First Aid Annotations

[kpxnyc]

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So word on the street is First Aid has almost all the material you need to know for Step 1, but people have been annotating it while using other resources (ie. RR Path). I was wondering if anyone could tell me what information First Aid is lacking (for example, the MOA of drugs in pharm, etc.) so I could add it into the text. RR is great at supplementing the audio but there's definitely a lot more details in RR than FA. Would I be responsible for all of it?

I'm hoping to use FA as my primary resource after going through everything else so it's really be helpful to have all the info in one text.

Thanks for all your help and this forum's definitely been of great help!

Good luck with everyone's studies!

 

[Mr hawkings]

So word on the street is First Aid has almost all the material you need to know for Step 1, but people have been annotating it while using other resources (ie. RR Path). I was wondering if anyone could tell me what information First Aid is lacking (for example, the MOA of drugs in pharm, etc.) so I could add it into the text. RR is great at supplementing the audio but there's definitely a lot more details in RR than FA. Would I be responsible for all of it?

I'm hoping to use FA as my primary resource after going through everything else so it's really be helpful to have all the info in one text.

Thanks for all your help and this forum's definitely been of great help!

Good luck with everyone's studies!

First aid is filled with the highest yeild material that you need to pass. Having said that, there is a big difference between a 206 pass and a 240 pass. The difference is knowledge of the not so high yield stuff that you'll also be tested on.

 

[DrBowtie]

Have you thumbed through a FA? It is basically a skeleton with many lists, tables, charts. Sometimes you need to define those terms.

Example: Lithium is teratogenic and can cause Ebstein's anomaly. That is what is listed in FA. Boards would ask about a pregnant patient taking lithium and ask what should you look for on ultrasound, or they will describe the defect without using the eponym.

So yes it has the basic information in there of Lithium -> Ebstein's but you would potentially miss that if you just memorize that fact.

 

[rahul0515]

This is where UWorld comes into place. They will ask you q's similar to the above example as well as give excellent explanations for all choices. These are a MUST to annotate with FA. DIT had some decent notes that were not in FA thats worth annotating.

 

[kpxnyc]

Thanks for the replies guys. Really appreciate it.

Yeah, I looked through FA a bit but I was a bit iffy on how detailed I needed to know some of the information, esp. cause after looking at rapid review cause it's a bit overwhelming with numbers and all these lists and what not in outlined form. I guess the best approach is to be familiar at least to some extent for the content covered in FA (like you said re lithium and Ebstein's).

I'm planning on starting UW in March cause I'm taking the exam in June and I have a 3 mo subscription. I'll be sure to annotate thoroughly while going through questions. In the meantime, I guess I should just work on understanding in as much detail as possible the different pathologies, terms, etc. that I come across while reading.

Any other tips?

Thanks again btw!

 

[MrBigLips]

I'm in the same boat as you kpxnyc. I've heard that trying to recall the information and making connections between subjects is key to acing the exam. for example, if you read that alzheimer's has an increase in B amyloid plaques, try to recall which other diseases have them as well. recall that down syndrome patients that make it to age 35 nearly all have alzheimer's. recall that down syndrome patients have endocardial cushing defects. that vsd's are the most common congenital anomolies of the heart. etc, etc.

just keep branching off from one topic to another.

and thanks to everyone for their input. it really helps a lot. i was planning on doing uworld about twice on a 3 month membership and thats it. now i know to annotate it all in there as well.

 

[rahul0515]

I have about 300 q's to go in UWorld, and the explanations do a really good job with correlating different topics on a particular concept, disease, etc. I feel if you know the explanations in Uworld, and tie it with FA, you can pass for sure.