USMLE Step 1 Secrets

USMLE Step 1 Secrets is a great book for Step 1. It is well written, covers extremely high yield material, and even explains some topics much better than many of the other highly used Step 1 books. I definitley recommend it to anyone studying for the boards.

This is one of the best review books out there, and also an excellent review for any level of medical education. I esp. enjoyed the mild humor in the case presentations, such as that in the Behavioral Sciences chapter, with the surgeon who had a narcissistic personality disorder. A classic !

I was skeptical about it because it's brand new this year and not reviewed...should I spend my money? But I took the chance and it is EXCELLENT! I would highly recommend it to those studying for Step 1 because it's integrative and give you an explanation (in plain english) that tends to stick more than just looking at lists and bulleted formats (e.g. Step Up and First Aid). Sure, I use Step Up and First Aid, but I think you should get this along with your First Aid- especially those of you who don't feel as confident!! Excellent resourse

I just finished reading this book today and I must say this book is OUTSTANDING! In my opinion, this book will soon be in the same category as the "First Aid Step 1" series, no doubt about it. The book is divided into an easy to read and understand systems based approach. Each chapter (18 total) begins with basic concept and then immediately takes you into 7-12 case studies about each system topic. Each case study is further broken down into "mini-question" to bring the reader to the important concepts. There are a few diagrams and charts that help tie in certain concepts, especially the tougher topics. It would be a shame to go without this book.

This book is systems based and uses case based scenarios. Each chapter starts with basic concepts. After that, you get the scenarios.You are given a brief case then asked around 4-10 questions based on the case. Each question is followed by a paragraph explaining the answer.My school is on a systems based curriculum and we currently are doing reproductive. As we were learning the female reproductive system, it was easy to review by looking at the cases in this book. It was an amazing help! It summarized what we had learned in class and emphasized the important concepts.Looking through the behavioral sciences section and reviewing it also helped greatly. We had that section last fall and after reading the cases, the main concepts came back to me rapidly.If you are on a systems based curriculum, check out this book!If you are on a different curriculum, take a glance at this anyway. For me, it did a great job of summarizing concepts.The other great part of this book is its size. This book is small! It is 6 x 9 and easy to carry with you anywhere. Sometimes it is nice to run to Starbucks to study with a small book instead of the big book bag loaded with review books.I also have first aid for the USMLE Step 1, Step-Up) a systems based review for USMLE step 1) and Kaplan's review course (2003 version). Those are good books and will use them to supplement my learning, but for me, this is going to be the book from which I will do my heaviest studying.