USMLE Lost about the USMLE...

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yoyo90

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I start medical school in 2015 and have no idea when to start doing questions from the USMLE World QBank, when to start using USMLE First Aid, and whether or not I should get Pathoma and its videos and when to start those... Help? I appreciate your time and effort :)

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Dear friend, I am a graduated USMLE student. Welcome to med school! First of all, I recommend you to understand and NOT MEMORIZE the stuff you will face, plz. There are a lot of things to learn and definitely out of control if you memorize them. You don't have time for all the material either. So, talk to your advisors to give you a preview of the exams and curriculum first. Then, I personally suggest you to start doing the questions after each section you already studied. USMLE world is the angle powerful (necessary but may not enough for some) tool for your purposes whose questions/answers are educational rather than testing yourself. Make a payment and take a long subscription like for a year (for $420), it's worth it in this case. Then you need to prepare yourself for a 8-hour tiring exhausting exam. Be careful of your nutrition, sleep, breaks between your studies for a long run. Pathoma is a good collection by Robbin's pathology contributor. Mind you there is nothing COMPLETE SOURCE for the USMLE! Pathoma only covers parts of pathology, pretty good stuff though. Dr. Najeeb video lectures are another amazing source of videos and quite cheap and student-friendly for basic training, it really impressed myself. Dr. Lyonel Ramon is another professor and pathologist who owns a 4-day course of integrated cases. Kaplan notes+videos are not really student friendly but important in terms of gathering high-yield stuff.

All of these are based on your weaknesses and your training in med school. You may not need all of them except USMLE WORLD. However, keep in touch with your advisors and professionals in USMLE. Rock on. Good luck with your study.
 
Dear friend, I am a graduated USMLE student. Welcome to med school! First of all, I recommend you to understand and NOT MEMORIZE the stuff you will face, plz. There are a lot of things to learn and definitely out of control if you memorize them. You don't have time for all the material either. So, talk to your advisors to give you a preview of the exams and curriculum first. Then, I personally suggest you to start doing the questions after each section you already studied. USMLE world is the angle powerful (necessary but may not enough for some) tool for your purposes whose questions/answers are educational rather than testing yourself. Make a payment and take a long subscription like for a year (for $420), it's worth it in this case. Then you need to prepare yourself for a 8-hour tiring exhausting exam. Be careful of your nutrition, sleep, breaks between your studies for a long run. Pathoma is a good collection by Robbin's pathology contributor. Mind you there is nothing COMPLETE SOURCE for the USMLE! Pathoma only covers parts of pathology, pretty good stuff though. Dr. Najeeb video lectures are another amazing source of videos and quite cheap and student-friendly for basic training, it really impressed myself. Dr. Lyonel Ramon is another professor and pathologist who owns a 4-day course of integrated cases. Kaplan notes+videos are not really student friendly but important in terms of gathering high-yield stuff.

All of these are based on your weaknesses and your training in med school. You may not need all of them except USMLE WORLD. However, keep in touch with your advisors and professionals in USMLE. Rock on. Good luck with your study.

thank you for all of this information, robotic dock!
should i get usmle FA or not? when should i start using it?
when should i start using usmle world qbank?
when should i start using pathoma?
 
Sure! I think you'd better off if start FA as soon as possible parallel to your med school. Combine Pathoma and bring it to FA. Add some extra papers to your FA. Whatever your school teaches do the FA, Pathoma and USMLE world Qs. This exam prep should be done in a long run. 2 years for step 1 needed Because you have to learn basics for your future practice either, something more than your exam! Any other question if you have?
 
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Sure! I think you'd better off if start FA as soon as possible parallel to your med school. Combine Pathoma and bring it to FA. Add some extra papers to your FA. Whatever your school teaches do the FA, Pathoma and USMLE world Qs. This exam prep should be done in a long run. 2 years for step 1 needed Because you have to learn basics for your future practice either, something more than your exam! Any other question if you have?
so get:
1- usmle FA 2015 edition,
2- pathoma, and
3-usmle world qbank
and use all of them parallel to med school courses, correct?
 
so get:
1- usmle FA 2015 edition,
2- pathoma, and
3-usmle world qbank
and use all of them parallel to med school courses, correct?

Those would be wise come second year. Focus on your first year courses until then. Many of my classmates did use Firecracker and liked it. I didn't want to sink that much time, though.
 
No. Just get FA 2015 and use it with your classes. Pathoma and Uworld solely for 2nd year. FA is the only thing I would recommend for your first year.
 
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