Customer Reviews

Blueprints Obstetrics and Gynecology (Blueprints Series)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is the first time I've used Blueprints. It is written in textbook format, which I don't like, but it is also terse and only tells you what you need to know. I just outline it and study off my outline.

This is an excellent source for a beginner learning OB/GYN. It has a good breadth of information from labor and delivery to GYN oncology, and it is well written. It reads like a textbook, but the author does an excellent job keeping important points in without filling the page with extraneous information. I was happy with how simplistic it was to read for a 3rd year med student. It really doesn't require any outside resource to understand, and it has more than enough information to get you through your shelf exam at the end of a clerkship. It does have its downfalls, however. The questions at the end of the book are great, but they don't allow you to practice questions at the end of each chapter. Also, it fails to lack that clinical teaching that helps students recognize the condition when it is presented in a clinical vignette. For these reasons, I recommend using Case Files along with this book, which is an excellent companion.

This book is pretty much to the point. If you are looking for more wordy info,...get another book. But it's quick & dirty which is awesome for medical students. It's an easy read for boards!! I like this book so far.

This book has a good format, is clear to read, but is filled with errors!!

It says the majority of vulvar cancers occur in pre-menopausal women (it's not, most are over 70; the gyn-onc specialist at my school pimped me on this and I got it wrong b/c of this stupid book; look at the emedicine article if you need confirmation). It also says pessaries are used for incontinence (they are only used extrememly rarely, yet this book devotes a whole section to this use, it was another pimping question that I looked like a fool from this book).

In short, good format, bad content. Get the kaplan notes, they're better.

The option of a textbook format is nice for a study book. For the most part it is readable, but I often found sentences that were vague in meaning or poorly constructed. This sometimes made quick comprehension difficult. Also, I have noticed a few minor errors here and there, most of which a medical student should pick up on (i.e. p311: "tamoxifen, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SERM)..."). Some chapters contain a considerable amount pathophysiology or embryology, which paints a nice picture, but I felt was often unnecessary for shelf/step 2 purposes.

This is a great book to have for your OB/GYN rotation because it:

1) is easy to read

2) has key words well defined

3) has key concepts in bold or italics

4) has 100 practice questions with detailed answers at the end

5) has excellent diagrams, graphs and tables to help reinforce the concepts

6) is a keeper because the info presented in it is useful for IM rotation or residency / Peds -Adolescence elective

My only critique is that the questions presented in here are to easy when compared with the questions on the NBME shelf exam (does not ask enough management / what is the next best step type questions).

Addendum

I came back to edit this review after completing my OB/GYN Clerkship and Shelf exam. This book is great for building a foundation to understand women's health issues BUT the questions contained at the end of the book are NOT sufficient to do well on the shelf exam. I recommend ALSO purchasing a question book and doing as many questions as you can.

Spent a week trying to read this and realized I'm wasting my time. It lacks enough detail to be a good reference book on the ward, but too detailed for studying for the shelf exam. Textbook format is a big thumbs down. This is hard to read and takes forever, don't expect to finish reading this whole book and be covered for the shelf. Even if you do finish it, it's doubtful you'll remember much. Waste of time, lucky it was free from a fellow student.

I highly recommend Blueprints for the OBGYN shelf. The chapters were thorough and provided exactly what I needed to know for the shelf. The questions in the back were a good resource as well. Case files is a great complement. Overall, the best thing I can say is that this is your comprehensive one stop shop for information present on the shelf. My recommendation is start reading early, as there is a lot to cover.

If you have any questions, please comment.

Decent book i guess.. I m a big fan of books that make a difficult topic seemingly simple; but this book seems just a tad bit below the mark. I think it's a great book but if the authors added just one more layer of detail this book would be perfect. It's a good book all in all. Thought the cancer chapters were the best chapters in the book, presented the topic in a very practical clinically oriented approach.

This was a great book for OB/Gyn 3rd yr clerkship rotation. It's an easy read and concise which is nice esp during OB when you have very little time for stuyding.It just took FOREVER for amazon to ship.