[Dr.s.y.]

I have the first aid book.
But my problem is how to read that? I think it has short abstracts and it's not easy for me to memorize that.

Do you have any suggestion?

thanks

 

[elian]

thank you for asking this ...I was going to ask the very same question ...



waiting for our beloved colleagues to help us

 

[usmles99]

simply...

read... if u dont get it read again if it still not working memorize it word for word letter by letter then read again.. it will be helpful if u do it together with uworld..

 

[patelMD]

You need to read it along with other notes like Kaplan, HY, Goljan etc., then finally 'memorize' FA as you said. Lots of stuff that isn't given is given in the notes, and vis verza.

 

[mle2resident]

i am reading FA now.. i have tried reading it b4 doing qbanks, somehow it didnt work for me then. But now after finishing UW, when i am reading it, its sooooooooo informative, every word matters. Also i am revising UW along with reading FA, and adding the xtra info into the book gained from UW. I hope this works for me as well as u.

 

[dr z]

my path

i had FA, i started reading it, it seemed like i knew nothing about medicine,
i could not correlated things and nothing made sense,
so someone advised me to read it after Kaplan booksand yes now after reading kaplan FA makes sense,
it is now even better after doing Kaplan qbank ) and
shortly I'll start UWorld and I hope FA will become clearer by then :happy:

 

[Mondoshawan]

the way I read FA

My way is a little backwards, since I am not following Kaplan, but you might find it useful.

• I go through a few pages at a time, but in no particular order.
• I try to make sure I understand everything on a page. Some subjects I am very well-versed in; I can go a whole page or two in, say, genetics without having to look anything up. Most pages, though, take me 20-60 min. to go through!
• I look things up in my "go to" references [Emedicine (online), RR Pathology, HY Neuro, Costanza Physiology], making notes in First Aid of things that I think will be important, or will tie together concepts for me, or page references to other sections of FA. Not a whole lot of extra stuff, not enough to make it crowded, but things that I know I will want to know when I review that material.
• When I read a question or thread on this forum that I learn from, or when I do a QBank question and get it wrong, I go to that page in FA and start looking things up, adding notes.
• Sometimes I jump from section to section as I chase down different connections. As long as I am engaged in the reading, it does not feel like work.
• Some mornings, when I don't know where to start, I will flip through FA until I find a clean page and go from there.

I've been doing it this way for about five weeks, and I am maybe 1/3 of the way through FA. So it's not fast, even though I put a lot of work into it! However, when I do my second and third passes, I expect them to go quite quickly.

 

[drarnab]

First aid is not a primary source of learning - never make it so, it will be very time consuming since its hard to memorize.

a combination of two techniques will help u master first aid.

1. Once you finish reading a subject -from kaplan - refer to the relevant sections from the FA book. - it will be completely clear to you - re-read this section after another week to consolidate into long term memory.

2. At the end of all your primary reading - provide for about 10 days of intense reading of first aid.

you will memorize it.

 

[Mondoshawan]

First aid is not a primary source of learning - never make it so, it will be very time consuming since its hard to memorize.

Yes - this is very important! Even if you were to memorize everything in First Aid, you wouldn't be able to answer two- or three-step questions. It is definitely not a primary source, so don't think of it as such. It is a good place to collect everything, to make sure there are no holes in what you know and understand, and to review.

 

[Dr.s.y.]

I am so happy that I am not alone. thank you all for answering me, yes I think so that it can not be the first book for reading. I can not memorize something word by word with out a connection wit that text. I have to understand that, maybe it's my problem

but we don't have to read all text books, do you think Kaplan books are the best option?
I have to take kaplan classes or just buy books from them? do they sell their books without taking classes? I m really have no Idea.......

thanks for reply

 

[patelMD]

I am so happy that I am not alone. thank you all for answering me, yes I think so that it can not be the first book for reading. I can not memorize something word by word with out a connection wit that text. I have to understand that, maybe it's my problem

but we don't have to read all text books, do you think Kaplan books are the best option?
I have to take kaplan classes or just buy books from them? do they sell their books without taking classes? I m really have no Idea.......

thanks for reply

PDF files for the Kaplan Lecture notes & Video lectures are available online for free.. just google!

:sleepy:

 

[khanar]

I am so happy that I am not alone. thank you all for answering me, yes I think so that it can not be the first book for reading. I can not memorize something word by word with out a connection wit that text. I have to understand that, maybe it's my problem

but we don't have to read all text books, do you think Kaplan books are the best option?
I have to take kaplan classes or just buy books from them? do they sell their books without taking classes? I m really have no Idea.......

thanks for reply

You can buy the books from Amazon, these are the links
Kaplan Lecture Notes 2011
Kaplan Lecture Notes 2010

 

[Dr.s.y.]

wow they are so expensive, but only kaplan series? someone think we need kaplan DVDs too, or as I ve read in ZUMZUM plan there are the other books too. what do you think?

 

[rahul]

My exam is in march, so for the past few months, I've annotated notes from DIT that was not in FA..especially the Neuro sections, and also adding my own Uworld notes (so far i have about 100 pgs typed). Whatever i dont understand in FA, i go online or go to another source (Kaplan, brs, etc). FA is a really good book for most of the subjects. Alot of my friends study from Kaplan for the step, but after they take it, they say that alot of the q's came from FA and uworld. everybody's studying methods are different.

 

[heights]

I am reading FA page by page, look up things I don't understand, and then memorizing each topic with this online flashcard web site gunnertraining. I posted my FA study strategy http://http://www.usmle-forums.com/usmle-step-1-forum/6251-my-study-schedule.html
Hope it works :scared: