3 P's and BioChem

[DireWolf]

For anyone who has already take USMLE and/or COMLEX step 1, does First Aid adequately cover Pharm, Path, Physio, and BioChem? I've already heard that BRS Path is a good idea and I plan on using Qbank. Any other books necessary for the other subjects?

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[kcrd]

you need to supplement first aid for every subject except for anat/histo/embryo. first aid pharm was sufficient for my test, but others here have said otherwise. the best physio is brs. I used brs path and biochem as well.

 

[doc05]

first aid is a nice outline, but as kcrd said, you absolutely must supplement with discipline-specific books:

Path: BRS Path is excellent; buy it early and use it during ms2. Robbins Review has ~1000 really good questions.

Pharm: you don't need to supplement if you have very strong background. If you are looking for one, Katzung is a good review book.

Physio, Biochem: I liked the Kaplan books for these. You don't really need to read much for physio since it's much more about thinking than memorizing facts. Do lots of questions.

Microbiology: first aid is a very good outline. Kaplan covers everything and is your best bet.

Anatomy, Behav. Science: first aid is not adequate for anatomy, nor for behav. science. I recommend hi-yield or kaplan.

 

[Daiphon]

ditto on FA: all you need to know for anat/histo/embryo is in that book. lots of people make the mistake of overstudying those topics. one thing i would add, however, is find a list of anatomical relationships vis a vis vertebral levels...

BRS Path - become one with this book. it is clutch.

BRS Physio - i looked at some other texts, and this one is far and away the best.

Kaplan-wise, i used their notes for biochem and the autonomic pharmacology. KNOW YOUR AUTONOMICS! for some reason, i had a ****-load of autonomic questions, and kaplan saved my life.

Pharm is really all about using whatever you're most comfortable with. I thought lippincott was useful, but some of my classmates didn't.

Overall, though, your best bet might be to study for the subjects & make high-yield notes in FA. That way, you can have one book to cram during the last few days before your exam... this also fills in the holes in FA. Qbank is key, as well...

hope this helps
2cents,
-Tim

 

[Kosmo]

Originally posted by Daiphon


Kaplan-wise, i used their notes for biochem and the autonomic pharmacology. KNOW YOUR AUTONOMICS! for some reason, i had a ****-load of autonomic questions, and kaplan saved my life.

Pharm is really all about using whatever you're most comfortable with. I thought lippincott was useful, but some of my classmates didn't.

Good advice here, I don't know a single person that wasn't hit hard with autonomics. This is an eminently testable topic particularly wrt pharm because many of the drugs are well understood mechanistically and questions can be easily devised to test your knowledge of both pharm and physiology.

That said I think First Aid was adequate, by itself, for pharm. It is only a good brush-up tool for everything else. (And I'd also review antimicrobials seperately when reviewing micro.)

 

[tega]

Originally posted by Daiphon
BRS Path - become one with this book. it is clutch.

...

,
-Tim

lool
funniest ish i have heard in a while....haha

master "i am at one with my path BRS">...

 

[DireWolf]

Originally posted by Daiphon
BRS Path - become one with this book. it is clutch.

Thanks everyone for the great advice. Has everyone who has taken USMLE or COMLEX 1 found pathology to be the most represented subject? I feel very comfortable with path and am planning on studying that subject the most. I just want to make sure I don't get burned and get a test with little path on it.

 

[neilc]

Originally posted by DireWolf
Thanks everyone for the great advice. Has everyone who has taken USMLE or COMLEX 1 found pathology to be the most represented subject? I feel very comfortable with path and am planning on studying that subject the most. I just want to make sure I don't get burned and get a test with little path on it.

out of the three P's and biochem...i felt very good about path, reasonably good about physio, ok with pharm and borderline with biochem...on my score report, i did awesome on path, very good on physio, above bordeline on everything else, borderline on pharm, and below borderline on biochem. i wound up with a 192/78...i didn't feel like there were a lot of biochem or pharm questions either. so, the moral of the story is, don't neglect a subject. strength in one are does not neccesarily compensate for a weakness in another. i am glad i passed, but i wanted/needed to do a bit better than that! what i would do for 8 more measly points....

good luck!

 

[kcrd]

Originally posted by DireWolf
Thanks everyone for the great advice. Has everyone who has taken USMLE or COMLEX 1 found pathology to be the most represented subject? I feel very comfortable with path and am planning on studying that subject the most. I just want to make sure I don't get burned and get a test with little path on it.

Here is a schedule that Scott from Lippincott posted last spring which I used:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=64734&highlight=schedule

Tweak it a bit to reflect the subjects you need to spend more time on, but it gives you a good idea of how long you should be spending on each subject. If you are good at path and have about 1 month to study, you shouldn't spend more than 5 or 6 days on it. You really cannot predict what you'll get in your test. I had 2 sections in which more than half of the questions were micro. Also, most questions are not exclusively one subject. You might have a question which describes a patient with a certain set of symptoms, and then they will ask you what the major side effect of the medication you use to treat it is.