Pharmacology and the USMLE Step 1

[neilc]

i am planning on taking my step 1 in august 2003. the issue i have is that i want to take it at the end of that summer because i will have 3 months clinical experience and all my basic science will be fresh. the only prob is that i will have only completed 1 semester (out of 2) of Pharmacology. i am wondering how possible it will be. i feel comfortable reviewing it on my own, i just want to be sure that it is not a stupid, stupid idea. the choice is basically take it then or 1 year later, because i want to give myself the summer to study, and not have to worry about class...any thoughts?

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[squeek]

Hi--I'm a MSII, and I'll be doing basically the same thing. At my school, pharm isn't a separate course. It's taught as part of the organ system--i.e., when you study GI, you learn the drugs. It's an okay system, but we haven't covered everything, and my classmates and I will be learning most of it on our own prior to the boards in May. Students at our school have done this for the last 5 years, and they've all done well on the boards. So don't worry--you'll do great.

 

[wvshootr]

If you haven't covered it all, you will probably be ok. I would recommend using lippencott's pharmacology review book (the red one), which is really good and very suitable to what you need for USMLE. Even if you haven't had all of pharm, if you do this book, which isn't hard to get through, you should be ok.

 

[neilc]

thanks for the info...it is good to hear. so, i just have to learn one more class on my own...the peril of not attending lectures! but, i have got this far, eh....

 

[TAZPOTE]

Neil, i was just wondering, are you a native Czech?Because i know Charles University has english programm for foreigner students, too. Actually,i was to come there before i ended up here.