Customer Reviews

Appleton & Lange Review of Surgery

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I do not recommend the third edition of this book. I have not read the 4th edition yet, but the 3rd edition is chock-full of grammatical, spelling, and even FACTUAL errors that make the book less uesful than others I have found. I would advise anyone to purchase the 4th edition with caution.

Like most other reviews of the book indicates, there are way too many errors in this book: several wrong answer choice indicated as being right (e.g., it would say C is correct when clearly the explanation says that D is), run-on sentences, spelling errors ("alcoholic" stool?), and explanations that are ambiguous and don't even address why the correct answer was correct. In one instance, the explanation just cut off in the middle of a sentence. It's almost as if the editors didn't even read it over after the first draft, or maybe they are marginally literate.

What truly worries me, however, is how much these minor errors reflect the possibilities of major informational errors; THAT would be the worst part of the book by far.

This book highlights only on things that are important. To the point and accurate. This book may not be the right kind if you are looking for detail manual of surgery but if are looking for a quick review of the subject in a fruitful way for scoring good in exams, this IS the book.

I can't say how these questions might compare to the surgery shelf exam, because I haven't taken it yet. I can definitely say that this book isn't good preparation, because the explanations don't make any sense. The first chapter is Trauma. I read my assigned textbook's chapter on trauma, attended my rotation's trauma lecture, and then tried my hand at this book. The questions didn't have anything to do with what I'd read in the textbook or heard in lecture. Question 1 deals with proper used of a Steimann pin for a supracondylar fracture. What??? The explanation didn't give any more info above saying that this fracture should be treated with a Steimann pin... didn't mention WHY that answer choice was correct, why the other answer choices were incorrect, or what a Steimann pin was. If you're looking for a question book that will actually teach you something, look elsewhere.

Book is full of many, many errors. Not worth your time. I didn't like Pre-test, either, as it seemed too detailed. Surgical Recall is GREAT but it contains no questions. Case Files is also useful. I have yet to find a useful surgery question book.

The purpose of doing questions, in my opinion, is to get better at doing questions like those on the shelfs! People say that they expose holes in your knowledge as well, but that is not always useful information because people generally study as much as they can in the time they have. This book is not good at training you to answer questions correctly because the questions were way too difficult. By difficult I mean that you couldn't use your brain to figure out the answer with the knowledge you've accumulated, you had to have known the completely random fact that they decided to write a question around. In summary- buy PRETEST, much more useful for the shelf, in fact, there were at least three questions on my shelf directly out of the book!

As the other reviewer said, this book has too many errors. I reviewed the 4th edition and they are still there. In addition to factual errors, there is simply sloppy editing. I would look elsewhere for review for the shelf and step 2 until they put some additional effort into this book

The questions are odd, poorly edited, and actually have wrong, inaccurate answers. Don't waste your precious time with this book. If you looking for questions, get PreTest.

i find it hard to believe that a question book with so many errors can find a publisher stupid enough to publish it. most of the errors are very obvious and leads one to believe it never went through even one round of editing. inexcusable.

in addition, the explanations to the answer choices are brief and oftentimes do not even address why the selected answer is correct. this book is practically worthless. do not waste your precious time or money on this garbage.

5th edition and still riddled with errors -- grammatical, factual and editorial. I spent more time second-guessing the explanation for the 'correct' answer than I did gaining any preparation for the shelf. Plus, the material and question structure covered in this book are not representative of the shelf exam. This one hit the recycling bin a while ago.