Do I need to retain Step 1 books for reference during third year?

[AgentRaiden]

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So,I was just de-shelving step 1 books which were collecting dust.I begin rotations in a week and I am contemplating doing away with:

Keith Moore Clinically Oriented Anatomy
BRS Pathology
First Aid Q&A for the USMLE Step1

Others I am unsure about:

BRS Pharmacology
BRS Neuro
Daddy Robbins
Goljan RR
Guyton's physiology


What would be your picks to keep? Anything that I'll benefit for M3/M4 reference? I am inkling on Goljan,daddy Robbins,BRS neuro and pharmac,and of course FA Step 1

 

[MilkmanAl]

I'd keep the RR: Path just because it's a freaking awesome book. Dump the rest, if you want. Honestly, I doubt you'll look at anything other than review materials targeted at clerkships, but it's certainly not going to hurt to have too much info on hand.

 

[Law2Doc]

So,I was just de-shelving step 1 books which were collecting dust.I begin rotations in a week and I am contemplating doing away with:

Keith Moore Clinically Oriented Anatomy
BRS Pathology
First Aid Q&A for the USMLE Step1

Others I am unsure about:

BRS Pharmacology
BRS Neuro
Daddy Robbins
Goljan RR
Guyton's physiology


What would be your picks to keep? Anything that I'll benefit for M3/M4 reference? I am inkling on Goljan,daddy Robbins,BRS neuro and pharmac,and of course FA Step 1

I'd probably lose them all. For M3/M4 you probably will want pocket medicine, the applicable shelf exam review books, and access to uptodate or some other online resource your school probably provides. You won't use any of the above. Of course if you are ultimately going into path, keep the path books, if you are going into neuro keep the neuro book and so on. Otherwise you won't use them. If you can get 10 cents on the dollar unload them to an underclassman.

 

[CardiacIntensivist]

RR and First aid is good but in all honesty in 3rd year you are better of using Uptodate and original articles. I barely touched on my old books for a rotation.

 

[kissmyasthma99]

I frequently reference my First Aid if I need to look something up while I am studying a 3rd year reference. Other than that, I would keep Goljan's RR Path, just like someone else said, because its freaking awesome. You never know if while you're practicing you may get curious and want to look up the pathophys of something.

 

[McGillGrad]

Uptodate.com is priceless for brushing up on topics.

But as the emphasis changes from facts (i.e. basic sciences) to application of facts (i.e. 3rd year) and finally management/manipulation of facts (i.e. 4th year and beyond), you will find your basic science texts lacking the 'connectivity' that is required to apply basic science material to patient management.

 

[go lakers]

you will find your basic science texts lacking the 'connectivity' that is required to apply basic science material to patient management.

co-sign.

 

[IMGUSMLEStep1]

I kept FA and RR, but I highly doubt that I'll refer to them often.

 

[meister]

Some of the tables and mneumonics from First Aid I still remember and have helped me tremendously during third year. I spent weeks memorizing that book for step 1 and relied heavily on it.

However, I haven't actually looked at it one time during third year. There's just too much material to study for the shelfs.

 

[nlax30]

I kept my Path books and First Aid for USMLE. I think over the last 2 years I've used them maybe only 2-3 times to look something up, and that was only because I had annotated them fairly extensively and already had a general idea of where the piece of info was located.

 

[zuiikin]

As someone who is now studying for step 1 after doing their clerkships (I'm at one of those schools) I would say: definitely do not use step 1 materials for the clinics.

As I'm trying to learn about all of these lysosomal storage diseases and the like it's amazing to me how useless some of this @#$# is out in the hospital (and on the clerkship shelf exams!)

Your not going to have as much time to study in clinics as you did in the classroom so you'll want books that are geared to the specialty you're in to save time. Plus, you'll probably find that the only specialty your classes truly prepared you for was IM, and even there you'll have to learn a lot of management.

At my school people use:

Peds: BRS Peds
Neuro: Blueprints neuro
Medicine: Step up + UWorld
Psych: FA Pysch + Brushing up on some CNS-related Neuro & facial features of congenital abnormalities (surprisingly high yield -- go figure)
OB: Blueprints + Case files.
Surgery: No one knows what the #@$#@ to use. I used BRS surgery + BRS surgical subspecialties + Pestanta and it seemed to work fine.

I hope the above is useful to someone out there. With the above I either did really well or knew it was my fault for making stupid mistakes.
Wish me luck learning all the lysosomal storage diseases....