42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Pathology Resource, September 27, 2005
After reading BRS and most of Robbins, this remains the strongest resource. Concise for its subject, it covers the important aspects of path while digging for those little, annoying details and disorders that only show up on board exams. Goljan is a true pro at teaching this, with several years at Kaplan and Oklahoma Osteopathic, and he has constantly been grilling students for more information after they have taken their exam. Master this book, and you will not only do well in path, but also have a good foothold in other subjects like pharm, micro, and biochem due to Goljan's ability to integrate several fields into path. His work has continued to help me in third year rotations, as he also discusses diagnostic tests and treatments. The accompanying Q&A CD is unfortunately poorly made, but the quality of questions is very strong. I generally read Robbins or lecture material along with this text to lay a foundation for knowledge, but come test time, you want to cut the fat, and every word here is money. Try to get the accompanying audio CDs off Ebay for reinforcement. I largely credit Goljan's materials along with Robbins Review of Path (question book) for a 98 percentile on the path shelf and a 258 on Step I. This man may have taught me more academic medicine than anyone else. I truly hope you can benefit from this text as well.
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
May be a dense read, BUT has the most high-yield info of any path review book, May 7, 2006
This book is the best review book for pathology. For over 25 years, Dr. Goljan has accumlated "insight" from students after taking their step 1. He knows what the boards people want medical students to know and everything that could be asked on step 1 is in this book...and as pathology accounts for the majority of the test, mastering all the facts in this book will definitely help you score high.
Rapid Review Pathology reads like First Aid and is loaded with high-yield facts, BUT like First Aid it is sometimes hard to read. It is written in outline format and is more like a list of facts (like all books in the Rapid Review series). In comparison, the BRS series books are also in outline format, but the bulleted points are in complete setences making for an easier read. Therefore, students with a weaker background in pathology will have a more difficult time getting through this book than BRS.
That being said, if there were to read any book in addition to First Aid, this would be the book. It is very clinically based, it integrates info from many other subject areas, has many high-yield illustrations, and has very good clinical vignettes. The book also has wide margins where you can take notes into, which is what I'd suggest. This way you can sort of "complete" the sentences and customize the book to you're own study/reading style (this is, by the way, how you should use your First Aid).
I read many reviewers talking about the Goljan audio, but I have a feeling many readers may not know what that is. It's audio files taken from one of Dr. Goljan's lecture series. It follows his Rapid Review book 90% of the time and is great in understanding many of the facts he has listed in the book. You can find the audio from online med student forums, however they maybe copyrighted...in any case, if you can get your hands on them and listen to them using this rapid review book as "lecture notes" you'd definitely do well on the step. He has a way of explaining pathology (and all clinical medicine) like no other.
So again, if you memorize and "understand" EVERY point in this book, and every point in First Aid, you will do well on step 1.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Highly recommend, July 15, 2005
If you have this with Goljan's live lecture...it's awesome! the lecture follows the book 95% of the time and has helpful tables and charts. Goljan is simply amazing...it's like the world of pathology suddenly became easy. And he ties in other subjects with the path...like pharm, micro, etc. The book is written in outline form and provides details tailored for the USMLE.
I wasn't the biggest fan of the CD included. I like the format of Kaplan's Qbank a lot more, where you can see the correct and incorrect answers all at once, and there's no annoying sound effect. But the book in itself is worth the buy. And if you can get your hands on the audio lecture...then you're set. You will get path like you never thought you would...plus so much more! (i sound like an infomercial..but it's true)
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