Step 1 using ONLY FA and doing questions

[merovingian]

Im wondering if anybody has, or knows anybody, who has studied for Step 1 using ONLY FA and doing questions (no extra reading from other review books) and how they fared on Step 1... Is it possible to do well (>230) using this study strategy?

I'm wondering b/c if I had started just studying this way from the beginning, I'm sure I could get thru FA thoroughly like 6-7 times at least, as well as finish many different question sources (Qbank, UW, USMLERx, etc etc.). The way I'm studying now (mainly FA, but also reading from other review books), I will prob get about half of the above accomplished... any comments or suggestions about this strategy?

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[blz]

I think the point of review books are just to clarify and make more sense of what is written in FA. If you can read and understand FA without review books then it should be doable. Just make sure you are really understanding the material in FA and not just memorizing lists.

 

[automan2]

It's possible, i did the 150 questions, and I was able to look up nearly every anser in first aid. The problem is getting all the valuable information out of first aid. It is nearly impossible without review books. I just read the biochem molecular section, and it took about thrity minutes for read the six pages. I figured I had a good grasp on things.

I then went through it looking up anything I wasn't sure of, it took me about three hours and my book is now covered in extra notes explaining all the little bit of information.

 

[lord_jeebus]

Even if you must minimize your review book load, I would recommend getting a dedicated book for pathology if you want to break 230. If you do thousands of questions this strategy might work.