USMLE Help please!! USMLE Step 1 Content

[futuredoc0404]

What resources do you use to study content for Step 1? I have FA which is a great resource for content outline and organization, and I understand the importance of various question banks and am utilizing those as well. What resources in terms of books or online sources do you recommend in terms of actual content though outside of the FA outline, including if most of the material feels like it essentially needs to be re-learned? I am an IMG graduate needing to do very well on Step 1 now to try to get a U.S. residency, most of this content feels like it is in the distant past and I don't feel like my school's curriculum did a great job of preparing for this in the first place. Any help much appreciated, thanks in advance!!

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[USMLE_Pro]

For my tutoring students, I always recommend UWorld Qbank, UWorld SIM Forms, NBME Self Assessments, First Aid, and Pathoma. You may not need anything beyond that, but there is some individual variability. What matters most honestly is how well you utilize these core resources, many people spend hundreds of hours memorizing First Aid but I've found that to be an unwise approach.

 

[Redbarron21]

• Main source (First Aid: for the USMLE Step 1)
• Main question bank (USMLE World vs Kaplan Qbank)
  • I used USMLE World and most people I have talked to recommend USMLE World stating that it is more representative of the Step 1 exam however this is mostly personal preference and anecdotal advice. I'm not aware of any studies comparing Step 1 score and UWorld vs Kaplan Qbank use.
  • Some of my colleagues went through both of the above question banks.
• NBME Practice Exams
• Supplement sources: Go through these study sources when you are taking each individual course. (There are tons of supplement sources but I will recommend a few)
  • Pathology: Pathoma book & videos vs Goljan audio lectures and notes.
    • I personally used pathoma book and video series which is amazing b/c it breaks down the mechanism of action behind pathology facts.
    • I am a visual learner so I went with pathoma video series over Goljans audio series.
  • Microbiology: Sketchy micro (mnemonic based videos)
  • Anatomy: Netters book (reference only)
  • Pharmacology: Sketchy pharm (mnemonic based videos)
  • Video Series Overview: Doctors in Training (DIT) vs Kaplan Videos
    • I used DIT and liked this series b/c they went through First Aid in order (which was my main study source)

 

[USMLE_Pro]

My main source for content: UWorld explanations & NBME practices tests (for the latter, you will have to cross reference with FA to understand). Pathoma is also a must. I didn't use anything else beyond these resources though.

 

[RadDocGoneBadDoc]

For my tutoring students, I always recommend UWorld Qbank, UWorld SIM Forms, NBME Self Assessments, First Aid, and Pathoma. You may not need anything beyond that, but there is some individual variability. What matters most honestly is how well you utilize these core resources, many people spend hundreds of hours memorizing First Aid but I've found that to be an unwise approach.

I agree with the resources above....you would rather master 5-6 great resources, than spread yourself too thin over too many resources and retain even less.

 

[836780]

For my tutoring students, I always recommend UWorld Qbank, UWorld SIM Forms, NBME Self Assessments, First Aid, and Pathoma. You may not need anything beyond that, but there is some individual variability. What matters most honestly is how well you utilize these core resources, many people spend hundreds of hours memorizing First Aid but I've found that to be an unwise approach.

For the bold part above and your other comment "My main source for content: UWorld explanations & NBME practices tests."

Why?

Seems like the majority recommend reading FA, pathoma and MEMORIZING them, first to get a foundation, ... then doing the qbanks and leaving UWORLD and self assessments last.

Thank you.

 

[USMLE_Pro]

For the bold part above and your other comment "My main source for content: UWorld explanations & NBME practices tests."

Why?

Seems like the majority recommend reading FA, pathoma and MEMORIZING them, first to get a foundation, ... then doing the qbanks and leaving UWORLD and self assessments last.

Thank you.

The majority of people in general recommend that, or the majority of people scoring a 250 or even 260+ on Step 1? Most of the people I know who did really well on Step 1 focused on questions. I think I was able to spend a lot less time studying, relative to the score that I got, because I took a more targeted approach and avoided trying to memorize FA.

I think the reason people are more comfortable memorizing FA first is that your UW percentage will be higher. It scares people to get a lot of Qbank questions wrong. With my approach, you'll start out scoring really poorly on UW, but gradually improve as you learn from the questions you get wrong. The emotional stimulus of feeling bad about getting a question wrong makes it more likely you'll retain the information related to that question (similar to the way in which you won't forget things you're pimped on).

I do think it's important to do Pathoma in its entirety, but you don't have to memorize Pathoma.

The only thing syou have to memorize are the facts that you don't know that are also likely to be tested (and thus cause you to get questions wrong). The only way to figure out what those facts are is to do questions. What I've found works best for students is to make Anki cards based on questions they get wrong, incorporating FA review by cross-referencing FA when making the cards.

More simply put, if most people are memorizing FA, but not everyone is getting 250+ on Step 1 (and many people getting 250+ are NOT memorizing FA), memorizing FA is clearly neither necessary nor sufficient to score well on Step 1. You do need to memorize a fair amount to do well on Step 1, but blindly memorizing every single page of FA is not the right way to go about this.