USMLE Step 1 Study Guide

Introduction

The USMLE is designed to assess a physician’s ability to apply knowledge, concepts, and principles, and to demonstrate fundamental patient-centered skills, that are important in health and disease and that constitute the basis of safe and effective patient care. USMLE consists of three phases or Steps, clearing them makes you eligible to do general medical practice in the entire US.

Step 1 assesses whether you understand and can apply important concepts of the basic sciences to the practice of medicine, with special emphasis on principles and mechanisms underlying health, disease, and modes of therapy.

1. • This step evaluates your understanding and ability to apply basic science concepts to medical practice.
   • It is typically taken after the second year of medical school.
   • The exam consists of multiple-choice questions and is designed to assess your knowledge in areas such as anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, and pathology.

That’s why studying for USMLE part 1 is not supposed to be superficial but clear concepts are needed, to lay the solid foundation that will subsequently help you in Step 2 and 3 as well.

There are tons of resources out there for studying which can pretty easily overwhelm you leading to frustrations. But, we have brought you a concise list of the best books and resources to study for USMLE Step 1, including online learning platforms which are more than enough to help to pass USMLE Step 1.

We can divide the study into three phases.

First Phase

 In the first phase, you have to study to build your core knowledge of basic sciences. For this we recommend, Kaplan Medical USMLE Step 1 Lecture Notes of:

1. Anatomy
2. Physiology
3. Biochemistry and Medical Genetics
4. Pharmacology
5. Pathology
6. Immunology and Microbiology
7. Behavioral Science/Social Sciences

These books, with each one having roundabout just 300 pages, focused on high-yield topics in every discipline are best review books for preparing and revising your knowledge. It is used by thousands of medical students each year to succeed in USMLE Step 1 and is considered one of the best. They are also available as a set of 7 books but they are of 2021 edition. The latest editions of 2023 are available as individual books

With these books, we highly recommend watching lectures of Boards and Beyond by McGraw Hill Medical, as they have explained every topic in detail.

In addition to these, you can watch Pathoma lectures to get an excellent grip on Pathology and watch cartoon-themed videos of Sketchy for volatile subjects like Pharmacology and Microbiology, as they make use of picture memory.

Second Phase

involves reviewing the high-yielding points that will help you attempt the MCQs.

The best book for this job is  First Aid for the USMLE Step 1 . Prefer to get the latest edition as it will have the latest topics added. You can get it in hard form aka paperback if you feel comfortable or prefer reading from something physical in your hands.

But we highly recommend getting it in soft form aka Kindle and then integrating it with our second best resource for this phase i.e. USMLE-Rx. An online platform with flashpoints, bricks, Q banks, and videos, to test the knowledge you have gained, get it revised and reviewed again. This platform is offered by the same team that is behind the all-time favorite First Aid.

Plus don’t forget to highlight and gather your points for a quick recap.

Final Phase

Now comes the Final phase of solving the exam pattern-based questions, as many as possible. To test your learning, to revise as well as to familiarize yourself with the upcoming test.

For this we recommend Uworld USMLE Step 1 Q bank and Assessments. This is the largest online platform with a question bank for USMLE which has exam pattern-based MCQs as well as the side explanation of that topic. You can practice MCQs, subject & even topic-wise, and test your speed with a timed test option.

The second resource in this regard is the Kaplan USMLE Step 1 Q book, as it has exam-style questions along with explanations as well at the end of each section with the key.

You can also consider Anki, as their flashcards are personalized for every user like it repeats the cards you were not able to answer correctly after a short while, till you are able to memorize them. But it’s quite difficult to use and make yourself at ease with their software, and it can turn out to be pretty frustrating while you are under the pressure of an exam.  

In concise, this is the list of the best USMLE Step 1 books and resources you need to watch:

• Kaplan USMLE Step 1 Notes of Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry and Medical Genetics, Pharmacology, Pathology, Immunology and Microbiology, and Behavioral Science/Social Sciences.
• Boards and Beyond
• Pathoma & Sketchy
• USMLE First Aid and USMLE-Rx
• Uworld USMLE Step 1 Q bank and Assessments
• Kaplan USMLE Step 1 Q Book 

They may cost you around one and a half thousand dollars, but this is an investment worth making if you want to ace the exam.

That’s all and Good luck with your preparation and the First STEP to fulfilling your ambitions!