Preferred IM Book

[manleyjb]

IF you had the choice between the following 2 books for IM which would you choose and why? Thanks in advance. J

1. Cecil Essentials of Medicine 6th Edition

2. Harrison's Textbook of Medicine

Thanks again for any input!

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[TheCat]

i love harrisons, cecils is a few steps below it. Harrisons is just an all around good book. If you use that for 3rd year-that is all you need for step 2 and pretty much all rotations other than psych and some of OB. Surg, med, peds,family and most of step 2 is all harrisons. It is the most clearly well written book out there IF you are someone who likes to know why things happen in detail that is relevent to the disease. Also always reviews physio along with everything leading up to the pathophys which is some of the best physio explanations out there. Now if you do not like texts than obviously this willn ot suit you-if you are one who likes book, like i LOVED robbins and read it a ton so to me harrisons is not that long and I love it. Just my 02

 

[Telemachus]

Between the two Harrisons is better. That's not to say that Cecils isn't good. And there are other good books too, though none are as complete as Harrisons. For example, CMDT can be very useful and much less expensive, but you'll probably find ocassions where you still want to look in Harrisons.

 

[Yogi Bear]

neither. step up for medicine is my choice.

 

[TheCat]

neither. step up for medicine is my choice.

well like the post said he is obviously not talking about a review style book. Yes step up could be used as a prim text but in all honesty you cant learn medicine from step up. If you say you can then you either already know medicine or you are learning it from another source as well.

 

[EasyRider]

It depends on how much time you want (have?) to put into learning about medicine vs acing the medicine shelf exam. If you want to honor the medicine shelf exam, reading Harrison's or Cecil's is not the best use of your time

 

[Shah_Patel_PT]

IF you had the choice between the following 2 books for IM which would you choose and why? Thanks in advance. J

1. Cecil Essentials of Medicine 6th Edition

2. Harrison's Textbook of Medicine

Thanks again for any input!

NMS Medicine (2006)

 

[manleyjb]

It depends on how much time you want (have?) to put into learning about medicine vs acing the medicine shelf exam. If you want to honor the medicine shelf exam, reading Harrison's or Cecil's is not the best use of your time.

So if I want to Honor it what do you suggest I use if reading Harrison's or Cecil's will not do it? NMS?

 

[EasyRider]

So if I want to Honor it what do you suggest I use if reading Harrison's or Cecil's will not do it? NMS?

I took the medicine shelf on Friday so I can't definitely say if my plan worked until I receive my scores in January. Still, I know I answered more correct answers compared to my USMLE Step 1 (241/97). Then again, I might have just had an easy test form with a high raw score average.

From my analysis, everytime I knew I answered a question correctly there were at least 2 or more clues in the passage. This means that you have to know the physical diagnosis clues COLD!!! For example Charcot's Triad to distinguish choledocholethias vs cholecystitis vs cholangitis. All three present with RUQ pain..... blah, blah, blah....i.e similarly. Still, I would miss the question if I picked choledocholethias based solely on sclera icterus since cholecystitis doesn't present with jaundice. Never pick an answer based on one physical finding!! It is usually a red herring.

Here are my suggestions.

1. Cecil's Essentials or Harrison's to learn everything about your patient's presenting illness. Know how to diagnose, workup, risk stratify, and treat your patients. Don't worry there are only around 10 Major Concepts in Internal Medicine that just keeps recurring such as CHF, Anemia, COPD, Diabetes, Hypertension, Asthma, etc. So you won't read that much of Harrison's or Cecil's. If you read Cecil's or Harrison's you will get a strong grade for fund of knowlege because your knowledge will be evident in your assessment and plan + you will be able to answer the pimp questions on your patients.
2. Use Step Up to Medicine for Shelf Exam Prep. Try to read this book slowly one time through.
4. Do as many questions that you have time to do in MKSAP2 (~400Q) and MKSAP1(~400 Q). MKSAP 1 is a book published in 2001. MKSAP 2 is the sequel. They have completely different questions

Good Luck

 

[manleyjb]

Thanks for all your help. I really appreciate all the posts.

 

[mintleaf80]

even though you're talking about texts, just wondering how step up compares to first aid for medicine? which one is better?

 

[cremasteric]

Has anyone else used both MKSAP 1&2? I have only heard of people using MKSAP 2. Does MKSAP 1 add a lot to your learning? Thanks!

 

[::Seabass::]

I took the medicine shelf on Friday so I can't definitely say if my plan worked until I receive my scores in January. Still, I know I answered more correct answers compared to my USMLE Step 1 (241/97). Then again, I might have just had an easy test form with a high raw score average.

From my analysis, everytime I knew I answered a question correctly there were at least 2 or more clues in the passage. This means that you have to know the physical diagnosis clues COLD!!! For example Charcot's Triad to distinguish choledocholethias vs cholecystitis vs cholangitis. All three present with RUQ pain..... blah, blah, blah....i.e similarly. Still, I would miss the question if I picked choledocholethias based solely on sclera icterus since cholecystitis doesn't present with jaundice. Never pick an answer based on one physical finding!! It is usually a red herring.

Here are my suggestions.

1. Cecil's Essentials or Harrison's to learn everything about your patient's presenting illness. Know how to diagnose, workup, risk stratify, and treat your patients. Don't worry there are only around 10 Major Concepts in Internal Medicine that just keeps recurring such as CHF, Anemia, COPD, Diabetes, Hypertension, Asthma, etc. So you won't read that much of Harrison's or Cecil's. If you read Cecil's or Harrison's you will get a strong grade for fund of knowlege because your knowledge will be evident in your assessment and plan + you will be able to answer the pimp questions on your patients.
2. Use Step Up to Medicine for Shelf Exam Prep. Try to read this book slowly one time through.
4. Do as many questions that you have time to do in MKSAP2 (~400Q) and MKSAP1(~400 Q). MKSAP 1 is a book published in 2001. MKSAP 2 is the sequel. They have completely different questions.

Good Luck

I mostly agree with this post. Cecil's is a great book for MS2 PBL stuff. Not enough for the wards.

Don't forget Case Files - Internal Medicine.

However, after reading repeatedly how great everyone thought MKSAP was, I was dissapointed. I did it at the very end of my rotation and had actually picked up alot of the points they made in their questions. Would be much better to do maybe in the middle. If I had it to do again, I'm not so sure I would use it. Pick Case Files over MKSAP.

Step-Up>>>>>>>> First Aid. I didn't hear any positive comments from my classmates who used FA. Step-up also does a better job of some random points you might get pimped on. I also like some of the added features that you don't need for the shelf, but it was nice to know about things like different kinds of ventilation people could be put on, etc.

Someone in my class emailed out PreTest Medicine which I used even though I don't normally use the series. The question prompts are short (so if you need practice with long prompts, not necessarily great) and they are easier than the test, but I think it is a good confidence builder and fast way to get some last little facts in before the test. I think I got way more right due to PreTest than MKSAP.

 

[EasyRider]

I took the medicine shelf on Friday so I can't definitely say if my plan worked until I receive my scores in January. Still, I know I answered more correct answers compared to my USMLE Step 1 (241/97). Then again, I might have just had an easy test form with a high raw score average.

From my analysis, everytime I knew I answered a question correctly there were at least 2 or more clues in the passage. This means that you have to know the physical diagnosis clues COLD!!! For example Charcot's Triad to distinguish choledocholethias vs cholecystitis vs cholangitis. All three present with RUQ pain..... blah, blah, blah....i.e similarly. Still, I would miss the question if I picked choledocholethias based solely on sclera icterus since cholecystitis doesn't present with jaundice. Never pick an answer based on one physical finding!! It is usually a red herring.

Here are my suggestions.

1. Cecil's Essentials or Harrison's to learn everything about your patient's presenting illness. Know how to diagnose, workup, risk stratify, and treat your patients. Don't worry there are only around 10 Major Concepts in Internal Medicine that just keeps recurring such as CHF, Anemia, COPD, Diabetes, Hypertension, Asthma, etc. So you won't read that much of Harrison's or Cecil's. If you read Cecil's or Harrison's you will get a strong grade for fund of knowlege because your knowledge will be evident in your assessment and plan + you will be able to answer the pimp questions on your patients.
2. Use Step Up to Medicine for Shelf Exam Prep. Try to read this book slowly one time through.
4. Do as many questions that you have time to do in MKSAP2 (~400Q) and MKSAP1(~400 Q). MKSAP 1 is a book published in 2001. MKSAP 2 is the sequel. They have completely different questions

Good Luck

Update for those that might consider my opinion.

My raw score was 86 for medicine shelf. This corresponded to a 89.2% average at my school. Also, we were given the national mean and SD for the medicine shelf exam. This information is released with the shelf grades, you just have to ask for it from the course director.

Mean: 74.4
SD: 6.5

Thus, a raw grade of 80.9 is around 84th percentile, and a raw grade of 87.4 is around 97th percentile etc.

My clinical evaluation average was between high pass and honors. 6/8 people gave honors evaluation, one person gave high pass, and one person gave me mostly pass. I had a personality conflict with the last person even though my performance remained consistent.

Shelf Exam-> I recommend MKSAP2 and Step Up to Medicine plus do as many questions as you can do such as PreTest, MKSAP1, BluePrints Clinical Cases in Medicine etc.

Clinical Evaluation-> Know everything about the patient and use a good reference book to learn the workup of the patient's diseases. If you are asked to give a research presentation. Take your time and do an outstanding job.