Many different study materials for step 1

[interprimos]

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I'm an international medical graduate intending to write usmle step 1 in the upcoming months. However, I'm at a loss as to what study materials would be best that would give me the information and techniques that I need to pass the exam. I currently have the BRS series and the high yield series. I also have first aid. Also I've been told to use kaplan qbank, nbme online questions and usmleworld. Right now I'm feeling overwhelmed cos I have different materials from different sources and I need help in getting myself organized. I'd appreciate advice from those whose written this exam or who are currently going thru it.

 

[Law2Doc]

I'm an international medical graduate intending to write usmle step 1 in the upcoming months. However, I'm at a loss as to what study materials would be best that would give me the information and techniques that I need to pass the exam. I currently have the BRS series and the high yield series. I also have first aid. Also I've been told to use kaplan qbank, nbme online questions and usmleworld. Right now I'm feeling overwhelmed cos I have different materials from different sources and I need help in getting myself organized. I'd appreciate advice from those whose written this exam or who are currently going thru it.

Create a schedule that coordinates with the chapters in First Aid. Build in everything else in accoordance with the subjects covered by that schedule. Make sure you do questions every day. Rinse, repeat.

 

[Hallm_7]

Just took mine today, so I don't know how I did (although it felt like it went well......but I've been wrong before). Here's what I did and what many people do:

Use First Aid (get 2006 or newer since it's in organ system format instead of basic science discipline format) as your central resource. Then take a few books that are specialized and annotate FA with notes taken from them. For example, I used BRS pathology, BRS phys, and Medical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple. I would have FA open to the cardio phys section as I was going through BRS phys. Anything that seemed important that wasn't in FA but was in BRS I would add in to the margins. The same went for Path. All three of these books were more than adequate in my opinion. I didn't get tested on anything that wasn't in these books.

One pitfall that is easy to fall into is using too many resources. For one, it's expensive. Secondly, getting bogged down in details out of three different path books will use time better spent getting a broader overview of more diseases. Each book will focus on a needless detail for every disease, but they will all cover the important details. Using three books means you still learn the one important thing but you've now also learned three needless things.

From my time going through this I believe First Aid is adequate for biochem, stats, pharm, and embryo/anatomy. The path section needs to be suplemented and the physiology sections need to be supplemented. The bacteriology section needs to be supplemented as well (fungi and viruses is probably adequate).

If I had it to do over again I would get USMLE World. From what people on here say it is more closely aligned with the real test. Qbank focuses on too many small details that never get tested on (the pharm section on qbank is absolutely ridiculous and is so far from what step I is like it's not even funny). Also, World is cheaper I believe. One month of world is $75.

Of course all this is my opinion, and you're going to get a million different opinions from a million different people when it comes to preparation for Step I. However, I think most people would agree the best way to prepare for Step I is by working hard during the first two years. There's a cummulative knowledge that builds over time that you can't just create in the matter of a month or two of cramming.

 

[interprimos]

I'm an international medical graduate intending to write usmle step 1 in the upcoming months. However, I'm at a loss as to what study materials would be best that would give me the information and techniques that I need to pass the exam. I currently have the BRS series and the high yield series. I also have first aid. Also I've been told to use kaplan qbank, nbme online questions and usmleworld. Right now I'm feeling overwhelmed cos I have different materials from different sources and I need help in getting myself organized. I'd appreciate advice from those whose written this exam or who are currently going thru it.

Thanks for the advice. I have another question. I intend to start reviewing biochemistry. However it is very vast and there are lots of infortmation I know I won't be tested on. Do you have any advice as to what to focus on and what I don't have to worry too much about; that way I can the most value out of the time I spend studying. Thank you

 

[Taus]

Thanks for the advice. I have another question. I intend to start reviewing biochemistry. However it is very vast and there are lots of infortmation I know I won't be tested on. Do you have any advice as to what to focus on and what I don't have to worry too much about; that way I can the most value out of the time I spend studying. Thank you

For Biochem, just focus on the topics that are in First Aid. You may need another resource to help clarify whats in FA, but thats really all that is necessary. This does not include Cell & Molecular Biology though.....for that you need to know topics outside of First Aid. In my opinion, the older (1999) edition of High Yield Cell & Molec is among the best and most concise options for this subject

 

[interprimos]

Thanks for all the advice. I'll go with the program and post updates on my progress. However, I have one other question. I intend to suscribe to uworld for practice questions. Do you have any advice as to how I should tackle the questions? I mean, would answering them at random or answering them system-wise be the better approach? Please advise. Thanks.

 

[cdql]

Thanks for all the advice. I'll go with the program and post updates on my progress. However, I have one other question. I intend to suscribe to uworld for practice questions. Do you have any advice as to how I should tackle the questions? I mean, would answering them at random or answering them system-wise be the better approach? Please advise. Thanks.

Everyone always says random is the way to go but if you're just starting off, I personally feel system-wise (i.e. what you just covered that day) is probably a better way to get your feet wet.

I had saved biochem until the end of my review period and I pretty much wasted all the biochem questions when I did random sets as I a) got them all wrong and then b) quickly skimmed over the explanation as I had no idea what they were talking about.

 

[Taus]

Thanks for all the advice. I'll go with the program and post updates on my progress. However, I have one other question. I intend to suscribe to uworld for practice questions. Do you have any advice as to how I should tackle the questions? I mean, would answering them at random or answering them system-wise be the better approach? Please advise. Thanks.

I decided to do it both ways and would reccommend doing that if you have the time. As I went through the information for the 1st time, I did questions by individual subjects and/or systems. As I started going through the info for the 2nd time I only did questions in random and timed blocks of 50.

 

[Law2Doc]

I decided to do it both ways and would reccommend doing that if you have the time. As I went through the information for the 1st time, I did questions by individual subjects and/or systems. As I started going through the info for the 2nd time I only did questions in random and timed blocks of 50.

I liked this approach as well. Otherwise it can be forever before you reinforce what you learned in the early subjects since the later subjects (if you follow first aid) are much more frequently asked at random since they are a larger percentage of the question bank.

 

[WhoisJohnGalt]

I decided to do it both ways and would reccommend doing that if you have the time. As I went through the information for the 1st time, I did questions by individual subjects and/or systems. As I started going through the info for the 2nd time I only did questions in random and timed blocks of 50.

I second this method. I also occasionally did q's for all the subjects I had covered up to that point on my first run through, so that I could get sorta used to "random" blocks without having to waste a bunch of questions/time on stuff I haven't covered. As far as I know, most of the major qbanks allow you to do that (e.g. if you've only covered Anatomy, Biochem, & Embryo, you can just select those three).

 

[domer621]

I decided to do it both ways and would reccommend doing that if you have the time. As I went through the information for the 1st time, I did questions by individual subjects and/or systems. As I started going through the info for the 2nd time I only did questions in random and timed blocks of 50.

👍

Doing random q's from the beginning of my studying would have driven me insane and "wasted" a lot of q's, as cdql described. I did them randomly only after I had gone through review books once.

 

[interprimos]

I signed up for uworld like I said I would and just completed a block of 50 biochemistry questions, untimed. I scored 38%, which isn't impressive at all. Thing is, some of the questions there are funny. On some of the questions, I have no idea what they are talking about and on some of them I just didn't know what approach I was to use to reason out the answer. Anyway, I plan to review this block. I hope the next one gets better.

 

[blz]

don't do subject based tests on usmleworld or later on when you try to do 'random' questions, they won't be that random because you will already have exhausted a lot of topics. what i did was use kaplan qbank as a subject based bank, then i used usemlworld for random questions only when i was ready for them. it was a good strategy for me because kaplan tends to drill the nitpicky details which is very helpful when you want to test yourself on how well you know a subject.