FA is more like an outline?

[Aclamity]

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Has anyone else noticed this? I'm an MS2 and I've been casually flipping through FA, mostly looking at the basic science sections. They seem to be more of a rough outline of info, without any explanations (in particular microbio and biochem, which mainly have lists/tables), rather than a full-on review book. I'm guessing it's pretty much necessary to use FA more as a study guide alongside more in-depth books, but many people say they use FA exclusively. Does this mean just doing lots of rote memorization?

 

[simpatico]

Bingo - pretty much the memorization thing.

 

[Aclamity]

Bingo - pretty much the memorization thing.

haha eeps! Then I guess it's pretty futile to study FA before even learning the material?

 

[DrYoda]

Yes. It's a review book, not a primary learning source. People us FA exclusively because most of the material should be review after M1&M2.

haha eeps! Then I guess it's pretty futile to study FA before even learning the material?

It's best used after learning the material, esp for things like physiology which is more an understanding thing than a "memorize this list" thing.

 

[Rollo]

Yep, if you find yourself needing a full, detailed explanation for a topic in FA, then you either haven't learned it yet or you haven't learned it well.

If you learned the material well first time around in your classes, looking at the topics in FA again should make you remember SOME THINGS about the topic, and not make you go, "WTF is this?"

 

[235009]

what others have said is basically true

to add to it though, IMO biochem is hands down the worst section in FA. it is quite disorganized and doesn't really explain anything or tie anything together whereas other sections do that better

as for micro ...there isn't really much more to it than knowing what's there. micro for the boards doesn't have too much depth but the hardest part is that it includes material from every system so it's difficult to learn before you've learned the systems

 

[Brewmeister]

what others have said is basically true

to add to it though, IMO biochem is hands down the worst section in FA. it is quite disorganized and doesn't really explain anything or tie anything together whereas other sections do that better

as for micro ...there isn't really much more to it than knowing what's there. micro for the boards doesn't have too much depth but the hardest part is that it includes material from every system so it's difficult to learn before you've learned the systems

I agree 100% with this. The biochem section in FA is extremely weak. Use RR biochem to tie everything together. Contrary to what a lot of people say, 95% of questions you will see on step 1 come straight out of FA. Of course you will always get your WTF questions but if it were possible for you to know everything in FA you would pull a 250 easily.

 

[naji dowaid]

i'm using kaplan biochemitry along with the videos (and FA of caurse)
so far so good the videos are great and are just from the book nothing more (may be less) but i'm still in the 4th chapter 🙂 so it's alittle early to judge
but my questions are
is FA enough in anatomy and histology?
is brs physiology A MUST read book?

thanQ in advance

 

[235009]

i'm using kaplan biochemitry along with the videos (and FA of caurse)
so far so good the videos are great and are just from the book nothing more (may be less) but i'm still in the 4th chapter 🙂 so it's alittle early to judge
but my questions are
is FA enough in anatomy and histology?
is brs physiology A MUST read book?

thanQ in advance

i also used kaplan biochem videos+notes to supplement FA and it was excellent ...did really well on the biochem section on the real deal even though it was my weakest section before i stated studying

i spent about a day and a half going through the kaplan anatomy and embryo video ...don't know how high yield that was but it certainly helped. Some anatomy is more important than others. musculoskeletal and neuro anatomy should probably be top priority. i think you can get away with just doing FA for anatomy but if you can squeeze in at least some kaplan videos i think you'd be in better shape.

never touched brs physio...why do you think it's a "MUST"? Physio isn't really emphasized directly so i dont think you should focus on it so much on its own. I just relied on my physio knowledge from class and used FA and QBank questions to fill in any blanks.

 

[Rollo]

i also used kaplan biochem videos+notes to supplement FA and it was excellent ...did really well on the biochem section on the real deal even though it was my weakest section before i stated studying

i spent about a day and a half going through the kaplan anatomy and embryo video ...don't know how high yield that was but it certainly helped. Some anatomy is more important than others. musculoskeletal and neuro anatomy should probably be top priority. i think you can get away with just doing FA for anatomy but if you can squeeze in at least some kaplan videos i think you'd be in better shape.

never touched brs physio...why do you think it's a "MUST"? Physio isn't really emphasized directly so i dont think you should focus on it so much on its own. I just relied on my physio knowledge from class and used FA and QBank questions to fill in any blanks.

Agree about never touching BRS Phys. I did go through BRS Phys my first pass through but then I realized that it wasn't really worth it because I had a good grasp on physio from classes, and whatever gaps I had were filled by UWorld's explanations.

It's still a short enough book that it wouldn't hurt to go through it once in the beginning. But it isn't absolutely necessary.

 

[Aclamity]

what others have said is basically true

to add to it though, IMO biochem is hands down the worst section in FA. it is quite disorganized and doesn't really explain anything or tie anything together whereas other sections do that better

as for micro ...there isn't really much more to it than knowing what's there. micro for the boards doesn't have too much depth but the hardest part is that it includes material from every system so it's difficult to learn before you've learned the systems

This makes me feel better. I haven't taken biochem for about 6 years (since undergrad), so it's not completely foreign to me when I read FA, but I'm still quite rusty. I just got a little worried when the biochem section was a random assortment of reactions that fit together in a way I don't quite remember, but I'll check out another source on this.

and neoplasia/microbio is purely lists and tables. Looks like you must learn those from other sources as well, before even touching FA.

And the pathology (basic sci) section is scarce at best. yikes

 

[Rollo]

This makes me feel better. I haven't taken biochem for about 6 years (since undergrad), so it's not completely foreign to me when I read FA, but I'm still quite rusty. I just got a little worried when the biochem section was a random assortment of reactions that fit together in a way I don't quite remember, but I'll check out another source on this.

and neoplasia/microbio is purely lists and tables. Looks like you must learn those from other sources as well, before even touching FA.

And the pathology (basic sci) section is scarce at best. yikes

I thought Clinical Micro Made Ridiculously Simple was really good for micro so you might want to pick up a copy of that.

Goljan path book takes care of the neoplasia/basic path stuff so don't sweat it.