Rapid Review Path -- am I the only one not on-board?

[Gabby]

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I keep hearing from everyone how wonderful RR Path is, but I just don't get it. Yes, all the material is there and yes, it's in outline format, but I could read a dictionary and be more engaged. It's just not working for me.

Any other suggestions for a review book?

If not, does anyone know how to get the Goljan audio recordings?

 

[Mace1370]

I hear BRS path has more explanations.

The Goljan audio lectures are not a legal product (they were made against his wishes), so there is no legal way to obtain them.

 

[DrBowtie]

BRS Path is decent but I thought it was weak on pathophys. Sentence format is nice though.

 

[Gabby]

The Goljan audio lectures are not a legal product (they were made against his wishes), so there is no legal way to obtain them.

I didn't know that. That's too bad. I heard they were great.

 

[turkeyjerky]

I hear BRS path has more explanations.

The Goljan audio lectures are not a legal product (they were made against his wishes), so there is no legal way to obtain them.

brs path doesn't explain anything. it has complete sentences, but RR has does far more in the way of explaining findings and how they got there.

 

[2012mdc]

I keep hearing from everyone how wonderful RR Path is, but I just don't get it. Yes, all the material is there and yes, it's in outline format, but I could read a dictionary and be more engaged. It's just not working for me.

Any other suggestions for a review book?

If not, does anyone know how to get the Goljan audio recordings?

BRS Path might have a better format but IMO RR Path has more content. BRS Path doesn't have enough depth for anything besides the shelf IMO.

I didn't use it but some of my classmates did - Baby aka Pocket Robbins - you could look into that

 

[silverhorse84]

Many of our current 3rd years talked RR Path up quite a bit so a lot of my classmates went out and bought it. I got RR for biochem last year and I discovered I just don't learn from outline format very well - so I don't plan on buying RR path (or baby robbins, since I hear that's pretty much outline format too).

I don't feel bad not taking their advice - if I don't learn that way, I'm not doing it. I have my own way of learning that worked fine last year, so I'm going to continue it this year.

 

[C5toC9]

How does Goljan feel now about his audio lectures propagating forever in US medical education?

 

[2012mdc]

Many of our current 3rd years talked RR Path up quite a bit so a lot of my classmates went out and bought it. I got RR for biochem last year and I discovered I just don't learn from outline format very well - so I don't plan on buying RR path (or baby robbins, since I hear that's pretty much outline format too).

I don't feel bad not taking their advice - if I don't learn that way, I'm not doing it. I have my own way of learning that worked fine last year, so I'm going to continue it this year.

It may be school dependent but 1st yr and 2nd yr can be very different. Not saying you are wrong in your studying style but just remember to be open to different methods. I would talk to the upper levels at your school and find out if any learn similar to how you learn and figure out what they did

 

[da8s0859q]

How does Goljan feel now about his audio lectures propagating forever in US medical education?

Don't know, but I would imagine that he still does well with the review sessions (if he's still doing that with Kaplan / Falcon -- I'm not sure) and all of the copies of RR path the guy sells.

 

[alwaysaangel]

Don't know, but I would imagine that he still does well with the review sessions (if he's still doing that with Kaplan / Falcon -- I'm not sure) and all of the copies of RR path the guy sells.

This has been discussed here before.

While I realize the audio is illegal - the reality is if it wasn't so common in circles of medical students he probably wouldn't sell as many books/have so many students attending his lectures.

The audio made him famous - legal or not.

 

[da8s0859q]

While I realize the audio is illegal - the reality is if it wasn't so common in circles of medical students he probably wouldn't sell as many books/have so many students attending his lectures.

The audio made him famous - legal or not.

Right, that's kind of what I was getting at -- that it's not as if bootleg lectures tanked his writing / lecturing career. Quite the contrary.

 

[MossPoh]

The point of rapid review and brs isn't to learn....it is to review. If you are honestly opening it up and expecting beam down magically bits of path knowledge you haven't worked to procure previously, it will not be that useful.

I tend to use it after I already did all of my powerpoints, web path, robbins and whatever else I might use. It is a great way for the facts to be consolidated real fast and to give a quick highlight over the most relevant material....I definitely wouldn't use it to learn the material though.

 

[.surgical.]

IMO the reason RR pathology has grown so much in popularity is because it is such a great tool for Step I....though not necessarily for year II as a whole. That text is very similar to the Kaplan pathology notes that Goljan put out with his review lectures (again something you cannot obtain legally), and as he points out, they are honed down from years and years of work to the bare essentials.

While it may be difficult to "read" and "learn" directly from that book, it is the concentrated details of what you need to know for Step I. That alone is why it is a great tool and worth using.

 

[Perrotfish]

I agree with the OP: RR was too long for a review book, too dense for a textbook. The resources I liked were, in order of descending importance:

1) Lange pathology flashcards
2) Robbins review
3) Goljan audio
4) Big Robbins
5) Lectures

 

[ArcGurren]

I rather like RR as a review book, though I prefer reading the textbook (Robbins etc) first and my lecture notes, THEN listening to goljan + RR.

 

[da8s0859q]

I rather like RR as a review book, though I prefer reading the textbook (Robbins etc) first and my lecture notes, THEN listening to goljan + RR.

Definitely -- except I just use class handouts in place of textbooks. Serves its purpose well, and it seems to see me through exams relatively unscathed.

And wow, one of you moderator types went to town on this non-imaginary thread, huh?

 

[Phlame217]

Goljian lectures are tremendous. I attend the school to which he lectures and they are awesome. Not to mention his board prep. Word around here is he may be drumming up something like audio-osmosis that exam krackers had to go with his RRP book.

 

[DrDrToBe]

Goljian lectures are tremendous. I attend the school to which he lectures and they are awesome. Not to mention his board prep. Word around here is he may be drumming up something like audio-osmosis that exam krackers had to go with his RRP book.

I would definitely buy! That man certainly knows how to teach and prepare you for a test, he's amazing.

 

[username456789]

I made a post last year about how much I disliked RR Path when I started using it. And technically, I'll still agree that it's a poor way to try to learn material the first time around.

But that being said, I would ABSOLUTELY RECOMMEND IT. First of all, it's good to go through it after you've started to get the material down. You can get a better idea of how things are integrated at this point, rather than going through Goljan right away. But more importantly, going through it several times (during the year, as well as studying for boards) is EXTREMELY HELPFUL. In fact, it was my primary study source for pathology during board prep this past summer, and I ended up doing very well.

It might not be for everyone, but take it from someone who was badmouthing it less than a year ago: it will really grow on you.

 

[MilkmanAl]

I've always thought RR path was a fine way to learn the material the first time around. It has all you need from Robbins without the hassle of extra text and random facts that you'll never see again. I didn't like it either until I really made an effort to learn from it. It's not an easy read, by any means, but it's way better than any of the path review and text alternatives.

 

[Mace1370]

I've always thought RR path was a fine way to learn the material the first time around. It has all you need from Robbins without the hassle of extra text and random facts that you'll never see again. I didn't like it either until I really made an effort to learn from it. It's not an easy read, by any means, but it's way better than any of the path review and text alternatives.

I found BRS path to be a much easier read the first time around. My problem with RR path right now is that it has a lot of correlations to other classes. This will be very useful once I start studying for boards, but I haven't even started pharm and what not yet.

 

[WellWornLad]

I hated the outline format as well, until my 2nd and 3rd pass through the book. You just wouldn't be able to cover, remember, or organize all that information without it - and the organization/categorization is one of the most helpful parts about that book.

It's a big mistake not to read RR path at least once. If I had to choose between First Aid and RR Path, I'd choose the latter without hesitation.

 

[Zoom-Zoom]

I know you asked for a review book, but it sounds like you want a text. Do you already have one? I think you'll find that any review book will be dense and in outline form like that. I'd find a Robbins size that suits you and actually get engaged with the material if you're learning it for the first time. The nice thing about Goljan is it's basically designed to be used after reading Robbins, because it started as a high yield review of Robbins for his students and kind of grew into it's own thing. And he makes an effort to include images and concepts that aren't always clear in Robbins. What I've been doing is reading Robbins and then I'll go to RR and see all the same chapters and content, but I'll notice all the extra Goljan goodies too. And I'll notice the stuff I read in Robbins that Goljan intentionally chose not to include. I'm now less likely to spend time memorizing that crap...you get the idea. It doesn't take much time, if you're trying to familiarize yourself with a review book before Step 1 rolls around.

 

[Zoom-Zoom]

p.s. Anyone familiar with the acquisition of pirated material from the internet can find downloadable Goljan audio (I don't know if "pirated" really fits because I don't know how personally-recorded audio is viewed from a copyright perspective). As others have stated, I also don't know of any efforts at all from "Poppie" to stop the spread of these files. So it's a legal grey area, like buying pot in California. Anyway, I do not condone copyright violation, I'm just saying objectively that the files are around. A solid percentage of your classmates likely already have them.