Customer Reviews

BRS Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Genetics, Fifth Edition (Board Review Series)

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

 

 

The material this goes through is great, concise, displayed well, properly bolded, and with good diagrams. However, the questions and answers/explanations are full of errors. I've done over a third of the questions in the book and I've come across more than two dozen errors. Some of them are huge, to the point where it says stuff in the answer key that completely contradicts a sentence in the lesson part of the chapter (if you have the book, see Ch 9 Question 6 for example). This actually happens about once per chapter. Then, in other cases, the answer key mixes up the letters, so you think you got the question wrong but then read the explanation and it turns out you're correct (and vice versa).

Of course, there might be more errors in the body of the book that I don't pick up on because I read that part first and accept it as fact. However, I think the material covered in the lesson section is solid; it's just the question section that it WORTHLESS. If you already have practice questions for the boards and just need a good review (or want to place out of biochem/mol bio in med school), then this is probably the book for you. If you want a book that gives you a lesson plan with questions to prepare you for the boards, this is NOT that book.

I am speechless about this book. It is so riddled with errors that the questions cannot possibly represent Boards questions. The questions are too detailed, contain too many calculations, and does not adequately prepare you for the Boards. This book is worthless. The errors are prolific. The authors should be ashamed. This was the most epic waste of my education to date.

The questions on this book are not consistant with questions on NBME shelf exams. I used this book to study, consistantly scored very well on the end of chapter and the comprehensive eams in the book, yet I was dumbfounded by the questions on the NBME biochem shelf exam. The material tested on the exam was the same material covered in this book, however, the emphasis was on the wrong things.

This book has excellent text. It really highlights the important concepts without going into too much detail. In medical school you don't want minor details to keep you from getting the main idea. The questions are great; however, I would have to agree that some errors are present. I don't think the errors are as extensive as others have tried to indicated, and they seem to be entirely confined to questions at the end of each chapter. Expect each set of question at the end of each chapter to have 1-2 questions that are not correct. If you know the material from the chapter then the mistakes are obvious. Keep in mind that this book is the new edition to the lengendary BRS biochemistry book (the one with the vinyl red cover), which used to be the best biochem book that you could purchase in reviewing for USMLE step 1. This book represents a fallen legend and I really can't justify giving it anymore than 4 stars because of a foolish editor that left mistakes in this book. Otherwise, its an excellent text and review source that should not be underestimated.

I found myself extremely frustrated with this book. I found so many errors in the questions, and even some in the text (it would literally say a completely different thing on one page than the next). I spent so much time checking facts in it and trying to make sure what they were saying was correct. I also found myself worrying about the things I did not catch, and if I was learning incorrect information. I very much disliked this book, and I would discourage anyone from purchasing it.

I have used the anatomy and this book (BRS Bio Chem & Molecular Bio) of the BRS series and this one has got to be the worst book I have ever used for review. Through out the entire book there are mistake (both in the text and in the practice questions). You will spend more time trying to figure out if the book it right or wrong then actually studying. I would NOT recommend this book to anyone! I returned this book after using it for 1 day!

I mainly used this book as a resource to practice questions before my shelf exams. I feel that it is a good review book because it also integrates other topics like pathology, and pharmacology along with the study of biochemistry.

I think that this book is a bit to superficial to use while learning biochemistry (if you do it may haunt you later when you can't remember biochemistry while preparing for STEP 1).

I recommend using a more substantial book along with your Basic Science biochemistry course.

Like other BRS books you will have access to the questions on-line, so that you do not have to carry the book around with you all of the time.

Well, this book is much much much better than the previous edition BRS biochem book. The text overall does explain things but I will agree the questions are worthless. I ended up buying Rapid-Review BioChem and fell in LOVE!

For a "Board Review" book, you need something that is accurate and condensed. This is not accurate, and while the book is short I wouldn't call it condensed - it's just short. Looks like plenty of other reviewers have already mentioned the errors, so I won't go into detail on that. However, when I compare this against Lippincott's Biochemistry review, this book doesn't even register on the scale. Where Lippincott's book is condensed, but still has enough information to refresh and re-teach important principles, the BRS book is more of a "cut and paste" of little blurbs of info that seem dis-jointed. Worse, with the errors in the book, the "cut and pasted" segments don't quite have enough detail for most people to pick up on the errors.

This book has made me seriously consider the whole BRS series - I will be highly critical of each book, and not just assume that they are all good.

Do not buy this book - it will waste your time and cost you points on Step 1!

This is a good book regardless of the errors. I used it before each lecture to give me a good QUICK and concise run down on the topic at hand. The clinical correlations in the body of text, next to the relevant topic was more helpful than the previous editions. Many of the clinical correlations I remembered on the NBME test because of this book.

Just remember, this isn't a hardcore peer reviewed textbook. So there are probably some errors. I do remember a few questions that were incorrect, but I did not find it much worse than any other textbook I have used.

Overall, I wish I had this from day 1 of my molecules to cells portion of med school, instead of day 20. I say that because I spent so much time reading a lengthy textbook instead of this. It is worth it's weight in gold if you are NOT a chem/bio major and you need to learn biochem in a hurry.

I would recomend Lippincott's Illustrated review in case you don't like the BRS series. However, it doesn't have as many clinical correlations as the BRS does.