Strategies for USMLE Step 2 CK – An Interview with Dr. Mili Mehta

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Step 2 CK can be an extremely important test. More and more residencies are interested in your score on this test in order to establish your competency within clinical medicine! Step 2 CK becomes especially important if you haven't performed as well as you liked on Step 1. We sat down with Dr. Mili Mehta, a University of Pennsylvania Internal Medicine Resident and Former Member of the Columbia University admissions committee to ask her about her experience taking Step 2 CK. Having taken the USMLE Exams, could you provide some key strategies for preparing for the Step 2 CK Exam? The step 2 CK exam is a combination of what you learn during the course of your clinical year of medical school, with some Step 1 knowledge thrown in there. While there are a lot of good books out there with the outline of various topics of medical school, I found that the best way to study was to constantly do questions from the UWorld Question Bank during the school year. You can purchase it and you can use it to study for your shelf exams and then when you’re taking Step 2 you can repeat these questions, because there’s going to be a long enough interval between the Step 1 and Step 2 exams. I usually do the questions on tutor mode first, and then I take the time to read through explanations, and read through what I got wrong. If you have any Step 2 books for studying, you can take the time to look over the information in there as well. Just as important, before the actual exam, when you’re studying for the exam, you should practice timed questions. This can be very tricky as there are a lot of questions to answer in a small amount of time, and pacing yourself is important.

“While there are a lot of good books out there with the outline of various topics of medical school, I found that the best way to study was to constantly do questions from the UWorld question bank during the school year. “

And is there a particular study schedule you suggest following? Not really; It depends on what other things you’re doing if you’re on a rotation. I would say the most important thing is to practice questions on tutor mode, and then read the explanations. You should also get comfortable doing questions in timed mode. Remember, practice makes perfect. Make sure to do plenty of practice questions. Check our MedSchoolCoach's USMLE Step 2 Tutoring for additional information on how you can ace your exam!