Internal Medicine clerkship: the resource stack, and a free shelf tool.
To study for the Internal Medicine shelf, make UWorld Step 2 CK your backbone: do every medicine-relevant question and read each explanation. Use Step-Up to Medicine as your main text, build frameworks with OnlineMedEd, and lock facts in with Anki. Keep daily pattern-recognition reps, then take an NBME practice shelf before exam day.
“Gotten me multiple questions on practice tests. Helpful for those not keen on the Anki burden but who like spaced repetition.”From a 5-star App Store review titled "Solid Step 2 studying addon"
Nobody clears the Internal Medicine shelf with one resource. You build a small stack and use each piece for the one job it is good at. This is that stack, positioned honestly by role, plus a week-by-week plan that weaves it together. Step Gunner is one tool in it, the fast daily recall layer, and we will tell you exactly where it fits and where it does not.
What resources do you need for the Internal Medicine clerkship?
Each of these earns its slot for one reason. Do not run all of them at full volume, you will burn out fast on a rotation this broad. Pick your qbank, pick your framework, pick one reading source, and keep a spaced-repetition habit running underneath. The rest are supplements you reach for when a weak area shows up.
UWorld Step 2 CK
Use it for: your primary learning engine. Medicine is the biggest slice of Step 2, so most of the qbank is fair game; read every explanation, they are the real curriculum here.
Highest yield for both the shelf and Step 2 itself. If you do one thing well, do UWorld well.
Step-Up to Medicine
Use it for: your main read for the medicine shelf. It is the closest thing to a single source that maps to what the shelf tests, from the workup to the next step.
Read the section for whatever you are seeing on service, then the high-yield boxes. Do not try to memorize it cover to cover.
OnlineMedEd
Use it for: building the mental scaffold before the details. Watch the medicine videos when a topic is brand new, then reinforce with questions.
Great for illness scripts and the big-picture approach. Not a substitute for question volume.
AnKing, on Anki
Use it for: keeping what you already learned from leaking out. Unsuspend the medicine subdecks as you cover topics, then do your reviews daily.
Medicine is broad and runs long, so retention is the whole game. Skip reviews and you relearn the same facts three times.
Divine Intervention Podcast
Use it for: patching weak areas hands-free. The medicine and rapid-review episodes are dense, high-yield audio for your commute and the gym.
Best in the two weeks before the shelf, once you know which topics are shaky.
AMBOSS and Pretest Medicine
Use it for: more reps once you have worked the medicine questions in UWorld. AMBOSS doubles as a fast ward reference with attached articles; Pretest is a large medicine-only bank, often harder and more detailed than the shelf.
Supplements, not a second full curriculum. Reach for them if you have the time and want volume.
Where does Step Gunner fit in the medicine stack?
Step Gunner is not your qbank and it is not your textbook. It is the 5 to 15 minute pattern-recognition tool you open between the big resources: on the wards between patients, in line for coffee, while a UWorld block loads. It drills retrieval, not recognition, so the cardinal features stick. Here is the Internal Medicine content, summed straight from the app across every medicine subspecialty, no rounding up.
What is actually in the app for medicine.
Internal Medicine is not one deck, it is every medicine subspecialty added together, tagged across cardiology, ID, endocrine, heme, GI, pulmonology, and renal. These are real counts from the current build, not projections.
2800+ Internal Medicine cards across four study modes.
Source: Step Gunner app content database, current build, counted August 2026. The Internal Medicine total sums these subspecialty worlds. Counts grow as content ships, which is why they carry a plus.
The Visual Dx image bank carries the classic IM visuals above, from ECGs to blood smears to biopsy histology, worth a few reps before the shelf.
The honest part: this is a supplement, not a spine. It will not replace UWorld, Step-Up, Anki, or your reading. It replaces the ten minutes you would otherwise spend scrolling. The core is free to study; the Visual Dx image bank is the paid upgrade.
“This app makes studying so effortless and fun. Highly recommend.”
How do you study for the medicine shelf, week by week?
Medicine blocks run anywhere from 4 to 12 weeks, so treat these as phases, not fixed dates: compress or stretch them to fit your rotation. The order matters more than the calendar. Early, you build frameworks and go slow. In the middle, you turn up question volume. In the final stretch, you consolidate and stop learning new things. Step Gunner runs daily underneath all three phases.
Build the framework, go slow on purpose.
Do not chase volume yet. You are learning how medicine thinks: problem lists, workups, and the next-best-step reflex the shelf lives on.
- OnlineMedEd medicine videos for the topics on your current service, framework first.
- UWorld on tutor mode, untimed, 10 to 20 a day, read every explanation.
- Step-Up to Medicine sections that match the patients you are seeing that week.
10 minutes of Buzzwords daily. Build the reflex of clue to diagnosis across the subspecialties before you drown in detail.
Turn up the questions, start banking retention.
This is the volume phase. Move UWorld to timed blocks and start a spaced-repetition habit so the early weeks stop leaking, medicine is too broad to hold in your head otherwise.
- UWorld, 20 to 40 a day, timed blocks now, still reading every explanation.
- AnKing medicine cards: unsuspend what you have covered, do reviews daily without fail.
- Step-Up to Medicine aimed at whatever your incorrects keep exposing.
10 to 15 minutes of CK Gold and Next Best Step daily, plus Visual Dx for ECG and smear reps. Use it as the between-block warm-up.
Consolidate, and stop learning new things.
The last stretch is about firming up what you know and finding the last gaps, not opening new material. Take a practice NBME to calibrate.
- UWorld finished, then a second pass on your incorrects and marked questions.
- Divine Intervention medicine and rapid-review episodes on commutes to patch weak areas.
- AnKing reviews stay daily; Pretest or AMBOSS only if you want extra volume.
- Take an NBME practice medicine shelf a week out and treat the review as a study session.
Warm-up and palate cleanser between blocks, and run the readiness check to see where you actually stand.
Internal Medicine shelf questions students actually ask.
Short, honest answers to the queries that come up every rotation. Where your school's rules differ from anything here, your school's rules win.
Q What is a good NBME Medicine shelf score?
A good score is usually defined by your school's honors cutoff, which often sits somewhere around the 70th percentile or higher on the NBME norm table. The exact scaled-score threshold varies by school and by year, so check your clerkship's grading rubric. Passing is typically well below the honors line.
Q Is Step-Up to Medicine enough for the medicine shelf?
Step-Up to Medicine is the best single text for the shelf, but few students pass on it alone. Pair it with UWorld and spaced repetition: Step-Up builds the framework, the questions teach you how the shelf actually asks, and Anki keeps it from leaking.
Q How many UWorld IM questions should I do?
Medicine is the largest share of Step 2, so aim to work through the medicine-relevant questions at least once during the rotation, then do a second pass on your incorrects. Total volume matters less than reading and understanding every explanation.
Q How long should I study for the medicine shelf?
Medicine clerkships range from about 4 to 12 weeks, with the shelf at the end. Study a little every day from week one rather than cramming the final days; because the material is so broad, daily questions plus spaced repetition beat a last-minute sprint.
Q Is the medicine shelf the hardest?
It is widely considered one of the broadest, since it spans every medicine subspecialty, which is why many students find it the most demanding shelf. Breadth is the real challenge more than trick questions, so consistent daily coverage and question volume matter more than any single resource.
Two free things worth doing before the shelf, and one for later.
Leaning toward Internal Medicine as a specialty? When you get there, Rezumab's free Match Probability Calculator shows your odds by program from NRMP data. No rush, that is a fourth-year problem.