Studying Pharm and Biochem....?

[Batmaan21]

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So after meandering around this website for a while, I've come up with this for my plan - I definitely want to use these books (of course you can substitute other similar ones here, but this is what I came up with🙂

-First Aid, BRS PHYS, HY Gross and Neuroanatomy, RR Path, Clinical Micro Made Rid. Simple, USMLE World and Kaplan Q Banks.....

My question is regarding pharm and biochem - I see alot of people that posted that they used Lippincotts - but almost all of them say that it's overkill - so what resources would people recommend? Thanks for your help.....

 

[osli]

I have gone through both RR biochem and Lippincott biochem. If you learned biochem well and were comfortable with it at one time, the RR biochem should be a good review - very complete, everything important is in there, ties to clinical diseases included, and good summary charts and diagrams. If you have always struggled with biochem and feel like you need a really thorough source that can walk you through it from beginning to end, without quite the depth or dryness of a primary biochem textbook, then Lippincott might be for you. Same stuff as is in RR biochem, but with more fully developed explanations instead of dry lists of "this goes up when that goes down" type stuff, superb diagrams, clinical integrations, and great chapter summaries and flow charts for quick review later.

As for pharm, I've heard a lot of people say "just stick to FA." But then I see questions fairly often on UWorld that include drugs not found in FA, or side effects or mechanisms not fully covered in FA. So I'd say "know everything about all the drugs in FA." You'll of course also want to know about the basics of pharmokinetics etc. but FA covers that reasonably well if you were comfortable with it before. If you feel you really need to beef up on pharm, I've heard good things about both BRS Pharmacology and USMLE Roadmap Pharm.

 

[doc20]

drugs are ok from FA but pharmcokinetics is not well covered there, you probably need kaplan for that

 

[osli]

Are the UWorld pharm questions over the top compared to the USMLE? I've encountered several UWorld questions that couldn't be answered from FA. More than several, in fact.

 

[lankysudanese]

Are the UWorld pharm questions over the top compared to the USMLE? I've encountered several UWorld questions that couldn't be answered from FA. More than several, in fact.

it is not uncommon to run into "over the top" pharm questions in Step 1. So just b/c something isn't covered in FA doesn't mean that you can ignore such factoids.

 

[Helo]

would USMLEworld cover these "over the top" pharm questions? time is always a limiting factor and im not sure if i want to invest time going thru kaplan pharm...

 

[osli]

it is not uncommon to run into "over the top" pharm questions in Step 1. So just b/c something isn't covered in FA doesn't mean that you can ignore such factoids.

Thanks. I made a set of flash cards from FA, class notes, UWorld, and drugs mentioned in things like BRS Phys or Lippincott Biochem that I hadn't already encountered. I labeled them so that I'd know which were from FA or elsewhere and have wondered whether I should spend the majority of my time on FA only cards. I think I'll just treat them all the same. 👍

 

[Lamborghini1315]

I have kaplan pharmacology, it does a great job of summarizing pharmacology fundamentals, receptor mechanisms, drugs. For biochem, i have certainly used lippincott in bits and pieces but whatever i read felt exceptional. I believe if you can use that book during school year and sort of build up your foundation you would find first aid suffice later in the year. However biochem is a tough call some might do RR but i like lippincott so i am not going to change texts. I was suggested to pay more attention to the diagrams, tables, charts. The tough thing about any review book or text is to incorporate it into your daily school regimen, i tend to juggle between school and board study..so far i am doing what i sought out to do.

 

[alpha06]

How much time are you all devoting to study?

I hear lippincott biochem all the time, but it is such a large text to go thru. I figure with only 5 weeks to go, is it advantageous to go thru this text. This is why I decided with RR biochem because it is more managable, i think.

Any thoughts?

osli, I believe I discussed this topic with you before but I'd like to hear your opinion since the circumstances have now changed....

 

[osli]

If your schedule is crowded with 5 weeks left, then I'd go with RR biochem. However, the nice thing about Lippincott is that there are great chapter summaries and flow diagrams that might be useful as a supplemental and very quick review. And if you feel deficient in any particular area, read that chapter more thoroughly in Lippincott.

 

[Docster]

If your schedule is crowded with 5 weeks left, then I'd go with RR biochem. However, the nice thing about Lippincott is that there are great chapter summaries and flow diagrams that might be useful as a supplemental and very quick review. And if you feel deficient in any particular area, read that chapter more thoroughly in Lippincott.

My Step I schedule was 7 weeks (I'm now 5 days in) and I covered biochem using Kaplan Biochem (which has mol bio, biochem, and genetics) in 3 days. On the 4th day, I started MMRS and did questions from RR Biochem. IMO Kaplan trumps Lippincott b/c it integrates things even better and cuts out verbosity (Kaplan also has very good margin clinical correlates, tables, and chapter summaries) and beats RR Biochem, which I found too dense. I flipped through Lippincott's for the pics, but stopped after 10min when I realized it wasn't high yield to do so. I plan on revisiting Biochem/CMB every couple days really quickly by going through a set of flashcards I have. I also have HY CMB that I'll probably revisit for a quick review along with FA later on.

 

[osli]

it is not uncommon to run into "over the top" pharm questions in Step 1. So just b/c something isn't covered in FA doesn't mean that you can ignore such factoids.

Just a little update since this seemed relevant...

In one 50-question block of UWorld last night I had two pharm questions that, between them, contained five drugs not covered in FA. Two of those five were the correct answers, meaning UWorld didn't just include them to fill out a list but thought they were a worthy topic to center a question around. One was in a class not even mentioned in FA, so I couldn't even guess about the mechanism.