What alternatives are there to first aid?

[SchroedingrsCat]

Every review I read on amazon talks about how the book is completely filled with errors from front to back and is basically a joke because of that. Yet people here still refer to it as a must-have. Are there any other reliable options? Reviews here: http://www.amazon.com/First-Aid-USMLE-Step-2012/dp/0071776362

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[Kinis]

Every review I read on amazon talks about how the book is completely filled with errors from front to back and is basically a joke because of that. Yet people here still refer to it as a must-have. Are there any other reliable options? Reviews here: http://www.amazon.com/First-Aid-USMLE-Step-2012/dp/0071776362

That's weird because mode on these reviews seems to be 5 stars

 

[OveractiveBrain]

Every review I read on amazon talks about how the book is completely filled with errors from front to back and is basically a joke because of that. Yet people here still refer to it as a must-have. Are there any other reliable options? Reviews here: http://www.amazon.com/First-Aid-USMLE-Step-2012/dp/0071776362

There are no alternatives. They all suck (see Kaplan medEssentials). The market is closed. Everyone gets first aid. most people get goljan rapid review. Everyone gets a Qbank (kaplan or Uworld are best).

Think about what "riddled with errors" means. Because you read it you get 225 questions right. But oh gnoes! Errors strike! 5 questions wrong! Were you really going to get those 220 questions right without the resource? IF errors are to harm you, then you would have to:

a) have learned it right without First Aid
b) remembered the right thing to begin with
c) reasoned the question to the wrong answer, because of the error in the text
d) have never learned the contrary information in any other review source like your notes, the Qbanks, or goljan.

Chances that you will get a lot of points on Step 1 because of FA? High. Chances that you will miss one or two questions because of errors in FA? Yeah right, chances are you just forgot the information to begin with.

You are more likely to just not get the question right than you are to suffer from errors in the review source. You are also more likely to increase your score from having read it, errors included (even if you were dumb enough to not catch them and change them from other studying).

 

[mimelim]

There is no replacement for First Aid. Trying to study for Step 1 without FA is probably the worst possible thing you can do when preparing besides simply not studying.

 

[SpecterGT260]

Every review I read on amazon talks about how the book is completely filled with errors from front to back and is basically a joke because of that. Yet people here still refer to it as a must-have. Are there any other reliable options? Reviews here: http://www.amazon.com/First-Aid-USMLE-Step-2012/dp/0071776362

arent you pre-med? Or was that a different shroedingers cat?

 

[evilbooyaa]

Just would like to echo the above statements. I got Kaplan Essentials when I got the rest of the Kaplan course (which was awesome for working with FA), and barely flipped through it because FA had 95% of the same info in what I believed to be an organized fashion. However you need to supplement FA with some other resource, and of course, lots of practice Q's.

 

[FunnyCurrent]

There are no alternatives. They all suck (see Kaplan medEssentials). The market is closed. Everyone gets first aid. most people get goljan rapid review. Everyone gets a Qbank (kaplan or Uworld are best).

Think about what "riddled with errors" means. Because you read it you get 225 questions right. But oh gnoes! Errors strike! 5 questions wrong! Were you really going to get those 220 questions right without the resource? IF errors are to harm you, then you would have to:

a) have learned it right without First Aid
b) remembered the right thing to begin with
c) reasoned the question to the wrong answer, because of the error in the text
d) have never learned the contrary information in any other review source like your notes, the Qbanks, or goljan.

Chances that you will get a lot of points on Step 1 because of FA? High. Chances that you will miss one or two questions because of errors in FA? Yeah right, chances are you just forgot the information to begin with.

You are more likely to just not get the question right than you are to suffer from errors in the review source. You are also more likely to increase your score from having read it, errors included (even if you were dumb enough to not catch them and change them from other studying).

there are 20 pages of errata and they even ****ed up the coronary arteries and basic functional components of the nephron...

Compared to the 2011 edition (7 pages of errata posted last I checked), the 2012 edition is inexcusable! Between May 2012 and August 13 2012 there was increase in errata from 17 pages to 20 pages. There is so much errata that nearly one year after release the errata PDF continues to grow with no end in sight.

Do you have any idea how long it takes to go through that damn PDF and correct my copy of FA?

 

[Ghost22]

I bought the 2012 thinking I'd use it during second year to go ahead and start looking at it with every system. I took one look at the 20 page errata and sold it to an incoming first year, with the caveat that, "You need to triple check everything you read in here."

I can't fathom how there can be so many errors when most of the book is just the same as it was the year before with different organization and color. Mind boggling.

The one upside is you can feel pretty confident that you know your stuff when you're able to identify errors right off the bat.

 

[Phyozo]

Every review I read on amazon talks about how the book is completely filled with errors from front to back and is basically a joke because of that. Yet people here still refer to it as a must-have. Are there any other reliable options? Reviews here: http://www.amazon.com/First-Aid-USMLE-Step-2012/dp/0071776362

No alternative. Using FA = win

 

[siliso]

A large portion of the errors seemed to be formatting or typographical, not factual bad content.

 

[Dapado33]

arent you pre-med? Or was that a different shroedingers cat?

He was both until you asked him that.

 

[SpecterGT260]

He was both until you asked him that.

I see what you did there....

 

[sanityonleave]

There are no alternatives. They all suck (see Kaplan medEssentials). The market is closed. Everyone gets first aid. most people get goljan rapid review. Everyone gets a Qbank (kaplan or Uworld are best).

Think about what "riddled with errors" means. Because you read it you get 225 questions right. But oh gnoes! Errors strike! 5 questions wrong! Were you really going to get those 220 questions right without the resource? IF errors are to harm you, then you would have to:

a) have learned it right without First Aid
b) remembered the right thing to begin with
c) reasoned the question to the wrong answer, because of the error in the text
d) have never learned the contrary information in any other review source like your notes, the Qbanks, or goljan.

Chances that you will get a lot of points on Step 1 because of FA? High. Chances that you will miss one or two questions because of errors in FA? Yeah right, chances are you just forgot the information to begin with.

You are more likely to just not get the question right than you are to suffer from errors in the review source. You are also more likely to increase your score from having read it, errors included (even if you were dumb enough to not catch them and change them from other studying).

You are almost certain to lower your Step1 score by not using FA versus using it.

I did not use it to study for my classes, which I think is a bit more hit or miss, but not using it for Step 1 is silly. Also, the two people above who recommend against FA are both 2nd years who have yet to take Step 1, so take that advice with a grain of salt. It's solid gold for Step1 studying.