Goljan audio/RR or Pathoma/Fundamentals of Pathology for MS2 and Step 1

A bunch of money? $100 for a year? LOL, I just dropped that bunch of money for a month.

Anyway, Use both. Goljan's audio is becoming more and more dated so be wary of any discussion of management. I'd really just listen to it when you are cruisin' down the street your 64. If Pathoma had existed at the beginning of last year I would have took the book and annotated it along the margin as I went through the course, using the online lectures to preview and review the salient topics for exams.

I think the new RR is a bloated pile of crap. I don't want Goljan teaching me physio and biochem. I'll use Kaplan, Dr. Francis or Najeeb for that.

IandIatrogenic said:

A bunch of money? $100 for a year? LOL, I just dropped that bunch of money for a month.

Anyway, Use both. Goljan's audio is becoming more and more dated so be wary of any discussion of management. I'd really just listen to it when you are cruisin' down the street your 64. If Pathoma had existed at the beginning of last year I would have took the book and annotated it along the margin as I went through the course, using the online lectures to preview and review the salient topics for exams.

I think the new RR is a bloated pile of crap. I don't want Goljan teaching me physio and biochem. I'll use Kaplan, Dr. Francis or Najeeb for that.

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This x2.

mtwop said:

Just wanted some feedback from people who used both resources before I drop a bunch of money on pathoma. I'm starting 2nd year this fall and having a difficult time choosing pathoma over goljan due to so many people recommending him. However, it seemed from the 2011 experiences thread that goljan was overkill/not useful for many more people than past years. Any advice for either or using both of these resources is appreciated!

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i took my exam on july 7th, i can tell you i had no problem with path or pathophysiology, thanks to pappi ( dr.g***). The way he teaches path is just amazing, his concept of approaching organs is what you need to undestand. But i had no problem answering path questions in real deal.

mtwop said:

Pathoma or Goljan?

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Pathoma

KSDeacon said:

Pathoma

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Because...?

Plus Pathoma's 400 pages shorter....like everyone, I also want the best score I can get, but pathoma is a much easier read and 400 pages shorter?! are you f-ing kidding me?!!!

Alvarez13 said:

Because...?

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Because Dr. Sattar is the man.
As it's been said multiple times in several threads, the videos were incredibly helpful and simplified some confusing topics. His book and videos aren't filled with the superfluous crap that is rampant in RR and goljan audio.

KSDeacon said:

Because Dr. Sattar is the man.
As it's been said multiple times in several threads, the videos were incredibly helpful and simplified some confusing topics. His book and videos aren't filled with the superfluous crap that is rampant in RR and goljan audio.

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Just finished the Pathoma thread: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=816105&page=2. I'm speechless. I read for so long that RR Path/Goljan Audio was the gold standard for pathology, used by my ancestors to destroy the Step I. So many positive reviews in 1 thread. A lot of low post counts which I am kind of questioning, but there's also a lot of established SDNers that I'm familiar with, so maybe there's something to it. 100$ is nothing at this point so I may have to just pull the trigger.

Anyone have a coupon code?

I've never heard of Pathoma until it started to blow up here on SDN recently, so I won't comment on it. However, I have always sworn be Goljan. That said Goljan is not a beast you tackle during the few months before the big test. From what I'm reading it seems to be that Pathoma is a more condensed and too the point version of Goljan? Great, use that for the 2 months before the test.

However, I would recommend that Goljan be begun at the start of 2nd year and completely read through by the beginning of dedicated study time(That goes for First Aid as well). There really isn't a point to heavily annotating Goljan as its so dense already, but I added some notes in the margins. I felt having this resource completely finished during boards studying was just invaluable.

And just a side note, I really hate video lectures. Not my thing. Just give me a good book in front of me and I'm good

WTH is Pathoma?

I thought Goljan RR was great at integrating all the subjects, I read it 3 times total before step one. I also read BRS path before my shelf exam.

I never used Goljan audio, it was redundant and bored me to death.

SlickNickMD said:

WTH is Pathoma?

I thought Goljan RR was great at integrating all the subjects, I read it 3 times total before step one. I also read BRS path before my shelf exam.

I never used Goljan audio, it was redundant and bored me to death.

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I think it is irrelevant to you now. You're done with step 1. So you can move on

LiverpoolFC said:

I think it is irrelevant to you now. You're done with step 1. So you can move on

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I was just curious, and semi offering some words of wisdom. But you're right lol

If you think you're going to be overwhelmed by 600 pages of pathology, then maybe you're better off checking out Pathoma. Really, you're best served checking out both books and seeing which one you'd prefer.

Then it's also video vs audio, but keep in mind that the Goljan audio lectures floating around on the internet are OLD. Old enough that there was no HPV vaccine at the time.

um Goljan..why? Because he has proven that he is the pathology father of step I...get the 3rd edition and read it. People don't get labeled something off of a "whim." his images in the book are very good too

mtwop said:

Hate to bump my own thread, but I'm going to buy one of them in the next couple days and would appreciate anymore feedback from people who have used both sources. I think using both would be overkill. Thoughts?

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How much time do you have? I'd say try to use all three if you can.

I went ahead and bought pathoma the other day--should get it in tomorrow. It actually put me off a little when reading some users' posting history here and seeing that there was a conspicuous gap between their last posts followed by excessive praise of the product, but regardless it looks pretty good, so here's hoping).

Here's my plan for path:

--Watch pathoma lectures/follow along in textbook
--annotate over from RR into Pathoma text (already done this for a couple RR chapters --> FA. doesn't take as long as you'd think, as long as you just skim through the chapters for things you don't already know. probably not truly necessary, but satisfies OC tendencies.)

I've blocked out 5 days for the above.

alright guys so i took the exam and prepared with pathoma (read chapter, listened to lecture, and then went through the whole book the week before the step) and I had no problem with any path questions, i felt they were all covered in pathoma.
I did find questions from other subjects which i wasnt sure about, but for pathology i felt everything was covered in pathoma and his lectures.
i did use goljan (prolly covered ~7 chapters) but then switched to pathoma b/c it wasnt efficient enough for board studying with 1 month before the exam.
pathoma is excellent for the boards...what you want to study along with coursework i dont know...

mtwop said:

I have about a week until 2nd year starts, so I have plenty of time for step 1, but I was hoping to compliment my coursework with one of these books. I've learned that I like to have one and only one review book per class, but I may have to make an exception with pathology. We had a couple months of general pathology during MS1, and I found that reading robbins basic path/memorizing syllabus notes was the most helpful thing that I did for coursework. I skimmed RR path from the library before our path exams and did not find it all that useful. Our tests are written by many different MDs and PhDs, and they tend to focus on different information than that in RR path. Wow sorry for the long post, just wanted to let you know where I'm coming from. Thanks for the responses!

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I am in a very similar situation and am deciding between pathoma and Gojian. I was originally thinking of following class with RR since it is more detailed and do pathoma during winter break, spring break, and some during last two months. But then I realized that subscription to pathoma is $100 for the whole year and it doesn't seem monetarily wise to not get it now. My question is that should I just get both and try to utilize both during school year? Is that too time consuming? I also don't feel comfortable not at least trying RR.

During the school year I'd do GT to test you over old material and new material (I think it's always great to be tested) and then use one source. I'll use RR Pathology because it's more detailed than panthoma seems to be. I'll compliment RR with FA. If RR path has something important that FA has left out, I'll annotate accordingly. I think 2 sources for Path would personally be overkill but if you want to..go for it!

My plan as it stands is seeming to be:
-Do my 1 hr of GT in the morning
-Pathoma and RR
-Class notes
-Review and add to FA after exams.
-Try to fit a qbank in there somewhere.

There's not enough time per day for med school.

Alvarez13 said:

My plan as it stands is seeming to be:
-Do my 1 hr of GT in the morning
-Pathoma and RR
-Class notes
-Review and add to FA after exams.
-Try to fit a qbank in there somewhere.

There's not enough time per day for med school.

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. LOVE IT.

Does anyone that has already taken Step I and used Pathoma want to sell me their book?