Books for Prep | |
 - Great ReviewIt's great...I'm a second year and I have been using it to study as I go through classes (while making notes that are missing from the book). It's pretty well put together. Rating: - Wonderful bookThis is a great high-yield book in terms of painting the big picture in a quick and condensed format...and if you add stuff in the margins can be even more worthwhile... Rating: - How to ace the USMLE Step 1: what you REALLY need to know (from a guy who broke 260 without killing himself studying)I actually used the 2004 edition of First Aid, but it doesn't change much from year to year. Here is what you need to know about how to ace the USMLE Step 1: 1. First Aid is your bible. Read it, study it, know it. I honestly believe that if you had this book memorized cover to cover and nothing else, you would do very well on the USMLE Step 1. 2. Use Kaplan QBank. I recommend completing most of it (the regular QBank, not the IV QBank, which I didn't use), but you don't have to finish all of it. Keep a list of your errors and review your list periodically (at least twice per week) before you do more questions. 3. The BRS books are useful for fleshing out your review of physio and path. Use them during your courses if possible. 4. "Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple" has great pictures to help you remember micro stuff. It's best if you use it during your micro course, then just skim the stuff you highlighted to help you solidify micro before the boards. 5. First Aid is pretty spotty on anatomy (which includes embryology, gross anatomy and neuroanatomy) but there really is very little anatomy on the USMLE Step 1. It's a subject you can get very bogged down in with pretty low yield (as in a whole book on neuro, embryo and gross for a few questions on the actual exam, and will you even remember the details anyway?), and you won't lose many points by just using First Aid for this subject. I actually ended up reading High Yield Gross, High Yield Embryo, and Clinical Neuro Made Ridiculously Simple, and I think it was mostly a waste of time because of how little I retained. Clinical Neuro Made Ridiculously Simple isn't a bad book to have in general, though--it cleared up a number of clinical points not well-covered in my neuro course. 6. For biochem, behavioral science and pharmacology, First Aid is all you need. I know that may sound blasphemous, but trust me. It's what I did and look at my score. There may be one or two questions that come up during the exam on things you've never heard of, but it's not worth all the extra time you'd put into going through other whole books or overly comprehensive sets of flashcards. And would you remember the obscure things anyway? So that's all you need. Remember, when it comes to test day it's not what you went over that counts but what you REMEMBER. Repetition with First Aid (and BRS physio and path) will help you more than grazing over several review sources on each subject. Don't waste too much time on anatomy. And if you study like I did, you can still have a life (sort of) while studying for the boards! GOOD LUCK! Rating: - Mostly excellentI agree with the previous reviewer that the indexing errors in this book are frustrating. I only noticed in the back of the book, where "Rapid Review" facts are indexed to page numbers. However, they aren't off by more than a page or two, so it isn't a huge deal. As for factual errors, I have found less than five so far, and overall, the book covers what you need. For pharmacology, knowing just this book will get you a good to very good score on the shelf exam. I haven't taken the Step 1 yet, but this book has prepared me fairly well for the Kaplan Q-Bank questions. Supplement it, write notes from your classes in the margins, get to know it well. It is just the basics, and it isn't enough on its own, but it is an awfully good start. Rating:  - While essential for Step 1, this edition lacks good editingNote: This is a revision of a prior review, written in the heat of anger and frustration in the midst of board studying. I would expect that after several editions, First Aid for the USMLE Step 1 would have fewer errors (which are sometimes in previous editions as well) as well as have tons of minor editorial mistakes which make this a poor reference book. Don't get me wrong: if you are taking the USMLE Step 1, you need this book. It has excellent information and sums several big topics up nicely and concisely. While you are reading BRS Pathology for instance, you will notice that the material correlates really well, and First Aid focuses on the details you need to know. The catch: you need to know each and every word of first aid, as my friends and Q bank would have me believe. Here are the main reasons I am not completely satisfied with First Aid. In the Index, several of the topics listed reference the incorrect pages. Another reviewer noted that this isn't a big problem, but when you like to flip back and forth like I do, and look up terms that look novel or strange, it is more than irritating to have to flip forward or backward 1-2 pages to find what I'm looking for. There are also many cross-referencing problems on the inside-cover (don't worry too much, though; there's an underground cross-referencing page floating around your med schools to correct this). As I understand, these errors are limited to the 2005 edition. I also believe in an index having utility and being thorough. First Aid's index is not nearly thorough enough to be able to reference important terms. When tricky or odd-looking terms comes up, go to your Stedman's. Don't try to look for what First Aid has to say about a term because a term may be within the book, but it won't always be in the index (e.g. Fanconi syndrome). Also, many times you have to try to decipher where First Aid wants you to look (e.g. "acid-base chemistry" is indexed, but not "arterial blood gas"). There are also some minor errors and oversimplifications throughout the book. You will correct them with your own markings as you study, but don't necessarily trust First Aid entirely. Go to other sources to confirm the information you are reading. And don't always go to other board review books - sometimes the errors float around several books. In association with Amazon.com | |