Crashing the Boards: A Friendly Study Guide for the USMLE Step 1 Exam

This book is the best! I began my summer studying the First Aid and I felt like it was an impossible task. I am not sure if this review applies to the USMLE Step 1 but I am writing to fellow podiatry students that will eventually take the national boards of podiatric medicine step 1. Most of my class spent their whole summer studying the First Aid and some of them did not pass. The First Aid really is just too much to read and remember. If one memorizes EVERYTHING in the Crashing the Boards book, then that is more than enough. It gives you the most important facts to know and will be tested on. Believe me...do yourself a favor and buy this book!

I am a Podiatry Medical student in Cleveland and I just took part one of the boards last week. I passed. Hallelujah!! I didn't even need to do any extra testlets. I was pleasantly surprised, but nonetheless surprised because i only studied for 10 days and the only book i used was Crashing The Boards (and my own Lower Anatomy notes). All, and I mean all, of my other classmates used "USMLE First Aid". I began to worry that maybe i should have used First Aid also because it had a lot more pages and info than Crashing does...But, when all was said and done Crashing was more than adequate for the Boards. Crashing gives you the essential info needed in about 1/3 of the pages compared to First Aid, which translates to less time needed to study. Many reviews state that Crashing is just a good "supplemental" book to use, i would argue that Crashing is THE book to use.

You don't always want to take your whole library to your son's little league game! This is a compact book that packs a lot of information in it. I am really enjoying it for a review book.

One of my study partners bought this book and it was the most popular book to use among our group of four. We all had First Aid but fought to use this book. There is a lot of basic informaiton in the book that is well presented in a way to remember, but there is also a lot of information that will help with specific questions on the boards. I think this book was one of the reasons I did much better than just passing.

This is a good guide for Step I amidst the overwhelming selection of books available for the test. This thin paperback utilizes its every page in the table format with occasional caricatures to help the reader remember the concept.