Customer Reviews

First Aid for the USMLE Step 2 CS, Third Edition (First Aid USMLE)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I read this book the week before my clinical skill exam. The first section contains general information about the testing center areas. There are hotels listed, restaurants, and transportation suggestions. The next section contains information about the format of the exam and the expectations. It reviews how to introduce yourself, what types of questions to ask, and what to do in the physical exam. I appreciated this since I had been on surgery the past couple of rotations, so I needed a refresher. The next section had "mini-cases". They gave little scenarios, then a good differential and examples of diagnostic studies to order. The last section had more in-depth cases. The formats given were the same as the real exam. They give you check-offs that are specific on what information you should get. It also has tips on difficult patients you might encounter. Then, a sample note is given. It takes a while to get through the book, and it is such an annoying test to prepare for! But I was nervous and this book allowed me to feel well prepared. I will delete this post if I don't end up passing!!

You don't really need much to pass this thing, and trust me when I say it's easy to pass. Read through the baby cases a few times, do the mock exam if you're school has one and you'll be fine. If you want to be crazy about it, you could always ad the "mastering the USMLE CS," but no way I had time to go through that. Study this one for a week, then the plane ride there if it applys, be nice to the patients and you're good.

I reviewed this book with my brother who was preparing for the comlex pe exam. We found everything we needed in the text. We watched csevideo with the first aid and it was like seeing the text come to life. I highly recommend this combination for either the comlex or the cs exam. Yes, we both passed with a greats scores.

Well organized. Easy to read. High-yield with a good number of practice cases. Practice cases are somewhat easier than the actual exam in that a clear single diagnosis is obvious in some of the cases whereas it usually isn't in the actual test. The section on potential challenging questions from the SPs is also useful.

If you are an American medical school student you probably dont even need to read it once (I didn't get all the way through because I was so bored). If you are an IMG, read it just to make sure you are following the rules.

This has good info, but you can probably read all you need to know out of it in 3-4 hours. Get one and share it with all your friends.

read this book and practice and you'll be among the 97% of students who pass this test every year. The book is all you need. The minicases section is particularly high yield. Test is annoying, but you will be prepared with this book.

This is the only thing I used for Step 2 CS prep. I read the whole book in 7-8 days and felt very confident on test day (I am from an American medical school). FA helps drill into your head all the important things to do to get the points and how the general flow of your H&P should go. Do a handful of the full cases a day leading up to the test and skim over the mini-cases (with the differentials/work up plans) over the 2-3 days leading up to the test and you should do fine.

used it for CS...has everything u need to knoe for the exam ....and i think the only book required for step 2 CS,
i used it for 10 days and passed CS in first attempt.

This book is probably the most useful thing i could have had at the beginning of 3rd year. Unfortunately I bought it at the end of third year to prepare for step 2. It would have mad the learning curve much less steep.