Books for Prep | |
 - A steal at less than $40: this book has a cost/benefit ratio that's impossible to beatRegardless of what one prefers to believe, physicians tend to be, on average, of only slightly higher intelligence than the standard person. As such, most of their learning is obtained via the same methods as the general population: repetition and forced, timely recall. I invoke this bit of information in order to provide an appropriate frame for the flavor of my review. "Review for Usmle Step 3" is essentially a question bank--and it is a colossal one at that, with 750 questions available spanning five examinations. The questions are of the "single best answer" variety, with a few negative (i.e., which of the following is NOT...) inquiries thrown in the selection. Following every examination, there is a question-review section, within which evidence is outlined for why one answer is right and the others are incorrect. There is also a CD-ROM included with this book--encoded within it is a software program with which one may practice the same questions present in the book on their computer. I found this book to be an excellent resource for self-assessment prior to sitting for the USMLE step 3. The five written tests were a great way for me to home in on my weak areas, as every question explanation includes a mini-legend which demarcates the question's medical discipline focus (i.e., OB/GYN, internal medicine, pediatrics, etc., or some combination). This medical-discipline-area information enabled me to do some rough calculations as to my knowledge deficit in each area. Before I challenged the next practice exam, I would "bone up" in the discipline in which I calculated myself weakest. It was in this way that I was able to review weak areas systematically, instead to just "reading everything". There are several online question bank services which perform this same evaluation automatically, but none can claim that they provide this information for $40! There are several caveats: 1. The book is somewhat dated. 2. Some questions drift from the case-format seen in a majority of USMLE Step 3 items. 3. There are too many questions per case (up to 5 or 6, while the USMLE contains a maximum of 2 or 3). 4. A few questions require remarkably specific knowledge regarding numerical parameters which designate disease (i.e., fasting glucose tolerance test disease cut-off values)--in modern exams, laboratory min-max tables eliminate nearly all "number-knowledge" requirements. 5. Presence of several "negative-answer" format questions (NOT, EXCEPT, etc.) There is a CD-ROM included with the book. The CD-ROM is essentially a rehash of all questions covered in the book--if you really need your questions to be available to you at all times, then perhaps the CD-ROM will benefit you. To the medical student/resident with a limited budget: great book for diagnosing your weak spots. To the medical student/resident with an unlimited budget: subscribe to Qbank or another, equivalent, online question bank; by the way, the rest of us hate you. Kidding. To all: this book alone is not enough; questions are important, but you need to create an "information scaffold" in your mind--pick up an adjunct review textbook as well. Good luck on your exam. Rating:  - Why bother?Just do qbank or qbook. Don't buy, don't borrow, don't waste your time. Rating:  - okay study bookThis question book is an okay review of subjects if you perfer a Q/A format way of learning. However, the question format and style of questions are not similar to the USMLE Step 3. There are few Negative questions (eg. all of the following except) in the USMLE Step 3 and at the most, there are 3 questions following a passage (In NMS, there can be up to 6-7 questions following a passage). I found the NMS review to be too detailed (like questions we see in Step 1 and 2- eg) indirect inguinal hernias are medial to what structure.....) I found the Kaplan Q book the most similar to the style and content of USMLE Step 3 (However, the passages in Kaplan tend to be very long and detailed). A good review book is Crush Step 3 as well. Good Luck! Rating:  - Great review book....I'll admit, I made a mistake. I decided to hold off taking Step 3 until two months before my pediatric residency was finished. Back then, it wasn't required to maintain your residency in this state. So you can imagine, after nearly 3 years of pediatric medicine, how far removed I was from a lot of adult medical issues. I used two books, this one and "Crush step 3." Both were definitely helpful, but I felt this one by far helped me the most. Sure the question formats are not exactly like the real test. But Q and A style studying tends to make me retain the information much better than just passive reading. The explanations are quite thorough and the difficulty of the questions were just about the same for the real test. NMS has always been good to me when taking the previous two steps of the USMLE, and they didn't let me down with step 3. Rating: - if you were to use just one question book....Hopefully you have more time than that. I took my step 3 in 2005, used both NMS and Qbook for questions and review, given this edition of NMS was published in 2002 and Qbook 2004, and I was paranoid. But if I only had time for one question book, I'd prefer NMS, as Qbook tends to go into too much detail that I probably would not need to pass my exam, and NMS really did a very good job in the explanations. Do you need Qbank? I didn't get it because, 1. it is very expensive; 2. it lacks the flexibility in studying as it requires you to sit in front of the computer; 3. it can be very tiring, as if I no longer feel bad enough that I had to dish out $600+ for the test and sit through 2 days of exam; 4. after step 1 and 2, I really do not need to familiarize myself any more with the computer interface (NMS also comes with a computer question format along with the hardcopy); 5. Qbank is pretty up to date if that's a concern. And I have always wondered if the questions overlapped between Qbook and Qbank. I wrote to Kaplan, they never wrote me back. Now, hopefully NMS will come up with a newer edition soon, otherwise if you are taking your step 3 in 2006 or later, you may want to think twice. However, I will still give this a 4 star in 2005. In association with Amazon.com | |