BRS or Goljan?

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This has to have been covered multiple times, but anyway...

I used BRS while studying for the class and my final and Goljan for boards -- a lot more detail in Goljan, and it gives mechanisms. Both are in outline form, which I like.
 
I used only Goljan. Use it if you have time. BRS is good too, but not enough detail. If you are short on time, BRS will be a much quicker read.
 
honestly all you need is the first 8 chapters of BRS. it gives a good review of general path which is HY. I found goljan to be too detailed and there wans't enough time to make good use of it ( I would have if i just had another 2 weeks). THe rest of path is very well covered by qbank and first aid.

But then again, i didn't score near the other ppl on this forum so it really depends on what your goal is.
But to be real honest, i don't think reading the goljan book would have made any difference in my score. The cell bio questions were what gave me the most trouble.
 
I had both and I ended up using BRS path and not touching Goljan. I didnt really like the bullet point style that the book is written in. I also disagree with the statement that BRS doesnt have enough detail. It doesnt have as much as Goljan, but in my opinion in has more than enough for Step 1.
 
I would use more goljan. He gets a lot of his stuff from old questions and from what students who have taken the test tell him, so it's more representative of what will actually be on the test.

Good luck!
 
Any ideas on which one is better for path? There's nothing conclusive from Amazon.com's user reviews.

I personally use RR, but they are both good books and people have done well using either one. However, they are very different as far as format, style, inclusion of figures/pictures, etc. I would suggest going to the book store and looking at them both and figuring out which one best suits your style--thats the one you should go with so you can get the most out of that book.

Good luck! :luck:

-tx
 
Goljan's RR book is great to learn from and its what I used primarily for classes and boards. I will definitely agree with others that it contains more than you need for boards and BRS is probably better for boards. If you want to learn, Goljan's book is for understanding whereas if you just want to prepare for the boards, you could be fine with just BRS
 
Goljan also helps for when you get pimped by your attendings. At least mines so far love asking pathophysiology, and Goljan is golden for that.
 
Any ideas on which one is better for path? There's nothing conclusive from Amazon.com's user reviews.

I used both, they were each helpful in their own way.

I think BRS is more of a *classic* path book, but goljan integrates everything.
 
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