Review Book Questions

[NeuroAP86]

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Hey guys, so I'm beginning to look at review books for Step 1 and have bought some already but I want know the ABSOLUTE MUST book for each subject that you all would recommend. I have searched the forums and it is very scattered variable data. Any help would be appreciated. So far I have picked up these books and this info from reading other posts:

First Aid
BRS Phyiosology
Rapid Review Pathology
High Yield Neuroanatomy

Now besides these, which other subject books do I need? And also, from my school we got the entire Kaplan Lecture notes books, how would you rate these? I find them be very detailed versus FA or High Yield books.

Also I looked at the list from the Taus method, are these up to date as far as how helpful they are for the current USMLE?

Thank you once again!

 

[Mattabet]

Don't buy anything else. Yet.

I think you've got a good core set there. And honestly, people want to go buy things they don't need because it makes you feel more secure to have all the best review stuff. I totally know that feeling.

But honestly, FA is probably going to be your workhorse (unless you're not a FA person), and you'll use the others to fill in gaps. If you find that there's something you don't get, then by all means you may want to go out and add some resource to the pile. But my roommate and I amassed a great pile of primo review swag, and mostly I just used FA and my QBank.

It's kind of like when you get a baby a great toy and he just wants to play with the box. I love the box.

 

[lmesina]

Along the lines of review materials, what about Kaplan's Pharm flashcards? I heard they are good (and of course, are highly recommended by FA2011). I have a set of Lange's, but it seems that each (Lange and Kaplan) cover drugs that the other doesn't. What did you guys use? Any thoughts?

 

[zadiee]

I found reviewing biochem also very helpful. My school didn't teach the core biochem very well (or maybe I wasn't paying attention during the first month of med school, I don't know). There weren't a whole lot of biochem questions in the Q banks (or on Step1 for that matter), but the ones that were there were really detailed - you had to know your stuff.

I actually ended up reading a couple of books:

Lippincott's Biochemistry
Vijay's Underground Guide to Biochemistry

Both were good, but the Underground Guide really came in handy with a lot of boards-relevant high yield facts.

 

[NeuroAP86]

That is what i keep hearing, that FA will be my go to source and I'm the type of person that usually doesn't need to refer to in depth detail since I learned it thoroughly the first time around so I noticed that FA was great at just the quick review that I find to suit my style of learning. As of right now, the only subject I don't feel comfortable in biochem so I have the high yield biochem and using the lecture notes. I'm also a flashcard person with memory subjects like micro/pharm so i'm relying on that I guess. SO the general consensus is that I should use what I have right now and if need be, then I can buy the proper book in a subject that I am weak? Thank you very much people of SDN, always helpful!

 

[jgerard]

I used Vijay's Underground Guide to Biochemistry too and found it really helpful. Actually a lot of high yield stuff for the step 1, not only in biochem, but also relevant to endocrine, renal, repro, and neuro. I know I was remembering all sorts of facts I read in that book as I was taking the exam last month.

 

[NeuroAP86]

where would I be able to find this book? I tried looking but there are no places that sell the book.

I used Vijay's Underground Guide to Biochemistry too and found it really helpful. Actually a lot of high yield stuff for the step 1, not only in biochem, but also relevant to endocrine, renal, repro, and neuro. I know I was remembering all sorts of facts I read in that book as I was taking the exam last month.

 

[dozitgetchahi]

Hey guys, so I'm beginning to look at review books for Step 1 and have bought some already but I want know the ABSOLUTE MUST book for each subject that you all would recommend. I have searched the forums and it is very scattered variable data. Any help would be appreciated. So far I have picked up these books and this info from reading other posts:

First Aid
BRS Phyiosology
Rapid Review Pathology
High Yield Neuroanatomy

Now besides these, which other subject books do I need? And also, from my school we got the entire Kaplan Lecture notes books, how would you rate these? I find them be very detailed versus FA or High Yield books.

Also I looked at the list from the Taus method, are these up to date as far as how helpful they are for the current USMLE?

Thank you once again!

FA and BRS Phys are good to start with (I thought FA was a bit skimpy when it came to physio). I used Goljan RR through the 2nd year blocks as a supplemental path source, but I'm not sure it's essential.

If I were you, I'd be investing in question banks and (possibly) Gunner Training. UW+USMLEConsult+qbank w/FA will get you much farther than buying a pile of random review books that you might not even be able to read enough times to be useful. Plus, the annotation involved with the Taus method is very time-consuming and inefficient.

Lastly, if you're a flashcard person you'll love Gunner Training (it's flashcard-based with clever questions to help steer you along the way).

 

[jgerard]

where would I be able to find this book? I tried looking but there are no places that sell the book.

I got it on amazon.com - found it pretty easily.

 

[NeuroAP86]

ok i found that book. So which question bank would you say is the best as far as most realistic for the real USMLE and the quality of questions/explanations offered?

 

[SirGecko]

Along the lines of review materials, what about Kaplan's Pharm flashcards? I heard they are good (and of course, are highly recommended by FA2011). I have a set of Lange's, but it seems that each (Lange and Kaplan) cover drugs that the other doesn't. What did you guys use? Any thoughts?

Kaplan gave me a set of their pharm flashcards for free when I signed up for their qbank. I'd say they are pretty good.

 

[DrYoda]

ok i found that book. So which question bank would you say is the best as far as most realistic for the real USMLE and the quality of questions/explanations offered?

I took the real thing earlier this week and I think Uworld was a pretty good representation of the real thing. UW is the only qbank I used, so I can't comment on how it stacks up with the others.

The biggest difference in questions I noticed was UW questions have a tendency to be a little more convoluted than the real thing (e.g. UW likes to imply a patient has sickle cell, the test I had was more likely to just straight up say "this patient has sickle cell".

Other than that, the question formats were similar and the material tested was similar, I'd peg UW as a tad more difficult for the reason mentioned in the above paragraph.

 

[dozitgetchahi]

UW is generally considered to be the gold standard, but it does have some flaws (which have been discussed above). I personally used UW+Kaplan qbank+USMLEConsult and I thought all three complimented each other nicely.

While UW accurately replicated some of the more difficult qs on the real thing, I thought USMLEConsult mimicked the non-tricky (i.e., 70% of your test) qs better than UW.