How helpful is FA really?

[Jonari]

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Just curious, but I've been reading FA and it's great, but just dawned out of curiosity. What makes FA so great? Out of the so many UWorld questions I've done, I'd say maybe 10 questions have come straight from FA.

Knowing FA cold inside-out to the point, it's memorized - does it really have much benefit?

 

[exudate]

Yes!!! If you have it memorized, you are going to do really well on the exam!! FA is not referred to as the bible for step 1 for nothing! After having taken the exam, I have a few regrets, and one of them is not having to go through first aid a couple more times! So try to know FA inside and out. And during the last week before the test, go through entire first aid!

 

[Kaputt]

Virtually every fact in First Aid for Step 1 is fair game. While memorizing FA cover-to-cover is impractical, knowing most of the information covered in FA will serve you well.

 

[Ronin786]

First Aid is the bomb for Step 1. I didn't imagine this before taking the test, but absolutely everything you need to get a good grade is found in First Aid. First Aid gives you the facts, and UWorld teaches you how to use them.

 

[Jonari]

First Aid is the bomb for Step 1. I didn't imagine this before taking the test, but absolutely everything you need to get a good grade is found in First Aid. First Aid gives you the facts, and UWorld teaches you how to use them.

Interesting. Thanks for the informative post, along with the others. How many times did you read it prior to your exam. My exam is 5 weeks from tomorrow. I'm hoping I can get 5 thorough reads in by test day.

 

[MedFarmer]

I don't understand how people can read FA in 1 week "thoroughly" unless they are not getting the nitty little details or on their last week of studying and have already "mastered" the material.

Personally i would read it once before doing uworld, do uworld while reading FA a second time, then a final 3rd round of FA post-uworld is ideal. if you have an extra week than I could understand FA x4 but how can someone finish it 5x without missing details like Riluzole as a treatment for ALS or sodium oxybate for narcolepsy?

 

[Jonari]

I don't understand how people can read FA in 1 week "thoroughly" unless they are not getting the nitty little details or on their last week of studying and have already "mastered" the material.

Personally i would read it once before doing uworld, do uworld while reading FA a second time, then a final 3rd round of FA post-uworld is ideal. if you have an extra week than I could understand FA x4 but how can someone finish it 5x without missing details like Riluzole as a treatment for ALS or sodium oxybate for narcolepsy?

I should've clarified that I've read it 4 times already, but that was using the 2010 First Aid. I go to a Caribbean school, which gives us a CBSSA before we leave from our final semester. I honestly didn't find FA that helpful when answering the questions. So just wanted to see what people that about using it for preparing for the Step.

 

[12thMan]

First Aid is the bomb for Step 1. I didn't imagine this before taking the test, but absolutely everything you need to get a good grade is found in First Aid. First Aid gives you the facts, and UWorld teaches you how to use them.

Totally agree...my first few question blocks on UW I thought to myself "this s**t was no where in FA!!!". Turns out, it was all there, word for word in most cases, I just didn't think it was important stuff so I had barely even glanced at it.

UW is all based off of FA...I just hope the real exam is too.

 

[viper930]

FA is the nizzles. Not sure what world OP is living in if you think only 10 UWorld answers were directly material from FA. More like 10...out of 12

 

[TrainingMD]

First aid worked best for me when I annotated it while I was using UWorld. I would write a short note (7 words or less) in the margins of FA of the section on which that question was likely based. It helped during the intensive study period to go back and see the first aid text along with my UWorld based notes. As far as just reading FA like a textbook, I did not find it that helpful. Some people would take notes from second year in their FA but by the end of second year, their FA looked like a mess.