USMLE Books

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CaptainZero

I know there's a ton of different posts about what books to use, so sorry if this is at all redundant...but I think I've narrowed my list...with some exceptions...any feedback from people that've taken the exam would be much appreciated:
First Aid
Pharm: Lippincott
Embryo: High Yield
Gross: Road Map...am also considering Rapid Review which will combine gross and embryo into one book - any thoughts?
Path BRS
Physio BRS
Micro & Immuno MMRS; I feel like I have a relatively strong background in Immuno...is the content in First Aid likely to be enough?
Behavioral/stats High Yield...considering BRS, but it seems a bit lengthy
Biochem High Yield...I've heard a lot of good things about this book, but I'm not entirely sure I like the format - any other suggestions? (Lippincotts biochem is not an option)
Neuro Anatomy High yield or _made redic. simple? I've heard good things about both. Any negatives to either of these?

Thanks in advance to anyone that responds.
 
Disclaimer: I haven't take the exam yet.

Pharm Lippincott's is probably overkill; "memorizing FA pharm" is the gold standard.
Embryo HY is good
Path and Phys BRS are great
MMRS is also great (if you have strong immuno background, you're probably good with just FA)
HY Behavioral is good
HY Neuro is great (saved me for a shelf exam)

I haven't used any of the others.
 
CaptainZero said:
I know there's a ton of different posts about what books to use, so sorry if this is at all redundant...but I think I've narrowed my list...with some exceptions...any feedback from people that've taken the exam would be much appreciated:
First Aid
Pharm: Lippincott
Embryo: High Yield
Gross: Road Map...am also considering Rapid Review which will combine gross and embryo into one book - any thoughts?
Path BRS
Physio BRS
Micro & Immuno MMRS; I feel like I have a relatively strong background in Immuno...is the content in First Aid likely to be enough?
Behavioral/stats High Yield...considering BRS, but it seems a bit lengthy
Biochem High Yield...I've heard a lot of good things about this book, but I'm not entirely sure I like the format - any other suggestions? (Lippincotts biochem is not an option)
Neuro Anatomy High yield or _made redic. simple? I've heard good things about both. Any negatives to either of these?

Thanks in advance to anyone that responds.


BS - stick with HY
Biochem - look at kaplan book - lippincott biochem is overkill x 5.
neuro - HY or kaplan.
For pharm - stick with FA for micro - MMRS and FA (it's very good for this). Likewise look at facts in flash on gotmedbooks.com for these two subjects. That is great for memorizing stuff like these two topics and it can keep track of what you missed etc. It follows FA pretty well.

Good luck,
 
CaptainZero said:
I know there's a ton of different posts about what books to use, so sorry if this is at all redundant...but I think I've narrowed my list...with some exceptions...any feedback from people that've taken the exam would be much appreciated:
First Aid
Pharm: Lippincott
Embryo: High Yield
Gross: Road Map...am also considering Rapid Review which will combine gross and embryo into one book - any thoughts?
Path BRS
Physio BRS
Micro & Immuno MMRS; I feel like I have a relatively strong background in Immuno...is the content in First Aid likely to be enough?
Behavioral/stats High Yield...considering BRS, but it seems a bit lengthy
Biochem High Yield...I've heard a lot of good things about this book, but I'm not entirely sure I like the format - any other suggestions? (Lippincotts biochem is not an option)
Neuro Anatomy High yield or _made redic. simple? I've heard good things about both. Any negatives to either of these?

Thanks in advance to anyone that responds.

This is my opinion (I took Step 1 about a week ago). I was given the whole set of Kaplan Step 1 books by a friend and used selected ones that I mention below:

Pharm: Lippincott is too dense for my taste; I stuck to First Aid and Qbank pharm which seemed to work just fine
Embryo: High Yield
Gross: I studied only the First Aid anatomy for about 1/2 a day and that's it. I think it was just right based on the very few anatomy questions I got on the exam.
Path BRS
Physio BRS; there's also a BRS Physio Cases book by the same author that is excellent
Micro & Immuno I have a strong immuno background, but thought First Aid was too sparse with the immuno. I really really liked the Lange Micro and Immuno book for immuno. For micro I stuck with First Aid and Microbio Made Ridiculously Simple and I thought this was perfect.
Behavioral/stats High Yield
Biochem I used the Kaplan biochem book which I thought was one of the best Kaplan books.
Neuro Anatomy High Yield was more than adequate

I came to realize that these supplemental books are great, but way too much info in the big picture. Stick with Qbank and First Aid for your core studying. You'll figure out how much you need to go to these other books in the course of your studying. Don't try to learn it all - you'll just drive yourself crazy. Do as much as you can.
 
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