Customer Reviews

Rapid Review Pathology, 1e

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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)

This book is excellent for someone preparing for USMLE Step 1.It has some excellent tables and the material is so easy-to-read style. It is a great source of pathology review.it has a whole lot information yet in a very concise form and the tables are especially very helpful.

Forget BRS Path, this book is so on when it comes to step one. Goljan is a master in presentation of the information and only gives you what you need to know for step one. If you want to get that 99 then get this book as your major review source for step one. Without a doubt, the best pathology book for boards.

This is the single most useful and board relevant book on the market. I had the pleasure of using this text in accompaniment with Dr. Goljan's audio lectures from a review course. The two resources, audio and text, proved to be invaluable in both building my confidence and ability to disect the USMLE Step I exam. Additionally, the images used in the text and referenced in the audio lectures were in fact the very same pictures I saw on my test. I must clarify, however, the audio lectures are not sold with the text. They can, however, be found on the web for those who are really interested.

The text organizes and describes in a few sentences salient points that seem to be wholly absent from the much larger and more daunting Robbins. Furthermore, the text comes equiped with a rapid review CD-ROM full of about 300 questions. They are excellent questions with explanations that are more thorough and thought provoking than Kaplan's Qbank. I felt as though this text was better than the BRS-Pathology though some may disagree. In my own opinion, Goljan is more concise and emphasizes the board relavent material more so than BRS. Although it is not and should not be used as a stand alone text, in conjunction with Robbins, First Aid, and Kaplan Qbank, you should feel very well prepared to tackle the pathology, pathophysiology, and even microbio-pathology questions.
Kindly,
-Phillip Parry
Tulane Medical School
Class of 2008

excellent tables, charts, graphs, just like the last written step I; a comprehensive source with good organization; as well, it is easy to read, understand, and remember. only problem: no pagination; u have to manually number your own pages and similarly enumerate the indices.

Very systematic. Good book for prepration and the qbank cd is awesome. Goljan is Goljan. Best for Pathology. Nothing compares to him! I am sure you will like this book also. Pathology is nicely related to biochemistry and drug interactions, so it makes it very easy to understand. The qbank cd has colored pictures.

This book integrates basic and clinical science with a pedagogic clarity that will rekindle in students and physicians alike the love for Medicine. Few medical books have been written with such passion and rigor. If you have not read this book, you have missed a lot. Few medical educators have been able to pull together in an intelligible whole the costituent disciplines of basic medical science. Read it to ace the boards or to better understand Medicine. And since this book was obviously written with profound love for the descipline and its practioners, write Prof. Goljan a thank-you note.

I found this book to be the best pathology review book for my USMLE Step 1 prep. It is a lot more clinical than BRS and the questions are very good. The only thing it is missing is more images.