Vikas Bhushan

First Aid for the USMLE Step 1 - 2005 First Aid for the Usmle Step 1

5 stars (Wonderful book) - This is a great high-yield book in terms of painting the big picture in a quick and condensed format...and if you add stuff in the margins can be even more worthwhile... 5 stars (How to ace the USMLE Step 1: what you REALLY need to know (from a guy who broke 260 without killing himself studying)) - I actually used the 2004 edition of First Aid, but it doesn't change much from year to year. Here is what you need to know about how to ace the USMLE Step 1: 1. First Aid is your bible. Read it, study it, know it. I honestly believe that if you had this book memorized cover to cover and nothing else, you would do very well on the USMLE Step 1. 2. Use Kaplan QBank. I recommend completing most of it (the regular QBank, not the IV QBank, which I didn't use), but you don't have to finish all of it. Keep a list of your errors and review your list periodically (at least twice per week) before you do more questions. 3. The BRS books are useful for fleshing out your review of physio and path. Use them during your courses if possible. 4. "Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple" has great pictures to help you remember micro stuff. It's best if you use it during your micro course, then just skim the stuff you highlighted to help you solidify micro before the boards. 5. First Aid is pretty spotty on anatomy (which includes embryology, gross anatomy and neuroanatomy) but there really is very little anatomy on the USMLE Step 1. It's a subject you can get very bogged down in with pretty low yield (as in a whole book on neuro, embryo and gross for a few questions on the actual exam, and will you even remember the details anyway?), and you won't lose many points by just using First Aid for this subject. I actually ended up reading High Yield Gross, High Yield Embryo, and Clinical Neuro Made Ridiculously Simple, and I think it was mostly a waste of time because of how little I retained. Clinical Neuro Made Ridiculously Simple isn't a bad book to have in g...
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