USMLE Step 1

Cholinergic and adrenergic receptors, agonists, and antagonists.

The 10-step glucose pathway, its regulation, and ATP yield.

Distinguishing Staph, Strep, and Enterococcus by lab tests.

Cardiac output and its determinants, the cardiac cycle and heart sounds, the ventricular and nodal action potentials, haemodynamics and the baroreceptor reflex.

The four Gell and Coombs reactions, antibody isotypes and MHC restriction, complement, the classic immunodeficiencies, and how vaccine classes differ.

Reversible vs irreversible injury, cell death, acute and chronic inflammation, and the hallmarks of neoplasia.

Glomerular filtration and clearance, tubular handling, and the systematic reading of acid–base disorders.

Lung volumes and mechanics, surfactant and compliance, gas transport and the dissociation curve, V/Q relationships, shunt versus dead space, and the control of breathing.

Reading a pedigree, the vocabulary of penetrance, expressivity and imprinting, and the chromosomal syndromes Step 1 expects on sight.

Where the lesion is: ascending and descending tracts and where each crosses, upper versus lower motor neuron signs, cortical language and vascular territories, brainstem levels, cerebellum and basal ganglia.

Test characteristics and predictive values, study designs and their measures of association, bias and confounding, hypothesis testing, and the classic defence mechanisms.