Customer Reviews

Neurosurgery Board Review: Questions and Answers for Self-Assessment

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Although the target audiance is small for this book, the few hundred residents sitting for the written portion of the Neurosurgical boards will find this a very helpful study aid. The organization of the book closely mirrors that of the exam content. The major topical categories are represented; Neurobiology, anatomy, pathology, critical care, radiology and Neurosurgery. The book adopts a question based format, similar to that of the actual examination. The pathology and radiology sections are full of well reproduced black and white illustrations. The strength of this volume is that it emphasizes many of the exact topics found on the written test. As one who has sat for this exam I must recommend it most highly.

I bought this book thinking that there would be explanations for each question. This book is a complete joke. Only about a third of the questions have any sort of explanation at all. Many of the rest just give reference page numbers to other texts. A lot, however, just give credit for a slide and not even a reference. The minority that have any sort of explanation are very weak. This book does present questions comparable to the real exam, but if you want to know why an answer is right or wrong, I strongly suggest the Psarros/Moore review book instead.

This book is a great addition to the Citow text. I highly recommend it for those studying for the boards because it reminds you that the boards aren't in outline format. Doing questions will keep you thinking on your toes and help test your knowledge of neurosurgical basic science and basic clinical information.

The book is well written with good questions. My only complaint is that there are some mistakes (missing labels and wrong answers) which at time can be frustrating or confusing. Also, every answer should say why it is correct and the others are wrong (this is key to studying). Overall, I recommend this book to any resident preparing for the neurosurgical written boards.