First Aid for the USMLE Step 2 CK, Ninth Edition 9th Edition

I own the 8th edition which had a lot of terrible/useless figures and was outdated/not up to date so I was skeptical about buying this new edition. But I did and am not dissapointed! They borrow a lot of tables and images from FA for Step 1 so it's very use this book just like I did for step 1 ie annotating as I go through UWorld. It's more clinical and focuses on common diseases than rare ones (unlike Step 1). The only thing to be aware of is that there are no figures for algorithms for management or evaluation of disease. It's all in pros or bullet format which is fine with me.

I never write reviews, just don't have time for it. I recently took step 1 with 99 score and studying for step 2sk right now. I work full rime job as a medical assistant in dermatology office and.. you know guys...it is not easy. I study at night and early mornings and really am so frustrated, because all books for sk is so bad, very superficial and not structural at all. My brain remembers only when information is structural as I said earlier. Not just like novel reading, but like math where 1+1= 2 period. I have a feeling that all those writers of sk books just make money and do not give any clarification of ability of info that people like me have in their brains ( cause when you are not consistent with study - you tend to mix everything together and read stuff all over again to put it in place). I just got this first aid ck book and I do really like it so far. I'm studying OBGYN and it is so structural.. cause non of books give exact dates when woman should come for visits and especially was confused when to perform ultrasound and how many times. Was never pregnant so far myself and have no clue how often woman should go for visits...and similar. Feels they did a great job! Thanks, first aid writers! P.S Usmle World of course is the gold, but I feel that for OBGYN u world is not enough since questions there are too...simple.

Nice review book for Step 2 CK to go along with USMLE World q-bank. Do not skip the q-bank. The book is a supplemental review and should not be used as a primary means of board studying.

If you have been on any forum or talked to other med students regarding Step 2 CK the inevitable line is: MTB2/3 for review and Uworld for questions.But there are better resources out there.Lets get one thing out of the way first: Step 2 CK success comes from the resources and studying you did in your clinical rotations, how well you did in Step 1, and from Uworld questions and their explanations. The review book is much less relevant here than in Step 1. Importantly, however, a review book organizes your thinking and provides a single location for all the high yield facts.First Aid for Step 2 is a good source. Not a great source. But compared to the classical Mastering the Boards combo it is leagues better. It actually covers topics in reasonable detail, especially IM topics, that MTB seems to shallowly skim over. While it is not as easy of a read, it is also not utterly worthless. MTB is made for people who just don't remember the disease. FA is made for people who dont remember specifics in pathophys and basic treatments of disease. In short FA is more detailed which makes it harder to finish but more useful if you actually plan on using a review book.It is not perfect at all however. The pediatric section, while just as good as other review books, is horribly inadequate such that I annotated (from Uworld) to the point of wiping out all the margins in several pages in that book. The cardiology section does not have treatments for various arrhythmias nor talks about clinical decision making in such primary care topics as hyperlipidemia (the section is in the book, but the indicates for moderate vs high dose statins is not). The Gyn/OB chapters are passable but things like vaccinations to be given in pregnancy are not discussed, while other topics like screening for cervical cancer are presented as a wall of text rather than a flow chart.Other topics are covered with more or less decent consistency. But oddly some topics will mention a disease but never mention the treatment or next best step which is unbelievably frustrating for a test which asks 90% of the time what the next best step (not the pathophys) is. Again this problem is glaring in the peds section.The psych section was no better than the Step 1 version and even didn't include the ego defenses. It did have a bereavement vs depression table which is a high yield point for sure.No surgery chapter. Sure some of the topics is under the header of "assorted topics in EM" but that is just silly considering it is a fundamental rotation.In conclusion the book is good. Not great. If some sections were beefed up and the topics were covered more concisely and ALWAYS including treatment, then we are golden. If you plan on using a review book for Step 2 use this one. If you still prefer MTB 2/3 because it is an easier read then you are better off just doing questions.

So, unlike for Step 1, where First Aid was an easy first choice for a central studying resource, Step 2 has no best choice. First Aid for Step 2 is not that great. It is riddled with errors and missing a lot of testable topics. However, there really isn't a better answer. I own Master the Boards as well, but it is even more cut down than First Aid, so despite the explanations being superior, the fact that it is even more content-lacking makes it also not a great pick.So let me tell you why I am still using this book. I am using it because I need a central resource to annotate information from UWorld questions, and there is sufficient room on these pages to do just that. I add in and change the content that needs to be changed -- do NOT trust information in here over UWorld explanations, because I can almost guarantee UWorld is right and this is wrong. I don't use this book to read from primarily, I use it to look up topics that are primarily directed by question explanations.So first, ask yourself if you need a book to study for Step 2, because not everyone will. Questions should be your primary resource for studying, but beyond that, you may or may not benefit from also having a book to reference. In my case, I still find this useful, despite its faults. Hopefully the future will bring a better book for Step 2, but in the meantime, this is what we've got.

I like it as much as I like any study product. It's direct and to the point. I'll combine this with uworld to get the most out of it

This is the only textbook that you need to prepare for the USMLE Step 2 CK Exam. Covering all of the material in this book twice and completing >2,500 questions will put you in good position to achieve an excellent score on the exam.