First Aid Recommendation

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bethygean

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Incoming OMS I here! I want to know if using first aid during first year is a good resource for studying. Would you recommend holding off until second year?


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I never used FA as a study tool, but I think it is a good reference manual to keep around.

One of the hardest things of first year is adapting to getting the most important information out of a topic rather than just trying to learn everything. FA is relatively condensed with essential material and might make that easier.

Another time I would recommend FA is if you go to a school that is not boards driven. In that case you want to learn everything from FA as you go with each system because you don't want to be learning late in the game and have your board score be lower thanks to your school's ineptitude.
 
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FA is a good outline for stuff that you need to know for Board. However, in order to do well on board, you need to know every word on First Aid on the third and fourth order. You get that materials either through class lecture, Pathoma, Sketchy, Big Robbins, or Uptodate.
 
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I found FA to be a good aid for studying for second year classes especially for getting down basic physiology. But it is barebones and designed really to be a review of material you already know. You're not going to get an adequate explanation of first year physiology from FA.

FA is a good outline for stuff that you need to know for Board. However, in order to do well on board, you need to know every word on First Aid on the third and fourth order. You get that materials either through class lecture, Pathoma, Sketchy, Big Robbins, or Uptodate.

FA does a lot of things well and a lot of things not so much. The reality is that FA gives you a very streamlined and honestly in many cases unsatisfactory amount of content. You can read it multiple times, but it doesn't change the fact that it misses out on a lot because it depends on you needing to look up more sufficient explanations.
 
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I really like first aid especially as a condensed tool for studying right before big tests. It really hones in on important details and gives nice mnemonics to use also. I don't use it until I am finished studying all the material from class first so it is more of a review for me than anything right now.


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Thanks for the responses everyone! Like a couple of you pointed out, I think I'll use it for an overview reference.


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IIRC, if you're school is systems-based, where it covers even Pathology for each body system, it's good to use it. Otherwise, if first year is mainly for fundamentals, then you might have to wait til second year to make the most out of it.
 
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IIRC, if you're school is systems-based, where it covers even Pathology for each body system, it's good to use it. Otherwise, if first year is mainly for fundamentals, then you might have to wait til second year to make the most out of it.

I believe we are systems based


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