Big Robbins---->Boards Material? Please Answer!

[MedStud1984]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hey all,

Just had a quick question. My school is very notes heavy. We get about 350-400 pages of notes every two weeks. That being said, notes are all I usually read, as the exam material comes from the notes.

When I do get the time to open up Big Robbins, I find a information that might have been glossed over in class notes, or just not mentioned. My school has notes that suck fairly often, but have to be learned to a "T." I am afraid that I will be unprepared for boards (USMLE Step 1) because so many other schools have path classes that focus on Robbins. So i have 2 questions

1.) Is this a legitimate concern?

2.)Did you find that reading Big Robbins helped you for your boards, or is all the path you need in Goljan/First Aid?

3.) Should I start reading Robbins if I haven't earlier this year?

 

[DOCTORSAIB]

Hey all,

Just had a quick question. My school is very notes heavy. We get about 350-400 pages of notes every two weeks. That being said, notes are all I usually read, as the exam material comes from the notes.

When I do get the time to open up Big Robbins, I find a information that might have been glossed over in class notes, or just not mentioned. My school has notes that suck fairly often, but have to be learned to a "T." I am afraid that I will be unprepared for boards because so many other schools have path classes that focus on Robbins. So i have 2 questions

1.) Is this a legitimate concern?

2.)Did you find that reading Big Robbins helped you for your boards, or is all the path you need in Goljan/First Aid?

1) No.

2) No, Yes. (except I used BRS Path, Goljan audio and Robbins question book).

Why aren't you using RR Path or BRS Path alongside your class notes? Or are you?

 

[MedStud1984]

1) No.

2) No, Yes. (except I used BRS Path, Goljan audio and Robbins question book).

Why aren't you using RR Path or BRS Path alongside your class notes? Or are you?

I have been reading RR path on occasion, but haven't hit boards studying really hard yet. I have about 4 months before I take USMLE Step 1. Did you take the Comlex or the USMLE? I just ask because I see that you attend an osteopathic school.

 

[DOCTORSAIB]

I have been reading RR path on occasion, but haven't hit boards studying really hard yet. I have about 4 months before I take USMLE Step 1. Did you take the Comlex or the USMLE? I just ask because I see that you attend an osteopathic school.

I took both my friend.

Keep hitting that RR Path. I hear very good things about it (and the audio).

 

[lord_jeebus]

Big Robbins is probably not for you, given that you don't have the time to read it.

Don't worry about that. Most people don't touch it.

 

[ASDIC]

Big Robbins for the Step 1 is only useful for Pictures, tables and photographs....i have heard they lift photos directly from the book for the exam.

 

[SeventhSon]

I would do the Robbins Review of Path questions and/or look at diseases in RR Path that aren't in your class notes.

Proceed to learn the pathogenesis and predictable or important symptoms, signs, etc. You don't need to read Robbins. The board-relevant information is the same no matter where you get it from.

 

[overthebars]

I have to lay out a plug for Big Robbins here. It is a great book, probably better than any single text you can read in your 3rd or 4th years. It is even with Marino's ICU book in terms of quality. The downside is it takes months to get through the relevant portions.

The Robbin's Qbook is more accurate (content and style wise) than QBank for step1 as I recall. The explanations in Robbin's Q are excellent, you'd probably learn well by just memorizing them. There is also a great online path question reference from the University of Utah that is written very similarly to Step1 (I'd heard the professor who developed the Utah thing is a question writer). If I had to do it over I'd do way less Qbank and way more path Q's. That may be just me though.

 

[lord_jeebus]

The Robbin's Qbook is more accurate (content and style wise) than QBank for step1 as I recall. The explanations in Robbin's Q are excellent, you'd probably learn well by just memorizing them. There is also a great online path question reference from the University of Utah that is written very similarly to Step1 (I'd heard the professor who developed the Utah thing is a question writer). If I had to do it over I'd do way less Qbank and way more path Q's. That may be just me though.

The guy who wrote the Robbins questions and Webpath are the same guy. He is (or at least was) in charge of the committee that writes pathology questions for Step I (the NBME used to have a site that listed the question writers, it seems to be gone)

 

[JustPlainBill]

Our main path prof just moved on to a new school but I was fortunate enough to have him for the 'Welcome to the Deep End of the Pool, Kid'
class that transitioned first year to second year.

He had written Q's for the COMLEX (I think) and he commented that
when people were writing new questions in path, they almost always
picked up Momma Robbins (The Big One) and took questions from there.

His class was a real, no-defection, eye opening wake up. Anyone who can
take the word 'Etiology', write a paragraph long stem and give 4 legitimate,
think-about-'em distractors is a Master on the Yoda level......

Given that and your situation -- I wouldn't bother trying to read it. It's very, very detailed and requires time and repetition. To truly understand it, you need to rip through it about 4 to 5 times BEFORE being tested on it.
At our school, we spend the last part of first and the entire second year going through it......

I would just go through Kaplan and RR as I've heard Goljan does a primo job of tying things together.

 

[ginger60]

1.) Is this a legitimate concern?

2.)Did you find that reading Big Robbins helped you for your boards, or is all the path you need in Goljan/First Aid?

3.) Should I start reading Robbins if I haven't earlier this year?

I can only answer from my own experience and from what I've heard about Robbins from friends, but I agree with the above posters

1) No
2) Read ~1 chapter of Robbins and then read no further, and that definitely did not hurt my board score. All the path I needed was in Goljan/First Aid and from what I remembered during MS1 and MS2. I used class notes like you during the first two years, and although I didn't review them when studying for step 1 I am surprised by how much I remembered. I realized at some point that there were a good number of things that my class notes didn't cover in detail, but I found all of the relevant and high yield details I needed for step 1 in first aid/goljan. Robbins probably has those details as well but they are hidden amongst so much low yield stuff that its not worth reading.
3) Definitely no--that would quite possibly be the worst thing you could do at this point unless you actually like torturing yourself.

 

[lankysudanese]

I would suggest that you settle for a "middle-ground" option: do the questions in Robbins question book after you are done studying path (either from BRS, your school lecture notes or whatever you end up choosing). this way, you won't have to read the big book, but still reap the benefit of getting the high yield parts of big Robbins. the path slides/photos are excellent too, and you will encounter similar slides on your step 1. if you study more than the 7hr/day (which I did), then you can easily finish the 1000+ questions in 3-4 days.

Good Luck