Someone should make a Step I book to compete with FA

[Frank Nutter]

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May errata is out, directly from our beloved "first aid team" http://firstaidteam.com/updates-and-corrections 🙄

Honestly, why is this THE book everyone uses? Serious question: Have you noticed that it is a piece of ****?

Yes, I use it too, religiously...Not using FA is blasphemy. Yet it's a POS. Why isn't there anything else?


If it was up to me there would be an online, FREE, PDF study guide for Step 1. It would be updated and annotated in real time by anyone (after passing inspection obv) like a wiki. You could probably print it in color at kinkos for $30 or buy it from the website for the cost of printing and binding it. Or schools could print it for the class.

 

[xanthomondo]

May errata is out, directly from our beloved "first aid team" http://firstaidteam.com/updates-and-corrections 🙄

Honestly, why is this THE book everyone uses? Serious question: Have you noticed that it is a piece of ****?

Yes, I use it too, religiously...Not using FA is blasphemy. Yet it's a POS. Why isn't there anything else?


If it was up to me there would be an online, FREE, PDF study guide for Step 1. It would be updated and annotated in real time by anyone (after passing inspection obv) like a wiki. You could probably print it in color at kinkos for $30 or buy it from the website for the cost of printing and binding it. Or schools could print it for the class.

Go ahead and make it

 

[GladifImakeit]

I'll help. I can write the chapter on psychiatry. Thanks.

 

[Laryngophed]

Put a functional index in the book and I'll buy it on principle.

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

You can do it. I believe in you.

But seriously I'm not looking forward to having to correct like 400 things when I get First Aid. I've read that the index in the 2011 First Aid is better than 2012. Also that 2011 is actually better than 2012. Anyone ever seen both to compare?

 

[TooMuchResearch]

Kaplan Med Essentials.

 

[dr zaius]

It's a goddamn giant piece of ****. I have written paragraphs on every page in it.

It sort of serves its purpose as a review book, but it leaves much out. In some cases it's about as easy to interpret as hieroglyphics without the rosetta stone.

 

[san2]

Kaplan Med Essentials.

yes

 

[MrBigglesworth]

delete

 

[xanthomondo]

It's a goddamn giant piece of ****. I have written paragraphs on every page in it.

It sort of serves its purpose as a review book, but it leaves much out. In some cases it's about as easy to interpret as hieroglyphics without the rosetta stone.

I think this is the best way to use it. I added a ton of information to every page, and I think that is what helped me learn the most.

 

[xanthomondo]

Most of the errata listed in the PDF are simple spelling errors/other typos. I never even looked at this document when I was studying with my FA.

You'll be ok 🙂

 

[FIREitUP]

how the hell does the errata still get in there? it's not like they change the versions drastically, if anything the errata should diminish...

 

[TooMuchResearch]

how the hell does the errata still get in there? it's not like they change the versions drastically, if anything the errata should diminish...

All medical knowledge is rediscovered every year. That's why none of your medical school faculty will use 35 year old x-rays to teach you about pneumonia. 😉

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

All medical knowledge is rediscovered every year. That's why none of your medical school faculty will use 35 year old x-rays to teach you about pneumonia. 😉

Exactly, that's why they keep coming out with new anatomy textbook editions...we discover new hidden organs every year!

 

[Kaputt]

No book is perfect, but arguably no book other than First Aid has the track record for Step 1.

Yeah it sucks, there are gaping holes, etc. But adding to and fixing your First Aid is like learning the material again, and it sticks with you. It's almost as if they're selling you a half-complete template so that you can actively fill in the important blanks. I hand-wrote my notes during m1 and 2, and I think I remembered the crap I wrote in my FA more than the things that were already there.

 

[mmmcdowe]

Because the FA system works. Half of the learning of using the FA is ADDING to it. You learn half from reading FA, then the other half from making sure your FA is complete. I think it is an ingenious system.

 

[bomgd3]

The index DOES suck hard, but that's why you torrent the PDF as well. Otherwise I've got no complaints about my FA 2011.

 

[235009]

Kaplan Med Essentials.

exactly, there already is a competing book and the reason it isn't more popular is because it's enormous! it's twice the size of FA, the information isn't organized as well and it has way too much low-yield information. the only people who complain about FA are those who think that it should have everything you need to know. it doesn't and shouldn't! it does have what you absolutely must know and you're free to add things that you think are high-yield that you have not yet internalized. and if you are weak in a subject there are other books or videos (kaplan) or audio (goljan) that you can and should supplement with.

 

[FIREitUP]

All medical knowledge is rediscovered every year. That's why none of your medical school faculty will use 35 year old x-rays to teach you about pneumonia. 😉

that would make sense if the errors were on things that were cutting edge. But mistakes on biochemistry and FEV/FVC and the epithelia in the kidney clearly don't change and mistakes should not be happening on that material

 

[Kaputt]

that would make sense if the errors were on things that were cutting edge. But mistakes on biochemistry and FEV/FVC and the epithelia in the kidney clearly don't change and mistakes should not be happening on that material

Granted, the 2012 edition was a bit of an overhaul as far as formatting goes. The change from black and white to all color potentially caused some formatting issues.

 

[san2]

exactly, there already is a competing book and the reason it isn't more popular is because it's enormous! it's twice the size of FA, the information isn't organized as well and it has way too much low-yield information. the only people who complain about FA are those who think that it should have everything you need to know. it doesn't and shouldn't! it does have what you absolutely must know and you're free to add things that you think are high-yield that you have not yet internalized. and if you are weak in a subject there are other books or videos (kaplan) or audio (goljan) that you can and should supplement with.

its not enormous. its what you need to know. its organized the same way as first aid. a conjunction of first aid and kaplan me is the smart way to study.

 

[Ok2Panic]

Because the FA system works. Half of the learning of using the FA is ADDING to it. You learn half from reading FA, then the other half from making sure your FA is complete. I think it is an ingenious system.

Just because we're all annotating the crap out of it to fill in the blanks doesn't make it "the FA system". That's like selling someone half a novel and saying "Hey I left the second half empty so you guys could all decide how you want it to end for yourselves, lolz"

Don't get me wrong, I hate medessentials, and I'm not really as frustrated with FA as other people seem to be. But let's not call their omissions and errors some kind of brilliant business plan.

 

[Kaputt]

Just because we're all annotating the crap out of it to fill in the blanks doesn't make it "the FA system". That's like selling someone half a novel and saying "Hey I left the second half empty so you guys could all decide how you want it to end for yourselves, lolz"

Don't get me wrong, I hate medessentials, and I'm not really as frustrated with FA as other people seem to be. But let's not call their omissions and errors some kind of brilliant business plan.

Well if I had to memorize that novel it'd be a pretty good system

But whether their omissions are intentional or not, it makes for a good study tool when combined with a comprehensive qbank such as World. If I was expected to simply read and memorize a review book I would have died from boredom during boards study.

 

[D elegans]

I think that FA is an excellent skeleton. I find it very useful to go through while studying for exams, simply because it helps keep a lot of the details I'm learning from other resources in some sort of overall context (basically, a summary of everything).

That being said, I get a handful of questions right on every exam I otherwise would not have were it not for FA's mnemonics/high-yield facts.

 

[SoundofSilver]

I think first aid is meant to be used in conjunction with other review books. It's a great outline of high yield information that should be known for step 1. You're not really going to be able to get a good understanding of the concepts when it's when used as a stand alone resource in my opinion. You are supposed to annotate the heck out of it.