Review of path

[MikeTheGipper]

To those who have taken step 1 or to those who have started to prepare, how do you guys feel about the questions in Robbins and Cotran's "Review of Pathology" compared to actual step 1 questions?

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[lord_jeebus]

Similar in style but more difficult than Step I

 

[jackets5]

havent taken step yet but have heard the same thing. That they are a bit more difficult and much more detailed than Step 1 questions

 

[FutureDoc4]

This has been bothering me about some of these opinions because I find them conflicting.

For example:

I tend to do very well on Robbin Review questions >80% correct
(which are thought to be much harder than the boards)
But, I tend to SUCK at USLMERx: 50-70%
(which are thought to be to easy)

Thoughts or explanations?

 

[kryptik]

🙂

This has been bothering me about some of these opinions because I find them conflicting.

For example:

I tend to do very well on Robbin Review questions >80% correct
(which are thought to be much harder than the boards)
But, I tend to SUCK at USLMERx: 50-70%
(which are thought to be to easy)

Thoughts or explanations?

i am in exactly the same boat. In my case I think it's because I tend to feel I am being tricked, so ignore the more obvious answer and pick the less common or complicated answer choice.

 

[vicinihil]

Same here! Weird we're all in the same predicament. I realize I do the qbanks better when I'm trying to be fast and not mull over answer choices. Look for keywords and just pick an answer.

 

[FutureDoc4]

I mean, does this worry you guys/gals about our Step I score? I know my test is far off, but it def worries me a little

 

[kryptik]

I mean, does this worry you guys/gals about our Step I score? I know my test is far off, but it def worries me a little

I am gradually learning to trust my instincts, and picking common answers rather than rare odd answers my professors like to test us on. Hopefully doing a lot of questions will get me thinking the right way to answer step questions.

 

[McGillGrad]

If you are studying for the step, I wouldn't bother with those. They are not integrative enough.

They are more focused.

 

[go lakers]

If you are studying for the step, I wouldn't bother with those. They are not integrative enough.

They are more focused.

agreed. its good for path practice.

 

[majik1213]

This has been bothering me about some of these opinions because I find them conflicting.

For example:

I tend to do very well on Robbin Review questions >80% correct
(which are thought to be much harder than the boards)
But, I tend to SUCK at USLMERx: 50-70%
(which are thought to be to easy)

Thoughts or explanations?

not to sound dumb on my part, but are you doing random questions on Rx and just the covered chapters in robbins? if so, you are artifically boosting your score in robbins.

 

[DocLan]

How are most of you guys averaging on the Robbins questions? They seem pretty tough to me....

 

[turkeyjerky]

How are most of you guys averaging on the Robbins questions? They seem pretty tough to me....

I do pretty well, but I typically do them at the end of the particular block in school. I rarely know some of the far out gene mutations they ask about for cancers though.

 

[metalmd06]

I LOVE the Robbins path review questions. They are an excellent test of your knowledge and they help you to isolate what you don't know. They are difficult questions, but they really do give you all the information you need in the question stem. I always do the questions for each subject before an exam, which I feel is a great way to study.

 

[McGillGrad]

How are most of you guys averaging on the Robbins questions? They seem pretty tough to me....

They are tough, as I remember it, but they were supposed to be answered right after reading the chapter, though.

 

[RapidReview]

They are tough, as I remember it, but they were supposed to be answered right after reading the chapter, though.

i agree with mcgillgrad. i do them right after reading robbins and they test some minutia (gene mutations, very rare diseases, etc) that are not mentioned in FA and RR.

 

[MilkmanAl]

I started doing them for this block, and I got my butt pretty well handed to me by the eye questions. I think I missed 7/22 or something. There was quite a lot of stuff I hadn't seen before. Of course, that might be because we had a whopping 1 lecture on the eye...

Anyway, I plan on keeping it up for the rest of the year. I might go ahead and keep doing them through board prep if I have time to squeeze them in. We shall see.

 

[elderjack21]

This has been bothering me about some of these opinions because I find them conflicting.

For example:

I tend to do very well on Robbin Review questions >80% correct
(which are thought to be much harder than the boards)
But, I tend to SUCK at USLMERx: 50-70%
(which are thought to be to easy)

Thoughts or explanations?

I think the Robbin Review Questions give you tons of clues/lab findings/details. So if you don't know a couple of those details they give you, you may catch on in one of the other ones.

Where as the USMLE qbanks give you less hints to work with. This has been my experience so far.

Robbin Review questions are great teaching tools though because of all the detail in their questions and end of chapter answers.