urgent usmle book advice needed

[feras]

please help me with book choices any input will be greatly appreciated and post will be useful to many forum members who are starting to prepare for usmle step 1

i need to know your opinion ASAP cuz i need to ask someone who is coming back from the US to buy the books for me and i only have few days

what in your opinion and according to your experience are the best books to study following subjects (i was sleeping during medical school so i need thorough studying and i am willing to read more than one book on a subject if necessary, and i've got time)

path >>> rapid review - goljan path review - goljan notes - BRS - pathophys boards and wards - goljan audio (all good books i am gonna listen to the audio that's for sure but which one or combination is best)

pharma >>> lipp - katzung - road map - kaplan (which one or combination is best)

neuro >>> road map - HY - kaplan (which one or combination is best)

micro >>> recall - HY - MRS - jawetz (which one or combination is best)

immuno >>> jawetz - how the immune system works - kaplan (which one or combination is best)

biostat >>> HY - appleton and lange (which one or combination is best)

thanks

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[DOCTORSAIB]

please help me with book choices any input will be greatly appreciated and post will be useful to many forum members who are starting to prepare for usmle step 1

i need to know your opinion ASAP cuz i need to ask someone who is coming back from the US to buy the books for me and i only have few days

what in your opinion and according to your experience are the best books to study following subjects (i was sleeping during medical school so i need thorough studying and i am willing to read more than one book on a subject if necessary, and i've got time)

path >>> rapid review - goljan path review - goljan notes - BRS - pathophys boards and wards - goljan audio (all good books i am gonna listen to the audio that's for sure but which one or combination is best)

pharma >>> lipp - katzung - road map - kaplan (which one or combination is best)

neuro >>> road map - HY - kaplan (which one or combination is best)

micro >>> recall - HY - MRS - jawetz (which one or combination is best)

immuno >>> jawetz - how the immune system works - kaplan (which one or combination is best)

biostat >>> HY - appleton and lange (which one or combination is best)

thanks

You could use the search function but since you need advice stat, I'll contribute. Since I haven't taken the boards yet, you may want to also get advice from current 3rd/4th years. Ok, here goes:

Path- BRS path, Pathophysiology for B&W, and Goljan audio are gold-standard. Don't forget to do Robbins Review of Path question book.

Pharm- stick to FA but memorize it cold (or hot depending on the season)

Neuro- HY neuro is great.

Micro- CMMRS is great but emphasize what's in FA when reading that book.

Immuno- Medical Micro & Immunology by Levinson (Lange series). The immuno section in this book is supposedly amazing.

Biostats- Stick to what's in BRS Behavioral and FA.

Hope that helps. G'luck.

 

[feras]

thank u dr. saib advice greatly appreciated, i did not include question sources i will use robbins review for sure i already bought that one, i did use the search and read hundreds of posts untill i couldn't look at a computer screen anymore, amazingly found very little input on books compared to the huge no. of posts asking for advice, even on other forums where they have sections to vote for best books and sources, no one ever hadrly votes, and if someone does he doesn't write a comment

anyway i came across this file its by Dr. Costanzo about best review books and study method
http://www.curriculum.som.vcu.edu/boards/2006Documents/Bookrecs..pdf

anyway forgot to say i am an IMS this is why i need comprehensive review and i can not rely on FA like american students do, as i can not review something i do not already know

i will get centerprep DVD's as well or the webprep audio, hoping to take test in 5 months or so

please feel free to add to this post since it has a statistical nature the larger the sample the better

 

[lattimer13]

3rd year here and did well on step 1: my recs

first aid and step up as general review
rest was only used to fill in stuff that i needed more detail with.

path: brs and robbin's review question book
micro: micro made ridiculously simple
pharm: first aid only
immuno: lange micro and immuno book; immuno section is <100 pages total
neuro: HY neuro
embryo: HY embryo
social and behavioral sciences: BRS (includes biostats)
physiology: brs
anatomy: first aid and netter's
biochem: first aid and the diagrams in lippincott's

don't forget kaplan qbank for questions and the nbme $45 practice exams