What you hated about prep books

[pikachu]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hi everyone - I was looking through my prep books for step 1 and thought a lot of them were pretty lousy - even the famous ones. for example, I thought First Aid was just a collection of random non sequitur facts. Step-Up was organized a little better, but it had a lot of factual errors. I didn't use Kaplan -

what does everyone else think? when I studied for step 2 I didn't even use a book, just did a lot of Qbank and Usmle-World questions, and actually did a lot better on Step 2 than on Step 1. Weird.

 

[Ramoray]

i personally found every review book lousy because i am not the type of person that can learn from point form notes. For me they served the purpose and still do as i study for step 1 as a guide of what to memorize and what things to learn the best. I learn by actual books and learn the subject and then use the review books to make sure i learned the material that will be tested. So i do think they are valuable if used correctly to focus your studies. However others swear by learning straight from brs books and nothing else, more power to them because they probably spent 1/10th the time learning something that i did and we walk away with the same info in the end. But IMO review books are far from complete and High yield facts will get you only so far. I guess i will see 3rd year if learning paid off or if it was a waste of time. But to answer your question there are few review books that have been that impressive.