Who's in the "I Finished Reading First Aid for the 1st Time" Club?

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DoctaJay

DoctaJay

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I just finished the past page like 5 minutes ago and I feel happy that I've reached this milestone, but sad that I'll have to do it probably 2 more times before the big day. Anyone else finished reading it completely through yet?
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DoctaJay said:
I just finished the past page like 5 minutes ago and I feel happy that I've reached this milestone, but sad that I'll have to do it probably 2 more times before the big day. Anyone else finished reading it completely through yet?
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nope
 
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I finished this weekend as well. Feels kind of good to think that I'm not behind in prep:)

But yeah the second time through is gonna feel rough, unavoidable proof of just how quickly this stuff slips our memory. :scared: Whatever.

You finish that World you started back in December?
 
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Redrox said:
I finished this weekend as well. Feels kind of good to think that I'm not behind in prep:)

But yeah the second time through is gonna feel rough, unavoidable proof of just how quickly this stuff slips our memory. :scared: Whatever.

You finish that World you started back in December?
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Nope, I still have like 1700 more questions to go. Hopefully I can go through it a little quicker now. Has anyone finished UWorld yet?
 
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DoctaJay said:
I take my test on June 15. And actually I just checked UWorld and I actually have 1,448 questions left. It still seems impossible to do.
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It takes me a while as well, I have 594 to go :scared:

we can do it :)
 
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Nope80, I do stuff (RR path, FA, Rx) along with my classes and it has really helped with my GPA a lot, not a time burden at all. And review of old subjects on the Rx is always a confidence boost if I'm struggling with current material.
 
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I am half way through my first go through. But I can join the didn't even open first aid yet club.
 
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I did the organ systems 2-3 times each with classes this year, but have not touched the first few chapters (biochem, immuno, path) I have 2008.I'm about to do immuno as we speak:) I have not touched or own UWORLD, but am 40% complete in Qbank
 
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Just finished reading FA on Friday. Done with 40% of UWorld. Used the weekend to brush up on HY stuff (whoever said that it is depressing on the 2nd run through b/c of how much you have forgotten is dead-on). Take the exam tomorrow. Wish I could have studied more/done more questions but my school only gives us 5 weeks and I am thoroughly incapable of studying more than ~7hrs/d.

I guess my next post will be on the experiences thread!
 
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Sublimelvc said:
Just finished reading FA on Friday. Done with 40% of UWorld. Used the weekend to brush up on HY stuff (whoever said that it is depressing on the 2nd run through b/c of how much you have forgotten is dead-on). Take the exam tomorrow. Wish I could have studied more/done more questions but my school only gives us 5 weeks and I am thoroughly incapable of studying more than ~7hrs/d.

I guess my next post will be on the experiences thread!
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good luck tomorrow!!
 
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When you guys "read through" First Aid, are you memorizing as you go on your first read, or is it more of just a familiarization read so that everything rings a bell on the 2nd and 3rd times?
 
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Captopril said:
When you guys "read through" First Aid, are you memorizing as you go on your first read, or is it more of just a familiarization read so that everything rings a bell on the 2nd and 3rd times?
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I read the relevant chapter at the beginning of our studies for class subjects. Did all the Rx Flash Cards until I could get them all right, then did the Rx questions. Repeat with cards just before class tests. No annotations other than mnemonics. Leaf and read through old sections periodically.

Sounds like a time dump, but believe me when I say its not that bad, I have a more extensive non-medical life of most of my classmates.

And you Jay, did you annotate stuff?
 
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Captopril said:
When you guys "read through" First Aid, are you memorizing as you go on your first read, or is it more of just a familiarization read so that everything rings a bell on the 2nd and 3rd times?
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I read everything and I highlight whatever doesn't ring a bell. Even though when I read it a 2nd time I will read all material (not just what I highlighted), the highlighting comforts me in letting me know that I have been through that territory before and it lets me hone it what appeared to be new material to me.

But I do slightly feel like some memorizating took place during my first read because crazy facts come out of me every now and then, but I think the bulk of my memorization will come the 2nd and 3rd time around.

Also, I only really annotate material from UWorld in my FA book.
 
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DoctaJay said:
I read everything and I highlight whatever doesn't ring a bell. Even though when I read it a 2nd time I will read all material (not just what I highlighted), the highlighting comforts me in letting me know that I have been through that territory before and it lets me hone it what appeared to be new material to me.
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Doesn't the highlighting irritate after a certain point, drawing the attention to something once mysterious but now completely known?
And it could be my ADD talking, but doesn't the highlighting make it harder to focus on material that is not?

I'm not criticizing, I just wonder how it works for books which you intend to learn cold and will read multiple, multiple times.
 
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lol, you know it probably just depends on what you are used to. I love highlighting, and that is how I have studied all throughout med school so it doesn't really distract or bug me. what really bugs me out is a blank page that I have supposed read before, lol. It drives me up the wall.
 
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And I look at the highlighted words "malar rash" and feel deep, inconsolable shame.
 
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Redrox said:
And I look at the highlighted words "malar rash" and feel deep, inconsolable shame.
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My first foray into Step 1 studying was 20 minutes ago. I cracked open Lippincott's biochem, and was absolutely mystified about the properties of amino acid side chains. Looks like I'm screwed.

Dammit.
 
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I read it first for familiarization/understanding of concept and 2nd round on for memorization.
 
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If someone were the read FA daily w/o any other commitments (i.e. no classes, exams, etc) how long would you say it would take for a read through? I know it can vary but just want to get an idea.
 
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Captopril said:
If someone were the read FA daily w/o any other commitments (i.e. no classes, exams, etc) how long would you say it would take for a read through? I know it can vary but just want to get an idea.
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It took me about 2 weeks with exams/classes/first run through.

For reference RR path took me a week to read first run through with minimal outside time commitments.

I'm hoping a week to go through it again :/:luck:

then again my attention span is so short that I can't even
 
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TRKATK said:
then again my attention span is so short that I can't even
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Haha well played.

Well 2 weeks seems manageable. I'm going through Kaplan right now so want to get to FA in the last 1-1.5 months of my prep...I hope to get through the bad boy at least 3-4 times, so may have to start earlier.
 
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Seems like some of ya'll are off to a good start. I'm not actually sure how much of 1st Aid I've gone through, for past couple months I've been reading in it whatever we happen to covering in class so I've been skipping around. So far I've just been using 1st Aid along with some review videos we have for actual board review.

My RR Path JUST came today so I think I'm going to officially give Robbins a break and start going through RR.

Rotations start June 1st for my Step 1 is May 25th :( VERY quickly approaching.
 
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For those that already finished reading through FA, does that mean you annotated the whole book as well or just read through the book without annotations?
 
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JUST finished!! :):):)

AlisaGirlX said:
For those that already finished reading through FA, does that mean you annotated the whole book as well or just read through the book without annotations?
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AlisaGirlX, I think some people are just reading and others are annotating. I personally was annotating from several different sources. It took me 4.5 weeks to annotate plus Goljan audio/RR, (I've been dealing with minimal school commitments). And now that I'm done, I can hopefully just focus on my FA, annotations and Goljan audio/RR.
 
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I haven't made it through first aid, but I just hit the half way point in UW! So much work left to do!
 
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Well, I'm 3 chapters through First Aid :laugh:
And I just signed up for USMLE World, so...there you go.

In my defense I'm taking Step 1 a couple weeks later than you, although I highly doubt that I'm going to finish First Aid in the next 2 weeks.

I'm actually debating whether to push my Step 1 date into July since I'm allowed to take it in early July and that'd give me a couple extra weeks...but I get the feeling that I'd just be burnt out and/or slack off more if I didn't have the time pressure.
 
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Ok. Who is going through this thing a 2nd time, now that you finished the first round?

Doctajay-you make me want to start a who finished RR path for the 1st time ;)
 
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haha. you inspired me to post it, you should feel happy =) and join the dark side ^__~

you know you want to ;)
 
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DoctaJay said:
I take my test on June 15. And actually I just checked UWorld and I actually have 1,448 questions left. It still seems impossible to do.
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just curious, i got uw as well and every block has maximum of 40 to 50 questions max, and that is for all subjects and every organs, if you know what i mean:confused:, so just wanted to make sure if i have purchased correct UW q bank.

btw booked test in july 2009, any other suggestions, i have been studying from first aid, kaplan books for refrence, and finished brs for all, and now watching PASS videos.
 
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2nd yr allo med student here. Can anyone please tell me (nicely, please) what First Aid is? ;)
 
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I've gone through 3/4 of it since February, and my test is May 30th. I don't plan on finishing my last go through until I have my subject boards later on. I thought about going through it all at once, but I figured; why bother, would rather save the stamina until later.
 
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GuzzyRon said:
2nd yr allo med student here. Can anyone please tell me (nicely, please) what First Aid is? ;)
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first aid, like bible for medical students well atleast for me :p, it is organ based book, with high yield stuff you need to know for steps. first aid also has another book i think its callled first aid cases or something my friend got it and its good after finishing different topics from first aid to practice clinical cases from first aid clinical case book. :cool:
 
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1.5 days later and i can join this club. the funny thing is i never once picked this book up during the school year. could've been pretty useful. at the same time, some of the mnemonics were a little out there.
 
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