Is 4th year too early to buy MKSAP 16?

[Recettear]

Now that I am done with all my tests I feel as though my brain is wasting away. I'm reading Harrison's and the NEJM but I feel like my time could be better used with other materials.

I mean I spent nearly $400 throughout 3rd year on uworld, so I don't really see what difference it makes if I blow that on something I'll probably use in two years anyway.

What does everyone else think? Could I use my time better elsewhere?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[IMPD]

yes. Get a subscription to Annals and read the Journal Club. That stuff is the best. Seriously.

 

[NewYorkDoctors]

As an R1 who has bought MKSAP 16 early and gone through it all (and now am moving onto EBM based articles), I will say this was a very good investment because it made me more cognizant of the nuances of diagnosis and treatment (not taught in med school or USMLE) and gave me a good baseline fund of knowledge to work with so I am less dependent on my R2/R3 for everything and can properly assess how to do basic things.

I WOULD advise you to get it early as you will be ahead of the game (in the sense that you will know more and will be able to start doing EBM related activities earlier on with a fund of knowledge to work with)


Others may say go take a vacation in your fourth year... I would say that too... but any spare time to get ahead of the game and provide more efficient patient care, then go for it.

 

[legionella]

NewYorkDoctors, do you find MKSAP useful for clinical practice day-to-day on the floors as an intern? I was under the impression that MKSAP was more for studying for the ABIM boards?

I'm hesitant to buy MKSAP now when some residency programs give their residents a subscription for free- seems like it could be a waste of over $300. Any other suggestions of useful things to read during my spare time in 4th year that will help me hit the ground running as an intern?

(And to the people who will say "take a vacation"- don't worry, I will definitely be doing plenty of that. But there are times when I have to be at my medical school for a bogus rotation that takes up a little of my time every day but leaves me with lots of free time. And I figure I might as well do something productive in that time so I'm not flailing around hopelessly as an intern.)

 

[Instatewaiter]

NewYorkDoctors, do you find MKSAP useful for clinical practice day-to-day on the floors as an intern? I was under the impression that MKSAP was more for studying for the ABIM boards?

I'm hesitant to buy MKSAP now when some residency programs give their residents a subscription for free- seems like it could be a waste of over $300. Any other suggestions of useful things to read during my spare time in 4th year that will help me hit the ground running as an intern?

(And to the people who will say "take a vacation"- don't worry, I will definitely be doing plenty of that. But there are times when I have to be at my medical school for a bogus rotation that takes up a little of my time every day but leaves me with lots of free time. And I figure I might as well do something productive in that time so I'm not flailing around hopelessly as an intern.)

So I am not condoning this but:
Mksap 15 was able to be used without the cd so you could easily find a bootleg version. Mksap 16 is expensive and by the time you are ready to take the abim mksap 17 will out. Perhaps you could talk to some upper class men at your home IM program or some on sdn that may have access to that kind of stuff.

 

[Trogghunter]

I got mksap 15 (2009) from family for free and I've not run into anything there that is lacking, having read 1/10 of it. It's a generation ahead of first aid, even the newer versions with updated errata.

 

[NewYorkDoctors]

NewYorkDoctors, do you find MKSAP useful for clinical practice day-to-day on the floors as an intern? I was under the impression that MKSAP was more for studying for the ABIM boards?


Send me a PM *wink wink.

What? I didn't say anything incriminating. You can use your imagination as much as you want.

Learning what clinical practice day to day is indeed something you pick up as you go and gain experience. But if you don't have a proper fund of knowledge (medical school USMLE knowledge by itself is not comprehensive enough), then it gets very disjointed as you go and you may not be able to build up your proper blend of medical knowledge/skill (unless your R2/R3 and attendings are super teaching whizes) in order to maximize patient care and your own development.

I felt my development had accelerated as a result of doing this. From being hapless on the floors to being praised as at R2 level by my attendings 5 months into PGy1 year (and my R2/R3s have been chilling out each time I do floors with them)

 

[NewYorkDoctors]

There's also a MKSAP 16 Audio Companion in which a physician host talks with 11 different specialists about topics in the books. They do not simply read off the book, they discuss their personal experience as well as EBM. What I listen to on the drive to work I get my attendings to think I actually read all of those papers.

PM me again.. *wink wink*

What? I didn't say anything.