Step 1 and Pharmacology

[MDapp06]

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Hi everyone,

I was just wondering what is the best way to study pharmacology for Step 1? I heard that FirstAid covers the drugs to know, but I also feel like it leaves out drugs that I learned in class. I was just wondering if FirstAid really is enough to do well on the pharmacology questions. If anyone has any advice, I would appreciate it.

Thanks!

 

[SnakeEyes]

I think FA and a question bank would do you right. I just took the NBME shelf and FA was more than sufficient if that's any indication.

 

[ZonaRidicularis]

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[sendwich]

I think going over pharmacology general principles (pharmacokinetics/dynamics) + ANS from a review book would be a good foundation. FA + UW for everything else.

I really liked Katzung & Trevor's Pharmacology Examination & Board Review. All the diagrams in the FA general pharm section come from this book. All the systems pharm diagrams are essentially from this book as well, except a few sections from Road Map Pharmacology (which is written by Katzung & Trevor... they must really love them).

I agree in that KandT seems like a really good book but is it overkill for the boards? how did you schedule time to go through the whole book? or maybe use different parts of the book?

 

[ZonaRidicularis]

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[Slide]

I just took the Pharm shelf a few days ago, and FA + BRS flash cards was more than sufficient; in fact I regretted using BRS pharmacology because there was simply too much information for the scope of the test. If the Pharm shelf is any indication of how hard Pharm is on Step 1, then FA is pretty much all you need. For the pharm shelf FA + BRS flash cards should carry you 95% of the way.

 

[rabbitsfeet777]

FA pharm is sufficient. They test really fundamental stuff. I think I had only one SE question I didn't know.

 

[cgscribe]

FA is definitely enough. All I used was FA and q's, and pharm was one of my highest sections. I think everybody gets one, sometimes two, q's that you would never know regardless of how much you had studied pharm. But for 99% of pharm q's, FA is plenty.