Crush Step 1: The Ultimate USMLE Step 1 Review

I am a 2nd year US medical student currently in the process of studying for the USMLE step 1. I cannot praise Crush Step 1 highly enough as an integral text in my preparation. I do think that FA+Uworld (and perhaps pathoma) are critical and necessary, but I desired a foundation of concepts and principles to understand the list of facts that abound in FA. For example, I could not remember from back in 1st year why low volume status caused a metabolic alkalosis just by reading FA, but Crush explained the physiology behind a contraction alkalosis in a very succinct fashion, and I soon found it much easier to remember the laundry list of facts in FA. Moreover, as I am taking Uworld questions, and when I find myself not remembering specific details, I can often reason through the question by remembering key explanations or figures from the Crush text. This book is much more concise and oriented towards Step 1 knowledge than another review book I used, then stopped using due to its poor organization and low quality writing (basic sciences review books by FA publishers).I would recommend using this book in adjunct with FA, either reading a given section before tackling the same section in FA, or vice versa, using FA as a primer to see what you lack in understanding, and allow Crush to fill in the conceptual holes. Importantly, Crush draws from classic texts for almost all of their images (such as Robbins, Boron Physiology, Costanzo, Guljan, etc.) so their examples are likely to be representative of what you will see on the actual exam. And they do not overload you with too many details, isn't that what FA is for anyways?Buy this book if you value the following:--a companion text to FA, something that will explain concepts rather than just serve as a list of facts to review.--a well written, easy-to-follow review that integrates many key areas of your first 2 years of medical school.--If you feel that Qbank explanations are not sufficient to fill in the holes from FAI am increasingly impressed with the quality of this book as I use it more each day. And the errata is so minor (posted on their facebook) that it makes you realize they actually spent a lot of time caring about the quality of the text.

I ordered this because I saw comments about it on the Reddit/medschool subverted and I am really happy with it. I know it is not a typical book that everyone knows about, but I decided to give it a chance when First Aid was not quite enough for me (I am just starting MS2, so there was not enough context in First Aid). This is NOT a review book so much as it is a book for learning for the first time. I have been using it side by side in my classes as a supplement to my learning.Overall, I am super impressed with the quality of info, and haven't seen anything about it on here, wish I had found it earlier in my medical education.For example, it never made sense to me why AFP would be elevated in hepatocellular carcinoma, here is the explanation from the "Crush" book: "Of note, AFP acts as the fetal form of albumin. Its level is elevated in primary HCC and metastatic disease to the liver and in yolk sac tumors. In neural tube defects, the AFP level is also elevated in the mother’s blood because the fetal skin is not fully intact, and AFP leaks into the mother’s circulation. In Down syndrome, the levels are decreased, presumably because the size of the fetus and yolk sac are decreased." (So messed up liver function, less albumin production, so body starts making fetal version of albumin = AFP. BAM!)Here is another example: you know that formula for cardiac output that is rate of O2 consumption / art. O2 - venous O2? It's never made sense to me. "Crush" explanation: "Imagine with a low cardiac output, the blood is moving more slowly through the tissues, giving them more time to extract oxygen, leading to a large arterial-venous oxygen content difference (large denominator). Conversely, with a high cardiac output, so much oxygenated blood is being circulated through the tissues that the tissues do not need to extract all the oxygen from the blood each time it passes through."If anyone has questions, feel free to ask me. I am really happy that I bought this book and I have used it continuously for months.

I scored very competitively on boards, thought I would share my thoughts on this book.I do love this book. If anyone has gone through UWorld, the explanation quality of this book is on similar caliber. If you read first aid, you will be scratching your head asking "why" or "how" does this disease process happen? This book goes into explaining a lot of the why's. It also has phenomenal illustrations, taken from medical textbooks such as Robbins/Costanzo's Physiology. I really appreciated how the authors went through major textbooks and borrowed tons of illustrations.Granted, while they "teach" the disease, they are almost forced to provide less breadth overall. Some disease processes are missing entirely or high yield facts are not mentioned. That is why this book will never be a First Aid replacement, and really I don't think that should be the purpose of this book. This book should be used along side First Aid. I annotated important explanation points into my First Aid book, and near my exam just paged through the beautiful pages/images. Definitely got a question right on my exam that I would have missed if I only used First Aid.The main weak point of this book is pharmacology. There simply is not enough info in the pharm sections, or drugs are missing entirely. First Aid does this section relatively well.I don't know where this book fits in the overall plethora of board prep material. It is a gem for people who enjoy explanations, the pictures are beautiful, and the pages are thick (not flimsy like First Aid). I would never say Crush is necessary to do well on boards (I would say First Aid is), but for people who do not appreciate the shotgun blast of high yield facts that is First Aid, they might find Crush easier to digest.

This is a fantastic book! It really covers all the main points of every major system and does so from start to finish. Couldn't recommend this book more!

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I just got the book so i can't tell much, but I like the print quality and how they have just put the important stuff in it. I went through the biochem and CVS and compared to Medessential and FirstAid I would say this book is a good compliment for both. One thing I did after i received the book, was to put spiral on it so its easier to study. I think this is a great way to skip the lecture videos and all those time consuming stuff that are only good for school year not for exam prep.

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Studying for step 1?? Buy it!!