Is Pathology Made Ridiculously Simple any good?

[shreypete]

In my medical school (in Europe), we mostly use Robbins Pathologic Basis of Disease (or the slightly smaller one) but I find both these books to be quite intimidating coz the chapters never seem to end...and it's way too detailed. Secondly, I don't even have an idea as to what's important and what's not coz every line seems so important.

Are there any other good Pathology "text" books out there?

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[TexasPhysician]

I preferred Rapid Review of Path by Goljan with BRS Path in close 2nd place. Robbins is more of a reference text.....

 

[NRAI2001]

I preferred Rapid Review of Path by Goljan with BRS Path in close 2nd place. Robbins is more of a reference text.....

I agree with this comment 👍

 

[knockoutMice]

Trust me guys Robbin's Pathologic Basis of Disease is the one and only book for path.
This issue is so ****ing important that I cannot stress this enough!
If you are bothering about revising, keep the smallest Robbins or choose any other review book.

If you don't read Robbins PBD now, you'll repent your entire life :|

 

[TexasPhysician]

Trust me guys Robbin's Pathologic Basis of Disease is the one and only book for path.
This issue is so ****ing important that I cannot stress this enough!
If you are bothering about revising, keep the smallest Robbins or choose any other review book.

If you don't read Robbins PBD now, you'll repent your entire life :|

I hope that last sentence is sarcasm.......

 

[NRAI2001]

I hope that last sentence is sarcasm.......

haha..for some reason I doubt its sarcasm..

 

[shreypete]

I guess I'll continue using Robbins Basic Pathology and supplement it with Goljan Review.

 

[Old Grunt]

In my medical school (in Europe), we mostly use Robbins Pathologic Basis of Disease (or the slightly smaller one) but I find both these books to be quite intimidating coz the chapters never seem to end...and it's way too detailed. Secondly, I don't even have an idea as to what's important and what's not coz every line seems so important.

Are there any other good Pathology "text" books out there?

I read big Robbins religiously (at least unit 2) and am not sure that was the best use of my time. Unless you can automatically retain something by reading it once, then you really aren't committing the concepts to memory. You might gain a deeper understanding of the material, but the half life of it is mostly likely going to be short.

I'd go with the people who say use it as a reference. I think it's one of those books you should have in your shelf for the rest of your career, but as far as learning pathology, I'd go with "baby robbins" or some other form to learn the material.

Just my opinion.

 

[deuce924]

Trust me guys Robbin's Pathologic Basis of Disease is the one and only book for path.
This issue is so ****ing important that I cannot stress this enough!
If you are bothering about revising, keep the smallest Robbins or choose any other review book.

If you don't read Robbins PBD now, you'll repent your entire life :|

I think this is a severe over-estimation of the importance of this text book. I don't even own the book. While it does contain a lot (and I mean a lot of information), if you don't learn that way than don't waste your time reading the book.

I didn't even buy the book and went with Goljan's and his audio and it has worked for me. It really comes down to whatever works with your study style. If reading a 1000 page book works for you, go for it.

 

[Ativanigans]

Where are your professors drawing questions from? If they're pulling minute BS out of Robbins and you want to be in the top 1% of the class ,you might have to just bite the bullet and read that cover to cover (even though I think it's a huge waste of time).

If you take a nationally standardized shelf exam and your profs have no contrl over the construction of teh test then I would just read much more condensed books like baby Robbins or Rapid Review Path (although it's rather incomplete).

 

[shreypete]

Well as I mentioned, I study in Prague, CR and the profs. here are very big on testing students on minute details. They've recommended only Robbins so far. The profs. here focus way too much on details and integrating them (similar to the German medical schools).

But I'm planning on getting Goljans RR coz I don't think I'll be able to read Robbins alone (otherwise, I would just be lost in a sea of information).

 

[NRAI2001]

Well as I mentioned, I study in Prague, CR and the profs. here are very big on testing students on minute details. They've recommended only Robbins so far. The profs. here focus way too much on details and integrating them (similar to the German medical schools).

But I'm planning on getting Goljans RR coz I don't think I'll be able to read Robbins alone (otherwise, I would just be lost in a sea of information).

In the US profs are also heavy on the details... they always recommened robbins bc it would be improper to make a "review book" as your courses text book. But If you look at Goljan there is a lot of details and it isnt as a quick of a read as most other review books are.

I also recommened Robbins Review to go along with your course; its system based questions that Robbins puts out to accompany their text.👍

P.S. prague is awesome; such a fun city👍

 

[Perrotfish]

The system that's worked for me:

1) Start each block by reading through big robbins (once)

2) Follow with Goljan Audio

3) Then do Lange Path flashcards until my eyes bleed

4) Finally finish with lots and lots of questions: first Robbins review, then Kaplan Q bank for that subject. Go back to big robbins for a quick review if something still hasn't stuck.

The review books like Goljan and BRS haven't done a lot for me. For condensed review I think premade flash cards work a lot better. For the initial read through I need something I can actually read. I feel like the review books have consensed the material mostly by turning readable sentences into bulleted lists that naturally cause me to zone out.

 

[shreypete]

In the US profs are also heavy on the details... they always recommened robbins bc it would be improper to make a "review book" as your courses text book. But If you look at Goljan there is a lot of details and it isnt as a quick of a read as most other review books are.

I also recommened Robbins Review to go along with your course; its system based questions that Robbins puts out to accompany their text.👍

P.S. prague is awesome; such a fun city👍

Hey there, I've decided to use Robbins with Goljan. I've already bought the Robbins Review and the Robbins Atlas of Pathology and they're great...what's not great - the subject itself...too many details and it takes me such a long time to just get through one chapter.

 

[knockoutMice]

...what's not great - the subject itself...

Well there is something I have learned in my life - every subject is beautiful if you give enough effort to delve into its depths. I agree that this amount of effort varies from person to person, also depends upon your personality and the nature of the subject.

Pathology was one of my favorite subjects and it was only because I read Robbins PBD.

Just remember something - Good things will never come to you, you'll have to go towards them. 🙂

 

[211519]

Pathology is extremely important for boards.

I start by reading over the materials provided by the school. I supplement with Lange Path, more in-depth than a BRS, but nothing like big Robbins.

If I feel I need a clarification or the professor particularly stressed a topic, I'll look that particular issue up in big Robbins. Big Robbins is a marvelous, if excessively long book. I can retain things I read well, but I don't believe it is necessary to read the entire text to suceed (I general make 100s on Path exams)

At that point, I start condensing down to flow charts and flash cards, and the end of my studying has no text involved at all.

So is Robbins the best? For volume, yes, but some of the other posters suggested other texts that may work better for your learning style.

 

[Old Grunt]

Hey there, I've decided to use Robbins with Goljan. I've already bought the Robbins Review and the Robbins Atlas of Pathology and they're great...what's not great - the subject itself...too many details and it takes me such a long time to just get through one chapter.

If it makes you feel any better, when I was talking Pathology, I talked to an old Dr. (80 years old) and was bemoaning the fact that there wasn't enough time to learn pathology and they responded:

"You have the rest of your career to learn it."

Obviously they weren't saying that you can blow off pathology as a med student, they were just making the point that medicine is "lifelong learning". You are going to be dealing with Path your entire career.

As I am studying for boards, I have been really impressed with Goljan's organization. If you can *ahem* borrow his audio lectures from someone that has been in his Kaplan or Falcon courses those are awesome. He does a really good job of hitting the high points. For your course you are going to have to learn all the details, but eventually you'll want to focus on the high points and start drawing correlations.

Or as Goljan says: focus on the "why" and not the "what". If you know the "why" the "what" becomes obvious.