First AID is not enough

[trgf]

Consensus seems to be that First AID covers approximately 80% of the exam material. Which are the weakest subject areas that should be supplemented by readings from other sources such as Goljan, Uworld, or Kaplan?

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[sylvanthus]

I think if you supplemented FA and UWORLD with RR path, goljan audio, and micro made ridiculously simple, that should likely hit 99% of what is on the exam.

 

[ArcGurren]

Supplement stuff from Costanzo for GI and Endocrine and you should be okay with physiology; you should also have another source to read from if you're having trouble with the concepts, like Costanzo.

RR Path, UW, Goljan audio (or the transcribed text works too really) should be sufficient but I would also add another qbank for practice like Kaplan or Rx. I prefer Kaplan myself.

 

[michigator04]

I think if you supplemented FA and UWORLD with RR path, goljan audio, and micro made ridiculously simple, that should likely hit 99% of what is on the exam.

Eh, I think you'd hit 99% of what you can prepare for. There will always be some new questions and topics on the exam that are not in any review sources. Plus the definition of covered is very subjective. Getting 1 practice question on a topic may or may not prepare you for the way they ask it on the test. There are a significant amount of 'application' questions where they ask you to interpret something that is supposed to unfamiliar and try to relate it to a concept you might know.

 

[coralis]

So far my library for Step 1 contains:
1. FA 2010
2. BRS Physio 4th edition
3. Microbio made ridiculously easy
4. Pathophys made ridiculously easy
5. HY Neuro
6. HY Behavioral
7. HY Biostats (really not necessary)
8. Robbin's Atlas of Pathology

I will be starting Kaplan in 1 week so I have all those books too. Dunno if I'll use them or just take notes during class and add the notes to FA (I have it 3-holed in a binder)

 

[Wilf]

I just do not understand how Step 1 can be so tough and yet many US MD schools have pass rates in the high 90 percents. At my school there are quite a few questionable students who do not seem particularly bright and yet the vast majority of them will pass. I sometimes wonder if med students make too much of Step 1. I guess I'll find out in about a month.

 

[21CentSouldier]

I just do not understand how Step 1 can be so tough and yet many US MD schools have pass rates in the high 90 percents. At my school there are quite a few questionable students who do not seem particularly bright and yet the vast majority of them will pass. I sometimes wonder if med students make too much of Step 1. I guess I'll find out in about a month.

Step 1 is largely memorization. If you have significant white matter and the capacity the size of a capesize ship, you can do well. IMO, the real measurements of what you know and how you can apply the info come during clinicals and residency.

 

[da8s0859q]

I just do not understand how Step 1 can be so tough and yet many US MD schools have pass rates in the high 90 percents. At my school there are quite a few questionable students who do not seem particularly bright and yet the vast majority of them will pass. I sometimes wonder if med students make too much of Step 1. I guess I'll find out in about a month.

I take it next month also, but I would say that a big reason why we collectively make so much out of Step 1 is because we're not out to just pass. A 200 might be doable for some specialties, but higher numbers do potentially open more doors, and for more competitive fields where you have average Step scores for matched US allopaths in the 220-240 range. Well above the pass mark at 188.

I absolutely do not want to get my Step score back and feel like I just gave myself an uphill battle for anesthesiology (224 as of 2009) or EM (222) or radiology (238) or anything else.

Step 1 is largely memorization. If you have significant white matter and the capacity the size of a capesize ship, you can do well.

I dunno, I feel like I've seen a lot of application-style questions on the CBSE and at least one NBME form thus far. No?

 

[21CentSouldier]

I take it next month also, but I would say that a big reason why we collectively make so much out of Step 1 is because we're not out to just pass. A 200 might be doable for some specialties, but higher numbers do potentially open more doors, and for more competitive fields where you have average Step scores for matched US allopaths in the 220-240 range. Well above the pass mark at 188.

I absolutely do not want to get my Step score back and feel like I just gave myself an uphill battle for anesthesiology (224 as of 2009) or EM (222) or radiology (238) or anything else.



I dunno, I feel like I've seen a lot of application-style questions on the CBSE and at least one NBME form thus far. No?

I suppose what I mean is that come time for wards, we'll be dealing with patients with variable dynamics (although, common things do happen commonly). A lot of people are getting through step1 solely by memorizing first aid, and they can get fairly good scores doing it. You get points (however much it is weighed) for remembering an obscure fact and remembering 'buzzwords.' Part of the exam is a reading test--can you read 'gooder' than the other dude.

I dunno, I just don't think it's very representative of anything other than how much info can you pack in your head. My belief is that the real learning begins when you start dealing with the patients and actually visualize the disease process and its manifestation of the clinical constellations.

 

[raynor123456]

I don't think I've seen many questions in UW or Qbank that weren't also referenced in FA. o_0 IMHO, if you knew everything in FA -- literally knew "everything" -- you'd kill the exam. Caveat: That doesn't mean "memorizing" everything, that means "knowing" how and why things work.

 

[ArcGurren]

Step 1 is largely memorization. If you have significant white matter and the capacity the size of a capesize ship, you can do well. IMO, the real measurements of what you know and how you can apply the info come during clinicals and residency.

I don't think that's completely true; yes you have to know and memorize a whole lot of stuff but the questions will never say "a woman comes in with a rash on her face and positive ANA and dsDNA antibodies; what might she have?" and the answer choices will be Sjogren's, Lupus, Scleroderma, etc. It's more to the effect of "a woman comes into the clinic (insert all the lupus symptoms) here; she gets started on an immune suppressant medicine to manage her disease; what could be a possible side effect?" and then they'd list a bunch of side effects. Yes you would have to memorize all this stuff but there's a lot more connect-the-dots.