Step Gunner
Crush USMLE Step 2 CK
Free · In‑App Purchases · Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS.
That elusive 270 is now within reach with StepGunner! Learn the material. Take the forms. Predict your Step 2 CK Score. See the path to that goal score.
Step Gunner is a USMLE Step 2 CK study app built by a med student, for med students. Master high-yield content through smart spaced repetition, timed challenges, and AI-powered explanations - all on your iPhone.
SMART SPACED REPETITION
Our Leitner 5-box system adapts to your performance. Cards you miss come back more often. Cards you master fade into long-term review. Study smarter, not harder.
SOCRATIC CLINICAL PIMPING
Pimp Me mode (Pro) walks you through 44 full-arc clinical cases - from recognition through initial management to complications and definitive teaching points. Real-attending-style branching: wrong answer? Get pushed back with a hint. Confused? Tap a quick-reply chip. Edge cases? Tests how your answer changes if the patient were pregnant, unstable, or immunocompromised.
HIGH-YIELD QUESTION BANK
- Hundreds of CK-style clinical vignettes
- Buzzword flashcards across major organ systems
- Next Best Step management questions
- NBME-style practice questions
- Diagnosis pattern recognition drills
BUILT FOR HOW MED STUDENTS ACTUALLY STUDY
- XP system with streak bonuses and speed rewards
- Daily goals to build consistent study habits
- Achievements that track your progress
- Weekly leaderboard to compete with classmates
- Streak freezes to protect your momentum
RAPID FIRE MODE
20 questions, 2 minutes. Simulate exam-day time pressure with a mix of clinical and buzzword cards.
AI DEEP DIVE
Get instant explanations powered by Apple Intelligence - right on your device, completely private. Choose from 5 modes: Explain More, Why Was I Wrong, Pathophysiology, Mnemonic, and ELI5.
STEP GUNNER PRO
Unlock the full question bank, unlimited hearts, AI Deep Dive, and every quiz mode with a Pro subscription.
Step Gunner is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical education, clinical training, or professional medical advice.
Terms of Use: https://stepgunner.com/terms
Privacy Policy: https://stepgunner.com/privacy
more It has been extremely helpful for getting into the framing and focus of step 2 studying. High yield concepts. Have gotten me multiple questions on practice tests. Helpful for those who are not keen on the burden on Anki, but do like spaced repetition as well. Overall pretty great. I definitely recommend
Developer Response Lowering the anki burden was exactly what I had hoped for. Thank you for validating that.
It has been extremely helpful for getting into the framing and focus of step 2 studying. High yield concepts. Have gotten me multiple questions on practice tests. Helpful for those who are not keen on the burden on Anki, but do like spaced repetition as well. Overall pretty great. I definitely recommend
Lowering the anki burden was exactly what I had hoped for. Thank you for validating that.
I always run into a problem where I use all my UWorld early and finish my anki cards in my free time. This is super nice for when I am standing around on rotations with no responsibilities, but can’t access my computer to study.
I always run into a problem where I use all my UWorld early and finish my anki cards in my free time. This is super nice for when I am standing around on rotations with no responsibilities, but can’t access my computer to study.
Nice!!
Best app ever!! Makes me learn the next steps in management of so many high yield presentations in such an efficient manner! So grateful to find an app that is free, easy to use and also use to ensure a laid back learning experience! I am so so grateful to the med student who created this app!
Developer Response Thank you!! I’m glad you’re enjoying it.
Best app ever!! Makes me learn the next steps in management of so many high yield presentations in such an efficient manner! So grateful to find an app that is free, easy to use and also use to ensure a laid back learning experience! I am so so grateful to the med student who created this app!
Thank you!! I’m glad you’re enjoying it.
Great app. I’m noticing with the most recent update that I’m getting the same questions a lot and that they don’t seem to get spaced out (ie., they say they go to box 1 each time even if I’ve done them recently). Not sure what’s causing that!
Developer Response Oh wow, thanks for the feedback. If the spacing out doesn’t work as planned, that can be super annoying. There was a recent change to the algorithm because of a bug that caused box 5 to keep repeating over and over despite it being mastered. Fixing that might have caused this new problem. I’ll get to fixing that today after my rotation and it might require releasing a new version. PS. You can add feedback in the app itself which helps me zero down to the specific problem you’re facing.
Great app. I’m noticing with the most recent update that I’m getting the same questions a lot and that they don’t seem to get spaced out (ie., they say they go to box 1 each time even if I’ve done them recently). Not sure what’s causing that!
Oh wow, thanks for the feedback. If the spacing out doesn’t work as planned, that can be super annoying. There was a recent change to the algorithm because of a bug that caused box 5 to keep repeating over and over despite it being mastered. Fixing that might have caused this new problem. I’ll get to fixing that today after my rotation and it might require releasing a new version. PS. You can add feedback in the app itself which helps me zero down to the specific problem you’re facing.
Your Step 2 readiness just became a coach.
Step Gunner now turns your practice into a predicted Step 2 score and a real plan to move it. Enter your NBME or self-assessment scores, set your exam date, and your Readiness screen shows where you stand today, your odds for your target specialty, and exactly what to study next.
The new coaching layer:
Gap to target. See which organ systems are holding your points back, ranked by how much each is worth on the exam, with one tap to drill the exact gap and a projection of the points you stand to gain.
NBME Planner. Pick the practice form you have not taken yet, drag a score, and watch your projection respond. The required-score table shows what your next form needs to say for each goal, on your timeline. Honest ranges, never promises.
Specialty readiness. See your projected score against the matched-applicant range for your target specialty, plus a plan to reach the median. Your match odds stay free, always.
Retention forecast. A forgetting-curve projection of how much you will still remember on test day, which systems fade first, and the daily review dose to hold your gains.
Also new:
Visual Dx now shows how many images you have seen in each set, not just how many you have mastered.
A cleaner, more readable review layout on iPad and large screens.
Plus calibration improvements to the predicted score and polish throughout.
2.0.0 2d ago
Study by Rotation is here.
Pick the clerkship you are on and study every deck it touches in one cross-deck round, or drill a single deck. Nine rotations, Internal Medicine through Psychiatry, each with a live card breakdown and your mastery at a glance. Star your current rotation and it pins to the top and to your Home screen, so your deck is always one tap away.
Review my misses is sharper too. Grind your weakest cards with the ones you just missed first, or drill a single Leitner box at a time.
Plus a cleaner rotation view, faster review, and polish throughout.
1.9.8 Aug 8
Visual Dx got a full rebuild.
Seven decks by modality: CT, Histology, X-ray, Micro, EKG, Derm, and Ultrasound. Go straight to the images you need.
Three ways to drill each one:
- Vignette: the full clinical stem plus the slide.
- Recognize: image only, no stem. See it, name the diagnosis.
- Rapid Review: flip cards to train your eye at speed.
And we fixed the repeat some of you flagged: Visual Dx now walks you through every distinct image before any comes back, so you get the whole library instead of the same handful.
Your predicted Step 2 score, rebuilt.
Add an NBME and watch your projection drawn as a real score distribution, with your odds of passing and of hitting your target read right off it. A runway to exam day shows where you are headed, and the number now leans on your most recent NBME so it stays honest.
Studying for Step 2? Gun it.
1.9.7 Aug 4
Exam Readiness is here.
See your projected Step 2 CK score as an honest range, not a fake single number. Log your NBME and UWSA scores and watch the band tighten as the estimate sharpens. Your most recent NBME counts the most, and your day-to-day accuracy carries the line forward between assessments.
New in this update:
- Your score trajectory over time, so you can see your climb toward test day
- Pick a target specialty and see your match probability, powered by real NRMP data
- A dedicated place to log and manage your NBME and UWSA scores
- Share your journey: turn your scores into a clean score card to post or send
- A redesigned Home built around your decks and your readiness at a glance
- A gentle walkthrough on your very first quiz
Readiness Coach (Pro) tells you what to drill today, whether you are on pace, and your plan from now to test day.
Plus fixes and polish under the hood.
Grinding for Step 2 CK? Go get it.
1.9.6 Jul 29
Rapid Review is here.
One tap now quizzes you across your whole question bank, weakest topics first. Every deck, one round, no clock. Just start and review what actually needs it.
Also new:
Cleaner home screen, so every deck is one tap away and nothing gets buried.
Almost 900 new Next Best Step management questions plus more CK Gold, all written in NBME style.
Management chains now highlight the exact next step, so you can see where each answer sits in the full workup.
Sign in and sign out right from your profile.
Long question stems are easier to read, with a cue when there is more to scroll.
Fixed a bug where the sign-in screen could stay stuck after you had already signed in.
Keep grinding. Your Match is on the other side of this.
1.9.4 Jul 13
Visual Dx just got bigger, and now you can look before you commit.
Browse the entire Visual Dx library for free. Swipe through every modality, EKG, X-ray, CT, ultrasound, histology, and derm, with the highest-yield slides first. Tap Start when you're ready to play.
Hundreds of new image cards across EKG, X-ray, CT, and ultrasound.
Smart Review Scheduler (beta): opt in from Settings to spread a review backlog into an even daily load instead of one overwhelming pile.
Enter a friend's referral code right from the home screen.
Sharper Visual Dx browsing, plus a stack of polish and reliability fixes.
Grinding for Step 2 CK? Gun it!
1.9.3 Jul 5
- Sharper answer explanations: when you miss a question, the reasons the other choices are wrong now stand out clearly, with the correct answer called out up top so the takeaway lands faster.
- Fixed the Next Best Step remaining counter so it reflects your full cram set, not just cards you had already seen.
- Stability and polish fixes.
Gun it.
1.9.2 Jun 30
What's new in 1.9.1
- Visual Dx now leads with the highest-yield images, so your study time goes to what the exam tests most.
- Spaced repetition now retires cards you've mastered, so they stop resurfacing daily.
- Smoother controller and keyboard navigation, with in-app pairing help.
- New launch and celebration animations.
- Stability and polish fixes.
1.9.1 Jun 25
Now native on iPad.
Step Gunner runs full screen on iPad with a layout built for the bigger display, sharp and centered, not a stretched-up iPhone view. Study on the screen you actually use.
Also in this update:
- Controller support. Pair a keyboard or a Bluetooth game controller (8BitDo and the like) and run your deck hands-free: move through choices, reveal, and advance without touching the screen. Every button is remappable in the app, and a layout picker keeps the on-screen hints matched to your controller.
- Clearer explanations. Every wrong answer now spells out why it is wrong, not just why the right one is right, so each card teaches the full differential.
- The usual sweep of question and content fixes across the decks.
Gun it.
1.9.0 Jun 21
Zoom in on every image.
Tap any image card to open it full screen and pinch to zoom in on the fine detail, from X-rays to histology slides. Read every scan the way you would on a real study set.
Also in this update:
- Cards you answered correctly no longer reappear the same day.
- More reliable review progress, so your spaced repetition stays in sync across sessions and devices.
- League fixes: you are placed right after your first quiz of the week, and your rank, weekly XP, and share cards show correctly even when you are outside the top 50.
- Clearer wording on "most common" questions.
- The usual sweep of question and image fixes.
Gun it.
1.8.8 Jun 17
Bring a friend, both of you level up.
New: invite a study buddy and you each get 250 XP toward this week's leaderboard. Share your code or a card, they join, you both jump up the board. Built for the group chat and the study room, so every invite card now has a scan-to-join QR.
Also in this update:
- Fixed a bug where the Visual Dx deck could go blank when you hit Practice again. It loads a fresh set reliably now.
- The image-recognition deck is more robust offline.
- The usual sweep of question, wording, and image fixes.
Gun it.
1.8.7 Jun 16
Cram mode is here.
Exam in a month? Stop waiting on spaced repetition. Cram mode runs an entire deck once, no repeats, and remembers exactly where you left off, so you can cover everything before test day. It tracks your progress card by card. Finish the deck, then drill only the ones you missed.
Tell us what's off.
New in-app feedback. Hit a bad card or have an idea, send it in two taps. It goes straight to the med student building this, not a support void.
Also new:
- Visual Dx keeps growing: 30 new CT and radiology cards, now 341 image questions
- Sharper explanations across every deck. Each answer names the look-alike it is hiding from and gives you a one-line memory hook
- More labeled reveals, so you train your eye on the finding, not just the name
- The usual sweep of question, wording, and image fixes
Gun it.
1.8.6 Jun 15
Visual Dx is here.
Read the case, then make the call straight from the slide. A new deck of 312 image questions across histology, micro, CT, and radiology. Every card pairs a clinical vignette with a real image, and the reveal labels the finding so you actually learn to see it.
League, rebuilt.
New MY LEAGUE and CHAMPIONS tabs, cleaner standings, and invite cards to pull your classmates into the fight. Add your school to climb the rankings.
Also new:
- You pick a display name now; your real name stays private
- DO and COM schools added to the league
- A smoother, faster Pro upgrade
- Hundreds of question, wording, and image fixes across every deck
Gun it.
1.8.5 Jun 12
Introducing the Apex Gunner.
Every week, the Gunner who tops the leaderboard is crowned the Apex Gunner, and the whole app finds out. Open Step Gunner to see this week's champion, watch for the crown on the Leagues tab, and grind to dethrone them next week.
Also in this update:
- Smarter daily reminders that no longer pile up
- A thank-you when a card you reported gets fixed
- Performance and stability improvements
1.8.4 Jun 6
NEW: Your school on the leaderboard
Add your medical school and it shows on your league row, with everyone from your school highlighted so you spot your people instantly. Limited US schools to start, with more on the way.
NEW: Vitals and labs, color-coded
Next Best Step vignettes now show the key vitals and labs as a quick-read strip, colored by how abnormal each value is (red for critical, amber for borderline), so the numbers jump out the way they do on test day.
Jump to related questions
After you answer a Next Best Step card, tap any "also tested" topic to line it up next and learn the whole cluster together.
Smoother and sharper
The launch intro no longer repeats back to back, and there are more question-quality fixes straight from your reports.
1.8.3 Jun 5
NEW: Next Best Step, supercharged
The management half of Step 2. Hundreds of new "what do you do next?" vignettes, and every one now reveals the full downstream management chain after you answer — so you learn the whole algorithm, not just the first move. Now front and center on the home screen.
NEW: Imaging Buzzwords
Spot the diagnosis from real radiology. A brand-new deck of X-ray, CT, ultrasound, and MRI images, plus classic films now attached to questions across the app so you learn what each buzzword actually looks like.
Buzzwords, front and center
Buzzwords lead the home screen, and the key finding in every question is highlighted so your eye learns the pattern fast.
Cleaner practice
Every deck now runs consistent 10-card rounds, with rebuilt end-of-round celebrations.
Your reports, answered
Flag a question and when we fix it, you see exactly what changed.
Under the hood
Leaderboard scoring fixes so every point counts, a heads-up before your weekly league resets, and hundreds of question-quality improvements.
1.8.2 Jun 2
NEW — Case Missions. Work real clinical cases from presentation to outcome: 36 of them across 11 services. The closest thing to reasoning through a patient before you ever meet one on exam day.
FRESH LOOK. Home, your profile, Leagues, and your round results all got a clean redesign. Faster to read, easier on the eyes, light or dark.
RESULTS, REIMAGINED. Finish a set and see your score as a sharp accuracy ring, your misses front and center, and your weak topics at a glance.
SHARE YOUR PROGRESS. New story-style cards to flex a streak, a top finish, or drop a nasty question into the group chat.
TAP YOUR STREAK GRID. Tap any day to see exactly what you did: questions, accuracy, XP.
ALSO: we fixed the questions you flagged (and you get a little celebration when a report you sent goes live), squashed a crash, smoothed out navigation, and tightened things up throughout.
1.8.0 Jun 1
Every question now reads like a clinician sees it. Pertinent positives (the findings that point to the diagnosis) show in bold amber. Pertinent negatives (the explicit absences that rule things out) show in dim italic. Background filler stays plain. 2,000+ vignettes across CK Gold, NBME, clinical NBS, and buzzwords now carry the markup, so you can scan a stem and zero in on the relevant findings in seconds.
1.7.2 May 28
Every celebration is now a cinematic moment. Perfect rounds, deck-complete moments, daily-goal wins, and quartile milestones all play full-screen with a painterly mascot taking over the entire phone — 46 unique mascots across five tiers, drawn at random so back-to-back wins feel different. Same for the launch screen — half the time you'll get a motion intro with a mascot moving on screen instead of a still image.
The chip with your tier, XP, and round info now sits planted in the lower-left like a film title card and doesn't drift anywhere. Audio is out; haptics carry the punch.
Temperature in every vignette now shows both Celsius and Fahrenheit (38.5°C (101.3°F)) — no more mental conversion mid-question. Applied across CK Gold, NBME, clinical NBS, buzzwords, pimping trees, and the Path lessons — 64 conversions total.
Eleven user-reported cards fixed today, mostly the "choice gives it away" pattern (correct answer was the only one with a parenthetical, dosing, or drug name that gave away the answer). One ethics question corrected (adolescent mandatory reporting). All reporters get a " Report fixed" toast on next launch.
Tab-bar jitter on the Leagues tab fixed. Profile view collapsed from per-category to top-level deck rollup so it doesn't take forever to scroll. Splash-screen wordmark clipping fixed.
1.7.1 May 27
Milestones feel like milestones now. Perfect rounds, daily-goal completions, and achievement unlocks get a full-screen moment instead of a quiet checkmark.
Crown wins feel like wins. Crossing #1, #2, or #3 on the weekly leaderboard now triggers a full-screen podium takeover.
If you're studying without an account, you'll now see what's at stake when you hit a 3-day streak, your first week, or 500 XP — your streak, your XP, your spaced-rep progress all live on the device until you save them. One tap to back it up. Skippable.
Cards you've flagged in-app now show "Report fixed" on next launch the moment a fix ships — no more wondering whether your report went anywhere.
125+ new CK Gold vignettes across heme, ID, OB/GYN, MSK, endo, and psych. New NBME-style buzzwords across every clerkship. New ophthalmology NBS cards, neuromuscular weakness differentials, pituitary apoplexy, vertebral osteomyelitis, and a deeper OB/GYN bleeding emergencies sweep.
91 cards rewritten so the answer format no longer tips off the right pick (the "(ITP)" / "(DIC)" giveaway pattern, where the expanded abbreviation only appeared on the correct choice). 16 reported CK Gold cards refined. The pattern is now blocked at upload so it can't sneak back in.
Sections gracefully fall back to your bundled content when the network is flaky — you'll never see an empty section again. Apple sign-in's duplicate-credential bug fixed. The bug that sometimes sent a brand-new user's first quiz tap to the paywall is fixed.
1.7.0 May 26
Free Pro for everyone during early access — locks are gone.
Interactive anatomy is here. The new Knee Anatomy atlas lets you tap the structure (bursae, tendons, bones) for eight high-yield CK
scenarios — tile-layer bursitis, jumper's knee, Osgood-Schlatter, quad tendon rupture, osteosarcoma, patellar fracture, and more — all
stacked over a single labeled lateral knee image.
Swipe back through your last few cards mid-round to re-read a vignette without losing your place. Right-swipe = back, left = forward.
Faster lesson browsing — drill-all buttons now lead each clerkship grid so one tap launches a mixed-format drill across every lesson
in that section.
Fifty-plus new comprehensive lessons across OB/GYN, neurology, renal, heme/onc, ID, MSK, and toxicology — including the PE walk for patients who can't be anticoagulated, a full anemia-by-MCV algorithm, the transplant-fever timeline, cerebral venous thrombosis, postmenopausal adnexal mass workup, and the stress-vs-urge-vs-overflow incontinence differential.
Better card reporting — flag a card with "Choice gives it away" if the answer-choice text telegraphs the answer.
Plus bug fixes on the spaced-repetition box indicator, navigation, notification timing, sign-in with Apple.
1.6.2 May 18
• Open the app and start studying. Sign-in is now optional — only needed for Pro purchase or the weekly leaderboard.
• Lessons grant 2× XP per correct answer.
• New skills: Sickle Cell (8 lessons), Vitamins (11 lessons), Hemoptysis differential (7 patterns).
• New walks: ACLS tachycardia, primary amenorrhea evaluation, AAA evaluation, magnesium toxicity, transfusion reactions (FNHTR + symptom matrix).
• Rapid Fire and Lessons Review now rotate cards every session.
• Fixed streak notification firing after you'd already studied.
1.6.1 May 10
Two new ways to study clinical reasoning end-to-end.
Algorithm walks are interactive flowcharts. Each lesson puts you in a real case and walks you decision by decision — pick wrong and you'll see why, pick right and you get a teach moment before advancing. Vascular emergencies, post-MI complications, sepsis, DKA, calcium workups, and dozens more are live.
Differential weighing lets you tag every finding in a vignette to the diagnoses it supports, then pick the one that fits best. You see exactly why one diagnosis beats the others. Used across infectious disease, neuro, MSK, and ob/gyn pelvic emergencies.
Other improvements:
• New Marked tab — bookmark any card to revisit later
• Lessons home redesigned for one-tap drill into any section
Other improvements:
• New Marked tab — bookmark any card to revisit later
• Lessons home redesigned for one-tap drill into any section
• Notifications turn on automatically during setup so you don't miss spaced-review windows
• Path lessons now count toward the weekly leaderboard
• Sign-in is faster — single screen, no swipes
• Bug fixes and performance improvements
1.6.0 May 7
Massive content + UX update.
• New clerkship-organized Study Path (replaces Cardio Path) covering Cardiology, Ob/Gyn, Pediatrics, Neurology, MSK, Heme/Onc, and Infectious Disease - lessons with matching, multi-select, sequencing, and clinical vignettes.
• Spaced repetition now extends across the entire app - every wrong path answer comes back in your review queue.
• "Review N due" button on the Path home re-surfaces previously-missed items.
• New SR Status indicator after every answer - see exactly which Leitner box your card moved to and when it'll come back.
• Tap-to-submit answers (no more separate Submit step), plus double-tap anywhere post-answer to advance.
• Buzzword cards now show full rationale (WHY / TRAP / REMEMBER) on every answer.
• Cleaned up question stems .
• Haptics on every path interaction.
• Dozens of bug fixes — multi-select questions tap correctly, matching pairs always shuffle, sequencing is never accidentally in order.
1.5.1 May 2
Leaderboard redesigned:
• New Top 10 view - league at a glance, with your rank pinned below if you're outside the top
• Streak now shows day-streak correctly (was showing session streaks before)
• Cleaner copy throughout
Buzzwords reorganized:
• 128 clinical-stem buzzwords grouped by system - Cardiology, GI, Neurology, OB/GYN, Heme, ID, Psych, Peds, Derm, MSK, Endo, Pulm, Renal
• Drill one organ system at a time, the way you'd actually study for shelf
• Cleaner NBME-style answer choices: stripped clarifier text that leaked the right answer
Bug fixes:
• Mastery percent and unseen counts now include every collection (NBME was being missed)
• Deep Dive AI assist no longer over-penalizes new cards
• Several smaller polish improvements
1.5 Apr 29
Your Step 2 readiness just became a coach.
Step Gunner now turns your practice into a predicted Step 2 score and a real plan to move it. Enter your NBME or self-assessment scores, set your exam date, and your Readiness screen shows where you stand today, your odds for your target specialty, and exactly what to study next.
The new coaching layer:
Gap to target. See which organ systems are holding your points back, ranked by how much each is worth on the exam, with one tap to drill the exact gap and a projection of the points you stand to gain.
NBME Planner. Pick the practice form you have not taken yet, drag a score, and watch your projection respond. The required-score table shows what your next form needs to say for each goal, on your timeline. Honest ranges, never promises.
Specialty readiness. See your projected score against the matched-applicant range for your target specialty, plus a plan to reach the median. Your match odds stay free, always.
Retention forecast. A forgetting-curve projection of how much you will still remember on test day, which systems fade first, and the daily review dose to hold your gains.
Also new:
Visual Dx now shows how many images you have seen in each set, not just how many you have mastered.
A cleaner, more readable review layout on iPad and large screens.
Plus calibration improvements to the predicted score and polish throughout.
more Version 2.0.0 2d ago
Data Linked to You The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:
Data Not Linked to You The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity: