Surgery PreTest™ Self-Assessment & Review, Twelfth Edition (PreTest Clinical Medicine) [Paperback]

Lillian Kao (Author), Tammy Lee (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0071598634 | ISBN-13: 978-0071598637 | Publication Date: March 9, 2009 | Edition: 12

The student tested-and-reviewed way to prep for the Surgery shelf exam and the USMLE Step 2 CK

"This is a great pocket-sized book that most students can use to study even on busy services. Each question does a great job of covering a major topic in a short time. 3 Stars."--Doody's Review Service

". . . a comprehensive compilation of questions both in general surgery and surgical sub-specialties which will be extremely useful for both the medical students and the residents studying for their boards." -- Ranjith Ramasamy, MD, Resident, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Cornell Medical College.

"The explanations for each question was clear and filled with enough detail to reinforce something that I had already known, or it helped me to remember and understand things that I hadn't quite grasped before." -- Judy Vu, Medical Student, University of Utah School of Medicine

. . . highly relevant to the material/concepts tested on the USMLE Step 2." -- Kevyn To, Medical Student, SUNY Upstate College of Medicine.

Surgery: PreTest™ Self-Assessment & Review is the perfect way to assess your knowledge of surgery for the USMLE Step 2 CK and shelf exams. You'll find 500 USMLE-style questions and answers that address the clerkship's core competencies along with detailed explanations of both correct and incorrect answers. All questions have been reviewed by students who recently passed the boards and completed their clerkship to ensure they match the style and difficulty level of the exam.

• 500 USMLE-style questions and answers
• Detailed explanations for right and wrong answers
• Targets what you really need to know for exam success
• Student tested and reviewed

Surgery: PreTest™ Self-Assessment & Review is the closest you can get to seeing the test before you take it. Great for clerkship and the USMLE Step 2 CK! Surgery: PreTest asks the right questions so you'll know the right answers. Open it and start learning what's on the test.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Lillian S. Kao, MD, MS, FACS , is Assistant Professor and Co-Director of the Surgery Clerkship at University of Texas—Houston Medical School's LBJ Hospital in downtown Houston, Texas.

Tammy Lee, MD, is Assistant Professor of Surgery at University of Texas—Houston Medical School's LBJ Hospital in downtown Houston, Texas.

Product Details

• Paperback: 373 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Medical; 12 edition (March 9, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071598634
• ISBN-13: 978-0071598637
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #38,194 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #80 in Books > Medical Books > Medicine > Surgery

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Worth It! But whats the alternative?, April 14, 2010

By 

William Mcfadden "William Mcfadden" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Surgery PreTest™ Self-Assessment & Review, Twelfth Edition (PreTest Clinical Medicine) (Paperback)

Like a typical pretest book, this book is only questions, which do not comprehensively cover surgery. While some questions are good, expect a good number of the questions in this book to be completely unrelated and so random that they are not going to help you pass the surgery shelf examination. Unfortunately this can make some of the sections in this book very difficult. However, I think that it is fair to say that this is one of the few question books that you can buy for surgery. Apple and Lange puts out a surgical question book that tends to be a little more popular but is littered with errors on critical topics. At my school we even had the head of the surgical department denounce Apple and Lange for its grotesque flaws. Because the surgery shelf consists of mostly internal medicine questions relating to the management of a surgical patient, a good number of students thought it would be a good idea to use USMLE world or Kaplan question, both of which contain a separate section on surgery. Although these contain excellent question, they are very expensive to buy just for a clerkship and there are a very limited number of questions on surgery alone. What I am really trying to say is that unfortunately there isn't a good alternative to this book at this time. Other surgical question books remain just as erroneous or are littered with useless question. I feel confident saying that while this isn't the best book, it is one of the best options. Don't use it as a staple study source, but keep it handy to practice questions right before the shelf after you have finished studying other material.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Depends on what you are looking for, September 17, 2010

By 

MedStudReader - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Surgery PreTest™ Self-Assessment & Review, Twelfth Edition (PreTest Clinical Medicine) (Paperback)

I don't really understand other reviews that state the questions in this book are too hard. I recently took the shelf exam and would say the exam was just as hard if not harder since most of the questions were very detailed internal medicine questions. I felt it to be very helpful especially when used with another book as a reference for concepts I did not understand. Surgery shelf is very difficult and you need to do questions from somewhere. I also own Case Files and Surgery Recall. I used all three but found pretest prepared me most for the test. Case Files helped with my understanding but should be read at least twice. and Surgery recall is good for pimping and only pimping...not the actual exam.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars NOT a bad question book!, October 23, 2009

By 

J. Greene (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Surgery PreTest™ Self-Assessment & Review, Twelfth Edition (PreTest Clinical Medicine) (Paperback)

I just took the surgery shelf today. This is not a bad question book. It's just that there are some really specific questions in here, likely due to the mandatory 500 questions for each PreTest book. But there is good stuff in here if you know which questions you can safely blow over. They need a new editor to fix the mistakes (saying the answer is A when the explanation indicates D is the answer; also, they need to get "increased" and "decreased" straight). They also need to redo the explanations to make the answer more obvious. But I really did learn a lot from the explanations. There are better sources out there to study from, though. Kaplan/Pestana notes are very high yield. The Surgery tests from the Kaplan Qbook are very good too. UsmleWorld is good, but focused on trauma more than my particular exam did. The best way to study for the clerkship exam is to work hard throughout the clerkship, and in the last week or two, do 1st) Kaplan/Pestana notes 2nd)Kaplan Qbook 3rd)any online question source you have. If you finish #3 or feel they are too easy, switch to this book.