So a lot of people on sdn recommend looking over board materials like pathoma or bnb before looking at in house lectures since board materials tell you more clearly what is important. And then you do the corresponding anking cards.
I am wondering which board resource in particular is recommended for first pass of materials for organ based modules. Is there a favorite among people here? It seems that bnb seems a little bit more comprehensive than pathoma but pathoma’s explanations are great.
I'm presuming this is for Step 1. I don't have great knowledge on BnB and my advice is a bit dated. That said, the general point I want to get across is there's no one gold standard for everything. Your best bet is an assortment for each organ system's:
1.) Pathology (significant chunk of the exam): Pathoma. Sometimes he delves into Pathophysiology, but not for everything.
2.) Microbiology: Sketchy to make it stick. First Aid tables. Focus on virulence factors. Step 1 likes to test mechanisms.
3.) Pharmacology: First Aid tables are sufficient if you memorize every word.
4.) Pathophysiology: UWorld does a great job with this. Review their tables/charts. First Aid. Again, focus on mechanisms because Step 1 likes to test them. My school resources are also pretty good for this in my opinion but YMMV depending on school. Anytime you don't understand a concept, just google key words alongside USMLE Step 1. There's usually an explanation online.
You'll notice I basically just gave you U-FA-P (
UW,
FA,
Pathoma) mixed in with some Sketchy which everyone already knows. If you need something to digest First Aid other than reading the pages, you can shell out some money for their audio/video series which was known as USMLE Rx when I was around. I'd be leery of using any one source for everything unless it's a some master ANKI deck compiling everything which is cool to use especially if validated by trusted peers or reliable SDNers/Redditers, but know that that's technically from several sources. The reason is FA has curated their information for 20 or so years with extreme attention to detail, UW has a employed team dedicated to this exam. BnB is probably got a similar track record by now, but unless it covers some unmet need, I think it's pretty much rehashing UFAP and maybe adding some explanations.
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In regards to priming (bolded), I think it depends on how much your in-house lectures suck. The thing about the in-house lectures is that if you're at any legitimate school, the lecturers are supposed to stuff the lectures with NBME/USMLE high yield points so those things are in there. I personally believe one of the biggest myths online is that inhouse lectures don't teach for the boards. They do...the material may just be poorly delivered or there may be some bad actors (certain lecturers who give lectures on irrelevant topics). If you notice yourself drifting off after the first 15 minutes of a lecture because the lecturer is just droning on about random details, then your lecturer is just bad. At my school, we had a pathologist who was really good (not Sattar level, but passionate enough to put some effort into the big picture). For the lectures she didn't give, I had to prime with Pathoma to understand the big picture and what the information I needed to know was and how it could be tested/relevant. Then when I went into in-house lectures, I made connections I wouldn't have made before lectures. For the ones the good pathologist did give, reviewing Pathoma before lectures was sort of overkill.
