Using First Aid for MS2 Prep?

[kashif]

I was wondering if it is possible to use First Aid as a pseudo syllabus for the Neuro section of MS2? If we study the Neuro section of First Aid would if cover most of the stuff covered in Neuro? And where can I find questions that test for Neuro?
Thanks

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[PoorMD]

I was wondering if it is possible to use First Aid as a pseudo syllabus for the Neuro section of MS2? If we study the Neuro section of First Aid would if cover most of the stuff covered in Neuro? And where can I find questions that test for Neuro?
Thanks

Try picking up the Haines atlas of neuroanatomy. It has questions in the back that will be very similar to USMLE (NBME) style format. You may need to pick up Kingsley's concise text of neuroscience to truly understand the pathways that will be so heavily tested, i.e. the ALS, DC-ML, trigeminal pathways, and of course the cranial nerve pathways. Most of neuro is pathways, so I doubt that first aid will be able to provide those details.. However it might have some key points, such as lesions to the cerebellum leading to disdiadachokinesea, dismetria, etc. lesions of the basal ganglia leading to chorea, lesions of the pons leading to etc. etc.. . Good luck!

 

[velo]

I'm feel fairly strongly that the best way to prepare for Step 1 is to do well 2nd year (granted my scores aren't back yet but I think/hope I did pretty well ) and I think learning things at the level of the boards would be selling yourself short. If you learn everything well, and at the depth you need to do well in your 2nd year classes, then the stuff you need to do well on the boards will come back to you right quick. Sure you'll have to study the silly trivial crap they put on Step 1 that they don't really cover in lecture...but you'll pick that up no problem when you study specifically for the boards.

Bottomline: my advice is to study hard and do well during 2nd year and not touch boards review until 2nd year is done--then when you pick up your First Aid you'll find that you've already learned, and learned well, 90% of what you need.

 

[lord_jeebus]

First Aid is not a good way to find out what is sufficient to know, but it is an excellent way to check for things that are necessary to know that you may have missed in class.

 

[Pegsie]

I was wondering if it is possible to use First Aid as a pseudo syllabus for the Neuro section of MS2? If we study the Neuro section of First Aid would if cover most of the stuff covered in Neuro? And where can I find questions that test for Neuro?
Thanks

First Aid does not even scratch the surface for Neuro. It might serve as a rough outline. We spent 8 weeks doing Neuro; FA has maybe 20-some pages covering Neuro, so they are clearly cutting things down to the bare bones.

 

[vtucci]

FA was not even close to the level of detail required in my neuro class. I am going into M2 but had neuro in M1.

I used the Blumenfeld text and Haines Neuroatlas. Clinical neuroanatomy made ridiculously simple is a pretty good review guide.

 

[kashif]

Clinical neuroanatomy made ridiculously simple is a pretty good review guide.

This is what I decided to do, Thanks

 

[Dr Jboo]

If you've never taken a neuro class, I highly recommend doing the Sidman and Sidman workbook shortly before taking the class. I started doing it a month into the class and I realized if I had done it beforehand, it would have been 10x easier. It pretty much explains all the vocab and several of the pathways and gives you tons of experience looking at images from a 3D perspective. The only part I had a chance to go through before the class was the basal ganglia, but when we got to that part, it was a cinch. Its a little slow at times, but trust me, if you do the entire book, you will be pretty well prepared for the class. I don't think its being published anymore but its pretty easy to find off of amazon. I think its called neuroanatomy: a programmed text by Sidman & Sidman. Hope that helps, I wish I had known about it before I took neuro!

 

[ADDchild]

FA was not even close to the level of detail required in my neuro class. I am going into M2 but had neuro in M1.

I used the Blumenfeld text and Haines Neuroatlas. Clinical neuroanatomy made ridiculously simple is a pretty good review guide.

I agree FA is not close to the detail for M1 neuro. I just finished step1 and with that FA is probably okay, That is if you took the time to learn it the first time in neuro class. Just brush up on the brachial plexus. My step1 was not neuro heavy and from others I heard there's were not as well. M2 is a lot of memorization. You have to know the details but also keep in mind the context and how they may use that detail to ask you a question. Unfortunately I found that step1 was the same, 350 questions mostly details. I used netters neuro atlas as well as a number of the aforementioned resources. We had an excellent neuro prof so his diagrams and slides were key for us.

Good luck