Need help in Path

[DNA-RL]

Hi i'm a recent 2nd year osteopathic medical student, my current pathology course is pretty much useless, my professor is a horrible teacher, she cares nothing for her students, expects us to learn pathology straight out of Robins with nothing but some vague objectives and key terms to guide us along the way. But here's the dilema i would love to read robins and learn everything inside and get a firm understanding of pathology cause of its heavy emphasis on boards and ever day clinical applications, however, time seems to be more of an issue now than ever. So my question to anyone who is willing to help is: What should I do?? Should i just learn path out of BRS, GOLJAN, or just read robins and try to place less emphasis on everything else like pharm or micro. Also, if i was to learn path out of BRS or say GOLJAN will that give me the understanding that i'll need later on in the future and will i even understand the material in those review books since i've never had path till now?? Please any help, advice will be greatly appreciated.

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[MD999]

I would just read the Robbins. Yeah its a huge book with tons of detail, but it is a great book. It's definantly doable to read, even with the time constraints. Most of the people in my class were able to read all of Systemic Path during the semester and still managed time to study for our other classes. Save the review books for review right before an exam.

 

[Supersheep]

I would just read the Robbins. Yeah its a huge book with tons of detail, but it is a great book. It's definantly doable to read, even with the time constraints. Most of the people in my class were able to read all of Systemic Path during the semester and still managed time to study for our other classes. Save the review books for review right before an exam.

Robbins is indeed a great book, it will give you a great basis for understanding pathology. It is rather dense though and at times this can mean reading a ton and only really remembering a small fraction. Considering time restraints, I would at least read the sections on the major disease entities from here (such as CHF, MI, glomerulonephropathies, etc) and the smaller topics as you are able to. Also, MD999 made a great point- as many schools and board exams use "buzz words" etc for exam questions, a review book may also be a good idea to look at for a quick refresher (such as BRS).

I'm really sorry to hear that your pathology professor is so horrible (I'm currently applying in Pathology). Best of luck!

 

[DOCTORSAIB]

I agree and disagree. I would *memorize* BRS path and *skim* Robbins IF you need more meat and/or pic's. Robbins is a great book but BRS path is under-rated...until of course Step 1 review begins. Then everyone seems to be carrying one around.

Try my technique for a few days. See if you feel comfortable with the material. You can test your knowledge by using Robbins Review Question book (great book!). G'luck.

 

[DNA-RL]

Thanks all for the input, however, if i am to read robbins how much detial should i get out of it, that book is 3 X worse than COA. Oh and to the PCOM guy, you shouldn't have to read Robbins you have Dr. Fogel right there, man i'm kicking myself for not staying at PCOM right about now!

 

[omarsaleh66]

i didnt go to class or use robbins text but I used a bunch of path review books, and i had a decent grasp of path at the end of the year.

path recall
BRS
goljan RR
goljan audio, webprep path, throw in some vignettes (UCV and platinum)
USMLE Secrets or path secrets (havent used this one, but heard it was good)
do robbins and webpath q
qbank + Appletone Lnage close to the end will stregnthen that knowledge base.

Robbins would be good for pictures i guess, but the webpath website has those too.

I hate text books, so maybe u are me are the same, review books can help solidify the hi yield concepts so u dont get bogged down in the minute details. path isnt as complex as physiology in terms of concepts, it just alot of volume so review books can do a decent job. I thought pharm was alot harder becuase u had to know the physiology behind how the drugs worked. Path was hard too, but u will get to tackle the hardest concepts best by doing the robbins, webpath, and qbank questions.

later

omar

 

[dynx]

I would say read Robbin's the first time through. You're not in review mode right now, and BRS path, while a great book, is just an outline. Reading things in Robbins will give you all the detail you need and mechanisms to help you remember why a disease does what it does. When it comes time to review all those up an down arrows will make a lot more sense if you have an idea of the mechanism...review books don't provide this. You have all year, Robbin's is a big book but it is not immpossible to cover, or even hard to cover in a year.

 

[lattimer13]

BRS path
UUtah Webpath

 

[DOCTORSAIB]

UUtah Webpath

Is this what you're talking about?

http://www-medlib.med.utah.edu/WebPath/webpath.html

 

[docslytherin]

read robbins when you can... it's definitely better for your education (meaning that it will help you later as you start to tie everything together, though it's really time-consuming and may not help your path grade as much as you think it should).

for something pretty brief, go with BRS path. it's pretty good, though some people just can't learn from outlines and bullet-points. if you use this solely, try to supplement it with robbins. path takes a lot more than memorizing (so it's the opposite of anatomy!!). in my experience, you need to understand what's going on and be able to think your way through a problem. learning path this way will help you a lot for boards this spring.

good luck.

 

[Joel Fleischman]

I have always like being able to get a simple explanation before going and hitting the hard core stuff.
I would go over BRS.... get an idea of what the dz is, and then go through Robbins.
Figue out a bit of what the forrest is before you begin memmorizing what the leaves are like.

I wished I had started using Goljan audio a lot earlier in my MSII...and my school had a decent path dept!

 

[lattimer13]

Is this what you're talking about?

http://www-medlib.med.utah.edu/WebPath/webpath.html

yep.

 

[kcumbDO]

BRS Path is all you need along with some good class notes. Hopefully your teacher gives you strong notes with lots of detail and good pictures to look at. For boards I just supplemented my knowledge of pathology from lectures with BRS path and Robins Review of Path Questions as well as Pre-test for path, first aid path, and qbank. Good luck.

 

[DOCTORSAIB]

BRS Path is all you need along with some good class notes. Hopefully your teacher gives you strong notes with lots of detail and good pictures to look at. For boards I just supplemented my knowledge of pathology from lectures with BRS path and Robins Review of Path Questions as well as Pre-test for path, first aid path, and qbank. Good luck.

That's exactly what I do now and have a similar plan of attack for the boards. Hopefully I'll do as well as you did. Congrats on the score...

Our school has scribe notes so using that and memorizing BRS path has been working well for me. Not everyone has to use Big Daddy Robbins to do well. Lets put it this way, if you felt the need to read Big Moore for anatomy, then you're probably a reader. You'll probably feel the need to read Robbins. G'luck!

 

[Long Dong]

I used a bunch of path review books, and i had a decent grasp of path at the end of the year.

I hate text books, so maybe u are me are the same, review books can help solidify the hi yield concepts so u dont get bogged down in the minute details.

I agree with this, and did not open one text book during second year. Review books is where it's at. Even if I did read robins cover to cover I'm sure I wouldn't retain much of it. I read goljan's review of path, then I listened to his audio lecture while working out (5X) and then did robbins review of path twice and you should be good to go with path.