Memorizing Robbins

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Big Robbins or baby Robbins? Reading big Robbins would not be very helpful - just wasting your time. Robbins Basic Path would be more manageable (but still a bit silly).
 
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Truthfully just gonna go through chapters 1-10 and make sure I know the stuff well. I think it is the core of pathology and I still have 4 months until my exam.
 
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MilkmanAl said:
That still sounds like a waste of time. Robbins is ridiculously specific and detailed. If you're going to read a path book, why not Goljan?
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Because I have read RR about 6 times, and it is essentially just an outline with nothing else. I think people overrate RR.

It's great for big points, but has absolutely zero in actual mechanisms/pathophysiology.
 
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I wouldn't touch Robbins with someone else's 10-foot pole, especially where board prep is concerned. I imagine there's a reason all the extra stuff is left out of Rapid Review, but whatever floats your boat.
 
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Krazykyle said:
Because I have read RR about 6 times, and it is essentially just an outline with nothing else. I think people overrate RR.

It's great for big points, but has absolutely zero in actual mechanisms/pathophysiology.
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Not to call you out or anything but the only thing RR path has are mechanisms and pathophys, whereas Robbins is full of "histopathology" and a whole bunch of "the mechanism of this process is unknown". Reading Robbins once and RR a bunch of times is a lot more efficient.

And speaking of efficiency, if you have already read Robbins before, and RR Path 6 times.. I would just stick to UW and FA and focus on the other subjects that you might be weak in.
 
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wAyRadikull said:
Not to call you out or anything but the only thing RR path has are mechanisms and pathophys, whereas Robbins is full of "histopathology" and a whole bunch of "the mechanism of this process is unknown". Reading Robbins once and RR a bunch of times is a lot more efficient.

And speaking of efficiency, if you have already read Robbins before, and RR Path 6 times.. I would just stick to UW and FA and focus on the other subjects that you might be weak in.
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OK, Rapid Review is basically just a distilled Robbins, sure there is some overview of basic pathophysiology for each disease, but esentially nothing comparable to the "clinical course" section Robbins has. I think Rapid Review is especially weak for cardiovascular, which is one of the more difficult topics, and I also found that while the pulmonary hit the big things, there was enough left out that I would not consider it nearly enough for knowledge of the subjects. I think it is a great resource, but right now it's not helping me understand any disease process any better at this point. I don't know what the core of your second year material was, but for us it was all Robbins and Coltran with a course pack, so it's not like this is going to take a unwieldy amount of time IMO.

anyway it doesn't matter, I was being half sarcastic with the comment, but I do think with the amount of time I have left and the studying I have done up to this point I would like to solidify the first ten chapters of Robbins, and get down growth factors, transcription factors, etc as well as possible.
 
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what do you guys think about using RObbins for pictures and just to flip through a chapter and take a look at the images. I don't even own a robbins but im sure the library has it. Do yout hink this is a good use of time or will webpath and RR be enough.
 
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I actually posted a question about pathology pictures sometime ago and was told that it would be an inefficient use of my time. But since, I truly suck at pictures, I'm probably just going to go through the pictures in webpath at the end of the day for the appropriate system. Hopefully that should do the trick along with UW, FA and RR.
 
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Just do all the image quizes in webpath and the comprehensive quizes (these also have images). You will see pictures in the Robbin's qbook as well. Hit up the FA high yield images and whatever you see in RRpath... if you do all of the above, you should be money. I don't think it would be a good use of time to flip through tons of images. It would be much more high yield to do questions and the FA images.
Images aren't even that big of a deal anyways since you can figure out the question from the stem. They are just to confirm what you were thinking.
 
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Whatever. I hit Robbin's 5x, completely memorized. Harrison's and Cecil 3x..... AND Nelson's text book of Peds 1x (have you seen the size of that thing!?)

I'm hoping for a 400 on Step 1. Should I read RR path now?
 
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vicinihil said:
ha. I've already been through Harrison's and Cecils 3x. What have YOU been studying hmm???
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I cannot for the life of me understand how someone can read a book more than 2-3 times without getting exceptionally bored with the repetition of material.

But I agree with wAyRadikull, Robbins is really only useful for your path class, where the gross and histopathology of diseases are emphasized and tested on. I read Robbins once for basic understanding of a subject (not going to class allows me the time for this luxury), then RR from then on out.
 
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Ableton said:
I cannot for the life of me understand how someone can read a book more than 2-3 times without getting exceptionally bored with the repetition of material.

But I agree with wAyRadikull, Robbins is really only useful for your path class, where the gross and histopathology of diseases are emphasized and tested on. I read Robbins once for basic understanding of a subject (not going to class allows me the time for this luxury), then RR from then on out.
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I wish I was a faster reader, I would have definitely read Robbins throughout M2 year. Alas, I am slow as hell and have terrible reading comprehension (MCAT verbal was an 8 and back in elementary school/jr. high I'd score barely in the 50th percentile for those standardized reading comp exams... math was more my style) Instead I opted to read each chapter of RR like 4x before each exam and listen to Poppie's Audio 2-3x. Repetition, the only way for dummies like me who have poor reading comprehension can learn. So instead of getting bored, I felt like I was always finding new stuff that I glazed over.

Questions like Webpath/Robbin's qbook a must though, because you can read over something a million times and not recognize your weakness until you do a question.
 
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I'm in the same boat. I have to read a lecture at least 3-4x before an exam to actually get what I need to get out of it. I think it's from reading quickly and glossing over operative works like EXCEPT or DO NOT. I end up taking notes on lecture notes just to make sure I read every single word. I def don't have time to read textbooks and I agree, doing questions I think is one of the best ways to learn. It applies the concept for you and checks your understanding.
 
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badasshairday said:
Questions like Webpath/Robbin's qbook a must though, because you can read over something a million times and not recognize your weakness until you do a question.
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This is true. When I usually read through something more than twice, I'll just skim through most of it telling myself "ya ya, I know all this crap."
Then I get bored enough to open that question book and it shows me how little I really do know haha.
 
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I think Robbins is worth having read once. It shouldn't be done in the two months before the exam though at that point time is better spent elsewhere. I never really got around to reading much of robbins except the first ten chapters in first year(it was for a separate grad class) so to finish last couple weeks of second year ive been finishing off robbins like a chapter a day(also cause those chapters are the reading for a grad class). There's alot of stuff in it, it has every discipline with all the connected field material too and pathology is always the most vast they can test on the board but it is impossible to wade through if you haven't been through the material before so you know what to skim and what to read closely and not worth it if you are less than 3 months away from your exam.
 
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i have to take step within 2.5-3.5 months

scored 160ish on nbme

DIT recommends reading first chapters 1-7 of RObbins, but does not clarify whether this is big or small.

I WANT to read robbins all

but prolly go with DIT suggestion

should i do big, or small

and in my case, since low path knowledge, is reading robbins good idea FOR ME?

i am worried about time a lot though, because i am not one of those read textbook in day people. and robbins is like super text. on side note, have u guys all seen 'ultimate student guide for usmle' its the frog pdf from 3-4 yrs ago. under the micro section they say, "here's an idea, read CMMRS front to back, then again. this should take you about a day"....... =(

i have both newest path and newest brs path. my robbins is software however, makes reading ch 1-7 harder i guess
 
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you probably should read 1-7 of robbibs (medium or big) personally i like medium robbins, and rapid review with the audios for the rest of the chapters since you say your path is not up to par
 
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Keep in mind that I am posting this having read every chapter of Robbins at least twice over the course of the past year and using it as my primary reference for almost every course. I am not a lecture guy and rarely went or even watched many of our lectures, I preferred to wake up early and go at it in the textbooks.

I do not think cracking open the book for the first time and trying to wade through it in 2 months would be sensible or even possible, I was going to do this over the next month having seen the chapters many many times and focusing on one through ten.

also I was exaggerating about literally "memorizing" it. Memorizing FA is a hard enough task as is, Robbins hahahaha, you would have to be some kind of legend.
 
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