STEP 2 CS Guide

What is USMLE Step 2 ?
This exam is to see whether the medical student can use the medical knowledge to diagnose and identify various problems encountered in medicine. USMLE Step 2 is designed to assess whether medical school students or graduates can apply medical knowledge, skills and understanding of clinical science essential for provision of patient care under supervision. US medical students typically take Step 2 during the fourth year of medical school. Step 2 is further divided into two separate exams.

1. USMLE Step 2-CK
2. USMLE Step 2 CS

USMLE Step 2-CS
USMLE Step 2-CS is designed to assess clinical skills through simulated patient interactions, in which the examinee interacts with standardized patients portrayed by actors. Each examinee faces 12 Standardized Patients (SPs) and has 15 minutes to complete history taking and clinical examination for each patient, and then 10 more minutes to write a patient note describing the findings, initial differential diagnosis list and a list of initial tests. Administration of the Step 2-CS began in 2004.

The examination is offered in five cities across the country:

Philadelphia (PA)
Chicago (IL)
Atlanta (GA)
Houston (TX)
Los Angeles (CA)

The result of the exam takes about 2 months and it is always better to plan it early enough to get the desired date for the exam as most of the exam centers are full and dont have dates available for next 3-4 months. Before 2004, a similar exam, the Clinical Skills Assessment (CSA) was used to assess the clinical skills of foreign medical graduates.