Comprehensive USMLE Review?

[Neuromanic]

Hi I'm looking for suggestions for a comprehensive Medical School/USMLE Review series. I'm looking for a series that one could potentially learn from without having attended medical school (theoretically speaking, that's the level of comprehensiveness I'm looking for). I learned about half of everything I needed for undergrad through prep/review books and they have saved me so much time, like years of time. I'm surprised at the difficulty I'm having locating a comprehensive series for the USMLE. Currently I have my eyes set on Kaplan, but even the Kaplan USMLE series is about 2,500 pages, which is a fraction of the available MCAT prep series, making me wonder if the Kaplan USMLE series is comprehensive enough to learn from. Any suggestions or recommendations about Kaplan or otherwise? I'm looking more for a book series, not a video series.

But since I'm already asking this, might as well inquire about video series as well. What is the general consensus on Dr. Najeeb's and Lecturio? Are they fully comprehensive? Which one is better?

Thanks

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[bashwell]

Hi I'm looking for suggestions for a comprehensive Medical School/USMLE Review series. I'm looking for a series that one could potentially learn from without having attended medical school (theoretically speaking, that's the level of comprehensiveness I'm looking for). I learned about half of everything I needed for undergrad through prep/review books and they have saved me so much time, like years of time. I'm surprised at the difficulty I'm having locating a comprehensive series for the USMLE. Currently I have my eyes set on Kaplan, but even the Kaplan USMLE series is about 2,500 pages, which is a fraction of the available MCAT prep series, making me wonder if the Kaplan USMLE series is comprehensive enough to learn from. Any suggestions or recommendations about Kaplan or otherwise?

Thanks

Boards and Beyond.

 

[Neuromanic]

Boards and Beyond.

I was looking more for a USMLE Step 1 series (books not videos), sorry I should have specified. But thanks for the suggestion, Boards and Beyond might come in handy later on down the road.

 

[bashwell]

I was looking more for a USMLE Step 1 series (books not videos), sorry I should have specified. But thanks for the suggestion, Boards and Beyond might come in handy later on down the road.

Sorry, I see now. If you prefer reading books, there's obviously First Aid, but that's a review book. However, if you use FA alongside your classes, then that's a solid way to learn and prepare for Step 1. And FA has a lot of recommendations at the end of the book about good resources including books for each subject and organ system.

If you want more comprehensive books, then Crush Step 1. There's also First Aid Basic Sciences: General Principles and Organ Systems if you like their format. I hear there's now a new third edition for the First Aid Basic Sciences books, but I haven't seen it since I already did Step 1 (and I did very well).

Otherwise you can make your own list of good review books. Start with the recommendations at the end of FA (the ones with "A" grades). For example, BRS Physio (Costanzo) is great for physiology, Pathoma (not a book but video series but really worth it) for pathology, and so on.

At the end of the day, it's really just about UFAP, in my opinion. Some people add Sketchy Micro too. If you can understand most of what's in UFAP (USMLE World, First Aid, Pathoma), then you'll be in a very strong position to do well on Step 1.

 

[LyMed]

I also liked Crush Step 1. I remember using it during my first year and thought it was well written. I find most review books associated with courses to be overly extensive.

 

[Neuromanic]

Sorry, I see now. If you prefer reading books, there's obviously First Aid, but that's a review book. However, if you use FA alongside your classes, then that's a solid way to learn and prepare for Step 1. And FA has a lot of recommendations at the end of the book about good resources including books for each subject and organ system.

If you want more comprehensive books, then Crush Step 1. There's also First Aid Basic Sciences: General Principles and Organ Systems if you like their format. I hear there's now a new third edition for the First Aid Basic Sciences books, but I haven't seen it since I already did Step 1 (and I did very well).

Otherwise you can make your own list of good review books. Start with the recommendations at the end of FA (the ones with "A" grades). For example, BRS Physio (Costanzo) is great for physiology, Pathoma (not a book but video series but really worth it) for pathology, and so on.

At the end of the day, it's really just about UFAP, in my opinion. Some people add Sketchy Micro too. If you can understand most of what's in UFAP (USMLE World, First Aid, Pathoma), then you'll be in a very strong position to do well on Step 1.

Yeah I have First Aid and I think it's a great review book, but it's basically all bullet points so I doubt anyone could actually LEARN from it. As far as creating my own prep series, at this point I feel like that's the only way to get a comprehensive series. I found this site: Best USMLE Step 1 Review Books – Step 1 Daily do you think I should just get the top rated one for each subject? I just want to make sure that these books actually have the information that I'm going to be seeing on the USMLE.

 

[Neuromanic]

I also liked Crush Step 1. I remember using it during my first year and thought it was well written. I find most review books associated with courses to be overly extensive.

I'm planning to try and learn from these books so the more extensive the better! My main concern with the ones I've seen so far are that they're not extensive enough. Just as long as they aren't textbooks I'm totally okay.

For instance I never actually took most of the classes required for the MCAT (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Biochemistry, Sociology). I just bought a comprehensive MCAT prep series, read it, and scored in the 98-99th percentile. True the series was like 5000 pages and can be considered "overly extensive," but compared to spending a year or two taking those courses as an undergrad it was a huge time saver. So I'm trying to find a series like that for the USMLE, but the longest series I can find is Kaplan which is only a fraction of my MCAT prep material when I'm expecting it to be longer if anything.

 

[Med student 18]

I think the general consensus on najeeb is that his video service is great, however, time consuming.
As for lecturio, it might be too "young" to have a general consensus, considering the time it has been around compared to the other resources. In my opinion it's a great source for what it is intended; short concise videos to help clean up, understand, review medical topics in med school and for the steps. for me it has been great.
In short, both are great.

As for a book series, BRS and made ridiculously easy.