Best sources. New opinions needed.

[SummerB215]

Hey all,

Ok so I am bugging out a little, not really sure why but I feel overwhelmed with all the books I have obtained over the past 3 semesters. Can someone who recently took the exam please advise me as to which sources to use for each subject. I hope this is not too time consuming. I promise after I take the boards,I will post as much stuff as necessary. My weaknesses are Physio, Cell Bio, and Pharm so please help.

Summer

[FlindersGrad]

Hi Summer,
I think that is a really tough question. I always find it difficult to recommend books to people, because we all have different styles of learning. And, each book tends to cater to a different level of knowledge. If you have First Aid for step 1, spend some time looking through the books which students review (in the back). If you're like me, you already have one of those books from each subject.....and, you've probably already read it.

This was the case for me, so I just used First Aid as my primary source and went back to the "big" texts to review something I didn't understand in First Aid. I had a lot of friends who used Kaplan notes and First Aid, but I didn't so I can't tell you anything about Kaplan notes. However, I did use Kaplan Q-bank, and I would strongly advise anyone to use this source. For me, First Aid and Kaplan Q-bank were all I used, and they were enough to do well.

Depending on your time frame, you probably don't have time to reread a text from each subject, so that's why it is important to find a good review source. Stick with the source, read and reread it, and use something like q-bank. In q-bank you can concentrate your questions on areas you feel you are weak. Plus Q-bank keeps track of how well you are performing in each subjuct. Step 1 is a tough exam, but the vast majority of people pass it. So...odds are you will too. Just study hard and do lots of questions