Confused over which book I need?

[kl323]

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Hey all,

I'm a little confused over which of these books to get. I've been covering some of the threads on the forum as well as recommendations from people in my school. So far, I'm certain I'll be getting Clinical Microbio Made Rediculously Easy (4th Ed). As for the following books, I'm confused over which to get. Upperclassmen are recommending Baby Robbins. Which one is that? I've heard that the regular Robbins will be too dense. Which combination will be best?



Robbins and Cotran Review of Pathology

Robbins & Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease: With STUDENT CONSULT Online Access

Rapid Review Pathology: With STUDENT CONSULT Online Access

Pocket Companion to Robbins & Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease


If I missed any books, please advise! I'm having a little trouble matching up the names of the books that people are recommending to the actual title of the text.

Thanks!

 

[nlax30]

I used Robbins pathological basis of disease... what we called "Big Robbins". Definitely was dense and probably little much at times but it was one I was going to hang onto for a while.

We considered that pocket companion as being "baby Robbins". I used that at times for a quick overview of a chapter but it's certainly not enough for your main path text.

There is an in-between Robbins text that some uses as their main text and liked it. Basically the size of a normal textbook instead of a monster like big path..... we called it "teen path".

Goljan path is a very popular review book for boards... not sure I'd recommend it as your main path text though.

My school's curriculum was PBL so we pretty much had to have a definitive text to study from, no lecture notes or powerpoints.... so it may also depend on your school's curriulum and whether not you need the actual text or if going off of notes, review books and then using a library copy of the text is enough.

 

[alwaysaangel]

What you should get depends on what kind of studier you are. Do you use your class notes and review books or do you like textbooks? If you're in 2nd year you've probably figured that out by now.

If you're not much of a reader I would get:
Goljan Rapid Review + Robbins Review (question book)

If you're sort of in the middle and like reading and notes I would get:
Goljan + Robbins Review + Robins Basic Pathology (we called it middle robbins)

If you've read textbooks all of college and med school and will actually read it then get the full Robbins (Robbins and Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease) with Goljan Rapid Review for the boards.

 

[engineeredout]

What you should get depends on what kind of studier you are. Do you use your class notes and review books or do you like textbooks? If you're in 2nd year you've probably figured that out by now.

If you're not much of a reader I would get:
Goljan Rapid Review + Robbins Review (question book)

If you're sort of in the middle and like reading and notes I would get:
Goljan + Robbins Review + Robins Basic Pathology (we called it middle robbins)

If you've read textbooks all of college and med school and will actually read it then get the full Robbins (Robbins and Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease) with Goljan Rapid Review for the boards.

Second this. I don't like reading from textbooks all that much. Goljan's RR is a great book and has everything, and the robbins question book has been fantastic for class studies; I could almost sware that our path prof takes questions directly from it.

 

[Rollo]

What you should get depends on what kind of studier you are. Do you use your class notes and review books or do you like textbooks? If you're in 2nd year you've probably figured that out by now.

If you're not much of a reader I would get:
Goljan Rapid Review + Robbins Review (question book)

If you're sort of in the middle and like reading and notes I would get:
Goljan + Robbins Review + Robins Basic Pathology (we called it middle robbins)

If you've read textbooks all of college and med school and will actually read it then get the full Robbins (Robbins and Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease) with Goljan Rapid Review for the boards.

Well, you already got two different opinions....one from nlax who is a "big reader" and one from engineered who is a "not much of a reader"....

Let me give you my opinion as a "sort of in the middle reader"....

I use Robbins Basic Path initially to get a clear, deep understanding of the disease processes/pathologies we cover in class. This gives me a detailed, yet not excruciating detailed that I want to tear my hair out, explanation of the underlying mechanism behind specific pathology.

Then I look at the class notes/powerpoint to see what the prof focuses on (and what will most likely be tested on our exams) and see if I can fill in some details (usually I can't because it is very hard for me to re-word processes that Robbins does a fantastic job of explaining).

Then I look at Goljans for quick yet detailed review of whatever it was that I learned during that week.

Then I follow it up with questions from the Review book to solidify my understanding of the material (the explanations are very well written and I use this question book primarily to LEARN the material, not for assessment...that usually happens during the in-class exam haha).

I'm assuming you're about to start medical school? I'd recommend you wait and see what kind of student are you and then go out and spend your money on all the books.

 

[kl323]

Thanks for the wonderful replies. It'll definitely help me once I start. I'm actually a rising MS2.

From the people at my school, second year is more dependent on textbooks. So I guess I'll weigh my options and $$$.

Thanks again!

 

[Working through]

Good opinions... I am a 2nd year, and absolutely don't think I have the time to read all of the 900 some page Robbins book, but maybe could manage the whole 700 some page Goljan one... Will I be killing patients by just doing Goljan, or my nerves by trying to read all of Robbins?!

 

[Zoom-Zoom]

Good opinions... I am a 2nd year, and absolutely don't think I have the time to read all of the 900 some page Robbins book, but maybe could manage the whole 700 some page Goljan one... Will I be killing patients by just doing Goljan, or my nerves by trying to read all of Robbins?!

You'll be fine either way. It's just a matter of finding whatever suits your interests. It may actually be harder to learn Goljan straight up without reading a text first. Big Robbins is like 1500 pages but I've noticed that a lot of my reading "assignments" over the year are still pretty doable..like 1 or 2 weeks per chapter/system. It just depends on how much reading you think you can/want to do.

OP, I think you'll definitely want Rapid Review for the boards so I wouldn't hesitate to buy it now. Then I'd see if I could take a look at other students' Robbins to compare the big boy to the medium one. As far as content goes I don't know how much extra is in the big one, but it's definitely quite a bit bigger. It's not that bad, though.