Step 1 mainly assesses whether you can understand and apply important concepts of the basic sciences to the practice of medicine; it makes sure that you know the principles and mechanisms underlying health, diseases, and modes of therapy.
Subjects covered in step1
- Biochemistry
- Anatomy
- Physiology
- Microbiology and Immunology
- Pathology
- Pharmacology
- Biostatistics and Epidemiology
- Medical Ethics
- Behavioral Science
- Genetics and Aging
Let’s discuss the resources now. Well, I will not go into a detailed description of every resource. I will just give a brief about it.
# 1 First Aid for USMLE step 1
- Most people consider this as Bible for step 1
- First Aid is a comprehensive review book. As it is a review book, it will not provide you with explanations to form a good understanding. But it gives you all the high yield topics for your exam.
- Check out Amazon to buy the book
# 2 Uworld for step 1
- Uworld is the best Q-bank available out there. Most people who gave the exam say that uworld is most like the real exam.it was the best resource to learn by practicing questions.
- It provides you with good explanations, diagrams, and tables for every question in detail. Check out their Website.
#3 Pathoma
- Pathoma is an excellent resource for pathology; it gives you clear, concise, and well-organized lectures that cover major topics for USMLE exams. It develops a true understanding which is never forgotten.
# 4 Boards and Beyond
- Boards and Beyond is a video subscription service created by cardiologist Jason Ryan. It is a comprehensive review of almost every topic in first aid.
- It slowly evolved as the must-used resource among the students for its ability to concisely teach you high yield topics for your board exams; this video subscription service covers everything in First Aid, and he even includes the First Aid pages which correspond with a given video.
- Check out the Boards and Beyond website, watch a couple sample videos, and purchase a subscription here: Website
# 5 Sketchy Medical
.jpg "Sketchy Medical review")
- Sketchy is an animated video resource that students use to memorize material like microbiology and pharmacology.
- It gives a memorization technique called “memory palaces”. A memory palace is an imagined place, or “palace” with different objects that represent specific concepts.
- Sketchy creates these memory palaces using animated drawings or “sketches”. You know how you can never remember the exact street name, but you know where a place is because of what’s around it? Memory palaces play on this concept. A concrete example is a memory palace that features an imaging mansion with a bunch of bananas in it that are supposed to remind you of potassium.
# 6 Anki Flashcards
- Anki App is a cross-platform mobile and desktop flashcard app. Make flashcards with text, sound, and images, or download pre-made ones. Studying is extra-efficient, thanks to our unique algorithm. Automatically does backups and sync to all your devices, via the cloud.
- Anki decks cards work on the technique of spaced repetition — a study tactic that helps you remember all the minutia you’ll face on exam day.
- The best deck so far and most popular among students is Zanki. The original Reddit post for the Zanki deck check and download to use
# 7 Kaplan USMLE Step 1 Review
- Well, this is the most controversial topic among the medicos some say Kaplan is good enough and some say it's too much to handle and no high yield topics.
- My suggestion is, choose Kaplan only if you have a good amount of time to prepare
- Given its 4.6/5-star rating on Trustpilot, based on 4,000+ reviews from med school hopefuls, Kaplan is a proven industry leader in USMLE test prep.
- However, along with this high status and brand-name recognition comes cost; the company’s USMLE Step 1 prep is notably more expensive than many of its competitors… (but you can find them for free in some telegram groups.)
- Buy Kaplan lecture notes here Amazon
Okay, let’s end the blog here, soon I will create a new blog with detailed resources for individual subjects.
References:
- https://www.usmle.org/step-exams/step-1
- First Aid USMLE Step 1 2022 Page No: 740( lol)
- Golden words from seniors who cleared their step 1 with good scores