I can definitely say that this message board helped me tremendously on passing my boards. Anyway I used basically every suggested book from prior threads on the writtens, particularly the ACE questions (2005-2011 many of which are no longer available on the ASA website), latest Hall, Faust etc. And I definitely think they helped (particularly Hall and the ACE questions) and am now interested in selling them at far less than what I bought them for.
I used Faust as my central review source and felt it was good but lacked some topics (see previous thread where someone nicely outlined the topics missing in Big Blue and Faust). I outlined Faust and made flash cards like I was in 5th grade about a month before the exam, and sadly it worked because there are too many dumb details you just have to plain memorize. I was not so impressed by Big Blue (although everyone uses it so I was afraid not to), even less so by Baby Blue. Then a part of the test was filled with random critical care and internal medicine that I had to search deep into my med school memories to figure out (and then ended up guessing anyway). But the other materials I used were enough to pass with a safe margin (and I am not a good test taker). So if any residents out there need some written board material, PM me, and I'll email you a list of what I have. Good luck!
I used Faust as my central review source and felt it was good but lacked some topics (see previous thread where someone nicely outlined the topics missing in Big Blue and Faust). I outlined Faust and made flash cards like I was in 5th grade about a month before the exam, and sadly it worked because there are too many dumb details you just have to plain memorize. I was not so impressed by Big Blue (although everyone uses it so I was afraid not to), even less so by Baby Blue. Then a part of the test was filled with random critical care and internal medicine that I had to search deep into my med school memories to figure out (and then ended up guessing anyway). But the other materials I used were enough to pass with a safe margin (and I am not a good test taker). So if any residents out there need some written board material, PM me, and I'll email you a list of what I have. Good luck!
