Books for Prep | |
 - Not EnoughThis book is only sufficient for the less weighted items for the USMLE boards. There is just not enough depth for a lot of the things covered by the boards. Also, there are quite a few errors in here, and no errata published by Princeton Review. That means that everything written in it must be checked elsewhere and confirmed before it is useful. On the plus side, for a broad and nonspecific overview of topics like gross anatomy, genetics and immunology, the book did a good job. However, they billed themselves as a comprehensive study guide, and they just fell short of that claim. Rating:  - Full of MistakesThis book is absolutely full of mistakes, I would not rely on it at all! Rating:  - Cracking the boards...This is a great book to review material, as it explains concepts so well. It also covers strictly all the clinical points of the basic sciences, and not facts that are really not needed. You must learn to use it with your coursework, however, as it is a bit deficient. I am using it side by side with my first aid, and a couple other review books. It's framework, however, makes studying for the boards a lot easier to mentally grasp, as the systems and the most high yield concepts are already there for you. It's length is almost perfect, as you have already covered so much material in your courses. This gives you quite a bit of time to do as many questions for the boards as possible. I would definitely recommend this book as a starter for USMLE study. For the next edition, I recommend making the book atleast 1200 to 1500 pages, to make up for the deficiencies, and so no other review books are needed. Rating:  - good for a comprehensive reviewnot as thorough as a textbook, but has just what's needed to pass the boards. (i did!) would use with standard textbooks for reference. Rating: - Cracking the Boards USMLE Step 1I found this book extremely frustrating to use. I found an average 1 mistake per page, causing me to question every word written. As examples, according to this book, Vitamin D is 25 hydroxylated in the kidney (should be liver), alzheimer's has equal prevalence in males and females (F=2M), classical C5 convertase is C4b2b3b (should be C4b2a3b), Myesthenia Gravis is a result of desensitization block of Ach receptors by autoreactive antibodies (antibodies do not act at the ligand binding site, but serve to cross link receptors --> increased internalization), and this is just to name a few. I recommend choosing another book for your studies. In association with Amazon.com | |