First Aid USMLE

just get the latest version you can now and then grab a newer version when it's closer to boards

I just took Step 1 and I exclusively studied from First Aid 2010. Not a whole lot changes from year to year (maybe with the exception of the review material ratings), but enough people in your class will buy the newer edition when it comes out that you can look through it to see if anything really important has changed. If you study from First Aid early on and add your own notes and additions through the 2 years, I'd wager it'd be more high-yield than just buying the newer edition anyway.

**BTW, the 2nd years at my school fed me the same line about buying First Aid during first year and studying from it. Not because they had done it, but because they wish they had. I didn't do it either and though it feels nice to say I wish I had, I know I never would've kept up with it on top of all my other studying.**

kashmirvie said:

I had my med school orientation last week and the students that are going into their second year recommended that we buy First Aid for Step 1 so that we could start studying as soon as the year started. I understand that new versions of this book come out every year and I wondered if it is a common practice for medical students to own two copies of the book.

Also, does the book change much with every version? I have this list of books I should begin ordering and I have no idea which ones to order first... Any suggestions will be appreciated!

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Since you're just starting your first year of med school, I suggest getting a cheap copy of First Aid used or from an upperclassman, and then buying the most updated version whenever it comes out around Dec/Jan of your second year. The book doesn't change much with every version, but it does change enough that I think it's worthwhile to get the newest edition when you get closer to Step 1 studying time.

As far as actually using First Aid, I think it's important to focus on doing well in your classes first and then using First Aid on the side as just an outline of topics you should know/understand. Sometimes the way things are presented in class are out of order or are too detailed, so First Aid comes in handy to give you the bigger picture view of things and how concepts/topics fit together.

As for other textbooks, don't buy too many things yet. Most of the time, you won't need any textbooks to get you through a class, although that also depends on your school curriculum. For me, the only textbooks I used in my entire first 2 years were Netter's atlas and a brain atlas. The rest of the material I got from lecture and from course notes. Anything else I used were board review books or First Aid. So yea, I suggest getting Netter's anatomy atlas for your anatomy class, but for any other books, go to class first and then see if you need the corresponding textbook or not.

kashmirvie said:

qmcat, my school uses vitalsource for most textbooks so I won't be buying those. They did tell us to buy the Netter's Atlas and Grant's dissector for Anatomy, as well as one for Neuroscience that's not on vitalsource. My school uses the shelf exams as finals so I guess I will be buying the BRS depending on how things go. I will get the Biochem BRS soon since the shelf is in early september.

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Sounds good. I agree with Netter's and Grant's. Grant's might not be as essential, but I think it'll help you a lot with anatomy lab. If I were less stingy with my money first year, I would have gotten Grant's too.

Since your school does shelf exams, definitely study from First Aid and board review books then. You should also check out the "High Yield" series as an alternative to BRS. Some of the BRS books are really long and wordy, and if you just want to get the facts, HY might be better. The only downside to using HY is there aren't practice questions after each chapter like the BRS series.

From my experience, BRS physiology is really good and will come in handy during your dedicated Step 1 study period as well. I also like HY neuro instead of BRS neuro, since it's much more concise. I remember BRS anatomy by Chung being really good during the school year, but for Step 1 studying, it's a little too much. Anyway, hope my thoughts help somewhat, and good luck with starting your first year!

kashmirvie said:

I had my med school orientation last week and the students that are going into their second year recommended that we buy First Aid for Step 1 so that we could start studying as soon as the year started. I understand that new versions of this book come out every year and I wondered if it is a common practice for medical students to own two copies of the book.

Also, does the book change much with every version? I have this list of books I should begin ordering and I have no idea which ones to order first... Any suggestions will be appreciated!

Click to expand...

I might differ from the crowd here on this. I think you should absolutely NOT study First Aid. First Aid is just a bunch of facts, usually not enough detail for your courses. And all the clinical correlations you probably wont understand. Furthermore, having taken the Step 1, i really dont think its enough at all if you want to do well (probably enough for Biochem/Micro and Pharm). It has the bare minimum

Focus on understanding..FA however does have a decent overview for things like Biochem, but I think its poor for Anatomy, Embryo, Histo, Physiology, Neuroscience pretty much most of your 1st year courses.

If you really want to get some USMLE type books, try some of the other ones recommended on here like the BRS, Rapid Review or Kaplan series of subject books. Those provide more depth and more explanation.

A lot of the HY books now come with access to online questions. Not as many as you would find in a comparable BRS book, however. There are also review books that are nothing but questions with detailed explanations (Pre-test series). However, I find those not in USMLE format and difficult, but forces you to really learn. On another side note, I found the BRS phys questions to be a lot easier than the shelf exam.

kashmirvie said:

I had my med school orientation last week and the students that are going into their second year recommended that we buy First Aid for Step 1 so that we could start studying as soon as the year started. I understand that new versions of this book come out every year and I wondered if it is a common practice for medical students to own two copies of the book.

Also, does the book change much with every version? I have this list of books I should begin ordering and I have no idea which ones to order first... Any suggestions will be appreciated!

Click to expand...

First year is useless and even harmful first year. Read actual detailed review books like BRS/HY/RR

I used a BRS or HY for every class but never touched FA. It's not detailed whatsoever (for class I mean)

I've used a lot of the review books to help study for class. We're already given a short and concise way of studying, but I think it helps to review the material from a different viewpoint, so I read through First Aid before my exam to make sure I understand the big topics. I've used BRS Physio, HY Anatomy (recommended by my anatomy professor), HY Neuro, and Lippincotts Biochem. I do moderately well on exams (considering I aim for better than a 70, not better than a 90).

I should point out that I go to an integrated systems school.

kashmirvie said:

I was planning on complementing with something else because what you bring into the discussion was mentioned by the professors during orientation. They advised us to use it more as an outline on what to study instead of the only material to check out. But thank you, it's helpful to know what to expect!

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the problem with this statement is that many people use as "if its not in first aid, then i wont pay too much attention to it". I think thats a bad idea..you should really try to get a good general overview of how things work and try to understand it whether its in first aid or not.

Dont use first aid as a guide unless its biochemistry or maybe pharm. Use it to cram for the USMLE int he last couple weeks before you take it as a list of high yield facts.

todds said:

the problem with this statement is that many people use as "if its not in first aid, then i wont pay too much attention to it". I think thats a bad idea..you should really try to get a good general overview of how things work and try to understand it whether its in first aid or not.

Dont use first aid as a guide unless its biochemistry or maybe pharm. Use it to cram for the USMLE int he last couple weeks before you take it as a list of high yield facts.

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Agree 100%. For me, I focused on classwork first, and used FA as a supplemental summary/outline of topics that I should know, regardless of whether or not it was taught in class. For example, during the respiratory unit at my school, the profs overemphasized emphysema and cigarette smoking, but we didn't have any lecture on pneumonia (shocking, I know...), so I had to go through pneumonia on my own using review books to make sure I knew it. But, for our final, we had tons of questions on cigarette smoking and detailed questions about lifestyle modifications for smokers that you could only answer from lecture notes and not from FA or review books.

kashmirvie said:

I had my med school orientation last week and the students that are going into their second year recommended that we buy First Aid for Step 1 so that we could start studying as soon as the year started. I understand that new versions of this book come out every year and I wondered if it is a common practice for medical students to own two copies of the book.

Also, does the book change much with every version? I have this list of books I should begin ordering and I have no idea which ones to order first... Any suggestions will be appreciated!

Click to expand...

You had your med school orientation in June?

Sorry if I am hijacking your thread kash, but does anyone know of any good review books for histo? My school uses a block system and histo is our first class :3 We also use shelf exams.

mvenus929 said:

I've used a lot of the review books to help study for class. We're already given a short and concise way of studying, but I think it helps to review the material from a different viewpoint, so I read through First Aid before my exam to make sure I understand the big topics. I've used BRS Physio, HY Anatomy (recommended by my anatomy professor), HY Neuro, and Lippincotts Biochem. I do moderately well on exams (considering I aim for better than a 70, not better than a 90).

I should point out that I go to an integrated systems school.

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what did you choose to go with for pharm?

ilikepancakes said:

what did you choose to go with for pharm?

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I have Katzung's Review, and I really like it (helped me understand neurotransmitters so much better), but I haven't had time to really study it. That'll probably be one of the topics I review to get back into the habit of studying towards the end of the summer. Pharm is by far my weakest subject.

kashmirvie said:

This is exactly what the rising M2s told us, although many mentioned using the High Yield series instead. I won't discard using the HY, but I will start with the Biochem BRS to see how well it works for me. WILL DEFINITELY BOOKMARK this thread, thank you very much, qmcat!

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Honestly I think a lot of the questions in the BRS book are overrated, especially for anatomy. A lot of them have question stems like "All of the following are true of the middle cerebral artery EXCEPT..." and then change one word in one of the statements to make it false. Not really teaching much, imho. Also there are some (especially in the older editions, the biochem one was particularly guilty of this)...where the answer was miskeyed (ie, the explanation supports B as the correct answer but it tells you C was).

I found the Rapid Review questions to be much more like what I saw on exams--clinical vignette style.

Also, just so you guys know HY Neuro and BRS Neuro are by the same author, and are pretty much the same book except for the HY one is pared down a little bit making it more manageable for a rapid-fire review. So main point is I'd only get one of them.

FA changes a lot, but most of the BRS books haven't changed too much. I buy the old 3.95 editions and they are almost like the ones people spend 50.00 on.