The USMLE Step 2 CK examination is considered the simplest of the USMLE exams, and for that reason, many of us fail to organize adequately, and because of this our scores are usually not as strong as they need to be. There are numerous issues you are able to do to make sure you get a powerful rating, however there are additionally many issues that many medical college students fail to comprehend, which might dramatically affect the strength of your score.
Listed below are 4 of the highest the reason why many medical college students do poorly on the Step 2 CK examination:
1. Failing to fully study each Eitology of illness and pathophysiology
After we study for the Step 1 examination, these two classes are on the prime of our priority listing as a result of they’re probably the most high-yield. Sadly, many people do not realize that mechanisms of disease and pathophysiology are still extraordinarily high-yield for the Step 2 CK examination. The distinction between this category from Step 1 to Step 2 is that it’s extra “clinical” on the CK exam, which means the test-writers will bind pathophysiological processes to totally different clinical situations.
Due to this fact, to make sure you do not fail the CK because of lack of preparation, you’ll want to include the basics of pathophysiology and mechanism of illness in your Step 2 CK preparation.
2. Forgetting the details
The issue right here comes from the truth that all the study guides available on the market are “review”, and are usually not meant to go into detail. Once you fail to use a study materials that’s anything beyond a topical review, you might be significantly risking not solely a low rating on the CK examination, however you’re risking a failure. Many questions on the CK exam will likely be secondary, tertiary, and even quaternary questions, and if you don’t have a detailed information of the high-yield concepts, it’s possible you’ll be placing your self in danger.
Keep away from this problem by attacking the “high-yield” concepts, after which studying every part you can about them. For instance, if a review source tells you that Parkinson’s illness is a high-yield topic, then solely gives you Four-five facts about it, go that extra step and dig deeper and learn as much as you can about this certain topic. Doing this can help you know the “high-yield” data, however on a much deeper stage, which I ensure you’ll assist you to in your examination.
3. Not totally understanding how one can answer the “next-best-step” kind of questions
A lot of these questions are GOLD on the Step 2 CK examination. You’ll encounter “what’s the subsequent best step”, “what’s the most suitable next step”, “what’s the best step to reduce mortality”, and lots of extra. It’s essential that you simply pay very particular attention to exactly what the question is asking, as a result of the patient may be bleeding to dying and you may be considering the patient wants emergent surgical procedure, however the question could also be asking you “what’s the most important immediate step?”, which is going to possible be airway safety, not an emergent laparotomy.
So that you see how understanding exactly what to do in each situation is extremely necessary for the CK examination. The perfect strategy in getting ready for such a question is to develop your personal algorithm charts for every medical scenario. Not solely will this allow you to visualise every step, however it’ll assist you to become higher at problem solving and situational administration.
4. Realizing that there are several types of presentations for illness entities
This one is kind of difficult, however it is crucial that you just notice, as a test-taker, that there can be each typical and atypical presentations of frequent and unusual illnesses. Subsequently, you’ll get many “common presentations” of many widespread diseases, resembling a patient with ataxia who has a cerebellar lesion. Additionally, you will get scenarios where the presentation is completely atypical, and you’ll have to use things such as patient history and patient risk factors to be able to determine precisely what’s being requested of you.
For instance, cystic fibrosis is mostly thought of as a illness of males, nevertheless the examination may throw you a trick and offer you a feminine affected person. Maintaining in thoughts that not each case can be perfect in presentation may also help you assume in a extra summary method, which is able to assist you to go a great distance in attacking troublesome examination questions.
You could have now been educated in regards to the FOUR most typical errors that medical college students are making that’s hurting their Step 2 CK examination scores. Do your self a favor and make your self absolutely conscious of those errors, you’ll want to keep away from making them your self, and you’ll be nicely in your approach to scoring very nicely on the USMLE Step 2 CK examination.
