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SOM Peer to Peer Resources

AOA Guidance

Big Points

Try and think about what worked or did not work for you in your first two years and adapt that to your studying now. It is recommended that you try to study every night when you get home. On some rotations that may not seem realistic, but at the very least try to do a little bit each night. This will prevent you from having to cram a few days before your shelf. It is incredibly important to start studying early for your shelf exams! Your time is spent mainly at the hospital in the third year and clinical duties take precedence over studying, so utilize your time wisely!
  • Shelf Exams: In general, the questions will present you with a case vignette with lab/radiology findings and from there ask you one of a few common questions. The most common questions are: “what is the diagnosis,” “what is the next step in diagnosis/treatment,” “what is the pathogenesis of this disease,” “what was the patient treated with,” or “what is the physician’s most appropriate response to this question.” The first two years of medical school were based on “what is it?” In the third year, the focus shifts to “We know you know what is going on here, but what do we do about it?” So, when you’re studying get into the frame of mind of wondering how you would diagnose something, or what’s the next step in the management of a certain disease.
  • Step 2 CK UWorld QBank: Useful for IMed and Step 2 prep, but there are questions for most of the rotations. Most people use this as their main practice question source.
  • Online Med Ed: A series of free videos. There is also a paid version to get notes, download the videos, and access a Qbank. These are a great resource for all rotations, especially if you’re the type of person that learns by listening.
  • Emma Holliday Videos: A series of free lectures. Very good for review the day before your shelf exam. The slides have disappeared behind a password-protected wall, but the videos are available via YouTube.
  • Practice NBME Exams: Practice exams (called the Clinical Skills Mastery Series) that you can buy for each shelf. Many people use these to gauge where they are before the exam. Forms are also available for Step 2 prep as well.
  • USMLE Easy / PreTest: Another question bank useful for neurology, family medicine, and pediatrics clerkships.
  • Amboss: Practice questions with some unique features (such as a "what should I pay attention to in the question stem" highlighter).

Mobile Apps for Clerkships

UpToDate

AOA - "Access this through the NYMC library website and make sure you download it on your phone. This is a great resource for reading up on your patients, and also for preparing for presentations you may give. In some cases, you can go a little too deep down the rabbit hole and get deeper into things than you need to as a student, but in general it is very useful."

Epocrates

AOA - "This is a great app for looking up drugs, and drug interactions. They also have a lot of calculators that are very useful on the floors. You’ll need to make a free account."

AHRQ ePSS

AOA - "The worst name in history, but a very useful app. You can plug in age, sex, pregnancy status, smoking status, and sexual activity for your patients and the app tells you what screening is recommended using the guidelines from the USPSTF."

Other Virtual Resources

Virtual Learning Resources during COVID-19

The current COVID-19 pandemic is affecting healthcare institutions in ways that may disrupt the training of future health care professionals. It is more important than ever to ensure that the community has access to high quality educational materials to ensure trainee preparedness for these clinical and global health challenges.This collection features peer-reviewed teaching resources that can be used for distance learning, including self-directed modules and learning activities that could be converted to virtual interactions. As always, the resources are free to download and free for adaptation to local settings. The collection will be reviewed and updated regularly.

Univ. of Minnesota - Global Health

Global Medicine offers a number of online courses for physicians and healthcare providers to improve patient care for globally mobile populations including immigrants, refugees, and travelers, as well as to gain expertise in the diagnosis and treatments of tropical infectious and noninfectious diseases. You can complete all of our online courses at your own pace. Global Medicine courses are asynchronous - meaning you don’t have to attend online classes at a specific time. Our courses are developed by faculty and technologists who understand the specific needs of learners in an online environment. We continue to integrate new technologies into our courses to support our online learners.

Free CME

FreeCME.com has provided the broadest range of free continuing education available for more than a decade. Healthcare professionals come to us knowing they will find activities that consistently meet their continuing education requirements: easy to use web portal makes it easy to find courses and track credits; accredited activities for over 30 medical specialties; over 100 active courses at any given time. Activity accreditations include ACCME, ANCC, AANP, ACPE, and more. Most importantly, our content is always current, and always free.

Step 2 Prep Resources

USMLE - Step 2 CK Sample Test Questions

More than 100 sample Step 2 Clinical Knowledge (CK) CK test questions are available in both PDF format and as an interactive testing experience. Examples of different types of competencies tested on the Step 2 CK examination are provided.

USMLE - Step 2 Test Question Formats

A review of the patient scenario formats, single-item questions, and abstract formats that you will see on Step 2. 

NBME - Step 2 Practice Exams

Step 2 practice tests featuring multiple-choice questions on content typically covered during the core clinical clerkships. In addition to helping you gain a familiarity with NBME-style questions, the Comprehensive Clinical Science Self-Assessment enables you to: evaluate your readiness to take the USMLE Step 2 CK; target your studies using diagnostic feedback highlighting areas of strength and weakness; view answer explanations to reinforce your knowledge and maximize study time; use your self-assessment score to estimate your approximate score on the USMLE score scale.