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We now come to Part II of our discussion on “Preparing for the USMLE Step 2 CS”.  In Part I, we discussed how to prepare for the medical interview part of the clinical encounter. We will now tackle the physical examination part of the clinical encounter,

To answer the first question on a lot of people’s mind. No, you should not do the physical examination while conducting the medical interview. Not only is it rude, you miss the opportunity of building rapport with your “simulated patient”. A question your “patient” is asked is if they would want you to be their physician and depending on the source could be an additional 1 or 2 points for you.

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For the past few months, I’ve written articles that deal with all the different Steps except for Step 2 CS. So this will cover preparations for Step 2 CS.

Like most IMGs, I felt really anxious preparing for the Step 2 Clinical Skills. This was primarily due to the novelty of the examination method. (simulated patients, etc.) Although, we had a type of clinical skill exam in training, we had actual patients which we examined rather than a simulated patient and what was graded was more on did we get the diagnosis and treatment right, rather than how we did the interview or physical examination. In other words, on the results rather than the process.

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This is a really big topic and would probably take at least a dozen posts maybe even two to finish. However, we have to begin somewhere. This is actually the most common question asked in forums. When people ask whether First Aid is enough, should I do Q Banks, do I need Goljan, etc. the question they are really asking is, what should I study for the USMLE. When they scour through exam experiences in forums, spend money on bootlegged CDs or DVDs or decide whether to use the extremely expensive UCV (you know its my pet peeve ), etc. what they really are concerned about what to study for the USMLE.

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“Study the High yield stuff”. “Don’t bother with that because it’s low yield”. When I was just starting my review, these are the most common advice I get from “experts” in forums and books about reviewing for the USMLE. The question is how good is this advice.

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note: All posts on “How to Create a Study Plan for the USMLE” has been consolidated into a downloadable ebook. Download here!

This is the third part in our series on how to create a study plan for the USMLE. For those just joining us please refer to Part I and Part II. Now we have our objective and we know what the USMLE wants us to know and in what form it will test us for that knowledge. The third part is to understand how we learn and accumulate knowledge.

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