Help appreciated

[scotties123]

I know I'm the 10 millionth person to post a thread like this, but after a LOT of searching (both with google and on this forum) I could really use some help here. I'm taking the exam in June and I wanted to start looking over some stuff for about 7 or so hours/week until I get closer to the exam.

What I have:
First Aid
Lippincott Pharm and Biochem
Clinical Micro Made Rid. Simple.
Goljan RR Path
Robins Path (using it to study for classes, RR for usmle review)
Clinical Neuro Made Rid. Simple
BRS Physio
Kaplan Q Bank (+ USMLE world when I get closer)

I'm not sure on what to get for a few subjects. I was thinking about getting HY Neuro and reading that instead of the neuro book I have because I see more about HY than CNMRS.

Not sure if I should get HY Mol. and Cell Bio or RR micro + immuno. Is a separate Immuno book even necessary or will it be covered enough in what I already have?

As far as histology is concerned, I was thinking about BRS Histo, but again I'm not sure if a separate histo book would even be necessary or feasible to cover with everything else I'll already have.

I've seen quite a bit of praise about Brenner's pharm cards. Apparently Lipincott's pharm is too dense and Brenner's does the job sufficiently.

Not sure what I should get for Embryology - HY, BRS, or is FA enough? I should mention that my school doesn't really teach that much embryo, not sure why.

Again, not sure what to get for Behavioral Sciences - HY, RR, BRS?

And for anatomy, I'm assuming FA is enough....or is my assumption incorrect?

Any advice or suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated.
I apologize for the long post and for those of you that are going to repeat what you've probably said many times before.

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[scotties123]

Anyone?

 

[dr.kicia]

hey scotties123, i am taking COMLEX step 1(not sure if i will be taking USMLE yet) june 15th and my material base looks similar to yours...

i based my material choice on what i research online and friends who have taken boards already and did exceptionally well.

throughout my class time i have been using FA aid quite a bit since it's a great review...i also used RR biochem and highly highly recommend it (especially if you are a visual learner)...i have their anatomy book as well and i love it because it has embryo in it too...and it's like biochem very nicely and visually organized...RR behavioral is really good too.

my school has hooked us up with kaplan online course and so i am using qbank for now till march or so and then will get UW also...and i have been watching videos for pharm, path and physio during my studies for system exams at school (honestly don't know what i would do without physio videos...dr.fisher is amazing and he makes you remeber stuff)...and i have to say pharm is amazing too!

another thing that i really find helpful so far is goljan audio lectures and pass program videos and notes i got from my friend, if you could get your hands on those it will REALLY help...goljan is amazing, i love his way of teaching because he is quite amusing and gives "a story" not just dry facts which makes it easy to remember all the info...and pass program is good to tie everything together and get a big picture and teach you how to connect everything you know to approach questions.

what i am also using is michigan u website for anatomy---> http://anatomy.med.umich.edu/courseinfo/video_index.html (thats what my friend used and he killed the boards)...they have quizzes online with explanations to all the answers and it's free...in my opinion super HY material...my friend used it without any other anatomy prep and did amazingly good on anatomy questions.

i think what is most important is FA...going thru it at least few times and doing UW or qbank daily...everyone i asked said to not to use too many books, just pick few sources and stick to them, because too much material is overkill and you will just end up jumping around books but not really learning the information...

i think closer to the test i will be getting DIT too...heard a lot of good opinions about it.

good luck

 

[scotties123]

Thanks for the info, I really appreciate it. I think I may need to get a more detailed embryo book because my school barely teaches it at all. I have access to the goljan lectures and I've also heard great things about them. That website would have been an amazing resource during 1st year anatomy lab, but I need something with a bit more writing to review anatomy. I've heard FA is enough for anatomy and I don't want to overload myself like you said, so I think I may end up sticking to that for now.

 

[McGillGrad]

Although embryo is showing up more and more, you shouldn't go much further than what is covered in FA, RR Goljan, and UW questions. Most embryo (and most anatomy) covered on the step is directly related to pathology or pathophysiology.

 

[dienekes88]

I know I'm the 10 millionth person to post a thread like this, but after a LOT of searching (both with google and on this forum) I could really use some help here. I'm taking the exam in June and I wanted to start looking over some stuff for about 7 or so hours/week until I get closer to the exam.

What I have:
First Aid
Lippincott Pharm and Biochem
Clinical Micro Made Rid. Simple.
Goljan RR Path
Robins Path (using it to study for classes, RR for usmle review)
Clinical Neuro Made Rid. Simple
BRS Physio
Kaplan Q Bank (+ USMLE world when I get closer)

I'm actually in a similar place as you are, so take what I say with many grains of salt.

I have pretty much everything you have except Clinical Neuro.

HY Embryo, HY Neuroanatomy, HY Gross Anatomy, and HY Biochemistry. I'm using them as books for skimming in order to create context, something that First Aid doesn't do... since it's supposed to be for straight review of high yield facts rather than real learning.

I'm reading BRS Pathology and RR Pathology along with class. RR Pathology goes into mechanisms. BRS Pathology seems to be more of a "see this"... "think that" type book. If I could do it again, I might not actually get BRS Path. However, I do like that I can read the same thing multiple times in different ways. I'm not very smart, so it helps me.

I'm not sure on what to get for a few subjects. I was thinking about getting HY Neuro and reading that instead of the neuro book I have because I see more about HY than CNMRS.

Not sure if I should get HY Mol. and Cell Bio or RR micro + immuno. Is a separate Immuno book even necessary or will it be covered enough in what I already have?

For Micro, I'm going to use Micro Made Ridic Simple + FA + Microcards.

For Immuno, I'm going to use BRS Path, FA... and maybe skim Sompayrac "How the Immune System Works." I'll reread parts of Parham "The Immune System" if I have to do it.

As far as histology is concerned, I was thinking about BRS Histo, but again I'm not sure if a separate histo book would even be necessary or feasible to cover with everything else I'll already have.

Interesting. I hadn't really thought about Histo.

I've seen quite a bit of praise about Brenner's pharm cards. Apparently Lipincott's pharm is too dense and Brenner's does the job sufficiently.

Brenner's alright. I'm not really sure if it has everything, though. I haven't correlated it to FA yet.

I've been trying to do flashcards, memorize my school's pharm syllabus, and do a reasonable read of Lippincott (not just a skim job and not laboring over everything).

Not sure what I should get for Embryology - HY, BRS, or is FA enough? I should mention that my school doesn't really teach that much embryo, not sure why.

Again, not sure what to get for Behavioral Sciences - HY, RR, BRS?

And for anatomy, I'm assuming FA is enough....or is my assumption incorrect?

Any advice or suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated.
I apologize for the long post and for those of you that are going to repeat what you've probably said many times before.

I'd rather have an embarrassment of riches in terms of study materials as opposed to a dearth. In fact, I may get some of the clinical vignettes books.

You're probably much smarter than I am, but I seem to have to read about the same topic 7x from 3 different sources in order to remember it.

 

[dienekes88]

Oh. I'm also going to get a 3 wolves shirt.

 

[scotties123]

Thanks for the input guys. McGill, I'm just a bit worried because I have almost zero embryo because of my course material. Diene, the more I ask around the more I hear that you don't need much for Anatomy, unless you did poorly in the course. There seems to be a concensus that FA is enough for it. And I have to read things a bunch of times too. That's kind of what's worrying me about the boards. There are all these books to get through and I want to read each one at least 2-3 times to make sure I understand the info. Looks like my current plan of 6hrs/wk until I get closer needs to be changed to 12/wk. But, of course that means I'll be taking a hit in how much time I have to study for my current classes. Decisions, decisions...

 

[dienekes88]

Thanks for the input guys. McGill, I'm just a bit worried because I have almost zero embryo because of my course material. Diene, the more I ask around the more I hear that you don't need much for Anatomy, unless you did poorly in the course. There seems to be a concensus that FA is enough for it. And I have to read things a bunch of times too. That's kind of what's worrying me about the boards. There are all these books to get through and I want to read each one at least 2-3 times to make sure I understand the info. Looks like my current plan of 6hrs/wk until I get closer needs to be changed to 12/wk. But, of course that means I'll be taking a hit in how much time I have to study for my current classes. Decisions, decisions...

Well, I'm trying to make studying for classes part of studying for Boards.

Right now, I'm in cardiology pathophys/pharm, so I'm doing the Brenner's cards for cardiovascular pharm (anytime I go anywhere, I have these in my pocket), FA cardiology (read x2?), RR Path (hopefully read x2), BRS Path, BRS Physio (x1), Pathophysiology of Heart Disease (hopefully read x2), Kaplan QBank cardiology questions, Lippincott Pharm (hopefully x1). As I get closer, I'll probably try to do most of the UWorld questions.

I've been trying to keep up with the Boards stuff through each section, but I feel like I'm starting to lose some of the material I learned for Microbiology and Immunology. As a result, I'm going to re-read some of the stuff starting this week or next (Sompayrac: How the immune system works, BRS Path: Immune dysfunction, Microbio made ridic, FA: Microbio + Immuno). I've already started going through my flashcards for Microbio (I use Anki).

The benefit of starting this early is that I feel like it's all just at the edge of my memory, so it'll be a quick review.

Trying to fit all of this into studying for the cardiac pathophys and cardiac pharm exams... well, I think there's a considerable overlap. I'm at a Pass/Fail school, so I don't really care about my absolute score. My old method used to be going through my notes on the slides x5 and the reading x2, but I'm thinking I'll be focusing more on Boards review, so it'll be notes/slides x3, reading x2 + boards review.

Man, if I don't pass the Boards with this schedule, I'm going to quit medicine!