thoughts on Rypins' Basic Sciences Review?

[palmmeds]

hi

does anyone have an opinion on Rypins' Basic Sciences Review 18th Ed? I had a look at it today and it looked quite good. also i can buy it for about $30USD and it's a 800 page hardcover book, so it seems like a decent investment.

has anyone used it for the boards?

cheers

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[USMedStudent]

I don't remember if I got the 17th or 18th, but I found the CD Rom that went with it, which contained 1,000+ questions, very useful. Now, that won't be enough for the USMLE-1, but that may be a good start.

In sequence, I studied: Rypins' basic sciences review, then Kaplan Home Study books ($500), then Princeton Review ($400), then Kaplan Q-bank on line ($200 for 3 months). Now there is also the Q-clinical vignettes by Kaplan ($200 for 3 months, or $430 for those plus the Q-bank for 6 months). Of course I used many others such as BRS Pathology, First Aid, etc,. My strategy was, I drew a rectangle with a line diagonal to it. The 2 areas represented the amount of time I spent on reading vs. practicing. I started with 100% reading and 0% test-taking. Then I read less and practice my skills more, until the end when I read 0% and practiced 100%. Exam day was just another day for me, because I had practiced on computer for more than 10-15 hrs a day for weeks before that. No pressure. In fact the real exam was easier than the ones I practiced. Took me nearly 3 months (extra time) to get the result, because it flew off the chart. I was told the Board actually viewed the video tapes to make sure there were no irregularities.

For test practice, I also recommend Exam Master, Alert, Board Simulator besides the Rypins'. The Biochem parts in those are useless--they are too hard and that may distract you or waste your time--but the PATHOLOGY parts in all those are very useful.

 

[LoneSEAL]

Originally posted by USMedStudent
Took me nearly 3 months (extra time) to get the result, because it flew off the chart. I was told the Board actually viewed the video tapes to make sure there were no irregularities.

Interesting. It took you 3 months to get your score? I've never heard of that before. You must have really blown the people at the NBME away with your board score Congrats! Now that you have me intrigued, can you tell us what your score was?

You've used some material that I have not heard other people use. As I can tell from your post, you used Exam Master, Alert, Board Simulator Series, Rypin's Basic Sciences Review, Kaplan Home study, Princeton Review, Qbank, BRS pathology, and First Aid. Can you comment more on how specifically you used the above materials, eg, how long did it take you to work through each material, what you think of its quality, and so forth. I'm curious because some of the materials you mentioned are considered to be quite low yield such as Exam Master.

Also, you mentioned that you used other books. Can you just give a quick list of those other books?

Thanks for the help.

 

[BellKicker]

Rypins Basic Sciences Review is the worst book I've ever laid eyes on. I bought it as my first review book because (incredibly) it was the first book I found with USMLE written on it.

Try reading through, say, biochem in that book. They'll show you all the side groups of the amino acids, no-yield stuff like that.

I will admit that the 900 question CD is all right. ANd there are more qs in the book itself. I'm not sure whether those are the same questions but I don't think so.

Later.