Advice needed

[target250]

My step 1 exam is in 3 months. I managed to watch most of Kaplan videos except anatomy and pharma, and I can't recall a thing. I started solving usmle rx online hoping to finish it and usmle world by the time of the exam and the. Doing uworld one more time. I am managing to score well on rx (93 percent on first block which is anatomy) but I am feeling that I only know the answer of the questions ask and that when I read the details of the explanation I might not know other details. So my question is, is knowing FA enough to score 230s-240s in the exam or do I even to know Kaplan? And is a good score on rx reassuring or could it be blinding?

Any tips and suggestions or plans for the next 3 months are appreciated

[target250]

111 views and no reply :/!!!

[qirkergaard]

From what I've read numerous times on this forum, FA is enough and it's a lot to remember especially if you've annotated stuff from UWorld into FA.

So I think the best thing would be to go through FA over again until you know it cold (easier said than done, I know.) You could even try and use DIT to drill the concepts into your head. I will be using it soon as well as I've heard great reviews about it.

But if you feel like there is some topic you're not good at, then another look at Kaplan may help (if you have the time.)

Also I think taking an NBME should tell you where you're at and what subjects you should focus on.

Good luck!

[coliris]

I partially disagree with qirkergaard, for what I know and have read, FA alone is not enough, FA is THE complement the one you use to remember after you've read other more explanatory material like kaplan LN, or goljan/pathoma for patho but FA is very concise and there are many things it doesn't mention or explain (you can see that through their own qbank, in many questions they cite FA pages but the explanation is not even there, or not the way you're supposed to know).

And yes, NBME's are the best tool to know where you're standing.

[Barıs Olten]

Memorising every single word in FA will work if only you understand and know the concepts behind them

[qirkergaard]

Well I didn't mean FA was enough. The op said he already did Kaplan, so I assumed he had a decent theoretical background. If it were someone who's just starting off, I'd only recommend Kaplan. So yes it goes to say without a doubt that one can't just memorize FA without understanding what's written in there.

I did tell the op that he could look into Kaplan for the subjects he finds tough.

Of course I haven't taken step 1 yet so I must tell the op to take my advice with a pinch of salt.