I am considering purchasing a set of Kaplan STEP 1 books to use during medical school. Would anyone advise against using step 1 books as supplemental material during medical school?
I figured it wouldn't hurt to use them since they are used to help students for the exam anyway.
OP,
To answer your original question: I personally would use Step 1 books as supplemental sources during medical school; however, you need to be cautious. Books written for Step 1 review are exactly that:
review books. As such, they may not give you the entire story. You need to make sure you are consulting textbooks or other thorough resources during your first exposure to things but use the review book to judge what you really need to know for the long term. I think they are useful in that you can judge what is worth devoting extra time to during your coursework and what you only need to know for your upcoming tests and not for Step 1. If I could do it over again I actually would have used First Aid all throughout my first year in order to judge which concepts were high yield and which had little probability of showing up on Step 1. I'm going through First Aid with my 2nd year systems now so that I know which topics I need to know backwards and forwards.
How do I know which companies specialize in certain subjects? Should I just search in the forums for suggestions?
The standard resources are First Aid, Goljan RR Pathology/Pathoma and BRS Physiology (as well as UWorld as a question bank, but that's later on). Pathoma is new and has been getting really great reviews on SDN, though I haven't checked it out myself so I can't comment on the text. I personally love Goljan and, since he has a track record of proving to be very high yield and helpful for Step 1, I'm sticking with his texts. As for other subjects, BRS Physiology is the condensed version of Dr. Linda Costanza's original physiology text (which I have) and is the gold standard for physiology review. Her original text is easy to read and follow along. I consult the text often and, since I would assume BRS Physiology is similar, would recommend one or the other. You won't be disappointed. I have Lippincott's Biochemisty and I find it to be an awesome book. It gives you the full-on explanation without getting too caught up in specifics. The illustrations are also
phenomenal (probably the best part of the text if you ask me). It is somewhat clinically slanted, although it doesn't go into as much detail as I would like on the clinical side. If I am learning about a disease and it has an associated biochemical pathway, enzyme, etc. and I'm having trouble remembering details, I will usually consult Lippincott's and it clears things right up for me. If I had used it during my first year biochemistry class I can't imagine how easy it would have been. The High Yield series is supposed to be really good for neuroanatomy as well as behavioral sciences, but I haven't looked at those so I can't comment on that, either. Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simply is a text that many people seem to like for microbiology/virology and the associated pharmacology. I've glanced through the book and I like it but I haven't purchased it because I'm not sure that I would use it. I find myself doing well in microbiology so I'm just sticking with what is in First Aid.
