Thread: Using First Aid as Framework for step 1.......advice

I am choosing to tackle the step 1 on my own, without Kaplan or Falcon. I am in the process of setting up a schedule and byeing all my references. My plan of action was to use First Aid kind of as a scaffold and make sure I know it cold, and supplement it everyday with a few other high yield books like RR path Goljan, BRS physio...etc. For those of you that took a similar strategy and did well, did you find that you had ample time really read some other sources in a bit more depth than you would read First Aid, and still have time to bang out 50-100 USMLE world Q's everyday? Rather than following the traditional "do physio for x amt. of days, then path. then anatomy...." I'm going to try and take a systems based approach (hit up all areas of eg. neuro in a few days - anatomy, histo, physio, path...) If there is anyone out there who took a similar approach, lemme know how it turned out. One last Q, how exactly did you all go about allotting time to every subject? Is it typically done based on your personal strenghts, or is standard to give a subject like Neuro or Cardio almost a full week to hit up its anatomy to its path...thanks for the feedback...very much appreciated...

let me know where you at and we can look at it together, hotdog. i have a ton of stuff i could give you too

Uhh nooo... mines ain't sticky like yours.

Just a few of the pages are stuck together, the ones with the pics of the diseases. Those pages are printed on picture paper... so, you know...

sorry babe, i have a gf already... i don't want that vaginalis parasite neither

Originally Posted by islander23

COngragts on the 230/96....awesome score....Jaywalk, just out of curiosity, how did you go about studying biochem without reading a book on it from "cover to cover", not having studied it in depth since first term? Also, did you find anatomy and histo questions to be abundant, or were they kind of scattered within path. questions? I'm trying to figure out how much time to put into subjects like anatomy and histo, if any significant time at all. Do you think it's going overboard to attempt to get through eg. BRS behavioral, RR micro and immuno., etc..or is it pretty safe to use FA as the main source for less heavily tested subjects such as those just mentioned (meaning those aside from Path, Pharm, and Physio)?

i was lucky that th i hated biochem, most of it came back to me after some review from kaplan book, lipincott, and FA and also doing lots of questions


my version of the exam had lotsa histo and anatomy! and it wasnt histo integrated into path, it was straight up histo and no way you could have studied it , it was either you remember it form 1st term or not.

sample qs were, where in the kidney can you find the thin ascnding limb of the nephron...ans choices including cortex, inner medulla, outer medulla, and some other stuff.

what is the mature subsatnce of adult bone. ans choice inc Ca, PO4, vit D, osteoid, and hydroxyapetite


you get the point...they are very picky and detailed on the histo qs i got

bah im in first term and i already forgot those

For those of you who took step 1, do you feel it is worth the time to invest in an actual book/reference to study histology? I feel I keep hearing from numerous recent test takers that Histo is being more heavily tested, along with anatomy. I'm on the verge of making my schedule for the summer and I'm teetering on whether I should try and squeeze in a quick chapter from eg. Rapid Review anatomy and/or histo for each system of the body before hitting the physio,path, and pharm hard for each of them...I know I keep harping on this histo thing - it just seems like they could potentially be easy points if it is reviewed - i just don't want to go overboard with it though....also would you say FA is sufficient for behavioral (stats and epi and ethics) and psych?

Thanks for the input - just trying to get my head straight before I take a dive into it in 3 weeks...

I will try to help out as best I can. I got a solid 99 on step 1 and was not a 4.0 student (nowhere near!). I absolutely agree with the last 5 days being the most crucial, 'where the men are made and the boys are broken'.

I put in 4 weeks of SOLID studying. I moved out to the boondocks where I was the only non-white person in a 30 mile radius, dairy farmers still milked by hand, and barns scattered the landscape. This prevented me from socializing with my friends or making any new ones for that matter. While there, I worked out almost every day (bench pressed 365 lbs while there ). For fun, I went to Walmart and marvelled in how much I could buy for five bucks.

I used a modified Penn method to cater to my weakness (penn method posted below).

In summary, here is what I did:
1st 3 weeks: went through the Kaplan books thoroughly. Did UW questions corresponding to the subject matter. I thought MMRS was the best for micro, BRS was the best for Path, and Kaplan was the best for the rest.
Last week: holy crap, I don't know how to describe this. I went throught FA 2-2.5x during this last week. I think this got me the meat of my scores. I didn't have the time to reread Kaplan, but I did look at the high yield tables. I don't know how I managed to survive this last week...my body just shut down for a week after.


PENN METHOD:

Here is "THE METHOD" for acing the boards:
Books needed: First-Aid for the Boards - USMLE part 1 Lippincott's Biochemistry Lippincott's Pharmacology
Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple Microbiology and Immunology (by Lange..orange and dark grey book) BRS
Pathology BRS Physiology High Yield Anatomy High Yield Embryology High Yield Neuroanatomy High Yield Behavioral
Sciences High Yield Histology
Question Sources: Kaplan's Q-bank (2500 questions + answers online), 1 month subscription Appleton and Lange's
USMLE Step 1 (1200 questions + answers, including 2 full-length exams)
Schedule (First 25 days*) - Background Reading* These days are meant to get you familiar with the material. Don't get
caught up on trying to memorize every detail. These days are not for memorization. They are just meant for you to see all
the material once and to distill out the most testable points in order to take notes upon for further study (see "last 5 days"
below). These days are approximately 8-9 hours of studying/day. Make sure you sleep, eat, and work-out during this
time. Also, try and relax for 2-3 hours per night (i.e. hang with girl-friend, watch movies, get out of the library).
2 days First-Aid for the Boards (only cursory reading - get a feel for what you are up against) 4 days Biochemistry + 50
biochem questions per night 1 day Histology + 50 histology questions 3 days Microbiology (Micro made ridic simple only)
+ 50 microbio questions/night 1 day Immunology (Lange's book) + 50 immuno questions 1 day Embryology + 50
embryology questions 3 days Physiology + 50 physiology questions/night 1 day Anatomy + 50 anatomy questions 4 days
Pharmacology + 50 pharmacology questions 1 day Neuroanatomy + 50 neuroanatomy questions 3 days Pathology + 50
pathology questions/night 1 day Behavioral Sciences + 50 behavioral sciences questions
So for each of first 25 days of reading, you review (in 1 hour each morning) the corresponding section from First-Aid.
While you are doing your readings for the day, you take all your notes in the margins of First-Aid on the section that
relates to that day's readings. At night, you do 50 to 100 practice questions on the topic (i.e. Biochemistry) that you read
about that day and read ALL the explanations for each question at the back of the Book or on the Kaplan Website.
Schedule (Last 5 days*) - where the men are made and the boys are broken *WARNING: last 5 days are the absolute
meat of getting the score. Everything you've done before this is just a warm-up. These days are approximately 12-14
hours of studying/day. Besides eating, sleeping and working-out, you are doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE BUT
STUDYING.
· Day 1 - review Biochemistry, Physiology sections of First-Aid(i.e. deeply study these sections and all the notes you
wrote in the margins). This should takeapproximately 5-6 hours. In the afternoon, do 150-200 questions/answers related
to Biochem, and Physiology.· Day 2 - review all small topics (i.e. Histology, Anatomy, Embryology, Neuroanatomy,
Behavioral Sciences) and Pathology sections of First-Aid plus your notes. Do 150-200 questions related to these topics.·
Day 3 - review Pharmacology and Micro + Immuno sections of First-Aid plus your notes. Do 150-200 questions related to
these topics.· Day 4 - review First-Aid sections/notes: Biochem, Physio, Path. Do 1 practice test from Appleton and
Lange. Do more questions related to these topics.· Day 5 (Last Day!!!) - Review First Aid sections/notes: Micro +
Immuno, Pharm, and small subjects. Do second test from Appleton and Lange. Do more questions related to these
topics.
Take test. Go on Vacation.
Good Luck
P.S. The bare minimum in terms of books: First-Aid Lippincott's Pharm BRS Pathology
Basically do all your studying on the various subjects from these books (same sort of daily schedule but do all the

subject readings from these sources only). Spend the extra time to do tons of questions (the more questions the better).

Thanks for the wonderful tips!

Thanks for the advice basurpan....congrats on your 99...that's damn awesome....I will be taking a similar path you took in terms of preparing, with a few minor tweaks here and there regarding a few different sources I am comfortable using. So you really only put in 4 weeks of solid studying??? What did the other 3-4 weks consist of??