Resources
Understand first that this exam was written by specialists in every field from cardio to obgyn to peds to surgery and not by family practitioners. It is effectively out patient management in all the specialties on an exam. Thus the more you know the better. Family medicine specific books generally lack the detail needed for the actual exam. That said the medicine resources are included below along with an additional qbank.
AAFP-american academy of family physicians question bank
This question bank gives you an idea on the nature of guideline management of chronic conditions that the test moves towards. Also reading test results. These are all internal medicine concepts, there is some ob/gyn and a little peds but it is primarily a medicine out patient exam which this question bank is good for, despite not being in usmle/nbme format.
Step Up to Medicine-ambulatory section is very high yield
-This is also extremely dense but it is unlikely that the exam will have anything not covered in this book. I preferred the question format of MKSAP and the explanations but for those that want to read a book similar in style to First AID, this is for you. Focus on the ambulatory section.
Up To Date
-For your patients-the more you read on your patients the better your overall preparation.
USMLE World Internal Medicine
-The more of the questions you can get through the better. Of all the Usmle world step 2 question banks, this is the most reflective of a shelf and of step 2. Making the question review process an active rather passive experience will yield higher benefits, such as writing out in a word document the explanations provided and how your thought process led you to the correct or incorrect answer.
MKSAP question book.
-extremely high yield. This is available for free via shiffman. Highly recommended as its depth and breadth are wonderful for medicine. The questions are not phrased in step 2 style like usmleworld but it has its own advantage on being more readily accessible. There is a student version that is preferable over the one intended for medicine residents.
NMS Medicine Casebook
-while the NMS medicine book companion is great as a reference, this book is more useful as a combination prep for your hospital work, the shelf and step 2. It is still dense but with the time commitment is has a very high yield. One of the best big comprehensive prep books out there after MKSAP and Uworld.
USMLE Secrets Step 2
A useful book to cover very high yield topics when tired. It is in no way comprehensive on any topic but it will point you in the right direction for the topics worth looking into further. However, MKSAP does this better.
NBME exam: very helpful, some questions seemed to appear on the shelf however no explanations. Typically people perform much better on the actual exam than the Medicine NBME. This holds true for the STEP 2 NBMEs as well.
Case files Family Medicine– gives clear cut pictures on basic presentations, no nuance or depth that shelf questions will often probe at. Case files-most normal presentations of the biggest disease, the breadth of coverage is insufficient, also clunky if you wish to reference a specific illness. Reccomended if you are looking for an overview of the big issues in family medicine.
Pathoma: worth reading over for the major organ sections at least once since every shelf exam will build on basic pathology knowledge. If you used this during step 1 preparation, reading over it should be more of a review process.
Goljan Rapid Review Pathology: very useful for quick reference of pathology. Just because it is year 3 does not make this useless! Many of your attendings will ask you basic physiology found in this book.
First Aid for Step 1
-often reviewing your basic pathophysiology will pay dividends on clinical medicine exams.
1. General knowledge of the applicability of Alcohol, Smoking, and Diabetes (the big three of medical school) to the exam in question. Always good for 5-10 questions on the shelves.
2. Please see the other tabs for topics to address since there are none specific to family medicine per say.
Regarding Step 2: the majority of the exam feels like the IM shelf, with some more out patient management, there are no direct family medicine questions since it is covered by studying out patient medicine, pediatrics, and ob/gyn.
Understand first that this exam was written by specialists in every field from cardio to obgyn to peds to surgery and not by family practitioners. It is effectively out patient management in all the specialties on an exam. Thus the more you know the better. Family medicine specific books generally lack the detail needed for the actual exam. That said the medicine resources are included below along with an additional qbank.
AAFP-american academy of family physicians question bank
This question bank gives you an idea on the nature of guideline management of chronic conditions that the test moves towards. Also reading test results. These are all internal medicine concepts, there is some ob/gyn and a little peds but it is primarily a medicine out patient exam which this question bank is good for, despite not being in usmle/nbme format.
Step Up to Medicine-ambulatory section is very high yield
-This is also extremely dense but it is unlikely that the exam will have anything not covered in this book. I preferred the question format of MKSAP and the explanations but for those that want to read a book similar in style to First AID, this is for you. Focus on the ambulatory section.
Up To Date
-For your patients-the more you read on your patients the better your overall preparation.
USMLE World Internal Medicine
-The more of the questions you can get through the better. Of all the Usmle world step 2 question banks, this is the most reflective of a shelf and of step 2. Making the question review process an active rather passive experience will yield higher benefits, such as writing out in a word document the explanations provided and how your thought process led you to the correct or incorrect answer.
MKSAP question book.
-extremely high yield. This is available for free via shiffman. Highly recommended as its depth and breadth are wonderful for medicine. The questions are not phrased in step 2 style like usmleworld but it has its own advantage on being more readily accessible. There is a student version that is preferable over the one intended for medicine residents.
NMS Medicine Casebook
-while the NMS medicine book companion is great as a reference, this book is more useful as a combination prep for your hospital work, the shelf and step 2. It is still dense but with the time commitment is has a very high yield. One of the best big comprehensive prep books out there after MKSAP and Uworld.
USMLE Secrets Step 2
A useful book to cover very high yield topics when tired. It is in no way comprehensive on any topic but it will point you in the right direction for the topics worth looking into further. However, MKSAP does this better.
NBME exam: very helpful, some questions seemed to appear on the shelf however no explanations. Typically people perform much better on the actual exam than the Medicine NBME. This holds true for the STEP 2 NBMEs as well.
Case files Family Medicine– gives clear cut pictures on basic presentations, no nuance or depth that shelf questions will often probe at. Case files-most normal presentations of the biggest disease, the breadth of coverage is insufficient, also clunky if you wish to reference a specific illness. Reccomended if you are looking for an overview of the big issues in family medicine.
Pathoma: worth reading over for the major organ sections at least once since every shelf exam will build on basic pathology knowledge. If you used this during step 1 preparation, reading over it should be more of a review process.
Goljan Rapid Review Pathology: very useful for quick reference of pathology. Just because it is year 3 does not make this useless! Many of your attendings will ask you basic physiology found in this book.
First Aid for Step 1
-often reviewing your basic pathophysiology will pay dividends on clinical medicine exams.
1. General knowledge of the applicability of Alcohol, Smoking, and Diabetes (the big three of medical school) to the exam in question. Always good for 5-10 questions on the shelves.
2. Please see the other tabs for topics to address since there are none specific to family medicine per say.
Regarding Step 2: the majority of the exam feels like the IM shelf, with some more out patient management, there are no direct family medicine questions since it is covered by studying out patient medicine, pediatrics, and ob/gyn.