Just start USMLE- step I--need help

[susansusan]

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I just plan to prepare step I. I am busy in buying books and cds for step I.

(1) Would u plz let me know which books and cds are suitable for different subject in step I? It will be quite helpful if u may seperatly discuss it.
(2)And which studying order is nice arrangement for step I. (such as someone mention in post-- put molecular/genetics/immunology at last...?) How long each part?

Greatly appreciate ur kindly help. And looking forward ur relpy. My e-mail: [email protected]

Looking forward ur reply.

Best Wishes

susan

😀

 

[irlandesa]

hi there,

I will also be tackling Step 1 in early June, wish you all the best of luck. My understanding is that the most heavily covered topics are the "3 P's", Physiology (for each organ system), Pathology (each organ system), and Pharmacology (most drugs are fair game; I would guess anti-hypertensives and antibiotics are among the most heavily emphasized and drug interactions are very important)., followed by Epi/Biostat, Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Behavioral Science. "Lower Yeild Topics" which are also covered are Anatomy, Embryology, and Histology. I'm re-teaching the material to myself in order of importance on the exam, with an emphasis on general disease and pharmacologic mechanisms, and learning the most common presentations of clinical conditions that are likely to show up on the boards.

3 books strongly recommended by my school:
1)USMLE First Aid
2)BRS Physiology, Costanzo (blue checkered paperback)
3)BRS Pathology, red checkered book, Schneider and Szanto.
I have found all 3 to be excellent, even though I've just started reviewing really.

I also find my old copy of Robbins' Pathologic Basis of Disease helpful for reviewing images at times.

Kaplan Q-Bank questions are a must according to many on here, and I think it will be very helpful practice. you can go to www.kaplan.com and follow the medical link for more information. once again, best of luck.

 

[vitaminj]

I agree with the last post. All of the books that person listed are very good. I would also add that I watched many of the Kaplan videos and thought for the most part they were very helpful. It was nice hearing all of that material again instead of sitting down and trying to read it.

The Kaplan videos I recommend are:
1. Physiology
2. Pathology
3. Immunology
4. Behavioral Science

Also I think that getting the Kaplan Q-bank is a very solid investment...there is something like 2000 questions and they are very representative of the types of questions you will see.

In studying I tried to watch as many videos as I could in the months leading up to the boards (feb, march, april). I took them in June so I had 4 solid weeks of just library review and q-bank. The last month block off a schedule and try your best to stick to it. You know path for 4 days, pharm 3 days, anatomy 2. Stuff like that. Just as a side bar I wouldn't waste my time with anatomy or embryo...all combined I think I had 4 questions and I probably would have got them if I didn't study it. First aid is what you want to be doing the days leading up to the exam.

As for emphasis...I can only speak for my test...I felt as though I had a lot of micro/immuno and physio. Obviously path was the most...but more immuno than I expected.

Just put as much effort into it as you can and I am sure you will be fine.

Good Luck 🙂

 

[Neuron Doctrine]

My recs:

BRS series for Phys, Path, Behav Sci.

High Yield series for Anatomy and Embryo (surprizing how often that came up).

Ridiculously Simple for Micro.

Lippincott for Pharm, although it's not a quick review.

Biochem-- I didn't find a good source; focus on specific deficiency syndromes (as listed in First Aid), and only the key regulatory steps in important pathways.

Use First Aid as a guide-- see what's covered there, and go a little deeper.

Questions: The software they give you has the closest examples-- they are pretty much exactly like the exam Qs. All other sources that I found were different-- use those for review, but NOT to gauge your progress. I found I did much better on the real exam than on any review bank, except, as said, the 150 Qs on the USMLE software.

Order of review: Basically, study the things you are strong on first, then lead into the things you are weaker on, so they are fresher in your mind when you take the exam. Also, leave the crammable stuff for the very end (for me, this was the biochem).

Basically, try to pace it so that by about a week before the exam, you're pretty much done with big review; then spend that last week brousing through first aid, memorizing trivia and filling in holes as you find them.

Good luck.

 

[theodore]

Hi there,
I took step1 quite recently,and these are my recommendations:
1)First aid for sure
2)Brs pathology
3)Brs physiology(although i think first aid coupled with lots of diagram-based questions was enough for my test)
4)Katzung's review for the boards
5)Micro made ridiculously simple
6)High yield biochem
7)Pretest:every title that you can find
8)NMS review for step1, Appleton-lange review for step1(especially the physiology section was excellent).
9)Q bank( the only thing i did during the last month)
Don't worry about anatomy, histology,embryology. First aid is more than enough, considering there will be 2-3 q's from these disciplines put together.
I didn't study behavioural thoroughly, just took a glimpse on High yield behavioural science, but I found q bank was helpful, since there were quite a few q's about "what to say, what to do"in given situations.
About the order:1st pathology,2nd physiology,3rd pharma,4th micro,5th all the remaining. This was the order of importance of each subject in my exam, at least.
Everyone says that the cd they give you is the most representative. I haven't received my results yet, but this wasn't so much true in my exam. I found the cd's questions much more straightforward and"classic"than my exam. There were toooo many indirect-2 step or 3 step q's in my test, which wasn't true in the USMLE cd.
Be prepared for many multi step questions. In about half of mine, I had to read through tones of info that helped in the diagnosis, only to be given the diagnosis in the last 2 lines and be asked something totally different.
Hope it was helpful,
Theodore