This block has more material than block 6, and can be a little overwhelming especially since most people start studying for STEP around the beginning of this block. This was the most failed KBE by our class, so don’t fall behind! It’s all about GI, renal, and endocrine pathology with some GU sprinkled in.
Resources
For PBL:
- Basic Knowledge
- Pathoma: I’m sure you’re seeing a pattern here. Pathoma is great for the pathology fundamentals needed for the block, and Dr. Frazier handles the rest!
- Sketchy Pharm: Now is a great time to cover the rest of the GI, renal, and endocrine drugs, as they definitely show up a lot in STEP prep and this exam.
- Boards and Beyond and First Aid can be helpful especially for reviewing normal physiology – great for STEP prep!
- Lectures: Dr. McCullough stresses the lectures heavily, but our KBE was more PBL and STEP-based than lecture heavy. But still make sure you study these as they do appear.
- Practice Questions
- AMBOSS or USMLE Rx or MedBullets: do as many practice questions related to block topics as you can! They’re extremely helpful for reinforcing knowledge and boards prep.
- UWorld: Most people begin UWorld this block, and I would personally recommend starting by selecting just the subjects that you have covered so far! Build your way up to doing all subjects and topics; don’t just jump right in.
For IPC:
- Lectures – IPC is, as usual, very lecture heavy, so make sure you learn these however you best can – making supers is a great way. Pay attention to the fluid management lectures (Dr. Velazquez does a review that is very helpful)
- We made a slide deck super over all of the lectures that was helpful!
- Our exam did not test us over procedure details (chest tube placement, central line placement, etc.), so don’t spend a lot of time memorizing these!
- Pay attention during the interprofessional sessions. Roughly half of our short answer points came from the interprofessional sessions.
General Advice
- I felt that STEP prep prepared me for this exam well. If you use STEP prep materials to review the systems covered during this block, you should be totally fine.
- Be prepared to see some physiology questions on this exam!
- Questions related to cases appeared more heavily than those related to lectures.
- The endocrine lectures had a lot of review questions in them. The endocrine questions on the test were generally easier than these, so just make sure to study the main points from the lectures.