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USMLE STEP 1 STUDY TOOLS AND TIPS
It is approaching that time of year where the second year medical students are preparing to cram for the United States Medical Licensing Exam Step 1. A test some consider to be the most important exam of medical school and subsequently determines the rest of your life. That is a little dramatic but I think it should be your goal to do the best you can. Here are some of the tools I used to study for Step 1:
First Aid for the USMLE Step 1 2017
This is the holy bible of USMLE Step 1 studying. I highly recommend this book and I think almost every medical student who has taken the test would say the same. I would read through this book 2-3 times to really have it sink in.
Pathoma
A lecture series made by a certifiable genius: Dr. Husain Sattar, a pathologist from the University of Chicago. This series was amazing and incredibly detailed. A lot of high yield material is covered in his lectures.
https://www.pathoma.com
USMLE World
The question bank of all question banks. Though it may be school dependent, almost everyone from my medical school chose to go with this question bank. A couple thousand questions covering the majority of USMLE Step 1 topics. The questions are challenging but you will see your scores improve as you continue to study throughout your first and second year. I’ve even used this product for Step 2 and I am currently (literally open on my computer) using it for Step 3. My number one goal would be to complete every question offered in this question bank, it is a lot but well worth it.
https://www.uworld.com
The rest are to cover my weakest subjects from USMLE Step 1: Biochemistry, Microbiology and Pharmacology. I recommend the following tools to turn your greatest weakness into your greatest strength:
Microbiology
Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple
Lange Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Flash Cards
Pharmacology
Clinical Pharmacology Made Ridiculously Simple
Lange Pharmacology Flash Cards
Biochemistry
Clinical Physiology Made Ridiculously Simple
Lange Biochemistry and Genetics Flash Cards
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Hi can you explain the difference between heart rate and rhythm? I'm studying atrial fibrillation and flutter and I can't understand the difference between the two...
Wow! That is a fantastic question!
To start, heart rate means how fast the heart is beating. How many “beats per minute.” The easiest way to measure the rate would be putting your fingers on a patient’s pulse. This can get tricky sometimes because the atrium(top) can beat, contract or pump at a different rate than the ventricles(bottom). The pulse you feel in the wrist corresponds to the ventricular contractions. Looking at an electrocardiogram, or ECG/EKG, you can measure the beats per minute by looking at the number of PQRST complexes.
Now the rhythm corresponds to whether each P wave is followed by a QRS wave. Do the atrium and ventricles contract in succession? There are many variations to this and we call those arrhythmias. Each P wave being followed by a QRS wave is called Normal Sinus Rhythm. If there are no discernible P waves, meaning the atrium is not properly contracting, this is called Atrial Fibrillation because the atrium is fibrillating but not fully contracting.
During flutter the atria are contracting, but very very fast. So on the ECG you will see P waves. But not every P wave is followed by a QRS complex. Sometimes you see 2, 3 or 4 P waves prior to each QRS complex. It takes multiple atrial contractions for 1 ventricular contraction. It is called a “saw-toothed” pattern.
Hope this helps!!
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Master post: online resources for preclinical courses
Organized by course, of course. Sorry, I don’t have anything for Biochemistry because I just essentially let Jesus take the wheel on that one and I made it through somehow.
All are free resources unless they have an *
Gross Anatomy
U Mich Practice Practicals
Visible Body Human Atlas*
Visible Body Skeleton Premium*
Histology
Shotgun Histology
Physiology
ECG simulator
ABG ninja
Pulmonary textbook outline
Heart Sounds Podcast Series
Neuroscience
Atlas of Functional Neuroanatomy
Cranial Nerve Study Guide
WISC Neuroanatomy
Midbrain-Diencephalon
Visible Body Skeleton Premium*
Eye Simulator
Pathology
WebPath
Pathoma*
Goljan audio
Microbiology
Sketchy Micro*
Pharmacology
Sketchy Pharm*
Tulane Pharm Wiki
Psychiatry
Online Med Ed
How to Doctor
Stanford 25 for physical exam skills
Some info on the paid resources:
1. Pathoma: 100% recommend it, 13/10 Dr. Sattar will teach you pathology better than anyone else. I wouldn’t have survived without him.
2. Sketchy Medical: I religiously swear by Sketchy Micro. Get it Get it Get it. I can’t imagine trying to study micro without it. And it’s not because I have a mega crush on Andrew. They’ve expanded into the pharm and path market as well. I used pharm for antibiotics, which was pretty helpful, but I haven’t checked out path so I can’t comment. I will say pharm is hella long, like 20-30 minutes vs the <10 minutes for micro, in case of attention span issues.
3. Visible Body: These are a series of apps I downloaded on my Macbook for when I was too lazy to go to the lab. I found them so so so helpful when I was studying to see everything in a 3d model, but they’re not *necessary*. I do recommend them if you’re a visual learner. And they’re currently 50% off in the app store!
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Mom brought me flowers whilst I'm studying neurology.
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Mackenzie is back on the track! Kicking some good old embryology!
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She is so stubborn, her heart has an argument with her head every time it wants to beat.
Catherynne M. Valente, Deathless
(via wordsnquotes)
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When you see a doctor/med student wearing their stethoscope outside of the hospital
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Lover boooooooys!!!!! Guyton and Hall Physiology Netter Anatomy Junqueira Histology Moore Human Embryology HUGE Medicine Dictionary
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Story of how 6 years of med school paid off in 5 minutes.
I was at the gym at this sports center the other day, doing my workout session. At one point a guy is running into the gym asking if there is any doctor or nurse cos a guy collapsed. I run out with him. When I came over, there was a man laying on the floor. He was not looking good. No pulse, irregular breathing, pupils dilated. I started CPR. After few minutes ambulance came. I continued to work with them. It was VF, but luckly we got rythm after first electro shock. He was stabile and they took him to hospital. I went back to my training.
Tomorrow I got a message from that man’s daughter. She wanted to thank me for saving her fathers life. They told her that if I hadn’t started CPR he wouldn’t be alive when ambulance arrived.
6 years of hard work, studying, sleepless nights, missing on social life, stress…it was all paid off in those 5 minutes of helping that man. When I heard he was alive cos of something I did all those years were suddenly worth all the struggle. That is why we do what we do…to make a difference. That’s why medicine is such beautiful job!!!
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Alright, uni starts tomorrow...
I'm sad and excited at the same time. That's what med school does to you!!!
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