Asking your program for Basic Science Series early?

[Pike]

Hello everyone,

I'm a bit of a thorough (i.e. slow) reader and would like to get a jump on starting the Basic Science Series early. I realize these are updated yearly, but was wondering if anyone had any thoughts as to if the updates tend to be substantial enough so as to put me at a disadvantage (for example for OKAP testing) if I started my residency with books a few years old. I also know that only a handful of volumes are substantially overhauled each year. Does the AAO offer a la carte purchases if I wanted to get the new editions, or must one buy the whole set all at once?

Thanks

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[NYCDoc80]

You can buy the BCS series updated books each year...on thier website...

 

[ryangeraets]

As long as the "old" books are no more than 3-4 years old you should be OK. That being said, the therapeutics sections (particularly in Retina and Cornea) may be considerably outdated. For example, my retina book (3 yo) has extensive sections on photodynamic therapy for exudative ARMD, but we hardly ever use it anymore.
In the end, using older books is far more useful than using nothing at all.
Good luck this July!

 

[Pike]

Thanks for the responses - regarding OKAPs and oral exams and stuff - are they modified each year according to BCS updates that were made the year the class being tested would have entered? Or are the changes not quite that specific?

 

[ryangeraets]

Year-to-year changes are minor, and the only things that change are those they have changed in the books that happen to be revised that year. Only 2-3 books are revised per year, so that's not a significant amount of drift in the material tested upon. As a first year resident "what is it" is a bigger question to answer regarding a disease process than "how do I manage it" because it's easy to look up the answer to the latter. And remember, once you start your residency, you will have a current set of books to start reading again.
Best of luck!