It is 20 minutes past midnight and I am getting up close and personal with anti-arrhythmic drugs while drinking the 6th cup of coffee of the day. What else would I rather do...


What materials does one use to study for USMLE Step 1? Personally I am a big fan of Kaplan course. Lectures are great, they chew everything nicely into digestible bits and support them with a great set of notes. Even though I am a passionate bookaholic, when it comes to revision I'd rather not have a massive pile of thick medical books to plough through. That is where the review notes come in, all 8 of them (no more than 400 pages thick each!). Learn that off by heart and you will be pretty covered for Step 1. Easier said than done of course, however it does cut out a lot of filtering of low yield material.


First Aid is good, I am aiming to use it as a final review book. Personally, memorizing a book full of tables is actually worse than memorizing 8 books of text. First Aid is brilliant though for that last minute cram when one is desperately trying to retain all the information that is humanly possible.


Good anatomy atlas, preferably with pictures rather than drawings. I find it is a great supplement to the anatomy module. Sometimes it is better to see it once rather than having to read the description several times.