Customer Reviews

medEssentials: High-Yield USMLE Step 1 Review (Kaplan Medessenitals for the USMLE Step 1)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The book was wonderful for a quick Anatomy, Embryo, Histo, Phys and Biochem review. Basically it's good for everything but Path. And lets face it - most of us use Goljan Rapid Review for that. If you have used or like the Kaplan lecture series books, this will work for you. Its a high yield review of lecture material in Kaplan mainly in chart format. Its main advantage over FA is the use of pictures that help to illustrate the anatomy and embryology. I love it and have pushed FA2008 aside in favor of this book. In quick review - you WILL need a different Path review book, but this is more detailed and better as a high yield review of general info!

I have to disagree with the reader who gave this book one star review. This is a REVIEW book, not a text book. It's true all the tables, diagrams and illustrations come from Kaplan lecture note(the note alone sell for $600, you may get them used from ebay for $300), but medessential picked out only the highest yield material from these notes to include in this comprehensive review book. I only studied Kaplan and Goljan patho and got 234(98)(I will try to upload my score sheet here). I didn't like FA myself, b/c it's too boring and it's just piles of disorganized facts, there is no comparison like Kaplan did.

I suggest you visit your local Barnes and noble to read this book first before making the purchase and see if it suit your style.

I graduated from medical school 13 years ago from another country, just passed my step 1 last year, Kaplan and Goljan definitely are critical to my success.

Good luck for your boards!

Medessentials is a great book. Slightly more detailed with better charts compared to First Aid. Both books though have information not contained in the other, while a large majority is in both. I would recommend any first years considering books for studying for Step 1 for their second year to consider buying this and using both First Aid and Medessentials together (annotating 1 or both of them) as you go through your courses/review throughout the year making the 4-8wks/study before boards easier.

I find this book beats FA hands down. The material is orgnaized in logical manner and goes through each science for every system. It has more pictures and explanations than FA which I thought was a jumble of information. It also has a lot of COLOR images, which FA lacks. It has some information that FA doesn't have and vice-versa. Really, get it and FA both before the start of year 2 (or earlier) add notes in it as needed. If I had to choose just one of the two books, I would go with this one.

Basic essential that all med student i suppose know is this is review book.First you need to review course work in detail after that for summery consult them ,or if you are short in time or can pick up topics fast without much detailed background knowledge then FA and Medessential will work for you-FA is great book with weakest and haphazard Biochem session so i was looking for various books even bought "Rapid Review" for it but after reading whole book and opening medessential i was stunned that such a MARVELOUS and easy presentation of biochem in medessential started to love it ,then before i started BRS for physio again i first reviewed it from this book it had shortcut mnemonic for steroid pathways and very helpful charts of cvs and that was it ,from that time onward i studied it first then FA and in the end just scroll thr pages of lecture notes or high yield .Yea it has many charts but if you are not comfortable with charts and cramming then my friend you are in wrong field as math is impossible without calculations same way medical can never be complete without charts as they present great amount of data and real differences among topics in just a glance that saves lots of time and effort of reading 100+ pages and may be even then in end don`t understand/recall why they write in such a unnecessary detial (if you are going for PhD then its whole different ball game)
One more tip if studying for step 1 ,Never use usmleworld in beginning or middle of your prepration way too time consuming.it should be your last task if you have time if not skip it no big deal uw is for step2 not one and do Kaptest its now improved -no bootleg versions as they are old and Good Luck

bought this in addition to first aid and found it has way more detail and is a much slower review tool than first aid. however, since first aid is so concise, I have found it to be a good supplement with great summaries of concepts not explained in first aid... great to have, just wouldn't recommend this as your only study book.

Everyone in my class used First Aid, however I am more of a visual learner, often needing charts and tables to memorize all the information. Medessentials is basically a book in chart format that will help you during the exam by recalling specific charts. The book is organized by system and each system starts with the embryology, anatomy, histology, physiology, pathphys, pathology and ends with pharm. Biochemistry and Molecular biology, along with biostats and behavioral science have their own seperate sections. The book contains high yield info in bold terms and has practically has more information than First Aid. It also doesnt have useless mnemonics as FA has it. Everyone I know who used medessentials got 230 or better.

I did not use First aid at all because of this book, the perfect substitute to FA. It has a lot of things that FA does not have like embryology & some genetic diseases. Although it is just a summary of the kaplan notes..it works really well. The only problem is that I wish there was more space to make little notes.

if you want to do well on the boards you definitely need this book. it is a must

THIS IS THE BEST AND MOST COMPLETE BOOK YOU WILL EVER NEED TO PREPARE FOR USMLE STEP 1!!! FOR THOSE WHO NEED A GRRRREAT REVIEW BOOK FOR STEP 1. YOU ARE GOING TO SHOT YOURSELF IN THE FOOT IF YOU DON'T BUY THIS..IT SHOULD BE WITH YOU WHEN YOU ARE IN BASICS!! IMMERSE YOURSELF IN THE BOOK LEARN IT LOVE IT UNDERSTAND IT!!! I GUARANTEE YOU WILL RAISE YOUR SCORE!!!!
I AM 100% CONFIDENT ABOUT THIS BOOK AND HOW GREAT IT IS!!! BUY IT!!!!
ITS A MUST!!!!

Yes first aid is there but it doesn't cover the depths of Medessential..The uniqueness about KAPLAN MEDESSENTIALS is that it goes by organ system. IT starts with the Embryo, and finishes up the chapter with Pharm and Path!!!

It is the complete thing!!! And No I don't work for Kaplan, I just had the pleasure to use this book for step 1. I was blown away with how it fit the real style of USMLE!!!

I wish I had it when I was in basics, because it helps draw out the most important facts that are a must for step 1 instead of bombarding your head with useless facts.
Thank you KAPLAN!!