Only Use First Aid And Qbank????????

[drseanlive]

so a number of MS3s have been advising me to ditch the review books and focus solely on first aid and many questions...they say i should easily be able to score a 230+ with this method since most of what will be read in review books will be details that i will forget anyway....

has anyone done this? what was your experience?

I am the type of person who likes to use as few sources as possible and to know them well....so i'm thinking this may not be a bad option for me....the other thing i was thinking was simply to read through the 4-5 review books once and make relevant notes in first aid....THEN just focus on first aid and questions...i mentioned this idea to the 3rd years and they said it was a waste of time to touch the review books....

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[lord_jeebus]

I think it's a risky strategy. If you score 230+ with it, you probably have the potential to do extremely well with a more aggressive strategy. If you are this sort of person, your grades to this point have likely been towards the top of your class.

Some people I know or have seen on this forum have reported using this strategy with very disappointing results.

 

[underthebridge]

yes you can definitely do this, but the thing people forget to mention is that it's only possible if you already have a good foundation for the knowledge. So you would still need to hit the review books for questions you didn't understand or topics you weren't particularly good on.

 

[Blesbok]

If you were a great student, you could score a 230+ with first aid and UW, but if you were a great student you could do that without anything.

What i am trying to say is that it all depends on the person and how much they know from memory, but if you want to score the best score possible, then you are going to need more than just UW and first aid.

 

[mudphudwannabe]

I was in a similar boat, I think - I wanted to use a minimum number of resources for budget reasons, because I didn't want to overwhelm myself, and also because I had a pretty limited timeframe for studying (3 weeks). I think just adding BRS Path and BRS Phys would add a lot to your plan. First Aid is a good resource, but as is said over and over again..it's meant to be used as a guide for your studying, not your sole resource. I am fairly good at retaining information and did pretty well in my classes. FA combined with BRS Path and BRS Phys was just the right amount of detail. If you have significant weak spots, you'll probably want something a little more in depth than BRS Path/Phys for those areas.

Step 1 isn't so much about "doing enough" so that you can get a particular score. You'll want to really do your best and not be limited by that kind of thinking. You need to feel confident that you have completed a thorough review. This means different things for different people, so I think what's really important is that you really take a hard look at what you have learned in 1st and 2nd year as well as your test taking abilities and see what gaps you might need to fill.

 

[AK_MD2BE]

I believe that the people who state, "Just use First Aid and a Q-bank" and you should get a 230+ generally fall into one of two categories:
1. They are incredibly intelligent people who have the ability to not only retain information extremely well, but also think through some of the difficult 3-4 step thinking questions that are on the exam (i.e. those who scored 36+ on the MCAT and are just incredibly blessed intellectually)
2. People who studied INCREDIBLY HARD over the first two years, and as a result, are near the top of their class.
My point: people who give this advice are not trying to mislead anybody...they just dont realize that they are extremely far ahead of the rest of us mere mortals (i.e. 30-34 MCAT at middle tier medical schools)
Like Jeebus, I have also heard of numerous people who have heeded this advice and fell significantly short of their goals. Don't overload yourself w/books, but don't limit yourself either. Good luck.