First Aid Q&A for the USMLE Step 1, Second Edition (First Aid USMLE),   ISBN:9780071597944

Customer Rating: 

I started going through this book and just stopped. Relative to the other qbanks available its a waste. Many questions are either unrealistically simple or overly tricky due to poor wording/editing. Many explanations are inadequate and are merely statements of fact.

The book would be acceptable if it were not for the mistakes. In one chapter more than 10% of the questions had blatant mistakes or seriously misleading information. Combined with the poor wording on many questions, it makes answering some questions a pain.

I guess if you need a cheap qbank or one on paper this will work, but there are FAR better resources to study from.

Customer Rating: 

The seller shipped this item FAST and it is exactly as described...will definitely do business again.

Customer Rating: 

If you are old school like me in that you need to study from a physical book and simply CANNOT study from a computer (i.e. online Qbanks like UsmleWorld, Kaplan, etc which most people rave about but which turned out to be USELESS for me and my learning style), then I strongly recommend this Qbook. There is no doubt that online Qbanks like UsmleWorld are supposed to be really good - as per student/foreign doctor reviews - but if you have tried them and had a hard time learning from them, then may be they don't work well with your learning style).

The good thing about this book is the almost 1000 questions come straight from First Aid's online Qbank (UsmleRx) thus giving you the same advantage as practicing from their online question source (which also has really good reviews).

For step 1, get a good book to study from (I would recommend Usmle Step 1 Secrets 2nd Edition by Brown & Brown - see my review here on Amazon - for a thorough, conceptual and integrated case based review!) plus do this qbook (if you have time or need more questions to practice and learn from, then your next book can be Kaplan's Step 1 Qbook). And of course assess yourself with a couple of NBMEs to see if you are ready for the test.

Customer Rating: 

Before reading this review, it should be noted that I have not yet taken my examination, so I am speaking on how much information and knowledge I gain from each source, rather than its exam pay-out (which is obviously the most important).

With that disclaimer, this book is a good way to reinforce some topics from the First Aid for Step 1, especially when the monotonous reading of that text becomes boring and your brain gets saturated. I am a huge believer, in that as medical students instead of diversifying our portfolio (which we don't have since all of our money went to medical school :)), we should be diversifying our methods of studying and to reinforce topics in FIRST AID, this would be the way to do it. However, from my understanding the information in First Aid is not enough to score well on your boards, although it may be sufficient to pass. This book, provides very little extra information outside of the First Aid for Step 1, although a few percentage of questions do an excellent job of integrating concepts from different clinical sciences and forcing you to apply what you learned from FA rather than just memorizing it.

As other people have mentioned, and I will reiterate here, it is in no way a substitute for Kaplan QBank, USMLE world, etc. and in my opinion primarily serves a reinforcement of topics and facts presented in First Aid. In addition, there are a few minor mistakes and some direct contradictions with other texts.

Hope this helpful, good luck to everyone taking the Step 1.

Customer Rating: 

Can help you with your prepration along with the regular online Q Banks.Not a must have but definately usefull. Helped me a through Step 1