Comprehensive (within reason) Set of Sources for Step I?

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WashMe

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I'm trying to gather all of the resources I'll be using for Step I preparation. I really want to score 260+... I'm a good test taker so I think it could happen, but I would also be happy with 245+. I'll be following a Taus-like program.

My tentative materials list is:
FA 2010 (I already own this edition)
BRS Physiology
Goljan RR Pathology
Goljan Audio
HY Neuroanatomy
HY Cell and Molecular Biology (2nd ed.)
HY Behavioral Science
Lange Rev. of Medical Micro and Immuno (for Immuno)
Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple
HY Gross Anatomy
HY Embryology
RR Biochemistry
Deja Review Pharmacology

I also have 3 months of free access to Kaplan Q-bank that I might use, but I'm planning on plowing through USMLEWorld.

Any suggestions for additions, removals, or replacements of the above resources? I really want to have a set of materials that is as comprehensive as possible (e.g., few surprises on test day).

Thanks!
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Here is everything I've used for Step 1 prep:

First Aid
BRS phys
BRS gross (chapter summaries only)
RR Path
USMLEWorld questions and exams
NBME exams


That's it. All the rest is totally extraneous, and I'd even say the gross BRS isn't really necessary. Goljan audio is a good addition to my list, if that's your style.
 
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MilkmanAl said:
Here is everything I've used for Step 1 prep:

First Aid
BRS phys
BRS gross (chapter summaries only)
RR Path
USMLEWorld questions and exams
NBME exams


That's it. All the rest is totally extraneous, and I'd even say the gross BRS isn't really necessary. Goljan audio is a good addition to my list, if that's your style.
Click to expand...

Thanks Milk :)

drizzt3117 said:
Seems ok, I liked the Lange pharm cards I used, they were pretty sweet.
Click to expand...

I looked over reviews of the cards and they sound really helpful. I can't decide if I should get them in place of -- or in addition to-- Deja Review Pharm. Thoughts? The Deja book sounds like it has more explanations, mnemonics, etc., but flashcards are a nice way to learn.
 
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WashMe said:
Thanks Milk :)



I looked over reviews of the cards and they sound really helpful. I can't decide if I should get them in place of -- or in addition to-- Deja Review Pharm. Thoughts? The Deja book sounds like it has more explanations, mnemonics, etc., but flashcards are a nice way to learn.
Click to expand...

The pharm cards were nice, they needed to be supplemented but that was nice as a foundation.
 
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If u was doing the board study thing again, I'd get a 1 year sub to usmle rx, do it throughout the year (like 23 questions a day) make 4x6 flash cards on any topic I wasn't sure on, use goljan and fa while I was studying, then during my board study month go through usmle world twice (one reset) and do usmle world's sa's. I found nbmes to be rather useless. No detailed explanations and when I did nbme 6, the expanded feedback just told me the 6 questions I got wrong for $15, how useful :rolleyes: some of the questions, ESP behavioral, were profoundly annoying too. If you can finish the uworld assessments in 50 min per section you'll be fine. I think doing tons of half length tests isn't too useful. I used a lot of books but the list you have looks fine.
 
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abmd said:
What books did you use throughout the year and in your step time drizzt
Click to expand...

Robbins
Robbins Question book
First Aid
First Aid Cases
First Aid Q&A
Pretest Clinical Vignettes
Case Files Physiology, Medicine, and Pathology
RR Path
RR Biochem
High Yield Histology
High Yield Behavioral Science
High Yield Embryology
BRS Gross
Costanzo Phys / BRS Phys
Microbiology MRS
Lange Immuno/Micro
Hematology for Medical Students
Dubin
Cardiology for medical students
Kaplan Q-bank, USMLERx Q-bank, USMLE World, USMLE SA 1-2, NBME 6-7
some other books, I don't remember them all, lots though. I like using different sources for reference.
 
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drizzt3117 said:
Robbins
Robbins Question book
First Aid
First Aid Cases
First Aid Q&A
Pretest Clinical Vignettes
Case Files Physiology, Medicine, and Pathology
RR Path
RR Biochem
High Yield Histology
High Yield Behavioral Science
High Yield Embryology
BRS Gross
Costanzo Phys / BRS Phys
Microbiology MRS
Lange Immuno/Micro
Hematology for Medical Students
Dubin
Cardiology for medical students
Kaplan Q-bank, USMLERx Q-bank, USMLE World, USMLE SA 1-2, NBME 6-7
some other books, I don't remember them all, lots though. I like using different sources for reference.
Click to expand...

Wow! You're going to kill step 1. Did you manage to read all of that or just reference most of it. I was thinking of using USMLERx during the year and then UWorld when it got closer do you think Rx or Kaplan would be a better choice. Do you think the First Aid cases were helpful? Thanks! and good luck if you haven't taken it yet.
 
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There is definitely not a clear relationship between the number of sources you use and your score. Far too many people use too many sources and end up knowing less because of it. You are better off using a small amount of high-yield sources and memorizing them. Most of the people I know that scored 260+ only used 3 or 4 sources, but they knew FA cold, and they knew the stuff in qbanks/Goljan audio cold. Although I used a lot of extra sources throughout second year (as well as basically memorizing Robbins for path exams), when it came time to study exclusively for boards, I cut way down. It's better to know a few good sources cold than to overextend yourself.
 
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Here's my full booklist: http://imgusmlestep1.blogspot.com/p/book-list.html
Some of these I only used occasionally.

In my opinion, the books you MUST have to score as high as you're aiming are:
1. First Aid http://www.amazon.com/dp/0071633405...iveASIN=0071633405&adid=1F6PH96BHRK844KFN8XJ&&
2. Rapid Review Pathology http://www.amazon.com/dp/0323068626...tiveASIN=0323068626&adid=08SJEMCC06J2E10AANQ2&
3. High Yield Neuroanatomy http://www.amazon.com/dp/0781779464...tiveASIN=0781779464&adid=11KJY514RAST32HWXCCR&
4. Pharm flash cards (I used Brenner's) http://www.amazon.com/dp/1437703119...tiveASIN=1437703119&adid=0X10RXTC3S2AWBFVECE4&
5. CMMRS http://www.amazon.com/dp/094078081X...tiveASIN=094078081X&adid=1BCWXEKN6C337CW3F3MA&

Two other personal favorites were:
UCV Biochemistry http://www.amazon.com/Underground-C...-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969
Kaplan USMLE Medical Ethics http://www.amazon.com/dp/1419553143...iveASIN=1419553143&adid=0XGK75Y8XX4NWGJQYRNP&&

Use additional books according to which subjects you need to improve on or your personal preferences. Like others have said above, don't overwhelm yourself with too many resources.
 
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rem6775 said:
There is definitely not a clear relationship between the number of sources you use and your score. Far too many people use too many sources and end up knowing less because of it. You are better off using a small amount of high-yield sources and memorizing them. Most of the people I know that scored 260+ only used 3 or 4 sources, but they knew FA cold, and they knew the stuff in qbanks/Goljan audio cold. Although I used a lot of extra sources throughout second year (as well as basically memorizing Robbins for path exams), when it came time to study exclusively for boards, I cut way down. It's better to know a few good sources cold than to overextend yourself.
Click to expand...

OK, so I have a question for you and for others. Could you suggest a MINIMUM list of resources necessary to score 260+, provided a person worked really hard during 2nd year (although my school doesn't teach to the boards well).

Would it be something like...
FA
Goljan RR and Audio
UWorld

I mean, if I memorized FA (in the practical, not real sense-- I mean if I remembered 80-90% of the details), got through all of Goljan's stuff, and pounded out all of the UWorld stuff while annotating FA with what I missed, could I score 250-260+ without touching anything else?
 
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WashMe said:
OK, so I have a question for you and for others. Could you suggest a MINIMUM list of resources necessary to score 260+, provided a person worked really hard during 2nd year (although my school doesn't teach to the boards well).

Would it be something like...
FA
Goljan RR and Audio
UWorld

I mean, if I memorized FA (in the practical, not real sense-- I mean if I remembered 80-90% of the details), got through all of Goljan's stuff, and pounded out all of the UWorld stuff while annotating FA with what I missed, could I score 250-260+ without touching anything else?
Click to expand...
FA/RR/UW for board study, kaplan qbank or uslmerx and g'audio during second year
 
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kryptik said:
FA/RR/Audio/UW for board study, kaplan qbank or uslmerx during second year
Click to expand...

What about DIT? I was thinking about doing it but I don't know if it's for me. I am really good at studying by myself and following through with a schedule.
 
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rem6775 said:
There is definitely not a clear relationship between the number of sources you use and your score. Far too many people use too many sources and end up knowing less because of it. You are better off using a small amount of high-yield sources and memorizing them. Most of the people I know that scored 260+ only used 3 or 4 sources, but they knew FA cold, and they knew the stuff in qbanks/Goljan audio cold. Although I used a lot of extra sources throughout second year (as well as basically memorizing Robbins for path exams), when it came time to study exclusively for boards, I cut way down. It's better to know a few good sources cold than to overextend yourself.
Click to expand...

yeah near the end I was pretty much using rr path, fa, and uworld. I do think that FA is more useful near the end though, because it's light on info but what it does have is very high yield. I think that there are reasons to use other books though but a lot of it was for me to conceptually understand certain concepts. I mainly used other sources to fill out my knowledge on concepts I encountered in test banks. In general I think it's been a good strategy, I'm not sure how accurate the curves are on the various test banks self assessments are but i got 85+% on Uw and 95+% on The nbmes (6/7) one week left and it's pretty much 24/7 UW and FA, just high yield stuff at this point.
 
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Btw as far as usmlerx goes, I think it's a very useful thing to do during the year with your classes because it's basically FA in question form. It's really easy compared to Uw and kaplan though. If I had to do it again I wouldn't use kaplan bc I feel like the questions aren't structured the best.
 
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WashMe said:
OK, so I have a question for you and for others. Could you suggest a MINIMUM list of resources necessary to score 260+, provided a person worked really hard during 2nd year (although my school doesn't teach to the boards well).

Would it be something like...
FA
Goljan RR and Audio
UWorld

I mean, if I memorized FA (in the practical, not real sense-- I mean if I remembered 80-90% of the details), got through all of Goljan's stuff, and pounded out all of the UWorld stuff while annotating FA with what I missed, could I score 250-260+ without touching anything else?
Click to expand...

The best advice I got, coming from 2 people who both scored 260+, and what I used to shape my studying was basically what I said using three main sources (FA + UW + Goljan audio). I think that is the absolute must-haves. Note how neither of them used RR, although I did use it extensively during the year and somewhat during the last 4 weeks. As for other things, you should ideally use them before your classes end, especially if you have weaknesses (e.g., RR biochem, BRS physiology). BRS physio could probably be added in there. I never used it because I didn't need it, but it is high-yield.

Oh also, you can seriously impact the amount of studying you need to do by working extremely hard during the second year, especially second semester. If you work hard enough, you can be ready for Step 1 before classes end (as I was based on scores). This makes your studying much more relaxed.
 
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rem6775 said:
The best advice I got, coming from 2 people who both scored 260+, and what I used to shape my studying was basically what I said using three main sources (FA + UW + Goljan audio). I think that is the absolute must-haves. Note how neither of them used RR, although I did use it extensively during the year and somewhat during the last 4 weeks. As for other things, you should ideally use them before your classes end, especially if you have weaknesses (e.g., RR biochem, BRS physiology). BRS physio could probably be added in there. I never used it because I didn't need it, but it is high-yield.

Oh also, you can seriously impact the amount of studying you need to do by working extremely hard during the second year, especially second semester. If you work hard enough, you can be ready for Step 1 before classes end (as I was based on scores). This makes your studying much more relaxed.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the help, I have a few questions:

If I did this route and maybe added RR path, should I start hammering out UW early in second year even though I won't know all the stuff yet, or should I hold off? I have 3 months of free access to Kaplan Qbank; is this worth using starting this fall, or should I used USMLERx? Should I use question banks throughout the year to get a high score?
 
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WashMe said:
Thanks for the help, I have a few questions:

If I did this route and maybe added RR path, should I start hammering out UW early in second year even though I won't know all the stuff yet, or should I hold off? I have 3 months of free access to Kaplan Qbank; is this worth using starting this fall, or should I used USMLERx? Should I use question banks throughout the year to get a high score?
Click to expand...

I think kaplan sucks. Rx is good for going thru fa bc it's drawn from it. I think doing it during the year helps.
 
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