First aid is killing me

[Fromss]

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First aid is the most monotonous book I have ever used in my life. I can barely cover 2 pages in one day. The thing is that I am not good and have never been good in memorizing random facts. Cramming is just not my thing. But I am well aware that first aid is the bible.

How can I make my study more interesting? Do I have to re-write FA in my own words and expand on what they already have or continue with this blind memorization?

I am suicidal 🙁

 

[end stage fibro]

give up med school 🙁


or you can do what a lot of people here do- use FA as a road map. That is, use other sources for primary learning and then FA as a summary. FA will then jog your memory and will seem less like a jumbled list of facts.

edit: now that i think about it, that's what i did too. Used questions (both UW and qbank) to make connections, then used FA to reinforce them. If a friend of mine had a question about something in FA, and I could explain it pretty well from memory, I felt as if I knew that section sufficiently.

 

[Fromss]

give up med school 🙁


or you can do what a lot of people here do- use FA as a road map. That is, use other sources for primary learning and then FA as a summary. FA will then jog your memory and will seem less like a jumbled list of facts.

edit: now that i think about it, that's what i did too. Used questions (both UW and qbank) to make connections, then used FA to reinforce them. If a friend of mine had a question about something in FA, and I could explain it pretty well from memory, I felt as if I knew that section sufficiently.

9 more books plus q-banks? That sound like an overkill to me with this limited amount of time.

 

[kryptik]

if you hate FA that much then you should give Kaplans Medessential a try, its well written and contains everything in FA and then some

 

[aa62]

there is no other way to put this - you need first aid to do well on Step I

 

[werd]

you should read first aid multiple times in studying for step 1, whether you like it or not. at least take comfort in the fact that you should know just about everything in the book, so you're not wasting your time by reading it. even if you're not good at memorizing random facts, you still need to... there's no way around it. good luck.

 

[Rollo]

Try the program Doctors in Training....I haven't used it personally, but from what I hear...they go over entire First Aid and people like you who've struggled to follow FA format on their own have reaped benefits.

 

[J ROD]

And here I thought first aid was supposed to help someone......😀

 

[chapaquito]

Hi,I am very sure that what is making difficult to digest FA from you is a complement called doctors in Training course which uses FA as a base and so far the way I see is one of the best courses out there if not the best,this course is like the ring to the finger to FA,is very motivational ,practical,to the point,and of course you can always use UW or K Q bank.😀😀

 

[knuckles]

USMLERx.com s the best way to reinforce First Aid. It will give you section specific questions that enforce specific concepts in First Aid. Over 3000 questions and it's not too expensive. I used it before using UWorld, and also used DIT. Overall, I'd say doing tons of questions is your best shot to remembering First Aid better. While doing questions, annotate the important points for each section and you'll remember it better. Using this strategy, I scored over 250. Good luck.

 

[Fromss]

"Ok. Maybe you are overreacting. Time to cool down and do what you have been doing all along. No panicking. This is just an exam, not different from the tons that you have already taken. So sit down, take a deep breath and do your thing. Study to understand, cramming wont do you good. Use review books you are familiar with, and annotate from FA into them."

 

[C5toC9]

FA should be used as a review. It doesn't make too much sense reading it when you haven't gone through the material in school yet.

 

[TexasTriathlete]

I spent $650 or whatever to have Brian Jenkins read it to me, and it was probably the best $650 I ever spent.

I think DIT helped me as much as any resource I used, and I used almost all of them.

 

[2012mdc]

First aid is the most monotonous book I have ever used in my life. I can barely cover 2 pages in one day. The thing is that I am not good and have never been good in memorizing random facts. Cramming is just not my thing. But I am well aware that first aid is the bible.

How can I make my study more interesting? Do I have to re-write FA in my own words and expand on what they already have or continue with this blind memorization?

I am suicidal 🙁

FA is the bible for reviewing, not primary learning. I wouldn't really touch FA until January where you could start reviewing some 2nd yr stuff and the 1st yr stuff. Unless you are doing a q bank concurrently with school topics and annotating into FA I wouldn't even worry up FA until January

FA should be used as a review. It doesn't make too much sense reading it when you haven't gone through the material in school yet.

👍

 

[sideways]

I spent $650 or whatever to have Brian Jenkins read it to me, and it was probably the best $650 I ever spent.

I think DIT helped me as much as any resource I used, and I used almost all of them.

Do you mind expanding?

Did you just listen to the audio? Did you go to a class? Did you follow one of his study outlines? You're the first I've heard mention this program, so I'm naive.

 

[TexasTriathlete]

Do you mind expanding?

Did you just listen to the audio? Did you go to a class? Did you follow one of his study outlines? You're the first I've heard mention this program, so I'm naive.

http://www.doctorsintraining.com

Its 75 hours of video lectures where this guy basically holds your hand and walks you through first aid.

You also get a workbook with it. It has quizzes and some extra material that is not in FA. The extra stuff got me at least a few questions on the USMLE, by the way. Stuff I may or may not have gotten otherwise.

Some people on here hate it and bitch about it nonstop, because "all he does is read FA to you". But realistically, he does a lot more than that. Every now and then, he'll tell you to pause and take a quiz. Tons of repetition on stuff that hammers it home. He forces you to go through the **** that you hate too.

The guy doesn't have Goljan-like charisma or anything, but he could be a lot worse. I guarantee you we've all had lecturers in school who are worse than him.

I think he's fantastic. It gets monotonous at times, but you just have to suck it up and get through it. Getting all the way through the course was very helpful for me.

 

[sideways]

http://www.doctorsintraining.com

Its 75 hours of video lectures where this guy basically holds your hand and walks you through first aid.

You also get a workbook with it. It has quizzes and some extra material that is not in FA. The extra stuff got me at least a few questions on the USMLE, by the way. Stuff I may or may not have gotten otherwise.

Some people on here hate it and bitch about it nonstop, because "all he does is read FA to you". But realistically, he does a lot more than that. Every now and then, he'll tell you to pause and take a quiz. Tons of repetition on stuff that hammers it home. He forces you to go through the **** that you hate too.

The guy doesn't have Goljan-like charisma or anything, but he could be a lot worse. I guarantee you we've all had lecturers in school who are worse than him.

I think he's fantastic. It gets monotonous at times, but you just have to suck it up and get through it. Getting all the way through the course was very helpful for me.

At what stage in your studying do you recommend beginning DIT?

 

[TexasTriathlete]

At what stage in your studying do you recommend beginning DIT?

The guy suggests that you finish the program with about two weeks to go before the test. That seems about right. Definitely don't do it too early.

If I could do it all over again, I'd go through USMLE Rx and FA once, then start DIT, finish up with 2-3 weeks to go before the exam, and do World during and after DIT.

Aside from FA, World, and DIT, I thought that RR Path, BRS Phys, RR Biochem, and the other two question banks (Rx and Kaplan) were solid resources.

 

[sideways]

The guy suggests that you finish the program with about two weeks to go before the test. That seems about right. Definitely don't do it too early.

If I could do it all over again, I'd go through USMLE Rx and FA once, then start DIT, finish up with 2-3 weeks to go before the exam, and do World during and after DIT.

Aside from FA, World, and DIT, I thought that RR Path, BRS Phys, RR Biochem, and the other two question banks (Rx and Kaplan) were solid resources.

cool. thanks dude!

 

[nshams]

I can really sympathize.

What worked for the organ systems was going over the FA section really quickly once - 1 section in a couple of hours. This I did just to familiarize myself with the diseases in that section & know the general layout.

Then I'd do a ton of questions in that organ system. Webpath was a good resource, & I had versions of PreTest & USMLERx.

You'll make a TON of mistakes on the questions going this way at first but it was more productive than staring at first aid for hours.

 

[Fromss]

I can really sympathize.

What worked for the organ systems was going over the FA section really quickly once - 1 section in a couple of hours. This I did just to familiarize myself with the diseases in that section & know the general layout.

Then I'd do a ton of questions in that organ system. Webpath was a good resource, & I had versions of PreTest & USMLERx.

You'll make a TON of mistakes on the questions going this way at first but it was more productive than staring at first aid for hours.

Thank y'all for your advices. I will definitely give DIT a shot. But still, wont rely entirely on FA, after-all it is nothing other than a course outline/ syllabus. Better to take my time and get a good score than to hurry and get doomed.

 

[sumyounguy]

you can find audios/videos for dit online just like goljan audios. give it a try, I think they are extremely useful. The guy does tend to get annoying but you just have to get through it. Try playing at 1.5x-2.0x speed so you won't fall asleep and it'll keep you concentrated.