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For the IMG who is 7 days out, has done the NBMEs, and keeps opening the phone instead of a resource.
By Dr. Marish Asudani · Published
Do 6 things and nothing new. Revise every card of the Step 2 CK NBME Booster Anki on usmlevault.com. Keep an active-recall book: you recall, you don't read. Do the Divine Intervention must-do PDF. Watch Mehlman or AJmonics only if you skipped them. Run your 3 revision resources: your notes, your CMS and NBME revision book, and your screenshots. Put everything you forget onto 1 final note, and on the day before the exam, revise only that note until 5 pm.
Read this firstProcrastination only happens when you don't have a vision, or when you don't know what to do and what is enough.
The week before Step 2 CK is when that hits hardest. You look at UWorld, AMBOSS, 3 playlists and a stack of PDFs, and you don't know which one to open, so you open your phone instead.
The procrastination goes away when you have a checklist. This page is the checklist. 6 things, and when they're done, your day is done.
1 thing first. To do things the week before, you should have already done a lot in the past 14 days. This is not the week to start Step 2. It's the week you stop points from leaking.
Tap the one that matches your last 2 weeks.
Same 6 things for both. If you're behind, you skip 1 of them and add a shorter list.
Don't try to run the whole plan below in 4 days. Do things 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6, skip thing 4, and use the short list for your weakest systems: Last-minute Step 2 CK: the highest-yield things only →
No new content and no new resources. This week is consolidation of everything you already know. If a resource isn't in the 6 things below, it doesn't get opened.
Your whole week runs on 1 habit: you recall, you don't read. Everything you study this week, you are testing yourself on it, and whatever you can't pull out of your head goes on a list.
Your NBMEs and the Free 120 should already be done before this week, and every one of them taken offline, in timed blocks at the real exam's pace of about 90 seconds a question. Online forms are more spacious and inflate your score, so you'd plan your last week on a number that was never real. Why NBMEs are always offline →
In the last week, you revise the Step 2 CK NBME Booster Anki on usmlevault.com, which is basically all of the cards. It's built from NBME 9 to 16 and the Free 120, system by system, across 16 systems, and you can filter it by the 18 question types the NBME asks, like next best step and most likely diagnosis.
Why this deck in the last week: every card is a pattern the NBME has already asked. You're not learning new medicine. You're rehearsing the way the exam asks it.
Open the Step 2 CK NBME Booster AnkiNBME 9 to 16 and the Free 120, turned into cards, system by system. Opens straight into the Step 2 CK decks.
Open the deck →Throughout the entire week, whatever you study, you keep a book wherein everything is active recall. You're not reading things. You're making someone recall it to you, or read it to you, and you answer.
Whatever feels like you've forgotten, you write down as a topic. That list is the most important thing you make this week, because the day before your exam, you revise only those topics, until 5 pm.
From the previous Monday till Saturday, everything you study, you bookmark the things you don't remember. By Saturday you have 1 list of every topic you couldn't pull out of your head. On Sunday, that list is the only thing you open.
The Divine Intervention podcast is enormous, and most of it isn't your priority. The Final Month Divine Intervention PDF contains all of his high-yield podcasts: the exact episodes worth your last week and last month, with the high-yield risk-factor PDF to go through system by system next to your notes. You should definitely, 100%, do it.
Listen on walks, on the commute, in the gym. If you listen to the Free 120 episodes, solve your own Free 120 offline first.
↓HY Divine Intervention podcasts for the last week / last monthFree PDF from my Step 2 folder. No sign-up, no email. ▶Divine Intervention · USMLE Step 2CKThe full playlist. Play only the episodes the PDF names.How I use Divine for each Step: Divine Intervention, the Step 2 CK edition. The Step 2 high-yield PDFs are also in the University section of the Vault.
Free PDFs in the Vault UniversityThe Step 2 high-yield PDFs, free. Opens on the Resources tab.
Open the PDFs →
If you've never watched Mehlman Medical videos, you should watch them. If you have never done AJmonics, I would highly recommend AJmonics. This is the 1 exception to "nothing new", so keep it to your weak systems only. How to use Mehlman →
Mehlman's Pediatrics, Surgery and OB/GYN playlists are on the Step 2 CK playlists page →
You've been building these since day 1. This week you go through all 3. Nothing outside them.
Don't have a revision book? Start one today from your last 2 NBMEs. How to write a one-liner for every incorrect →
Everything you missed in the 5 days leading up to the last day goes onto 1 singular piece of note: the list from thing 2, plus anything from the deck, the PDF and your notes that you still don't understand.
On the day before the exam, that note is the only thing you open, and you shut it at 5 pm. You don't have to do much.
| Day | What you do |
|---|---|
| Mon to Sat | The deck, the active-recall book, the Divine PDF, your 3 revision resources. Bookmark everything you forget. |
| Saturday night | Your bookmarks become 1 final note. |
| Sunday (the eve) | Only the final note, until 5 pm. Then the eve routine. |
| Monday | Exam. |
My 12-month plan says rest the last 2 days. Here, rest means no new work: no new questions and no new resource. On the eve you only read your note, and your books shut at 5 pm.
Want a day-by-day schedule that tells you exactly what to study next? The Vault builds it around your exam date. The schedule is built for Step 1, so if Step 1 is still ahead of you, or you're helping a friend with it, start there. For Step 2 CK, the Vault gives you the Step 2 CK NBME Booster Anki.
24 hours before Step 2 CK — the eve, hour by hour.
Last-minute Step 2 CK — the highest-yield things only.
6 steps to more than 250 — the whole prep, in order.
Step 2 CK: the 6 resources — why, how and when for each.
NBMEs offline: the complete system — why every form is taken offline.
The week before Step 1 — the Step 1 version of this page.