New York Clinical Skills Prep

This is an excellent course to help you prepare for USMLE Step 2 CS, especially if you are an IMG. Pros: - much more affordable than Kaplan and others - Dr. Somas taught us the most efficient and yet perfect way to perform PEs and write pt notes. - You get unlimited access to the study centre throughout the week to practice with other people. This includes using the patient rooms and equipments. This was a big deal for me. Basically this was why I signed up. - Access to online account where you can save your notes and later review them with Dr. Somas....unfortunately the Wi-Fi connection at the centre kept on breaking down and I was not able to save some of my notes - You will be put on the spot in front of the group while doing the cases. This will help build your confidence for the exam day. - You will meet a lot of people from different backgrounds and make valuable connections. Cons: - I think the class was overcrowded. We were a group of 16 people and during the first two days we were scrambling to get a chance to practice with an SP. I suggest to make the groups smaller. - Again, due to the large number of people in our group, Dr. Somas did not get to review everyone's pt notes thoroughly. - The cases on the mock exam were overly challenging. Every case had a special challenge that you would have to deal with. Obviously the intention was to prepare us for the worst on the exam day, however I never encountered any of those challenges on the actual exam. This was good in a way that it seemed very realistic to real life scenarios but I prefer mastering cases that were similar to the exam. - Never received the promised lab coat, stethoscope, or course package. Dr. Somas, if you are reading this please send me my lab coat and stethoscope LOL Overall, the best thing about this course is free unlimited access to prep centre after the course is done. I stayed for 3 days. Practiced with other people for around 12 hrs on those days. Just got my results yesterday and I PASSED. So I'm happy with my decision.

I took a step 2 CS course here and I found it very beneficial in preparing me for my actual exam. Dr. Somas is a great teacher, he really knows the material well and is patient and engaging in the course. Also, they provided us with free breakfast and lunch during the course which was a great bonus. After the course is done, NYCSprep allows you to go into the center anytime to study and practice with other students/doctors. I found it very beneficial to be in that environment with other like-minded people who want to succeed.

I did my cs in Phily on Feb 27 and passed! My notes and PE was the weakest part. I took a mock test and spent 5 days practicing in the NYCS rooms. The mock test was hard but I found the review session most helpful. Dr Somas taught us how to write notes sentence by sentence. Moreover, NYCS has a super nice notes instructor, Abhiram, who reviewed my notes and pointed out where I need to improve every case I practiced. I felt my improvement everyday there. Going to NYCS is the best decision I made during my CS preparation. I can't be more thankful for all the help I got from NYCS Dr Somas, Abhiram, and my practicing partners there. I highly recommend NYCS for CS prep!

I had a great experience studying for CS with NYCSprep. Dr. Somas was amazing. He taught us what to do and what not to do. We had two mock tests with feedback which gave us a real picture of the exam. He also sits with you personally and reads through each of your patient notes. He’s a really dedicated professor that has made the process a cake walk. The staff at NYCSprep are so friendly; it’s a great place to meet new people and study! Would recommend this to all the medical graduates entering the path to residency!

NYCS prep course has been amazing since the moment I entered the center. They have a brand new state of the art facility for CS prep with 6 spacious rooms and plenty of other rooms for other courses like step 1 and step 2 ck. The rooms were nicer than the actual CS rooms I had during the real exam. You will learn tricks and techniques that will help master all the components of CS especially the ICE component. Dr. Somos does an incredible job of giving individualized attention and makes the whole experience well worth your time. I highly recommend this course for not only passing but for getting high performance in all components of CS. As a side note: I attended USMLE Gold course in Houston. Do NOT go there for the CS prep course...they are very pricey and the course is not good, nothing like the NYCS prep course.

NYCSPrep is the reason why I was able to get through my clinical skills exam. Dr. Somas is absolutely amazing and he genuinely cares about his students. I gained a lot of confidence and felt like I was well prepared for my actual exam. The mock exams were tough and made sure to have the students over-prepared for the real test and we also discussed the mistakes we made with the SPs after every encounter during mock exam. They even offer one on one training with the SPs if we want which was also super helpful. Personally I would highly recommend taking advantage of this opportunity. My overall experience here was great!!! Thank you so much Dr. Somas!!!

Good place to practice; there are six rooms with computers that look a lot like the real thing just smaller. It doesn’t matter if you are alone because there are always people practicing for upcoming exams, just ask kindly to participate in a group. I will say they could be more organized with the courses. I wrote them an email to confirm my course the day before and I got no answer and arrived really early like 6 hours early; it wasn’t the worst but still very uncomfortable as I had to travel about an hour to get there and although kind, the staff didn’t seem to care very much about my concerns. Also be sure to ask for your mock exams as soon as you arrive, as they’re commonly on the weekends and a lot of people is waiting to take them. I had no problem because I was staying long-term but if you are travelling just for the course, it might be a good idea to schedule your trip to NY having that in mind. Despite this, the course is concise and helpful; ask for feedback; and the bottom line is practice. Practice and more practice

I attendend the step 1 course last year and I am still very happy and satisfied about what we have done. My instructor Irshan was great, methodical and I still remember a lot of concepts just because of the way he explained them. The room was small but maybe this created an intimate space where to learn in a friendly way. I haven’t taken the exam since I’m still in my med school, but if he’ll be back as instructor I will attend the course again for sure. Thanks!

I want to be fair and detailed for anyone considering the USMLE CS course. I took the course mid October 2017, and my test was mid November 2017 @ the Philly center. 1 The facilities- clean, similar to the actual test site. Medical equipment and computers were appropriate as well. 2 Location- easy to find, near all major subways 3 Fellow students- weren't clicky, everyone worked together. We were encouraged to come early so we could practice together this was definitely a good ice breaker. 4 The mock exam- there were way more students then available exam rooms. This caused a minimum of 2 to 3 hours of wasted standing around. There is no immediate feed back in regards to patient notes. 5 The practice cases during lecture were not as coordinated as it should have been. During one of the lecture he was live streaming "the students in the new facility" There were times Dr. Somas appeared bored, and stated so. 6 Dr. Somas is extremely knowledgeable, but his teaching style is condescending, impatient, rude, aggressive and uncoordinated. I previously failed the ICE portion of the CS exam, so I had first hand knowledge of my faults, and that was my focus. I would NOT recommend this course to anyone with no clue about the exam, did not review all of First Aid CS, have limited preparation time, or no recent clinical experience. In Dr. Somas defense, the course is the cheapest and only one I could afford.

Amazing review course. I came in as a blank slate and really learned everything I needed to know for the CS exam over three days. I was considering going to a smaller program but they are smaller for a reason. You really are in good hands with Dr. Somas. The best part of NYCSPREP is that; you really are taken in and made a part of the family! He gave me a lot of practical advise throughout the residency trail and I am happy to report that I matched!