First aid?

[Lamborghini1315]

Hello guyies, i will be in medical school this fall..i was wondering if i should buy first aid to review material ahead of time, so this way i have a leg up on the study material for boards during the 2nd year. Also would first aid help you do well on your exams in school?

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[surprisedgirl]

oh god no! you wont understand it i think you have to have a pretty good background (i.e. go to med school) to make sense of it; otherwise it's too choppy

 

[SeventhSon]

actually i bought first aid. The thing i find it useful for is that is has a lot of great pneumonics that help you remember core stuff. I MAY annotate it somewhat regarding really important concepts that I know i might forget as I take a class, but it really is a REVIEW book for after you have already taken the class. It's up to you... I doubt next year's edition will be significantly different, so I figured I might as well buy it now.

 

[DoctorFunk]

Mnemonics mnemonics mnemonics mnemonics mnemonics mnemonics mnemonics mnemonics mnemonics mnemonics mnemonics mnemonics. There got that out of my system.

First Aid is probably the lowest yield review book to use while you're actually taking the classes. I would invest in the BRS or High Yield series for most of them (as they have more detail) and then pick up First Aid at the beginning or middle of your second year.

 

[lumbering]

oh god no! you wont understand it i think you have to have a pretty good background (i.e. go to med school) to make sense of it; otherwise it's too choppy

Agreed. Just flip through the microbiology/immunlogy section, and you'll see what surprisedgirl means.

 

[surprisedgirl]

one thing i do reccomend (and i know others will disagree) is that maybe a couple days before an exam, say in biochem, micro, whatever), you read over first aid....it'll give you the high yield basic important points and you'll hvae seen it once before you pick it up again second year to restudy it....that way you can also write in stuff to clarify the choppy points of FA

 

[Terpskins99]

FA is an extremely trimmed down outline of the bare minimum of what you need to know to do well during your first two years of medical school.

The best advice I can give to someone coming in as a first year (outside of just ENJOYING what remaining free time you have while it lasts)... is start reading through Big Robbins. Start with Page one and get as far as you can before your brain starts to melt. You can listen to Goljan if you like at the same time, but the vast majority of it will blow over your head until you actually read about the diseases in Robbins as well.

If Robbins is too much for you, then you might need to step back and flip through texts in Physio, Histo (you ABSOLUTELY must be able to recognize normal histology in order to grasp/identify path), Micro, Immuno and Anatomy/Embryo.

But in the end, both medical school and boards is centered on pathology. If you can ace that subject, you'll be good to go. And if you can manage to finish and memorize all of Robbins before starting medical school... I'll personally mail you $100.

 

[ertugrul]

And if you can manage to finish and memorize all of Robbins before starting medical school... I'll personally mail you $100.

I'll mail too, even if you can memorize after finishing medical school

 

[lrobin15]

I'm going to buy it. I looked at it today and even the book says to use it the first 2 years to organize you learning. Plus, many of the people on sdn who got amazing usmle scores (>240) all said that they used it the first 2 years. FA also says that you should buy a review book for each system when you get to it, so that you can annotate and learn the main HY parts for the exams. I am also going to buy the Pharm flashcards when we get to it so that I can keep those rotating through my mind. I just think it will make things easier in the long run. I want to kick the Comlex and Usmle's butts!!

 

[Terpskins99]

I'm going to buy it. I looked at it today and even the book says to use it the first 2 years to organize you learning. Plus, many of the people on sdn who got amazing usmle scores (>240) all said that they used it the first 2 years. FA also says that you should buy a review book for each system when you get to it, so that you can annotate and learn the main HY parts for the exams. I am also going to buy the Pharm flashcards when we get to it so that I can keep those rotating through my mind. I just think it will make things easier in the long run. I want to kick the Comlex and Usmle's butts!!

Please don't take my post as me stating that First Aid is "worthless" for incoming first years. On the contrary, its an absolute MUST to own (though you may consider waiting until the start of MS2 so you can purchase the most recent edition of FA when you start to really gear up for board preparation... a good number of my classmates do that). I was just replying that flipping through first aid the summer before starting MSI classes is probably not the most efficient use of your time.

Without question, FA is the gold standard for board review (especially for scribbling extra notes into while studying for lecture). And getting a review book for each subject is wise (just don't get bullyed into paying up the wazoo for the most recent version of every BRS book... 3rd and even 2nd edition versions are fine, and in most cases the text is exactly the same... you can even get away with purchasing an older edition First Aid, if it hasn't been written into... saves a lot of cash, trust me).

Pharm cards are really nice for class. So are micro cards.

I do own Netter anatomy cards, but I wish I didn't bother getting them (they leave out too many potential practical tags). Netter's anatomy atlas is what you'll spend the vast majority of time with (just a beautifully drawn textbook), and you'll be pretty much required to memorize every page anyhow.

If you'd like more info about specific texts and review stuff that I'd recommend, feel free to PM me. (oh, and congrats on being a part of the first class at LMU-DCOM! )

 

[lrobin15]

Please don't take my post as me stating that First Aid is "worthless" for incoming first years. On the contrary, its an absolute MUST to own (though you may consider waiting until the start of MS2 so you can purchase the most recent edition of FA when you start to really gear up for board preparation... a good number of my classmates do that). I was just replying that flipping through first aid the summer before starting MSI classes is probably not the most efficient use of your time.

Without question, FA is the gold standard for board review (especially for scribbling extra notes into while studying for lecture). And getting a review book for each subject is wise (just don't get bullyed into paying up the wazoo for the most recent version of every BRS book... 3rd and even 2nd edition versions are fine, and in most cases the text is exactly the same... you can even get away with purchasing an older edition First Aid, if it hasn't been written into... saves a lot of cash, trust me).

Pharm cards are really nice for class. So are micro cards.

I do own Netter anatomy cards, but I wish I didn't bother getting them (they leave out too many potential practical tags). Netter's anatomy atlas is what you'll spend the vast majority of time with (just a beautifully drawn textbook), and you'll be pretty much required to memorize every page anyhow.

If you'd like more info about specific texts and review stuff that I'd recommend, feel free to PM me. (oh, and congrats on being a part of the first class at LMU-DCOM! )

Thank you, that was very valuable information.

 

[Lamborghini1315]

I really appreciate everyone's opinion on this thread...

 

[doctorp82]

It would be very helpful to read books like Costanzo Physiology, Clinical Microbiology made rediculously simple, and Lippincott's Biochemistry. Those three are golden books for first year. Start on physio, since it's the most important for step 1, and the foundation of understanding anything pathology.

 

[joe6102]

(though you may consider waiting until the start of MS2 so you can purchase the most recent edition of FA when you start to really gear up for board preparation... a good number of my classmates do that).

The problem with that is it comes out every December. Around that time every year you'll see 15 threads from MS2's wondering whether they should buy the new version, or if the old version they already own is good enough (yes I was guilty of this).

Go ahead and buy it this December unless you don't think you'll need it until second half of second year.

 

[Lamborghini1315]

Any other review books i should consider buying? Also what's the deal with goljan..should i get the audio and listen to it during first year?

 

[ertugrul]

kaplan lecture notes will make you happy

 

[mules05]

Any other review books i should consider buying? Also what's the deal with goljan..should i get the audio and listen to it during first year?

Well, since Goljan is path, which you won't cover until 2nd year, you probably won't understand most of it until then, and you'll be wasting time that you could have been studying for your real classes. I actually bought first aid during 1st year, thinking I was going to be all cool and get a leg up on the boards, but since I had to pass my first year classes (which, unless you're some kind of superhuman genius, does take some time and effort), it was a waste.