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First Aid

Customer Rating:
An older edition of first aid but is beneficial for the reason, it is the last edition before the switch to systems based first aids. Useful for shelves or a quick review for particular classes. There are much newer editions for the actual Step 1

Overrated but still worth buying

Customer Rating:
People often make the mistake of thinking that knowing this book forwards and backwards translates into a superior score. It probably doesn't. The pathology and physiology material in particular lacks both concepts and details that you will need for Step 1. Every edition of the book is laden with errors and should be used with caution. Finally the book is awkward to read and contains too many lists.

On the plus side, the pharmacology section is excellent. If you do not understand the figures you see, however, you should use another source to figure them out. My recommendation would be to use this book to wrap up your review after using other sources, to catch high yield information you may have previously missed. While the book does not come close to containing everything you need to know (except perhaps in pharm), it does a pretty good job of limiting itself to things that are likely to be on your test.

good enough

Customer Rating:
Good enough, but if you have already done kaplan and Goljan, you will find very little new things here. Still a fair review.

An excellent book for review AFTER studying everything else

Customer Rating:
This review would apply best to FMGs who have finished medical school rather than medical students who are taking their Step 1 at the end of their second year.
For the purposes of doing well on the USMLE step 1, this is a book that I would recommend reading only after one has studied the test material from other sources. In fact, this book contains a list of recommended review book for each particular subject which I also recommend following. I would not recommend using it as a primary source of knowledge acquisition for someone who has finished the basic science part of their medical education a number of years ago (as most FMGs would be). Instead, it is a really powerful, and essential, tool to consolidate that knowledge once it is acquired elsewhere. Spending a couple of months recovering the lost basic science knowledge is worthwhile before reviewing this book.
It is worth mentioning that I used this book for review while I was doing the Kaplan Qbank questions. Only within that context, did I come to agree with those reviewers who refer to this book as the USMLE holy grail.

Better dont trust this book

Customer Rating:
I heard some people saying that they were helped studying from this book but trust me, according to now a days exams this book hardly helps. You can read this once but dont hope that this will help much. No need to buy new edition, its just waste of money. Can get old edition from amazon or ebay...... good luck.