USMLE Review book - USMLEHelp Step 2CK

Guest · **posting in usmle forum about USMLE Step 2 CK**

Hi everyone. I'm an IMG who went to school in Europe. I came to the States with my husband, and now am applying for residency here.

I wanted to let you know about a book that is pretty new on the American Market. It's called USMLEHelp Step 2 CK, and you can get it on their website (USMLEHelp.com)

I was lucky enough to use it at school, since the author went to the same school as I did. It's an excellent book, with a lot of useful information. The images in the book are helpful, some of them not the greatest quality (but not sure now), but there really was room on every page for your own notes/drawings.

The book is completely in color. There are lots of tables and lots of "pulling-it-all-together" images. I'm usually a color-oriented person, and I love that all the treatments are in green, all the evaluations in red, and all the physExams are in blue. When you're at the test, you really remember the colors too!

Plus, since you can add your own notes, those 4-colored pens really come in handy. There are always a couple of pages left blank for you to fill in your own info/illnesses if something wasn't there.

I have to say, though, this book really shouldn't be your only source of information - sort of like First Aid - you still need something to back it up. Like a Kaplan book or something. But I must say, it's much more valuable than FirstAid. I had problems with FA because some of the mnemonics just didn't make sense.

As I was studying for my step 3, and I still used my old, ragged USMLEHelp book. It has become sort of a bible to me.

It's small enough to fit in your lab coat, your purse or even your back pocket. You really can't go wrong with this book. They also have a support line and a discussion group about different topics in the book. It's very helpful, and I'm very active there. The USMLEHelp.com website is really helpful and offers a lot of interaction. The author is also active on the forum, which makes it nice to know that your comments and critiques are actually being heard by the person who has the power to change the things you are talking about.

I think it's very well-worth the price.

Good luck you guys. Just keep your heads up, and don't worry if you fail once. It's not the end of the world. Keep trying. I sure did.