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33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but overrated., March 30, 2007
This review is from: Crush Step 3, 2e (Paperback)
This book has been the "gold standard" for USMLE step 3 for a long time, mainly due to its size. It is a good book and contains a lot of information in a small volume, but it is NOT enough. The pediatrics and OB&GYN parts are very incomplete, and unless you are a resident in those specialties, you will have problems. The pictures are not enough. In my opinion, Kaplan Notes are better. If you have time, it is better to read Peds and OB&GYN from Step 2 Kaplan notes, and then review Step 3 Kaplan notes. At the end, use this book for rapid review. It would be nice if this book had a CCS section like "First Aid to USMLE Step 3" First Aid for the USMLE Step 3 (First Aid). Bottomline: Don't rely on it as the only source for preparation.
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25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
pair it with a couple of good question books and you are set, June 5, 2005
This review is from: Crush Step 3, 2e (Paperback)
This is a very high yield review book, and light to carry around. I took my step 3 during my medicine intern year, and carried it with me between admissions and nightfloats. If you want to do "spectacularly", then you may want to delve more into other resources. Otherwise, if you have like about 6 months of medicine residency training, look up some of the details that you are rusty in, pair it with one or two question books, like NMS or Qbook (a steal currently with the discount at Amazon), that should be a very nice start for your preparation.
I also used First Aid Step 3 for 1. a different perspective; 2. I like the First Aid series; 3. the CCS section in the back. If you are away from general medicine for a while, it will be nice to go through some of the scenarios. But otherwise, I prefer Crush step 3 by far. CCS is really about patient management. The cases are easy to diagnose. Make sure you work through the practice disk though, with the review book and question books, you are all set for a comfortable pass. The toughest part of the exam for me was going back for the second day. But people usually finished very early on their second day as some CCS cases could take just 10 minutes or less to finish. The thing is, if you forget a test or an order, you cannot go back to put it in. So make sure you take your time and think through your steps. But you should have plenty of time to do so. Granted, the above may not apply to the IMGs, as they have more hurdles to overcome. But regardless, this is still a very good book with very high yield materials to review on. Good luck with your step 3, and the many sleepless nights when you are on call. :)
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123 of 152 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hate the Boards but Love this Book, December 5, 2005
This review is from: Crush Step 3, 2e (Paperback)
I don't like saying this, because I'm not a hater. But I hate the boards. I hate the people who write these awful questions, the people who justify the existence of these money-grubbing tests, and the self-perpetuating system of medical education, which somehow convinces people that test-taking skills correlate with good patient care. But it is the people who do well on these tests that end up in medicine, and so, naturally, they are all too ready to believe that the tests must reflect real intelligence or knowledge.
I'm okay with the concept of testing, but lets not delude ourselves into believing these tests reflect anything more than they do. The MCAT's a good test though. It probable effectively measures who is willing to choose their careers over their families, friends, and mental health. Perhaps Step One of the USMLE measures how much of the basic science people have absorbed, but it is a better instrument for measuring test taking skill. By Step Three, it is really just an endurance test. Each question is a paragraph long, and the test lasts up to eight hours on each of two consecutive days. Success on Step Three has to do with how quickly you can read, or how long you can stay focused, and, of course, how well you do on standardized tests.
By the way, what does it say about the earlier screening exams that a certain percentage of test items on Step Three are testing whether or not you can phrase things in a polite way to patients? These are the best questions for those of us who've managed to maintain half a life. When you see five answers with quotation marks around them you can skip the question stem and just eliminate the four choices that only a jerk would actually say to a patient. But these questions keep showing up so somebody must be getting them wrong. It seems surprising, but then again if you've had any experience dealing with doctors from a patient's point of view, it really isn't too shocking.
Crush Step Three is the best review book if you are going to study from just one. I used the First Aid for the Boards books for the first two tests, but this time I checked out different books and found the Crush Step 3 book to be the most straightforward and concise, with an emphasis on those trigger words that help you when you have to resort to robot mode. The First Aid book has the benefit of a section at the end that goes through common scenarios that you might see on the second day in the simulated cases, and it is helpful to get a sense of the kinds of orders you can write. But working through the practice cases is really the most important preparation for the simulated cases, and overall Crush does the best job of reviewing the information.
This may well be my last review. You see, I've discovered sudoku last Friday. I finally sat down and attempted one and I ended up solving two in three hours. The rush I feel right now is indescribable. I suspect I can crush people's bones to dust just with the mathematical powers of my mind. But I will not abuse this, I will use my gifts for solving sudoku puzzles. This will leave me no time to read or write, possibly not even time to eat and drink or other bodily functions. This is okay, because the perfection of each row, column, and 3x3 box will sustain me from now on. Thank you for listening, and bye bye.
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