Customer Reviews

Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple (Edition 4)

5 star:		(61)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I used this book for my USMLE step 1 prep, and I'm definitely glad I did. It's a great supplement to first aid. After taking the step 1, I can't help but feel grateful to the authors of this book. It has everything you need to do great on the exam. The illustrations were amusing. The summaries were clear and concise. The material is VERY high yield. It is a VERY easy read, I finished the entire book in 4 days and felt enlightened.

There are numerous details in microbiology that have no rhyme or reason. How am I supposed to memorize all this? This book will help you do that in say 20% of the stuff you need to know. Yeah, it's not much. But, there really no other way to learn this stuff (or most things in life I guess) but just memorize them on your own. But with the amount of studying medical students need to do that 20% feels like a ton of bricks off your back. Now you just need to carry 4 tons instead of 5 tons. The cartoons help you remember.....the silly rhymes do that as well. I always read this book before reading the course material from the professor.

The silly references, wordplay, cartoons and mnemonics plus the conversational style of the text in this book makes a hefty subject like microbiology so much more bearable. HOWEVER, much as I enjoyed the book, I cannot rate it more than two stars because the numerous typo errors and wrong grammar drove me crazy. I can understand if the editor missed a couple of words but more than 10, no way. Surely Dr Gladwin, as the book is selling so well that a 4th edition has been published, can you not afford to pay an expert proofreader to edit it? I see that this is a common complaint mentioned by reviewers of previous editions. Major mistakes such as wrong spelling of drug names (delavirIdine for delavirdine, iNtraconazole for itraconazole) - how can the authors let this go to print?!? And what about misspelled bug names such as Staph aureAs - this is unacceptable for a microbiology book! Other errors: hepatoxicity, respiratory tracK infection, efficancy, "on the heals" (instead of "on the heels"), "have in confirmed" (instead of "have been confirmed"), "HIV viruses causes" (instead of "HIV causes"), "CMV virus invades" (instead of "CMV invades", as V already stands for virus)... and the list goes on. It's not fair to ask us to pay premium price for a shoddily edited book. Either improve the editing or reduce the price to reflect the quality.

To all medical students: buy this book! And I recommend you do it before your micro block/section even starts. Ignore your lectures and use this instead, it will make so much more sense. Beyond the pictures, there are tons of little quips here and there to help you remember and group the information. It won't completely replace flashcards, but I do suggest turning to this book before starting flashcards. It's a good 400 pages, so plan accordingly, but I highly suggest reading this cover to cover before your micro exam. Also, this book will make a great board-review text as everything is clearly organized, charted, depicted, then written out in an easy-to-read long form. This is honestly the best $30 I've ever spent on a textbook, period.

The title for "Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple" should probably be changed to "Microbiology Made Ridiculously Awesome"... The book is a great breakdown of clinical microbiology, and the content makes it ridiculously simple to learn. The organization is great, and there are hilarious comics and acronyms to make it fun and easy to study microbiology. Finally! A textbook that helps me study in a fun way! I strongly recommend this book!

I have a lot of trouble remembering drug names and different features of various pathogens. The illustrations in this book are incredibly cheesy, which is what makes it work. The mnemonics do not require a lot of extra studying. I have friends who don't like mnemonics because they say they'd rather just learn the material than have to learn a mnemonic instead. I find that these are helpful because they are dorky but easy to remember just based on the name. For example, azTREEonam only has one ring in its structure, not two, because it's like a tree fell through the other part of the house. This would let a lot of air in through the giant hole in the house, so it's active against aerobic bacteria. Also, because having a giant hole in your house is a bad thing, it's active against Gram negative bacteria.

I find that it is easy to read and I keep it by my bed to read through at night before I sleep. It's an excellent supplement to classroom material and it is a fast book to get through when you don't have a whole lot of time in second year.

For people like me who have a hard time memorizing things and would rather have everything "make sense," I think this book is invaluable. If you are very good at memorizing facts and tables, it may not be as useful to you.

This is one of my best investments thus far in medical school. I always thought microbiology was a subject of rote memorization, that it doesn't lend itself well to anecdotes and pictorials. But this book completely jumped that hurdle and did what I believe more books should do. The pictures, mnemonics, stories, etc. are corny, humorous, fun, and above all, helpful. Some of them seem ridiculously far-fetched, but surprisingly they stick with you. Yes, it doesn't tailor to everyone's learning style and you may not want to re-read through a 400pg book while studying for the USMLE, but before you go to the flashcards give this book a try; at its price it's well worth the investment. Thanks to the authors for this, and my only suggestion for future editions is MORE PICTURES!

Funniest review book I've ever read. That said, the fact that it is funny makes it easier to get through. I was able to read it in between breaks in micro lab and finished it off in a weekend.

I know people say this is a review book for the boards, but I actually think its a great idea to read it towards the beginning of your micro course in medical school. Take a weekend to do it either during the summer or right when school starts. It gives you an excellent overview of microbiology.

The cartoons are silly, but I didn't pay too much attention to them as I didn't think they enhanced the understanding of the material. They did, however, keep my attention (especially the bacteria with the sex pilus).

I also liked that the book is not written in outline format like the Rapid Review or BRS series; I find the paragraphs much easier to read.

This is an extremely useful book for anyone studying infectious diseases or bacteriology in medical school. It is clear, conscience, and it has fantastic pictures and memorizing tips to help in learning and retaining the material. Would reccomend this text, and the others in the series.

At first glance I was not a fan of the cheesy cartoons included in the book, but after using it for USMLE Step 1 Micro review have found the combination of cartoons + very well written text to be a good combination and an excellent addition to the concise First Aid and the micro flash cards I'm using. My only knock against this book is that the index is far too brief and sometimes it is difficult to find the bug or drug you are looking for (just one example: no index entry for trimethoprim or sulfamethoxazole but there is a whole page on these drugs. Authors/editors, what are you thinking?). I took off a star as this is not a book you will read cover to cover, but to elaborate a certain section/disease/bug from First Aid, which requires a good index. Hunting for material (after not finding it indexed) is a pain when you have to do it more than a few times in a day.

There are errors in grammar, but the reviewer who gave the book two stars for poor grammar is being excessively harsh. The errors do not take away from the text's utility.

Me: prep'ing for Step 1, entering 3rd year med, micro was one of my LEAST favorite subjects during pre-clinical years.


7/25 -- Have to up this to Five stars after reading the antibiotics section. Very clearly presented. Index remains annoying, but it's still a great text.