Studying for Medical School Classes using review books?

[trevagandalf]

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So, I got through undergrad mainly memorizing through very condensed slides/powerpoint reviews and I'm not really used to reading textbooks (which saved me a lot of $$).

So, in medical school, is it possible to do well in a class solely reading review books? I know that there are a lot of those out there. Is it smart to invest in the Kaplan Step 1 books before you start medical school and read those along for your classes? What about the Kaplan medEssentials?

I recently found an used book store and this one had a LOT of Medical review books. Should I just sweep the shelves and buy all the Pre-test, High-Yield books I can find? It's REALLY cheap and I'm afraid that if I don't buy them, someone else will!

 

[OddNath]

I wouldn't worry about this stuff yet. For your classes, I'd say it is *not* sufficient to read review books only. There will be alot of obscure details in your syllabus that the review books are smart to leave out. And you will be responsible for these syllabus-specific details.

Review books are helpful to summarize and clarify concepts, after you've read the syllabus. I personally like the High Yield series alot-- bought them all off half.com pretty cheap.

 

[Law2Doc]

So, I got through undergrad mainly memorizing through very condensed slides/powerpoint reviews and I'm not really used to reading textbooks (which saved me a lot of $$).

So, in medical school, is it possible to do well in a class solely reading review books? I know that there are a lot of those out there. Is it smart to invest in the Kaplan Step 1 books before you start medical school and read those along for your classes? What about the Kaplan medEssentials?

I recently found an used book store and this one had a LOT of Medical review books. Should I just sweep the shelves and buy all the Pre-test, High-Yield books I can find? It's REALLY cheap and I'm afraid that if I don't buy them, someone else will!

To get through med school you won't really use textbooks, you will mostly use course note-sets (which will be substantial) and lecture notes. The level of detail tested in class is frequently going to be very different than that focused on or required by the boards, so solely reading those kinds of books won't even always get you a passing grade. You will likely use board review books and texts to help explain stuff as a secondary resource. But don't buy them till you feel you have a need. People in med school literally spend hundreds of dollars on books they never use. I've never seen anyone use Kaplan books before they are starting board review. BRS and HY tend to be fairly popular during the courses. First Aid tends to be helpful during second year (but not as your primary resource) but not really for first year. Best to talk to upper classmen at your school and see what books are actually useful.

 

[njbmd]

So, I got through undergrad mainly memorizing through very condensed slides/powerpoint reviews and I'm not really used to reading textbooks (which saved me a lot of $$).

So, in medical school, is it possible to do well in a class solely reading review books? I know that there are a lot of those out there. Is it smart to invest in the Kaplan Step 1 books before you start medical school and read those along for your classes? What about the Kaplan medEssentials?

I recently found an used book store and this one had a LOT of Medical review books. Should I just sweep the shelves and buy all the Pre-test, High-Yield books I can find? It's REALLY cheap and I'm afraid that if I don't buy them, someone else will!

Wait until you start class and have to study for your first set of exams. After that, you can assess whether your study methods are adequate or not. Review books are just that, "review" books. You can't REVIEW what you have not learned in the first place.

 

[46&2]

I wouldn't bother with review books in first year UNLESS you had to take a standardized shelf exam for big points in the end. I avoided class if at all possible and found rereading the syllabus 3x (only the 2nd time thoroughly), reading the lecture notes from the scribe, and doing any questions from old exams to be better (albeit very time consuming). You can dump the textbooks unless you really need some clarification (the library usually has 'em on reserve).

If you do take a shelf, I'd start mastering High Yield a month in advance. BRS is good, but it's just too thick if you've got other classes/tests to take. First Aid can provide some key info even for shelf exams (don't use at all for normal tests) and can be done quickly.

For second year, you will need either Rapid Review or BRS Pathology. Class notes and syllabi are still key.

Ironically, it seems a lot of med schools waste a lot of time in preparing you for Step I. When that time comes, those High Yield books are great. Burn the syllabi. Little should change in 2 years, so if the HYs are a relatively new edition, go ahead and buy 'em. Pretest tends to be pathetic.

 

[trevagandalf]

Thanks for all the advice!

 

[Twitch]

Wouldn't the mnemonics in FA be helpful while prepping for tests?

 

[Law2Doc]

Wouldn't the mnemonics in FA be helpful while prepping for tests?

Depends on how you were tested. FA is very stream lined. Med school courses often aren't. FA becomes far more useful in second year.

 

[anon-y-mouse]

So, I got through undergrad mainly memorizing through very condensed slides/powerpoint reviews and I'm not really used to reading textbooks (which saved me a lot of $$).

So, in medical school, is it possible to do well in a class solely reading review books? I know that there are a lot of those out there. Is it smart to invest in the Kaplan Step 1 books before you start medical school and read those along for your classes? What about the Kaplan medEssentials?

I recently found an used book store and this one had a LOT of Medical review books. Should I just sweep the shelves and buy all the Pre-test, High-Yield books I can find? It's REALLY cheap and I'm afraid that if I don't buy them, someone else will!

Kaplan USMLE Step 1 lecture notes (the individual books for individual subjects) are absolutely amazing!! They often have a bit too much detail for USMLE, and "barely enough" detail for class tests... I used these + lecture slides, and then textbooks. Highly recommend. First Aid? Hah, if any incoming M1 thinks they're going to be able to use this to study, s/he's highly mistaken. This is extremely condensed stuff that will only make sense after you've taken a course, for the most part. The mnemonics may be useful for biochem, but otherwise, it's highly insufficient, esp for things like anatomy.

 

[jonb12997]

the two books I bought for 2nd year were Harrison's Internal Med (buy the 2 volume one) and Robbins Pathology. That way if the objectives that the system manager gave out weren't enough, I could supplement it with these two books (plus some online resources through our library).

For first year, I actually was a textbook reader. I'm a very active learner and like to have stuff to highlight, take notes on, etc. so reading a textbook worked for me. To each his own...

 

[SeventhSon]

I bought first aid thinking the pneumonics would be helpful.

Turns out they almost always didn't help at all for my classes, because the focus is different (anything in first aid is somehow going to be organized w.r.t. something pertinent to pathology, unlike all of my first year classes). Sure, get first aid if it makes you feel good, it can't hurt i suppose.

As for the classes, I agree with the above posters that you can often get by without any books.. it depends on the class and your style of learning. Wait and see and take a sample of all of the tools available to you (textbook, class notes, lecture, review books, etc.), also being aware that things can change class to class, and even from lecturer to lecturer. There is no good, one-size-fits-all answer.

 

[Twitch]

Kaplan USMLE Step 1 lecture notes (the individual books for individual subjects) are absolutely amazing!! They often have a bit too much detail for USMLE, and "barely enough" detail for class tests... I used these + lecture slides, and then textbooks. Highly recommend. First Aid? Hah, if any incoming M1 thinks they're going to be able to use this to study, s/he's highly mistaken. This is extremely condensed stuff that will only make sense after you've taken a course, for the most part. The mnemonics may be useful for biochem, but otherwise, it's highly insufficient, esp for things like anatomy.

Did you use the white ones or blue ones? I've heard good things about most of them except for a few like kaplan path leaves much to be desired.

 

[Ashers]

Our professors gave us most of the worthwhile mnemonics from FA during classes. (Not the multiple ABCDs that are found there.)

I was highly frustrated by FA while studying for boards, and I annotated it with Rapid Review, and most of the HY, and stuff from QBank just because it was SOOOOO incomplete IMO. I have practically no free space left in my FA anymore.

 

[atyourservice]

Of course, I'm sure that at every school there are differences in curriculum, but I found that especially for anatomy first semester, BRS really helped me prepare for even the class exams (it definitely helped for the shelf too). Even if the same Q's weren't on the exam, it helped me think about how to think about the anatomy in a different way than just pointing and identifying. I like doing practice questions so much that I did the BRS physiology questions before each block exam too, although it might not have helped so much at the time. For physio, I really liked BRS a lot--it is very simple and easy to read, even for the first time through. Don't forget, everyone learns optimally in a different way, the hard part is to figure out what way that is.

 

[Shredder]

So, I got through undergrad mainly memorizing through very condensed slides/powerpoint reviews and I'm not really used to reading textbooks (which saved me a lot of $$).

So, in medical school, is it possible to do well in a class solely reading review books? I know that there are a lot of those out there. Is it smart to invest in the Kaplan Step 1 books before you start medical school and read those along for your classes? What about the Kaplan medEssentials?

I recently found an used book store and this one had a LOT of Medical review books. Should I just sweep the shelves and buy all the Pre-test, High-Yield books I can find? It's REALLY cheap and I'm afraid that if I don't buy them, someone else will!

I scarcedly touched textbooks first yr. Used condensed "course packets" my school issued, PPTs and review books. I used First Aid a lot and picked up countless testable points through that. No it's not possible to do well using solely review books, to answer your question. Some review books are bigger and more comprehensive than others.

Here are resources I used to help me study less--I ended up scoring roughly average at the end of year 1 and feel like I devoted far less effort than my peers to studies:
BRS micro flash cards, also pharm
Lipincotts biochem review 3rd ed (this alone is perhaps sufficient for biochem)
first aid

umm maybe some other stuff too, kinda sleepy, can't recall. Don't bother sweeping shelves though--it will be expensive, variety will be limited, and there is always Amazon. I do personally recommend scanning review books alongside class materials though--it will help you orient yourself toward step1/clinically relevant material instead of getting bogged down in minutiae. Also it will be good having already seen and perhaps highlighted the review books when it comes time to look at them intensely during step 1 prep

 

[anon-y-mouse]

Did you use the white ones or blue ones? I've heard good things about most of them except for a few like kaplan path leaves much to be desired.

White. You seem to be quite knowledgeable about medical school and educational resources without even having started medical school yet! I hope you don't turn into the M1 with "First Aid" in his hand on the first day of class! In all seriousness, your perceptions of what is good and what is not will most definitely change... keep an open mind but come to your own conclusions. This, from someone who probably has more books than anyone else in his class (and regrets it) 😉

 

[smq123]

I was highly frustrated by FA while studying for boards, and I annotated it with Rapid Review, and most of the HY, and stuff from QBank just because it was SOOOOO incomplete IMO. I have practically no free space left in my FA anymore.

YES! Me too! I have papers falling out of my copy of FA because I ran out of free space, and had to shove my extra annotated notes in there.

I felt that FA does NOT cover a lot of the drugs or drug mechanisms very well. I added a lot of stuff from Lippincott's.

And is it just me, or is their index in the back woefully inadequate? I couldn't find anything by looking through the index, and I'd stumble across it a few hours later.

 

[Twitch]

YES! Me too! I have papers falling out of my copy of FA because I ran out of free space, and had to shove my extra annotated notes in there.

I felt that FA does NOT cover a lot of the drugs or drug mechanisms very well. I added a lot of stuff from Lippincott's.

And is it just me, or is their index in the back woefully inadequate? I couldn't find anything by looking through the index, and I'd stumble across it a few hours later.

Our professors gave us most of the worthwhile mnemonics from FA during classes. (Not the multiple ABCDs that are found there.)

I was highly frustrated by FA while studying for boards, and I annotated it with Rapid Review, and most of the HY, and stuff from QBank just because it was SOOOOO incomplete IMO. I have practically no free space left in my FA anymore.

Either of you looked at medessentials?

 

[Critical Mass]

Wouldn't the mnemonics in FA be helpful while prepping for tests?

In my case, yes, but I know of only a couple of other students in my class who used FA like I did in M1. A lot of students supplement M2 with FA to bring everything together.

 

[BC7106]

I think every medical school curriculum is different. Your best bet is to wait until you're actually in medical school and ask the second years how they studied. At Tufts (where I went), some of the courses practically gave you the test questions during lecture while others stuck to the syllabus.

If you study well off of review books, you might benefit from just buying one and using it to follow along. That way when you start studying for the boards, you will have some familiarity with the books.

If you're interested in what it's like to be a medical student/intern, check out my blog. http://drbyron.blogspot.com

 

[DoctorTiff]

Kaplan USMLE Step 1 lecture notes (the individual books for individual subjects) are absolutely amazing!! They often have a bit too much detail for USMLE, and "barely enough" detail for class tests... I used these + lecture slides, and then textbooks. Highly recommend. First Aid? Hah, if any incoming M1 thinks they're going to be able to use this to study, s/he's highly mistaken. This is extremely condensed stuff that will only make sense after you've taken a course, for the most part. The mnemonics may be useful for biochem, but otherwise, it's highly insufficient, esp for things like anatomy.

If anyone is looking for the kaplan lecture notes for step 1 (the set of 9 books 2006-2007). I am willing to sell mine, pm me.

 

[trevagandalf]

ok, so I apologize for my ignorance, but what is PPT and BRS? I'm so lost with acronymns...

 

[smq123]

ok, so I apologize for my ignorance, but what is PPT and BRS? I'm so lost with acronymns...

PPT = powerpoint slide presentations. The professors often make their lecture presentations available to the students after the lecture is finished.

BRS = Board Review Series. Supposedly "tailored" to help you study for the medical board exams (= Step 1 and Step 2), but are often too detailed to be helpful. BRS pathology isn't bad, but BRS gross anatomy is too much for Step 1 review. The BRS books can be helpful for studying for the regular class, though.

Edit: BRS Physiology is the real exception. It's useful for the class AND for Step 1 review as well.

 

[trevagandalf]

Thanks! And also I looked at the residency match for several schools and I was wondering what is a preliminary match?

 

[smq123]

Thanks! And also I looked at the residency match for several schools and I was wondering what is a preliminary match?

Something that you don't need to worry about for several years. 😉

In all seriousness, this website might be more useful: http://www.nrmp.org/res_match/index.html

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/medicine/education-faq/part2/section-4.html