Step II: USMLEworld and Kaplan Qbank

Hey all,

In search for advice, everyone I have talked to said that, hands down, usmle world (UW) is the gold standard. so I have already started to do that.

on the other hand, no one I have talked to has actually done Kaplan Qbank at all, since people have been raving about UW and Qbank was so expensive

So since Kaplan has reduced their price comparable to UW, I'm wondering if

1. Kaplan Qbank for Step II was any good
2. Would it be better to do UW more than once vs UW & kaplan Qbank once?

And yes, I feel like I need to crush step II to make up for step I.

any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Would recommend UW followed by Kaplan. I preferred UW questions which are in a format similar to the real test.

There's absolutely no need to do both Q banks. Also, I would recommend just making sure you get through UW bank. Personally, I learn by practice questions more than reading, so I ran through all of Q bank, marked questions, then went back through the marked ones (by the end, I was so tired I stopped doing that). I did each section by subject instead of a mixed test all the time. As I did each section, I ran through a review book first to familiarize myself with the topic, again, just to be familiar, not to try to learn by reading.

Peds: Blueprints
OB: Blueprints
Surg/Med: Step Up Medicine
Psych: First-Aid
Neurology: Blueprints
Fam Med: Ambulatory Section of Step Up Medicine

Then I turned my attention to STEP 2 Secrets. This is a great book with a lot of quick information. Other good books are the summary, word association sections of First-Aid Step 2. Try to avoid questions the few days before, take it easy, just breezing through review books (Secrets).

The test is all about trusting yourself to know the MOST COMMON presentations and tests and drugs to use. It's all about what's most common. Very rarely will they try to trip you up.

Study hard, do the Q bank, and you will be fine. I thought I had done about on par with step 1 and i actually ended up doing better. It was all about just practicing the scenarios over and over again with questions.

Good Luck.