Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Goljan Pathology (Rapid Review)

This book is the best review book for pathology. For over 25 years, Dr. Goljan has accumlated "insight" from students after taking their step 1. He knows what the boards people want medical students to know and everything that could be asked on step 1 is in this book...and as pathology accounts for the majority of the test, mastering all the facts in this book will definitely help you score high.
Rapid Review Pathology reads like First Aid and is loaded with high-yield facts, BUT like First Aid it is sometimes hard to read. It is written in outline format and is more like a list of facts (like all books in the Rapid Review series). In comparison, the BRS series books are also in outline format, but the bulleted points are in complete setences making for an easier read. Therefore, students with a weaker background in pathology will have a more difficult time getting through this book than BRS.
That being said, if there were to read any book in addition to First Aid, this would be the book. It is very clinically based, it integrates info from many other subject areas, has many high-yield illustrations, and has very good clinical vignettes. The book also has wide margins where you can take notes into, which is what I'd suggest. This way you can sort of "complete" the sentences and customize the book to you're own study/reading style (this is, by the way, how you should use your First Aid).
I read many reviewers talking about the Goljan audio, but I have a feeling many readers may not know what that is. It's audio files taken from one of Dr. Goljan's lecture series. It follows his Rapid Review book 90% of the time and is great in understanding many of the facts he has listed in the book. You can find the audio from online med student forums, however they maybe copyrighted...in any case, if you can get your hands on them and listen to them using this rapid review book as "lecture notes" you'd definitely do well on the step. He has a way of explaining pathology (and all clinical medicine) like no other.
So again, if you memorize and "understand" EVERY point in this book, and every point in First Aid, you will do well on step 1.

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