Be successful in the classroom, ace your exams, and excel on the boards with five powerful resources in one proven system. Get Rx Bricks, Step 1 Qmax, Flash Facts with Study Stream, and Express Videos... all fully integrated to give you a truly efficient and effective learning experience.
This guide is designed for students to learn the foundations of medicine in an online learning environment. This system consists of short, interactive lessons called "bricks" that allow students to review and assess their understanding of need-to-know medical topics.
Content is broken down into small learning units, or "bricks", and organized around basic science topics or clinical concepts. Each brick uses clear language to explain and give context to key topics, as well as a helpful built-in review tool that tests students' understanding of the content.
Every brick has objectives, flash card questions, and practice questions. Overall I enjoy the bricks a lot more than reading lecture slides or outlines since the bricks are interactive and well-integrated with the USMLE-Rx ecosystem.
The Rx Bricks Podcast is a podcast for medical students preparing for the USMLE step 1 and step 2, designed to assist students on their journey through medical school. Every week, we air a new episode based on an important basic science topic or clinical concept. Each episode is an audio version of one of our Rx Bricks, which is based on our USMLE high-yield topics and interactive learning module.
"USMLE-Rx" is a trademark and property of MedIQ Learning, LLC. "USMLE" is a trademark and property of the National Board of Medical Examiners. "First Aid for the" is a trademark of the McGraw-Hill Company. Neither the NBME nor the McGraw-Hill Companies are affiliated with USMLE-Rx or MedIQ Learning, LLC.
The Step 1 QBank Integrated Plan consists of a focused set of instructional videos to help students truly master the highest-yield material. It also has an extensive question bank of over 2,000 assessment questions. These questions provide interactive feedback with detailed explanations and sources students can review to better understand the concepts tested.
Once students complete the Basic Science portion of medical school on St. Kitts, they transition to our Portland, Maine pre-clinical campus for their 5th semester and participate in a Maine Integrated Semester consisting of Introduction to Clinical Medicine integrated with Biological Basis of Clinical Medicine (i.e., the Kaplan Review Course). This approach emphasizes the relationship between the basic sciences and clinical medicine, improving both understanding and preparation for USMLE Step 1.
The purpose of the Biological Basis of Clinical Medicine [MICM 1020; The Kaplan Course] is to prepare students to approach the NBME-USMLE Step 1 questions with the skills and competence necessary to pass the USMLE Step 1. The majority of Step 1 questions include clinical scenarios directly related to the UMHS Basic Science Program and this integrated curriculum approaches this basic science material to help the development of knowledge and skills from the perspective of clinical relevance and application.
The integrated approach to the material allows for visiting professors from the Kaplan Medical Review program to lecture on topics including Biochemistry, Immunology, Microbiology, Physiology, Pharmacology, Genetics, and Pathology. There are also scheduled integrated system-based lectures taught by Kaplan Medical Review faculty focused on the intersection of Physiology, Pharmacology, and Pathology of the body system which coincides with the body systems covered in Introduction to Clinical Medicine [MICM 1010] each week. Each system-focused week will also be completed by an integrated question-based session allowing students to work with each other to problem-solve USMLE Step 1-style questions in preparation for summative assessments.
Upon passing USMLE Step 1, all students are automatically enrolled in Kaplan online review programs for USMLE Step 2 CK. These programs are ideal for when the student transitions into clinical rotations, and their busy, sometimes unpredictable schedules make a traditional review course impractical. The CK review is also beneficial for students preparing for their Clinical Shelf Examinations as well as the Comprehensive Clinical Science Examination (CCSE).
Question banks or qbanks can help you study for USMLE Steps 1 and 2 by providing you with sample questions that are similar to what you may find on the USMLE. You can use qbanks to review different topics and see how you understand various subjects. Two qbanks to explore are the Kaplan and AMBOSS banks. These are two banks that feature questions created by prior medical students who have passed the USMLE.
This Kaplan vs AMBOSS review shows many points to explore surrounding these two question banks. They are different in many ways, but they are also convenient for how they can help you learn more about the subject.
The AMBOSS medical learning platform is a system that helps medical students prepare for the USMLE. The qbank features more than 2,700 questions for the Step 1 exam and thousands of other questions for additional subjects.
AMBOSS has the more valuable series of videos, as AMBOSS partners with Osmosis, a group that produces medical learning videos, to help students understand more about how many concepts work. The thorough info in these videos will be helpful to your studies.
Kaplan also provides some interactive 3D models you can review after a question. These images will help you analyze different organs, body systems, and other factors, giving you a more visual approach to understanding your subject.
Kaplan has more than 3,000 questions in its bank. You can sort these questions by difficulty, helping you build confidence as you work through some of the simple concepts first before moving on to harder points.
But AMBOSS has a stronger bank, as AMBOSS has nearly 5,000 questions throughout its entire bank, with about 2,700 questions focusing on USMLE Step 1. You can use filters to focus on questions in specific subjects or disciplines that you want to study further. You can also highlight specific questions you want to focus on the most, allowing the platform to understand more about what you want to review.
AMBOSS also ranks its questions based on difficulty. There are five difficulty levels in this setup, and you can divide your questions between all of them to help you complete your exam and understand your subject matter.
The same is also true for AMBOSS. Many questions are complex, but you can learn how to manage them through this interface. The information Kaplan provides is easier to review, as Kaplan can help you review different question trees.
The AMBOSS platform also covers all the major topics, although it has content that goes well beyond Step 1. Students looking to complete the Step 1 exam might find it easier to focus on the Kaplan questions, although the AMBOSS platform can also work for all three parts.
AMBOSS lets you select what difficulty levels you want to concentrate on when testing yourself, plus the difficulty selection is more realistic than what Kaplan provides. The questions in the three and four-hammer range on the AMBOSS platform tend to be more likely to appear on the USMLE exam. Many of these questions also have multiple layers, requiring you to look through their stems to see what the questions are about while figuring out possible answers based on what the question incurs.
The Kaplan qbank also lets you sort questions by difficulty, although the specific difficulties of these questions are subject to debate. But many of these questions also come with First Aid book references, which helps you use the FA book alongside the qbank to review specific details.
You can choose to access the content in each platform to your liking, although the pricing will vary over what you select. Kaplan lets you pay for services for as little as one month, but the group prefers people subscribe to the platform for at least a full year to get the most value.
Meanwhile, people who want to concentrate on certain topics will find the AMBOSS platform to their liking. AMBOSS also provides a more affordable and accessible approach to learning, plus you can find various detailed articles and reports within each question. The extensive array of questions covering every USMLE step will also help you with your studies.
What are the best resources for USMLE STEP 1? How to Study and Prepare for STEP1? In this article, I will answer these two questions and share with you a USMLE STEP 1 study guide to show you the most popular resources and materials that helped me score +260.
Before we dive into the different books and resources, you need to understand that the choice of study resources is highly individual. A student who will prepare for the USMLE STEP 1 exam in 3 months will not use the same resources as a student who has one year to prepare for the STEP 1exam.
A student might feel very confident with one subject that they would want to go directly to First Aid and UWorld, while another student might need to spend more time reviewing STEP 1 books and watching STEP 1 lecture videos before they start solving questions.
To know what resources are best for you, start by asking yourself some simple questions: Do you have a solid knowledge of the STEP 1 materials? Are you a fresh graduate? How long was it since you studied the basic sciences? Was your medical school in English or your native language? Were you an average student or a top-class student? How high do you want to score? How much time do you have to prepare for the step 1 exam?
First Aid STEP 1 is a great review book. However, it will not provide you with explanations to form a solid understanding of the complicated STEP 1 concepts. First Aid STEP 1 is basically a pack of all the information you need for the USMLE STEP 1, condensed into 860 pages. You can think of it as a collection of all the high-yield topics that are tested on the exam, collected and presented to you in this book.
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