Customer Reviews

Family Practice Review Board Pb

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I also found this $75 book to be more valuable than a $1000 "No Pass No Pay" Family Medicine Review Course. While that review course really delivered excellent information, little of it actually appeared on the exam. In contrast, this book contains questions very close to what you actually see on the test. Sure there are little mistakes and some annoying repetition of topics but nothing any of us could not get beyond. If you are not doing general geriatric and pediatric care or obstetrics, this book serves as a great starting point to explore the latest thinking. Similarly, if you don't do primary care, make sure to memorize the USPSTF and ACIP guidelines. Most importantly, do as many questions as you can from the ABFM website. I passed with above average scores but would have done even better if I had reviewed more of their sample questions. Good Luck.

After taking the recert. exam, I found that Bratton's review helped more than the 40+ hour review "boot camp" that I attented. Question foremat was very similar to the board exam.

Family Practice Board Review is an excellent review of core subjects in family medicine. The text provides a breadth of coverage of information that commonly appears on the Board exam. The questions help to identify areas of weakness in the family medicine knoweldge base such that further, deeper study can become focused. The test questions are written in the style of the Board exam; this provides good practice for the real exam. My friend recently took the computerized version of the Board exam and said that the Bratton text helped him to study and pass. I highly recommend it, especially for family medicine resident physicians.

This is very helpful for last minute review. Obviously not up to date on the hottest topics, but overall very good on general topics. Excellent question and answer format. With older intraining exams, questions at familypractice.org, and this review, you'll breeze through the exam. Good luck!

Just took my FP board. I used this book for the quick review 2 weeks prior to exam and I think it did help me a lot. Would definitely recommend this book for the Board preparation.

This is a comprehensive review of important subjects in Family Practice. It includes a cd-rom for those of us who are computer users. I would recommend this as a good form of review for the last 2 weeks before boards

This is a comprehensive review of important subjects in Family Practice. It includes a cd-rom for those of us who are computer users. I would recommend this as a good form of review for the last 2 weeks before boards

For my review, I used the AAFP course (CD's over a few months), Osler's course and this book. Although the week-long courses were good and clinically relevant, this book really completed my review. I went through it once completely, and back again to review missed items. I have been out of practice and taking care of my kids for over a year and this book helped tremendously. Very similar to the boards. Very, very good investment of time and money.

I was looking for a question and answer board review book. I find that's the best way for me to study but this book was a little frustrating to go through at times because of the following reasons:

1. Inaccurate answers. Some of the inaccuracies were because of more recent recommendations that have since come out and the book can't be faulted for that. Other mistakes were made because of either poor editing or inconsistent answers. These were frustrating. Some would give the correct answer and in the explanation part tell us another answer was the correct one (poor editing). Some would give different answers to the same topic in different parts of the book (inconsistent). Most of the answers were just fine but these type of mistakes happened often enough to be noticeable.

2. Poorly worded questions. Some questions were not that well worded and I think left the door open for multiple interpretations.

3. It would have been nice to have a quick blurb at the end of each explanation as to why the incorrect answers were incorrect. This obviously didn't have to occur for every question but it would have been nice for certain ones. For example, it asked which of the tests can be used for the diagnosis of celiac sprue. Answers included Shilling's test (I assumed this was a spelling error and they meant the Schilling Test), String Test, Xylose absorption test, withdrawal of lactose, or scotch tape test. It would have been nice if they included something at the end like - "The Schilling Test is used to test for Vitamin B12 malabsorption, etc." or something like that. I would have made the answers that much more useful for studying.

4. The last questions are Clinical Problem Set questions, which are no longer on the Boards. The book mentions this and says it includes it since it can still be useful for studying. This might be true but I would have just preferred to have more questions in the other format since I think those are more useful.

Most of my complaints (except for the first one) are very minor so I think the book still does a decent job in doing what it sets out to do. I just think it could have been a lot better.

Though most people declare that for Step 3 you only need "two #2 pencils" (which is no longer necessary now anyway), it's helpful to have something to review, if for no other reason than reassuring yourself that you remember something you learned in medical school. This book (along with Swanson's Family Practice Review) were more than enough for my review. The questions focus on perhaps more obscure topics (or at least more obscure topics within common clinical problems) which is good for review. It also has images (photos, ECGs, radiographs) at the end for those of us who are not radiologists or dermatologists.

Though you'll probably score the same on Step 3 as you did on Step 2 and Step 1, this book might help you if you need some reassurance or just want to do some light review.