heard of some people using Step Up to Med in the fashion that you have just described. I know that SU to Med would obviously cover the material in more detail, but do you think that it might be overkill for step 2?

 

[kryptik]

I havent taken step 2 yet so cant say if its overkill or not, but if you've been using step up to medicine for your IM rotation then you should be able to go through it again in significantly less time.
Reading through the step 2 experience thread a couple of the extremely high scorers used step up to medicine and first aid for the non medicine so its definitely a good option.

 

[DrVanNostran]

I am in the process of going through the Kaplan Qbank right, and I hate it. Interestingly, just about every answer can be found in MTB, not Step up to Step 2. However, when I finished world, a significant amount of questions could be answered from SUT2+DIT. The format of MTB is outstanding, I wish Step Up would organize there book either like MTB or Step up to Medicine.

I feel like the key to step 2 is finishing world as many times as possible