First Aid for the USMLE Step 1 2021, Thirty First Edition

I bought my copy of First Aid at the start of med school. It's been the one book I've used more than any other. There are times when my lecture notes don't make the hierarchies or classification of disease types as clear as they could be, and FA has come to the rescue every time. I keep it with me all the time (what has med school done to me?!?!) and randomly flip to a section to review each day so I don't forget stuff from earlier terms. Highly recommend buying this book before the first day of class and annotating it as you go along.I'm not a huge fan of mnemonics and some of the mnemonics are completely out there, making them harder to remember than the actual concept of interest. However, some of them have been great and made reading all the unrelatable ones worth it.The bonus- not only does the book cover USMLE concepts, it also has sections on testing resources such as where to find practice exams, explanations, and other helpful tips. This book has been one of my best purchases in the last few years.

Muy útil para estudiar los steps!

This First Aid book (any edition honestly) has been phenomenal in capturing the essence of the material you must know to pass medical school classes and eventually the USMLE Step 1. It packs a lot of information onto each page so please make sure to pace yourself and not beat yourself up on every single detail. Keep working and know that this is a great, condensed tool to help guide your overall studying/learning.

Been with the book for just a few hours now, and by just glancing over....there are few major updates from the 2020 edition. The 2021 edition has many more images, diagrams, and everything is structured better than 2020.There is a new communication skills section under public health that can help us transition from year 2 to 3 (in addition to board prep). The updated pages are printed nicely with dark ink, and the rapid-review section has been updated. There are a total of 828 pages in this edition. I preordered this edition back in early Dec 2020, so I am happy to get the book to prep for APMLE part 1.I will edit my review once I being to study from this edition!

I wish I got this book sooner in my medical school career. I should have listed to others and that is my regret. This books is key to doing well on Step, its an addition to your studying resources and questions that you need to connect all the dots on what you're learning. It goes through every disease, mechanism, side effects and ties into other medical conditions. Use this book along with another resource like Pathoma to expand your knowledge. I like how it leaves extra space on pages for notes, provides pictures, bolds key words and gives mnemonics for hard to remember material. Its the first "step" to doing well on the exam.

Just got my First Aid 2021 copy and it's great, truly the best USMLE Step 1 resource! The only way to use it IMO is along with Picmonic; this book is incredibly dense and hard to cram, so I review it page-by-page with Picmonic. This breaks the pages down into easily consumable sections and mnemonics so I can actually remember what I'm reading. There's no other way to cram such a huge amount of info into your brain in such a short time! These two resources together are CRUCIAL to how I crushed Step 1 (268) and I'm proud of how well they worked :D

Classic book correct for step studying and a great reference tool through out 3rd year. I’m not a fan of all the mnemonics in the book some are just outrageous and generally unhelpful but for the most part it has all the content you need to do well on step. This and a great question block will ensure you do well on the exam.

The new graphics are excellent for a visual learner and I'm enjoying the updates! More than worth it to have the physical copy, and I'd rave more about the content but it's already well known this is one of the must-haves for medical students. I just have to take off a star because of the build quality seems to have gone down this year. As another review mentioned, the front cover doesn't fully obscure the first page of the book. Both the front and back covers are already beginning to split (they're 2-ply), so I'm going to have to tape around the edges of the covers to hold them together. The book is also still delivered loose in a box with no plastic wrap or protection aside from a few bags of air, so it did get a little dinged in the delivery process and warped from the cold (improving with use). I hope they consider improving the packaging--my FA 2020 came the same way.