How To Study For Pathology
Pathology is one of the highest yield sections in Step 1, so make sure you know it inside and out. Not only it will help you in Step 1 but it will keep coming back in the future Steps. So, what materials to use for this big guy? Here is how you should organize your pathology preparation:
Doctor Najeeb - If you have zero knowledge in Pathology make sure you start watching Dr. Najeeb for pathology. He will draw everything on the board and make sure you understood every single point by quizzing you. One draw back to his teaching method is that his videos are extremely long and slow. You can always speed them up, though. Now, if you have some knowledge in pathology or if you are in the middle of your preparation then do not watch all of his videos, just watch the videos that you are weak at, or you can skip to Pathoma.
Pathoma - Pathoma by Dr. Sattar is a must! I love this guy! Make sure you buy the textbook and watch all of his videos. Even if you are in the middle of the preparation make sure you read the entire book and watch his videos. I read his book once but watched his videos simultaneously with First Aid 3 times during my preparation. He is so damn good! Please, make sure you watch all of his videos at least once before going to the exam center. I know I keep repeating myself, but he is so good, though! First Aid + UW - Now, these two are the best couple. Make sure you take all of your notes from USMLE World into First Aid. Read my post on how to take notes from USMLE World. And keep on reading FA till your exam.
Goljan - Should you listen to Goljan? Now you might hear about how good he is and all that. But I did not listen to him. I think it's a waste of time since Pathoma does a better job in teaching. I cannot stand audio! You will read about him all over the internet. People will recommend you listening to him in the car, gym, shower and who knows where else. But personally I will say don't even bother with him. I mean he is good but if you have Pathoma where you can visualize everything and have a text book then why would you waste time listening to someone through headphones? Do you get the idea?
Kaplan - Now, you might ask well what about Kaplan right? You can never go wrong with Kaplan since they been in the business for years. But I didn't like the guy who teaches Pathology in Kaplan, so I didn't even bother with the Kaplan. Pathoma is more than enough.
Here is how I utilized the above sources: Since I just listed all the sources for pathology above you might want to know how I got my score using those sources. Here is how I did it. First of all, I had the worse pathology teacher during my Basic Sciences, so I had to replace him with something right? I watched all of Doctor Najeeb's video during that time. Now, while I was preparing for Step 1's pathology, before I started with First Aid's Pathology section, this is what I did. I would watch Cardiology videos from Pathoma and then read the Pathoma Cardiology section and then read the Cardiology section in First Aid and then do USMLE World on Cardiology. I did this for every single system. By following this method, all the systems will be drilled into your head. Trust me on that.
Once you are done with all the systems, now you can keep on doing First Aid and UW till your exam. If you get bored of reading First Aid's pathology section, just watch Pathoma again. You don't need to read the book the second time. Watching his videos are more then enough. That's all I did for my pathology section. My suggestion for you guys would be, you don't need too many sources for Pathology as long as you stick to what I just told you, you will get a very good score on Pathology. Good luck on your studies and if you have any questions or confusion feel free to contact me.