- Joined
- May 23, 2006
- Messages
- 470
- Reaction score
- 10
I am VERY happy with my score -- it's not quite up with some of the highest of the super crazy rockstar gunner scores on here, but I promise it is certainly more than enough to leave open to me any doors that I might wish to go through.
The most important book for me was not first aid. I tried several times to start with first aid, but simply never liked it, never felt comfortable with it, and would immediately close it. I kept planning to go back to it later, and then I would try again, and give up again, and all of a sudden it was the week of the test and I was not about to start with a new book. Basically I feel like I just never quite figured out the right role for FA to play in my studying. I know a lot of people do VERY well using first aid, so of course there is a place for it in step 1 prep if you decide that you like it...But I mention this only for the people who might start to try to use it, and hate it as much as I did. I was terrified to give up on this book and felt like I was taking a huge gamble, because it seemed like such a bad, scary idea to give up on the one book that it seems like every single person uses. Do not start thinking this way -- if a book's not working for you, don't force it because that's what you see other people with. It is true that lots of people do well with it...but seriously, everyone uses it, so lots of people who do poorly used the book as well. If you are struggling with it, just don't waste your time with it, find a book you feel comfortable with, and know it well. In my (very) brief time looking at first aid, I got exactly ONE thing out of it that I continued to use and remember in terms of boards study -- remembering autonomic receptors via HAV 1 M&M and MAD 2s. If you know that, you know everything that I got from first aid in studying for my board exam.
Goljan is an outstanding book in my opinion, for all the reasons pointed out on many other threads. I used it a lot, and never looked at BRS path. I highly recommend Goljan. But it is still not what I would consider MY #1 most important book for step 1.
I really believe that the book that caused the single greatest rise in my score was Robbins Review of Pathology, ie the Robbins question book. I know every once in a while on these boards you see people recommend it, but I still am not sure it gets the attention it deserves. I spent essentially ALL of my last week before the exam going through this book and not much else. I did every single question, chapter by chapter, and I read every single explanation after completing all questions for that chapter, including the ones I got right by luck or guessing between a couple choices, and even including the ones I got right because I already knew cold, inside outside backwards and forwards (seriously -- even explanations for the wrong aswer choices in this book have some worthwhile info as well, at the least by directing you to something that you don't know quite as well as the topic of the question that you can go read about quickly). I got a lot wrong, for sure -- don't get discouraged if you feel like you're getting them all wrong; still finish the chapter and throughly read the explanation, and understand it. There were a couple sections I had done earlier in the year, during the path course. When I got to these chapters, I did them again. Sounds like a waste of time maybe, but I promise it wasn't (for me, at least). If I wanted to read more to understand the background of the answer explanation, I'd go back to some reference, almost always Goljan, HY neuro for neuro stuff, and quickly read that section. Doing this for a week straight was painful at times (I didn't have this idea until late, and wish I had started earlier), but after receiving my scores, as far as I'm concerned, for me at least it was gold for the boards...I felt better about doing it than I did about reading lists out of FA, and in my opinion it's a pretty thorough, complete review of a lot of stuff. I really did cover a lot of ground without necessarily realizing it -- micro, biochem, immuno, genetics etc etc -- definitely more than just pure path. And the fact is, these are the best questions I found. I did not use UW, but completed Qbank (barely--on the day before the test). I think Qbank is useful and has its place, and seriously, some people on here are a little too hard on it...But for sure the Robbins questions are better and more like the exam questions.
I used some other books that I can mention if anyone cares (but nothing nearly as much as Goljan and Robbins Review), and my background over the first two years if anyone cares is that I did well but definitely not great, with very few honors, but lots of passes that were almost honors, and with a couple classes that truly kicked my ass and I was just glad to pass (histo, neuro). If I could go back to boards studying and hit one more topic for a little longer, it would be basic physio, esp. endo and renal, likely out of BRS which I did like as well, but never had the time to get through as thoroughly as I would have liked.
I don't know, sorry for the long post...just wanted to throw that out there...Anyone have any thoughts on why the robbins book isn't more widely used?
The most important book for me was not first aid. I tried several times to start with first aid, but simply never liked it, never felt comfortable with it, and would immediately close it. I kept planning to go back to it later, and then I would try again, and give up again, and all of a sudden it was the week of the test and I was not about to start with a new book. Basically I feel like I just never quite figured out the right role for FA to play in my studying. I know a lot of people do VERY well using first aid, so of course there is a place for it in step 1 prep if you decide that you like it...But I mention this only for the people who might start to try to use it, and hate it as much as I did. I was terrified to give up on this book and felt like I was taking a huge gamble, because it seemed like such a bad, scary idea to give up on the one book that it seems like every single person uses. Do not start thinking this way -- if a book's not working for you, don't force it because that's what you see other people with. It is true that lots of people do well with it...but seriously, everyone uses it, so lots of people who do poorly used the book as well. If you are struggling with it, just don't waste your time with it, find a book you feel comfortable with, and know it well. In my (very) brief time looking at first aid, I got exactly ONE thing out of it that I continued to use and remember in terms of boards study -- remembering autonomic receptors via HAV 1 M&M and MAD 2s. If you know that, you know everything that I got from first aid in studying for my board exam.
Goljan is an outstanding book in my opinion, for all the reasons pointed out on many other threads. I used it a lot, and never looked at BRS path. I highly recommend Goljan. But it is still not what I would consider MY #1 most important book for step 1.
I really believe that the book that caused the single greatest rise in my score was Robbins Review of Pathology, ie the Robbins question book. I know every once in a while on these boards you see people recommend it, but I still am not sure it gets the attention it deserves. I spent essentially ALL of my last week before the exam going through this book and not much else. I did every single question, chapter by chapter, and I read every single explanation after completing all questions for that chapter, including the ones I got right by luck or guessing between a couple choices, and even including the ones I got right because I already knew cold, inside outside backwards and forwards (seriously -- even explanations for the wrong aswer choices in this book have some worthwhile info as well, at the least by directing you to something that you don't know quite as well as the topic of the question that you can go read about quickly). I got a lot wrong, for sure -- don't get discouraged if you feel like you're getting them all wrong; still finish the chapter and throughly read the explanation, and understand it. There were a couple sections I had done earlier in the year, during the path course. When I got to these chapters, I did them again. Sounds like a waste of time maybe, but I promise it wasn't (for me, at least). If I wanted to read more to understand the background of the answer explanation, I'd go back to some reference, almost always Goljan, HY neuro for neuro stuff, and quickly read that section. Doing this for a week straight was painful at times (I didn't have this idea until late, and wish I had started earlier), but after receiving my scores, as far as I'm concerned, for me at least it was gold for the boards...I felt better about doing it than I did about reading lists out of FA, and in my opinion it's a pretty thorough, complete review of a lot of stuff. I really did cover a lot of ground without necessarily realizing it -- micro, biochem, immuno, genetics etc etc -- definitely more than just pure path. And the fact is, these are the best questions I found. I did not use UW, but completed Qbank (barely--on the day before the test). I think Qbank is useful and has its place, and seriously, some people on here are a little too hard on it...But for sure the Robbins questions are better and more like the exam questions.
I used some other books that I can mention if anyone cares (but nothing nearly as much as Goljan and Robbins Review), and my background over the first two years if anyone cares is that I did well but definitely not great, with very few honors, but lots of passes that were almost honors, and with a couple classes that truly kicked my ass and I was just glad to pass (histo, neuro). If I could go back to boards studying and hit one more topic for a little longer, it would be basic physio, esp. endo and renal, likely out of BRS which I did like as well, but never had the time to get through as thoroughly as I would have liked.
I don't know, sorry for the long post...just wanted to throw that out there...Anyone have any thoughts on why the robbins book isn't more widely used?
