Pathology text

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CBG23

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Hi all,

I was wondering what a good pathology text might be (ex. the equivalent of costanzo's physiology- a text with explanations rather than an outline/ review format thing). I am planning on purchasing RR path, but heard it's in outline format. Is Robbins a text? I have seen it referenced in a few threads (as baby, mama, medium, pocket)- but it seems like there are a ton of different versions...Any information is appreciated!
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Big Robbins is a great book IMO (though it is VERY big!) and while it might be a little much for an intro path course, you will likely keep it as a reference. I used it as a reference all throughout second year and know residents that have kept it around for reference as well. Check with your school's library though--my school has it available online when on campus, so if you don't feel like you need a hard copy, there is always that option.

Robbins Basic Pathology is the baby version and was perfect for my intro path class, but is not as useful as a reference since it lacks the detail. I had a second hand version so I used it but didn't have to buy it. It does have explanations though.

Pocket Robbins is literally white coat pocket size....not too useful IMO...no pics, not much detail, but a nice quick reference if you need that (what is that disease again?).

Robbins has a companion question book that is really really good--brutal, but good...not intro level.

I am told there is a slide companion book with more pics, since Robbins is slightly lacking in that dept (surprising given its enormous size). I don't know what it's called though.

The other big book is Rubins (no relation to Robbins)...I have not used it much, but it seems to be comparable to big Robbins with slightly less detail.

Hope that helps...
 
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Studying for boards we joked that the Big Robbins was like this giant, ancient, sacred text.... "A reading from Robbins: on morphology..."
 
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big robbins is useless, never could bring myself to look at those tiny words
 
Is the Robbins question book worth getting? I've heard good things and love doing practice questions (just the best way to learn imo). But are the question on the same level as year two pathology and step 1?
 
turkeyjerky said:
Is the Robbins question book worth getting? I've heard good things and love doing practice questions (just the best way to learn imo). But are the question on the same level as year two pathology and step 1?
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i think robbins Q book is great for 2nd year pathology if you are using big or medium robbins. i did most of the questions as we went along with each sections during the year. it was great preparation for our course exams, and pretty good for the NBME shelf exam too.
 
turkeyjerky said:
Is the Robbins question book worth getting? I've heard good things and love doing practice questions (just the best way to learn imo). But are the question on the same level as year two pathology and step 1?
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very much worth buying, find a slightly used one on amazon and you wont regret it
 
Anybody go through medium robbins or rubin's? I have rubin's, and am wondering if I'll be missing anything if I don't ever look at robbin's basic pathology.
 
Are most medical school pathology classes these days using robbins' basic pathology text?
 
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Big Robbins + Robbins Review of Path Question Book :thumbup:

The new edition of Goljan is basically an outline of Robbins.

The Robbins Atlas of Pathology is nice to flip through. Lots of pictures with "high yield" information.
 
If you can't stand to read the details in Big Robbins, read the morphological explanations and the captions under the photos when you review the chapters. You don't have to read every word in the book but the photos + captions, tables and morphological explanations are great.
 
Big Robbins is like an investment...one that keeps on losing value the longer you hold on to it. Seriously, the book is useless. Ppl will say they learned path from big robbins, those ppl are liars. You will hear ppl who say they read big robbins two or three times for their board review (I've seen it on these forums), and that's just a bunch of BS. All you need is RR path and class notes...and Goljan audio is nice if you can get it.

I also thought baby robbins was poorly written, but that's just me. If you like it, then good for you, but I think it's crap. Robbins review was a great question book, some of the questions may have been overly difficult, but I learned a lot from that book and recommend it as well as webpath.
 
monback5555 said:
Big Robbins is like an investment...one that keeps on losing value the longer you hold on to it. Seriously, the book is useless. Ppl will say they learned path from big robbins, those ppl are liars. You will hear ppl who say they read big robbins two or three times for their board review (I've seen it on these forums), and that's just a bunch of BS. All you need is RR path and class notes...and Goljan audio is nice if you can get it.

I also thought baby robbins was poorly written, but that's just me. If you like it, then good for you, but I think it's crap. Robbins review was a great question book, some of the questions may have been overly difficult, but I learned a lot from that book and recommend it as well as webpath.
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So true... reading robbins is very low yield overall. Lec notes + lab manual (my school has one) + RR path = good combo:thumbup:
 
I agree that Robbins' question book is definitely high yield. I did personally buy big robbins, but can probably count on 2 hands the number of times I have opened it. That being said, it is a good reference if you ever need to look up something, and are having a hard time finding it online. I would see if you can pick up a used one cheap.
 
The Goljan RR is indeed in outline format, and if you ask me it's sort of tough to read through. I'm by no means a textbook person, but IMO the big Robbins is great. What I do is briefly read the section we're going to do in big Robbins, so that I get the general idea of what's going on. Then, I concentrate on what's presented in lecture/notes.

I think the issue people have with big Robbins is that it's so dense and so long. But, it's quite well written, and you needn't necessarily obsess about detail when you go through it.

Ultimately - just get both.
 
NRAI2001 said:
So true... reading robbins is very low yield overall. Lec notes + lab manual (my school has one) + RR path = good combo:thumbup:
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I cannot believe the myopia of these posters... Pathology and Physiology are the basis of medicine and will underpin a physician's understanding of disease and treatment throught his career.

To read BRS review books and snippets on the web is wholly insufficient. Could you write a thesis on modern military history without reading Von Clausewitz's On War? Could you explain to someone the ideology behind the U.S. Declaration of Independence and Constitution without reading Locke's Two Treatises of Government? An understanding of the tenets that underlie human disease as well as diseases themselves is too important to be reduced to "buzzwords" and snippets in a review book.

Buy a pathology text; it will be one of the best investments you make and will prove invaluable throughout one's career. Check the bookshelves of attending physicians; I guarantee each one will possess a pathology text that is referred to frequently. I have read numerous introductory texts and find Robbin's to be far superior, but if one prefers the style of another, certainly, purcahse that one.

Furthermore, a hard-earned understanding of pathology will give a serious boost to step 1 scores: I counted at least 25 questions on my step 1 exam lifted straight from the Robbin's Review book and the corresponding text in Robbin's.

The alternative is to be the resident that is all to common these days-- the one asking if he should be worried about a diagnosis of "acrochordon", the one who didn't know there was more than one subtype of vonWillebrand's disease, or worst of all, the one who asks what you mean when you remark "clonality is cancer."

Flame away.
 
An understanding of the tenets that underlie human disease as well as diseases themselves is too important to be reduced to "buzzwords" and snippets in a review book.
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I counted at least 25 questions on my step 1 exam lifted straight from the Robbin's Review book and the corresponding text in Robbin's.
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Yeah...
 
Everyone says that Robbins is a time-waster, but I think it's awesome. I can't stand when a lecturer lists the symptoms of a disease as X,Y, and Z without taking the time to explain why. I learn things a lot better if I know the reasoning behind them and it sticks with me much longer than if I rote memorize "so and so disease is associated with X, Y, and Z." That's where Robbins comes in.

As njbmd said, there are also tons of charts in there that are lifesavers for comparing different pathologies. I just used one earlier this week to understand the differences between different GI carcinoids. Not to mention the diagrams either. Sometimes, the only reason I remember things on tests is from diagrams in Robbins.
 
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Jolie South said:
Everyone says that Robbins is a time-waster, but I think it's awesome. I can't stand when a lecturer lists the symptoms of a disease as X,Y, and Z without taking the time to explain why. I learn things a lot better if I know the reasoning behind them and it sticks with me much longer than if I rote memorize "so and so disease is associated with X, Y, and Z." That's where Robbins comes in.

As njbmd said, there are also tons of charts in there that are lifesavers for comparing different pathologies. I just used one earlier this week to understand the differences between different GI carcinoids. Not to mention the diagrams either. Sometimes, the only reason I remember things on tests is from diagrams in Robbins.
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You read BIG Robbins? Or the baby Robbins? I'm thinking about just getting a Big Robbin's for reference while I study the crap out of Rapid Review.
 
badasshairday said:
You read BIG Robbins? Or the baby Robbins? I'm thinking about just getting a Big Robbin's for reference while I study the crap out of Rapid Review.
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I have big Robbins that I read out of when I'm first learning the material. Then, I refer back to it if I want to refresh my memory or if there are useful charts/pictures when I'm studying for the tests. I mostly study off of professor provided documents and supplement with Robbins to get the whole story.

I'm also not a student that is looking to "just pass" either.
 
I agree with Jolie South. Our path notes are awful and incomprehensible, while robbins just makes sense. I read the chapter in big robbins before I look at anything else regarding a subject in pathology to get a basic understanding of what's going on. I think it's awesome for that purpose.

I'm also not a student who just wants to pass and be done with it though, so that may tell you something about the type of med students that read robbins.
 
Honestly, I think reading Robbins (or any text) is indicative of someone who wants to absolutely master the material and will settle for nothing less. Review books and class are plenty for getting 85-90% of the material down. If you want that extra 10%, that's where texts come in. No way in hell are those points worth the extra time to me, but they are to some/many people. Not being someone who is content with passing doesn't quite qualify you for needing a textbook. You have to want to crush everything for texts to be particularly useful to you.
 
Ziehl-Nielsen said:
I cannot believe the myopia of these posters... Pathology and Physiology are the basis of medicine and will underpin a physician's understanding of disease and treatment throught his career.

To read BRS review books and snippets on the web is wholly insufficient. Could you write a thesis on modern military history without reading Von Clausewitz's On War? Could you explain to someone the ideology behind the U.S. Declaration of Independence and Constitution without reading Locke's Two Treatises of Government? An understanding of the tenets that underlie human disease as well as diseases themselves is too important to be reduced to "buzzwords" and snippets in a review book.

Buy a pathology text; it will be one of the best investments you make and will prove invaluable throughout one's career. Check the bookshelves of attending physicians; I guarantee each one will possess a pathology text that is referred to frequently. I have read numerous introductory texts and find Robbin's to be far superior, but if one prefers the style of another, certainly, purcahse that one.

Furthermore, a hard-earned understanding of pathology will give a serious boost to step 1 scores: I counted at least 25 questions on my step 1 exam lifted straight from the Robbin's Review book and the corresponding text in Robbin's.

The alternative is to be the resident that is all to common these days-- the one asking if he should be worried about a diagnosis of "acrochordon", the one who didn't know there was more than one subtype of vonWillebrand's disease, or worst of all, the one who asks what you mean when you remark "clonality is cancer."

Flame away.
Click to expand...

What doctor actually refers to robbins on a day to day basis?? More likely to refer to the text that is most relevant to their field...

I m not one to just pass either.. time is better spend doing questions (like robbins review, Uworld...etc) rather than reading robbins for the sake of "reading robbins".
 
CBG23 said:
Hi all,

I was wondering what a good pathology text might be (ex. the equivalent of costanzo's physiology- a text with explanations rather than an outline/ review format thing). I am planning on purchasing RR path, but heard it's in outline format. Is Robbins a text? I have seen it referenced in a few threads (as baby, mama, medium, pocket)- but it seems like there are a ton of different versions...Any information is appreciated!
Click to expand...

I read ~75% of Big Robbins, spread out over all of 2nd year. I also used WebPath. For Board review I read RR path once. I thought Big Robbins helped a lot and was a big reason 4 weeks of board studying was plenty for me.
 
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