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- Twila Compton - Review of ZealotThe book is very interesting and reads like a novel. It presents many aspects of the Bible in a new light and is well researched and documented. I would recommend it to anyone with a questioning mind who is curious about the beginnings of Christianity. I found the authors idea of the important of James very enlightening. I just plain liked the book and will reread it again and probably get twice as much out of it. Twila Compton
- ProjectX - FirstAid step 1- Your new best friendFirst Aid is your medschool bible.. even if you are done with step 1.
First just to make this relevant and have validity I'm a medical student that scored a 244 on step 1. Not the best score out there but 240+ is really what you should be aiming for to keep your options open. If you are like me you only attend the mandatory things which accumulates to ~8hrs of class a WEEK (beware because that goes to 10+hrs a DAY in 3rd year... the year when medical school really starts...) and living the dream of being in your 20s and were not aware what step 1 was until midway through 2nd year. So you want only the high yield materials.
You need 2 things and BRS as a reference:
1) USMLEworld Qbank (I'd recommend all random questions in 46q blocks. Mix between timed and read answer after question mode) This is the best resource for your score PERIOD. I went with the 3 month trial which is what I would recommend.
2) FirstAid - This is a must. Make sure to get the color version which started in 2012. Dedicate a week to read once in the beginning/midway of 2rd year so your familiar with all the terms and reread 1 or 2 more times.
3) BRS PATH - In retrospect, I wish i would have read more of this. I read it for the more confusing path sections like repro. A section takes ~1-1.5 hr to complete and you are an expert. I looked through Goljan because people in my program wouldn't STFU about it but after glancing at it for a couple minutes I realized I just wasted ~$40.... LEARN FROM MY MISTAKE. I have an old edition of robbin's which pathologists love. It is a very solid book but very low yield. IMO Harrison's has a better more relevant path section. Again, grab color edition of BRS... black and white just makes you fall asleep for some reason.
After you finished 1 and 2 references and supplemented with BRS take a NBME exam... my program provided us with one exam. Take the newest one. If you go to bed at 10pm stay up until 3am when you think you would perform worst from being sleep deprived incase that happens on test day (which apparently it does to everyone because I've never heard of someone not giving this as an excuse even if they performed well on this exam). That score is very indicative in my experience. No need to take 5... if your like me in max student loans and have a balance on 4 credit cards you can spend your $$$ on something more useful like the new World of Warcraft expansion.
This was my strategy. There's no magic study strategy. You reap you sow. Since the first two years of medschool are like college undergrad,if you are doing it right, you are probably bored the majority of your time. So just put in 3-4 hours a day on weekdays to complete a block of qbank.
Good luck. Pick a test date and keep it.
*Remember there will be a lot of peers using performance enhancing stimulants. Do you need to take those to keep up? Of course NOT. You don't need 'em. And remember - leave the excuses/whining at home.
*There are also many students whining/crying on here over ~20 minor errors that are mostly irrelevant and will not impact your score/fund of knowledge. Med students are going to be med students. Be glad such a resource like this exists. Just with this book alone you can hit the national avg score of 226. Supplementing Qbank should pull you past 240.
Other references to keep around:
Harrison's(Sacred text... better than any resource out there. You read this cover to cover and I want you as my personal physician. 10/10 stars)
emedicine.medscape.net (IMO best online source... uptodate is 2nd)
wikipedia (no explanation needed)
Micro made ridiculously simple
First aid 2 CK
If any physician talks.... listen... especially an internal med doc of 10+ years.