MedEssentials vs. the incumbent FA

[TheHairyDrummer]

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I'm thinking I will grab the new edition of Kaplan's MedEssentials for my step 1 preparation. I have a FA already, but I have heard some good things about KME from people at my school who got Home Study.

Has anyone else dared to compare? Fanboys/girls need not apply, just looking for some honest feedback if anyone has checked out both. At the very least, I will report back after I get a chance to look at them side by side.

 

[DragonWell]

I flipped through med essentials at the book store, and I think it looks pretty good - I don't doubt that someone using the book with the right supplemental resources could bury Step 1. However, I don't really see an advantage to using both med essentials AND First aid.

The advice of most of the Step one heavy hitters on this board is to pick a few, key resources and know them very well ie. read each book a few to many times and essentially memorize it. Since I'm already comfortable with first aid, I just don't feel the need to add another comprehensive review book to the mix.

 

[TheHairyDrummer]

@DragonWell:

Right, I definitely agree about there being no point to use both FA and MedEssentials. I bought FA at the beginning of 1st year and have kind of used it on and off for a few classes. When I looked at MedEssentials in the store the other day, the more "table-ified" setup caught my eye, and so I think I am going to make the switch. If I end up hating it, I'll pawn it back on Amazon and switch back to FA since I have some time still.

Thoughts from others?

 

[osli]

I thumbed through a MedEssentials courtesy of a friend who is going the Kaplan route, and it looks pretty thorough. I didn't particularly care for the layout, however... the tables and diagrams almost look "too dense" and I could seem myself thinking I knew a table well but really didn't.

What I love about FA are the horizontal lines separating ideas/topics/microorganisms/drugs/etc. Each little nugget of thought gets its own little section. Some are obviously more detailed and complex than others, but none are more than half a page... most much smaller. I like the idea of being able to go through FA and when I "really" know a little block (all the details, really understand it, etc.) I can put a check in the corner. That makes it a lot easier when going back through to know where to put more time. I don't see an easy way to look at a dense one page table that has tons of stuff in it to memorize and be able to quickly assess what I do and don't remember and understand in that table.