How to Score a 280 on USMLE Step 2 CK – A Comprehensive Guide
A high score on USMLE Step 2 CK is probably the best boost you can give your residency application. For those who didn’t score well or receive a passing score on USMLE Step 1, a high Step 2 CK score is a chance to show residency programs what you’re capable of. Even if you scored well on Step 1, a strong performance on Step 2 CK demonstrates consistency and clinical excellence.
Discovering the best strategies and planning how to study for Step 2 CK could be one of your highest-yield activities as you prepare to apply for residency.
In recent years, Step 2 CK has taken on a new sense of importance. Many residency programs now require residency candidates to submit their Step 2 CK scores before ranking their applicants. Moreover, the USMLE has announced that in 2022, Step 1 is scheduled to transition to a pass/fail metric. This change will place even more emphasis on your Step 2 CK score.
Because Step 2 CK will still be a numerical score, it will be the quantitative criteria that residency admissions committees will use to select their top candidates.
In this comprehensive guide on how to score well on Step 2 CK, we share with you the advice of some of our Step 2 CK tutors who scored 279-281 on the exam. Working with hundreds of medical students over the years, we know that “one size” doesn’t fit all. We’ve decided to gather the best perspectives and compile all of their best advice for you below!
Our tutors provided advice on the most important Step 2 CK preparation questions to provide starting points for your study plan.
Table of Contents
- How to Use Clerkship Year to Set Yourself Up for Success
- How to Study for Step 2 CK
- What Are the Best Study Resources for Step 2 CK?
- How Do I Check My Studying Progress?
- What Should My Study Schedule Look Like?
- How Long to Study for Step 2 CK?
- When Should I Schedule My Step 2 CK Exam?
How to Use Your Clerkship Year to Set Yourself Up for Success
Taking clerkship year and shelf exam prep seriously is important if you want to excel on USMLE Step 2 CK. You should see clerkship year as your opportunity to build a strong clinical foundation.
Clerkship year prepares you for Step 2 CK because it gives you the chance to apply your medical knowledge to real, clinical scenarios — an invaluable opportunity because Step 2 CK is a much more clinically focused exam than Step 1.
We recommend that you start to use UWorld’s Step 2 CK question bank during clerkship year to prepare for shelf exams. This approach allows you to do your first pass of the question bank over one year and gives you early exposure to the style of questions on Step 2 CK.
Practice and repetition are key. During your first pass through UWorld’s Step 2 CK question bank, we recommend using flashcards to document important concepts or points you learned. Use Anki to make your flashcards — Anki’s spaced-repetition method is ideal for long-term learning and retention. Every flashcard you make should be concise and prompt a short, to-the-point answer.
Be diligent and keep up with making flashcards on concepts and points that you learn from practice questions. This strategy will give you an extremely solid knowledge base for Step 2 CK.
How Do I Study for Step 2 CK?
When advising students on how to study for Step 2 CK, we consider a few things. Our advice depends on how much time you have, your baseline and the score you’re aiming for. Still, every study strategy should be firm on a few things — your study approach and the resources you’ll use.
Practice questions are the most important part of Step 2 CK prep — we cannot emphasize that enough. It is important to use practice tests to prepare yourself for the style of questions on the actual exam and test your knowledge to find areas of improvement. Below, we get into more details on how to approach practice questions, but as a general matter, you should put a lot of your focus and energy into working through practice questions.
Where Do I Begin for Step 2 CK Studying?
Your general study approach should focus on mastering the high-yield material first. The exam is sure to test you on this content, so allow yourself the time to review it first with a strong Step 2 CK study plan.
This focus is an ideal strategy because it gives you the ability to identify weaknesses and knowledge gaps in high-yield information early on and allows your brain to process it during the rest of your dedicated time.
After you work through the high-yield material, use the next few weeks of your dedicated period to work through knowledge gaps you’ve identified, as well as detailed material that might be less high-yield but is fair game as far as what the exam may cover.
During the last few weeks of your dedicated study period, go back to the high-yield content you worked through during your first few weeks. Revisiting that material lets you reinforce and solidify all the high-yield information you’ve already learned and taken time to strengthen. This approach is extremely important because your brain will already have taken the time to process it the second time around. You can continue working through knowledge gaps and see how it fits together.
What Are the Best Studying Resources for Step 2 CK?
In terms of the resources you should use to study, the optimal strategy is to use UWorld practice questions with a text-based resource and OnlineMedEd.
This resource strategy gives you the benefit of changing how you learn on a day-to-day basis. The audio-visual component of OnlineMedEd combines well with a text-based resource and UWorld practice questions help you to apply everything you’re learning.
Other than practice questions, the resources you use to study are the most important component of your Step 2 CK prep. Check out our Comprehensive Step 2 CK Resource Guide if you’re struggling with knowing which materials and resources to use to prepare for Step 2 exams.
I Have UWorld — Now What?
We recommend you do two full passes through UWorld’s Step 2 CK question bank. After your complete the question bank the first time, look through the questions quickly to see which ones you got wrong or right. Identify weaknesses and high-yield topics you struggled with and work on solidifying your knowledge base in these areas.
Once you’re confident in your progress, take a second pass through UWorld. Once finished, review the questions in depth, spending most of your time on the ones you got wrong or answered correctly despite feeling uncertain.
How Should I Set Up My UWorld Question Bank?
Because practice questions are so critical to effective Step 2 CK prep, make sure that you are using your UWorld question bank in a way that most closely replicates real-time exam conditions. This means using timed mode and randomized, mixed blocks as you get more familiar with Step 2 CK-style questions and test items.
Initially, you will want to do subject-specific blocks to get familiar with and master the concepts tested in each subject area, but later on, you should transition to randomized, mixed blocks.
Using too many subject-specific blocks during your prep will give you far more comfort than you’ll have on test day.
You will need to train your brain to do the mental acrobatics needed to quickly switch from one subject area to another within timed constraints so you can complete the Step 2 CK effectively and receive a high Step 2 score.
What Are Some Additional Resources for Practice Questions?
While the go-to question bank for Step 2 CK is UWorld, you shouldn’t hesitate to consult other sources. If you have already gone through the UWorld question bank twice, seek additional resources for practice questions. You don’t want to get too comfortable with the same material — questions are supposed to get your brain thinking hard the way you will have to on exam day.
Amboss
We highly recommend Amboss. It has a large question bank with an excellent library feature that breaks down the topics covered by each question. The answer explanations that Amboss provides are comprehensive — and they are easily searchable at any time.
One of the best parts of doing practice questions is how much you learn from the answer explanations — and having the solutions so easily accessible is a huge advantage of Amboss.
OnlineMedEd
OnlineMedEd is also another source for practice questions. The OnlineMedEd practice questions are more focused on the basics of high-yield information that can be tested on Step 2 CK. It’s a great question bank to use if you have already exhausted UWorld and Amboss and/or want to answer questions focusing on the fundamental basics to identify whether you’ve mastered them.
How Do I Check My Studying Progress?
The NBME Self-Assessments are the best way to track your progress. We recommend you take one Step 2 practice exam a few weeks before the end of M3 to get a baseline score. As you work through UWorld practice questions and other resources such as textbooks and OnlineMedEd, use NBMEs to check where you stand every few weeks.
What Should My Study Schedule Look Like?
Craft a study schedule where you evenly space out NBMEs, giving yourself almost equal time, say three weeks, in between each one.
After each NBME, review each question and make sure you can articulate WHY the correct choice is the best answer. You should also have a strong intuition for why the incorrect options do not work.
Taking an NBME Self-Assessment every few weeks during your dedicated period allows you to periodically replicate the length of a real-time exam, which can help you identify your weaknesses quickly and make your study time more efficient.
Check out some of our tips on how to use NBME Self-Assessments. Reviewing NBME exams can be challenging given the lack of explanations — this is where tutoring can be extremely valuable, as we have expertise in guiding you through where you went wrong.
How Long Should I Study for Step 2 CK?
The answer to this question depends on a few things — the most important being your knowledge baseline and the amount of dedicated time you have. While there are a variety of factors at play here, we generally recommend at least four weeks.
Be diligent and use your clerkship year and shelf exam prep to set yourself up for success. If you’re aiming for a competitive score, having a dedicated study period with no other distractions or time sinks is extremely important. You need this dedicated time to zero in on Step 2 CK prep, consolidate everything you know and identify the material you need to review.
How much dedicated study time you need depends on how far out you are from core clinical rotations — is your knowledge recent or rusty? — and how you scored on Step 1.
When Should I Schedule My Step 2 CK Exam?
You should ideally take Step 2 CK within six to seven months of finishing your core clinical rotations. However, we realize this is not always possible for IMG students or students with unique circumstances. We recommend this timeline because you will just recently have covered Step 2 CK material during your clinical rotations and shelf exam prep. So, your Step 2 CK knowledge base will be recent, activated and ready to grow!
Step 2 CK Tutoring
If you’re struggling with setting up a Step 2 CK study schedule or looking for general Step 2 CK study strategy advice, set up a trial tutoring session with our USMLE Step 2 CK coaches. We would be happy to help you create an effective and strategic Step 2 study plan!
