Surgery: PreTest Self-Assessment and Review (Paperback)

by Peter L. Geller (Author, Editor) "DIRECTIONS:Each item below contains a question or incomplete statement followed by suggested responses..." (more)
Key Phrases: cecal diverticula, appropriate lettered option, lettered options, United States, Postoperative Care, Arch Surg (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
..".good tool for students. It is a practical, moderately priced text that will provide students with useful practice questions with concise readable explanations of the correct answers for the surgery-related topics for the USMLE."

Product Description
Columbia Univ., New York, NY. Exam review for medical students. Includes 500 USMLE-type questions with answers referenced. Previous edition: c1998. Softcover. DNLM: Surgical Procedures, Operative--Examination Questions.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 328 pages
• Publisher: Appleton & Lange; 9th edition (September 25, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071359540
• ISBN-13: 978-0071359542
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,175,684 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Look for new interactive palm version, June 26, 2005

By	Adam J. Pruett (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Surgery: PreTest Self-Assessment and Review: 10th Edition (Paperback)

Pretest now has standalone programs of the books (not the cumbersome pdf files). It is interactive in that it lets you choose your answer and gives you immediate feedback with right and wrong choices (no need flipping through pages), allows you to review missed answers, randomize questions and answer choices. Basically, it's a lot like qbank for third year. I used the palm version for surgery and loved it because I always had my palm with me and could do questions while I was waiting for an attending to finally scrub into a case. You'd be surprised at how small little bits of time add up! I finished pretest while only doing questions at the hospital in less than two weeks.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Too detailed of questions, but the explanations atone for it, October 1, 1999

By	[e-mail] "medsjrf" (El Paso, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Surgery: PreTest(REG) Self-Assessment and Review, 8/e (Paperback)

Although the questions sometimes get too detailed for purposes of Step 2 - type exams, the explanations are excellent and tend to cover more basic facts. This atones for the occasional question that states, "current research states ..." and puts it in the grasp of most medical students. This is a good book to cover (or at least sample) if you are taking NBMLE shelf exams.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Wow, I have never been so disappointed..., April 26, 2005

By	Bolo - See all my reviews

This review is from: Surgery: PreTest Self-Assessment and Review: 10th Edition (Paperback)

I don't normally write reviews for books but this was just inexcusable. I (a medical student) was using this book to study for my shelf exam in surgery and I couldn't believe how many mistakes there were in the answers section! Many of the explanations of the questions would clearly seem to say that the answer was, for example, (A) but then the answer listed would be (D). I assume these were all printing errors or something like that. Don't get me wrong, the explanations in this book are great and really helped, but it ended up taking me much longer than expected to go through the answers because I would really have to spend some time figuring out which answer was the REAL answer according to the explanation. And actually there was one explanation that was as far as I know completely wrong, but that may just be due to an outdated question.

In summary, really, with this being the 10th edition of Pretest Surgery, the number of errors in the answer section is really inexcusable. The book did help but I am sure there are other question books out there that may be better. While I generally like the pretest series, I would recommend waiting for the 11th Edition or get another book in this case. Using this book was just plain too annoying.