What preparation materials did you find most useful?(Resources arranged alphabetically. Those reference materials identified repeatedly are denoted with asterisks **)
A Cram Fighter (program for iPhone) - Helps to make a great study schedule!
Access Medicine: - keep open while doing UWorld questions. If something doesn't make sense or if you want another image, just use access medicine.
Board simulator series - Demoralizingly hard. Doesn't hurt, but not necessary.
BRS Gross Anatomy - Not bad for class work, won't be useful for board reviews, too thick
BRS Pathology - Somewhat redundant with Goljan's Rapid Review Path, so I didn't use it that much in my 4 study weeks. I used BRS Pathology a couple times during SBM and kind of wish I had used it more drungi SBM.
- With legit studying and figuring out what's really important to know/memorize (for class and Step 1 review), focus more on BRS, since it's more high yield.
- I used BRS Path a couple times during SBM, and kind of wish I had used it more during SBM.
- I read this in excess of 5-6 times I don't regret it at all. Read it over and over and over again.
- Read this one cover to cover and supplemented first aid with its extra material
BRS Pharmacology - I knew drugs were one of my weak points, so I ended up purchasing this after our boards pharmacology review session and used it as necessary (didn't read it cover to cover, but I used it to help reinforce topics I had been weak on. Let's just say, it was definitely the right decision).
**BRS Physiology and Physiology by Costanzo - A quick read, very worthwhile refresher.
- I read through this source early after M1 to make sure I was comfortable with the physiology concepts covered in SF prior to the start of SBM.
- Are both great. The Costanzo book is basically an expanded version of the BRS book (same author) and good for first year (don't buy Boron!). But honestly, BRS is all the important points distilled, so learn that very well and use the full Costanzo book when BRS just isn't enough.
- Easy read, too simple a good review. Kaplan's was better.
- more thorough in coverage than the corresponding HY (High-Yield) book. Therefore, for more important subjects (e.g. pathology, physiology, etc) I would recommend using BRS.
- glanced at on Scribd.com
- useful for any phys you think you may have forgotten since first year. No need to read it all.
Buzzwords for the Boards - Good for times like when you're half watching television or doing something else. Just good.
- Buzzwords/questions to study.
**Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple - A spectacular micro review (in fact, I wish I had used it in Toolbox). I focused on bacteria and antibiotics. The other sections (virus, parasite, etc) are good to read if you have time, or reference them as needed as you go through Q-Bank.
- ... and the micro cards are very good.
Clinical Vignettes - Good to use with a study buddy or group. One person reads the scenario and the other person(s) guesses the disease.
- Underground Clinical Vignettes were absolutely indispensible. They really helped me learn the information in a meaningful way.
Doctors in Training - This program will save your life. It creates the study timeline for you, so you don't have to guess and stress about it. It provides quizzes for repetition. It reorganizes information in a great way. It includes high yield info not found in First Aid. And, most importantly for me, the lectures are verbal, augmenting the reading you'll do in First Aid.
** First Aid - Is your bible
- You'll become very familiar with this excellent resource. But remember, it's most useful to remind you of what you've studied, and it often doesn't have enough detail in it (so write it in!).
- Had it hole punched and put it into a gigantic binder w/dividers so I could add my own notes
- I didn't find this to be the bible it was advertised to be, but it was a comprehensive source, not something to throw all your dice into.
- I didn't buy it, just read in the cafe of the local bookstore
** Goljan Rapid Review Pathology & audio series - This book is fantastic, but has more info than you need for Step 1. I followed along in it while listening to the audio. I also referenced it extensively while going through Q-Bank.
- Rapid Review (written by Goljan) and Goljan audio work great together for building your knowledge, this may or may not be reflected in your SBM scores - but in my experience Goljan teaches to the boards' material whereas SBM sometimes steers clear of board relevant material.
- Goljan audiotapes when I just couldn't deal with reading anymore. It was a nice break and he's pretty funny.
- Great change of pace, loved these lectures.
- the most important resource in my opinion. Put every lecture on your ipod and listen to this religiously. You should know what he's going to talk about before he even opens his mouth.
- Great for a conceptual framework.
- Good for the bus or train
- Good for offering more explanation, but generally goes overboard with the amount of material in it. My recommendation is to start studying by reading Rapid Review once for a better base and understanding.
- after studying material from BRS pathology, first aid, and step 1 secrets about a particular subject, I listened to Goljan's lecture based on that material. It was a nice way to tie up a particular section I had just studied, as Goljan included some really great high-yield points. Even though he has lots of hours of lecture, since I had almost "pre-studied" the material, I was able to listen to the files at double speed, transcribe his extra tidbits of information into my first aid, and make it a very effective use of my study time. I know other students would listen to him leisurely while at the gym, but for me I made it a more active learning process, and thought I got more out of it that way.
- covers a wide range of systems and pathological processes that are great to listen to in your spare time. They are segmented into about 40 fifty-minute sessions. I mainly listened to him at the end of day when I returned from the library, during meals or when I felt too tired to actively study anything else. He provides a useful framework to approach some tricky subjects.
- I read through this once mainly for pathology slides and clinical correlations. I am not sure it was entirely necessary, but was definitely nice to see the core material from another angle outside of FA.
High Yield Behavioral Science - probably be sufficient for something like behavioral sciences
High Yield Biochem - Excellent, concise and helpful.
- I used all the HY's in the week before to brush up.
High Yield Embiology - Excellent for class, not really necessary for bards review, First Aid is enough.
High Yield Gross Anatomy - Loved this book, probably read it 3 times.
- Excellent for class and boards review
High Yield Gross Anatomy - One resource that I found under-utilized by most students that I thought was very helpful was High Yield Neuroanatomy. On the Step 1, there are a decent number of images of cross-sections of brains where you have identify a certain part. I felt that if you reviewed HY Neuroanatomy, these questions were very straightforward and easy to answer.
Immunology - A review book really isn't necessary, just learn with class materials, and First Aid is good enough for boards studying.
Kaplan Q-Bank - I completed this question bank prior to UWorld and it offered more, “What is the diagnosis?” type questions. It helped establish a baseline fund of knowledge prior to gaining more critical thinking with UWorld.
- Go through all of the questions and explanations! Most of my study time was spent here, but when I was reviewing the answers after a block, I would refer to my other study resources if necessary.
- Use early and regularly. Don't fret about poor scores on it.
- Early in the year, I bought the Kaplan QBank just to feel like I was doing something to prepare but I don't think that the questions are that helpful and don't recommend their QBank unless it will help you feel more prepared during the school year.
Lippincott's Biochemistry - Too detailed for legitimate boards review, but a good supplement when First Aid isn't enough/is confusing. I do, however, totally wish I had used this book during our biochem section instead of the dumb book they required because it's much smaller and simpler. Also, there is actually a lot of biochem for Step 1, and NU probably taught us 10% of it.
Lippincott's Pharamcology - Useful when studying the drugs for the first time for a better base understanding, but it's a lot of material, and when reviewing (for both tests and Step 1), First Aid is all you need to know.
** NBME Practice Exams - Do at least 2.
- NBME online assessments, predicted my score on the dot.
- During the last 4 weeks I also did an NBME exam every Saturday. I liked this because it was a break from UW questions which had really long answers, and it was just answering questions quickly. The score I received 1 week before step 1 was one point lower than my actual score so these tests seem to be relatively accurate predictors.
- puts out several tests (currently 7 are available online) that are supposed to be representative of the exam. These tests are slightly easier than the actual exam, but several questions/pictures came directly off these practice tests. They are available for purchase on the NBME site for $50/test. They are excellent sources to simulate the actual exam and become a more efficient test-taker. Teach you to gauge your performance, learn how they ask questions, learn what level of detail is required, know what concepts they like - then research every question you are unsure of.
Pharmacology Flash Cards - Good for the pure memorization topics. Add things relevant to heart dz, pregnancy, aids or diabetes because every one of your patients on the clinical vignettes will have one of those diseases.
- I went through these all once, and they're pretty good. Memorize micro out of First Aid though. Remember, they have way more info than you need to know on them. To be honest, I probably used Silinsky's lectures (and the other SBM pharm lectures) to review pharm more than I used pharm cards.
- I used these all year to learn SBM, but not necessary at all for actual boards.
Review Articles - When it came to Boards studying, I was definitely a minimalist. I used the fewest amount of materials possible that I felt comfortable with.
Review of medical micro and immunology by Levinson - Excellent for Immuno
- Just for the cases, questions, and summary charts, etc.
Road Map Gross Anatomy Road Map Neuroanatomy - Wish I'd done that one instead of High Yield.
Road Map Pharmacology - Good for what is in it. Doesn't cover all Pharm.
Robbins Basic Path - THE MOST UNDERRATED BOOK FOR SBM. Read this and do the Robbins Question Book before you look at any SBM stuff. Circle tough or good questions for review at the end of the relevant unit. Not great for review at the end of the year, but this book should be read multiple times, cover to cover.
Robbins Q-book - It was very good during SBM units, but I would not use this after SBM - these questions are too in depth and specific to Path, and I would try to do Step 1 specific questions which are more broad in scope (i.e. not just path)
**USMLE Secrets - Good bathroom read/first pass.
- I really liked the question format of the book and the way it was organized
- Step 1 Secrets was great, I wish I had more time to read it
- an easy-to-understand, well-written book that doesn't read like a textbook at all. I really liked the case-based presentations, and supplemented first aid with its extra material.
- Read the relevant chapters before every SBM unit or do what I did and skip the first day of lecture and go read this and Robbins Basic Path. A great book; follow along with an index card and try to answer the question before you read the explanation
** USMLE World Q-Bank - I thought the 3 month subscription, with the 2 self-assessments, was perfect in terms of timing. Do these for sure.
- the best q bank out there with awesome explanations. I tried to go through the whole thing twice. The second practice test basically predicted my score to within a few points.
- Questions for me really worked, I'd get really frustrated when I got questions wrong, but that'd be what'd make me remember the answer. And plus, you get this sense of accomplishment after you do a set of questions like you've really done something instead of read the same few pages again.
- I did a lot of questions from USMLE world. This was really the crux of my prep and it worked great for me.
- It is significantly harder than the real test, and any other Qbank for that matter. What you need to keep in mind with UWorld is that the questions are designed so that you are LEARNING from the answer discussion, NOT the question itself.
- started with the Kaplan one, but switched halfway through--I only wish I switched earlier
- USMLE world is the best qbank.
- the Qbank of choice
- The thing I found crazy is that at least half of my friends didn't finish all the questions on the program! I just thought this was ridiculous because the questions are so great at predicting what the boards are like. Read through all of the wrong answers after you do questions. This is daunting but basically think of it this way: if you read the 5 wrong answers to a question, that's basically like doing another 5 questions because they COULD have been the right answer to any future question. So basically: do all of Uworld and read all the explanation = best preparation.
Additional comments on review materials - USMLERx (from the publishers of First Aid) is another good Qbank. There are much more two-step/three-step thinking-type questions than what will appear on the real test so that is good. The only drawback (or advantage) is that most of the information tested will be directly from FirstAid. This is good as you are first studying from FA because when you get a question wrong you will look at the explanation and realize that it was in FA all along (and therefore read it more carefully). This is bad because you are unlikely to learn any new information that is not in FA already.
- All of the faculty led review sessions - I used these as my starting point. I brought my first aid to each session and started highlighting and transcribing the information shared by each professor. It was a nice way to help refresh my memory about each unit at the beginning and, as the time went on (the reviews went from April-May, I think), a nice way to review what I had already studied.
- SBM material, and even SF material too. While I didn't read through every single one of my syllabi to prep for boards, I did make sure to specifically pick information that I thought was well-taught and that I understood well from lecture, and essentially just moved syllabi pages from my SBM binder to my First Aid binder. A great way to help reinforce material.
- Whenever I felt like I didn't quite understand a topic, I made sure to find the source that could best explain it for me, whether it was on the internet, in one of my M1 textbooks, or emailed by one of the professors.
- You have to learn the relevant SBM material. Some of the lectures are really good, but be critical of them. If the PPT looks sloppy then trust your instincts and move on. Above all, every SBM lecture should be listened to (some at 2x), but SBM in no way should proscribe your studying. There are huge gaping holes that can only be filled by using other resources.
- You will receive listserv emails where people are selling every boards review book known to man, but my advice would be to resist that urge!
The only thing that might need to be supplemented is some of the virology/bacteriology for which I used the microcard flashcards (virus section is excellent). You will find that pretty much everything you need to know is in First Aid and the rest will come from Q bank explanations. |
