I'm planning on starting my boards book shopping this summer. Right now, I'm thinking about getting the First Aid book, and the most of the BRS books. Are there any additional books that I should get, and do I need ALL of the BRS books or just a select few?
What books do you recommend for step I?
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Don't buy a book before you know you will need it. The books you will get depends on your target score and the amount of time you have to study... it's too early to know that now.
It seems 95%+ of people will say no matter what, get FA + RR Path for sure, if you feel you have to have something early.
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Don't buy BRS behavioral science. It's too detailed and too long. High Yield Behav Sci (written by the same person) is fine. (Although, to be honest, First Aid is really enough for behavior science.)
Don't buy BRS gross anatomy. Also too detailed. Chung just inundates it and puts it in a format that is NOT review-friendly. Reading the blue boxes in Moore might be enough.
BRS Physio is a MUST. Very good to read. First Aid is like a synopsis of the stuff in BRS physio.
BRS path was pretty good. I liked it, but other people swear by Rapid Review or Goljan (if you can get the audio tapes).
BRS biochem is all right, I guess. If you don't feel comfortable with the stuff in First Aid, though, Lippincott is probably a better bet.
BRS neuroanatomy is good IF you're already familiar with the book and have used it before. Otherwise, just go with High Yield (also written by the same guy who wrote the BRS).
BRS microbiology and immuno is good to have on hand, although not to study from. It has a lot of details that First Aid and Ridiculously Simple do not cover well, but it's in kind of a weird format - it's basically a bunch of lists. But it is comprehensive. And there seems to be a lot of detail about micro on Step 1. (At least on my test there was.)
Good luck!
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The BRS book is rarely the best choice for a given subject. BRS Physiology is great.
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As already stated, I probably would not start buying books until the Jan before you take USMLE. I'd suggest that you learn Pathology as well as you can. So if anything, limit yourself to BRS Path or RR Pathology or perhaps even Goljan's Stars series path at first. Then get the other reivew books.
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I have inherited a few of the review books from a friend and will buy a couple more when school starts to study from alongside class material. This is what I have come up with. I wanted to limit the number of books that I will use so that I could focus on them and really know them well. I hear of people buying a good 10-15 books and hardly using them. If anyone wants to critique my list, that would be great.
-First Aid, this should go without asking
-BRS Physio.
-RR Path. (Goljan)
-BRS Path (got this for free so I'll see how I like it)
-Clinical Microbiology made Ridiculously Simple
-HY Neuro
Basically the first three are the must haves. Not sure what else I might need to round eveything out.
-First Aid, this should go without asking
-BRS Physio.
-RR Path. (Goljan)
-BRS Path (got this for free so I'll see how I like it)
-Clinical Microbiology made Ridiculously Simple
-HY Neuro
Basically the first three are the must haves. Not sure what else I might need to round eveything out.
Books i used...
FA
FA cases ( about 20 Q where directly from this)
Kaplan notes
RR path ( only used this for the derm chap)
BRS path ( EXCELLENT!)
UWworld, Kaplan Qbank, and USMLERx
These where my major sources...
FA
FA cases ( about 20 Q where directly from this)
Kaplan notes
RR path ( only used this for the derm chap)
BRS path ( EXCELLENT!)
UWworld, Kaplan Qbank, and USMLERx
These where my major sources...
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kaplan lecture notes
FA/ kaplan medessential
goljan notes
FA/ kaplan medessential
goljan notes
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If I could do it all over again I would not have done a thing without listening to goljan. I got the audio with about 2 weeks left to study. it is amazing.
I used the kaplan organ system books and liked them- I had a lot of time! I would outline them then transfer to FA. very time consuming- but seemed to work for me. I started using BRS path because I was running low on time- and realized that my outlines from kaplan were basically BRS path. so it took me forever to copy BRS path cuz all the extra stuff was already cut out. I like the extra stuff, and I really like paragraphs, so I would recomend kaplan to anyone who felt that way too.
I used the kaplan organ system books and liked them- I had a lot of time! I would outline them then transfer to FA. very time consuming- but seemed to work for me. I started using BRS path because I was running low on time- and realized that my outlines from kaplan were basically BRS path. so it took me forever to copy BRS path cuz all the extra stuff was already cut out. I like the extra stuff, and I really like paragraphs, so I would recomend kaplan to anyone who felt that way too.
