USMLE Step 2 CS is a fruitless sort of charade, but nevertheless it remains as a necessary component to becoming licensed. My school mandates a practice exam through Kaplan before taking the real exam. While I initially disliked this idea, it was a good primer and once you’ve gone through the thing once, the real one seems much more manageable. Here are some pearls:
- Use First Aid Step 2 CS: This is a well-organized book that is probably overkill but once you go through it, you have the general gist of the idea. If you don’t have a partner, go through and do the mini-cases by covering the half of the page that shows the diagnoses and orders.
- Practice with a partner: Either through Skype or in person, interaction is the best way to ease into the weird pseudo-clinical patient scenario. Practicing with another person lets you try your intro and closing in real time, which is probably the hardest part of the exam.
- Have a script: I used a some sort of acronym to make sure I covered my bases in order to maximize the points I hit.
- Have a plan: Probably the best change I made with my CS approach was to already have a list of three differentials before going into the room. This way you can ask question to rule thing in and out (pertinent positives and negatives) and include those tidbits in your note.
I took the exam fairly shortly after Step 2 CK and it’s good to know what to order and the sort of classic signs and symptoms because the obvious players show up on the real exam. Overall I’m one step closer to the goal.
A toilsome peace 