Robbins Basic Pathology

[greentealeaves]

Why is everyone here so dead against Robbins? A lot of the very high scorers I spoke with seem to have read it. While I understand that it's not a good use of time during dedicated, it seems like it can be an excellent complement during M1 / M2 to fill in the holes left by Pathoma. What do you guys think?

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[hallowmann]

Are you talking about the Big Robbins or little Robbins? Basic Pathology is good for 1st year when you're starting out in Path. Its shorter, easier to digest and does a pretty good job explaining things if you're a textbook reader. Big Robbins (Pathologic Basis of Disease) is good as an encyclopedic reference pretty much all the time. Pathoma is good for 2nd year and boards review.

 

[aldol16]

Use it for the nice pics. Goljan also has better pics than Pathoma. But it's way too big of a resource to read through completely. If that's your thing, go for it. But it's probably not the most efficient use of your time.

 

[risus_sardonicus]

Why is everyone here so dead against Robbins? A lot of the very high scorers I spoke with seem to have read it. While I understand that it's not a good use of time during dedicated, it seems like it can be an excellent complement during M1 / M2 to fill in the holes left by Pathoma. What do you guys think?

Our school shoved big Robbins down our throats. We were tested on the most minute details (gene mutations, weird presentations, anomalies). Did it help come board time? F*ck no. In fact it was stressful reading useless information and completely messed up foundational understanding of basic concepts. The book is meant to be a resource to further delve into a topic which you want more information on.


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[Ho0v-man]

 

[slowthai]

Use it for the nice pics. Goljan also has better pics than Pathoma. But it's way too big of a resource to read through completely. If that's your thing, go for it. But it's probably not the most efficient use of your time.

I've heard the blue boxes and notes in the margins are gold.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I like baby Robbins. Have not even taken the plastic off big Robbins. I like the atlas to glance at just to see different images for stuff. I also really like the question bank. I use the interactive one on the website.

 

[ExplodingUlcers]

My feeling exactly OP. Hate on big Robbins for being information overload but you can't deny that there are some very nice pics/diagrams in there. I've done pretty well just glancing at those and reading the relevant captions before an exam. For histology specifically, at least one of the pictures in a given chapter ended up being on the final.


otherwise, I do occasionally read some of the text itself after building a solid foundation from Pathoma and other resources. I do agree that it would probably not function very well as a primary learning modality but it does serve nicely to fill in any gaps.

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[TakotsuboOkazaki]

I think if you have a solid system to work through and master ALL of the concepts in the core resources (UFAP), then extra information cannot hurt.

I think one of the reasons people tend to shy away from goliaths like the Robbins professional is that the information is just too much at times.

That is the issue that I have run into. I have a hard enough time mastering and remembering all of the little details that are presented in FA/Pathoma/Rx/UWorld that I could hardly conceive of the benefit of adding additional detail at this point. I am a big proponent of mastering core resources and coupling that with solid test taking strategy. It has worked well so far, and I am hoping that it works out well for STEP 1 in a few months.

Hypothetically, if someone masters UFAP as well as additional information then they are going to be even more prepared and would score higher on a given assessment.

However, if you are losing out on core information in order to pick up granular detail on other conditions, then you may end up at a disadvantage.

 

[Sleepingdoc]

Why is everyone here so dead against Robbins? A lot of the very high scorers I spoke with seem to have read it. While I understand that it's not a good use of time during dedicated, it seems like it can be an excellent complement during M1 / M2 to fill in the holes left by Pathoma. What do you guys think?

In our school, we were forced to read Big Robbins, yes the minutae would come up in the exam. If you are gonna be a pathologist yes you need to do so... Otherwise can get away with the baby/medium. I have never used it since the first usmle.

 

[aldol16]

I've heard the blue boxes and notes in the margins are gold.

In Goljan? I personally couldn't make sense of the stuff in the margins. It's not entirely coherent but if you do well reading single-word bullet points (which also tend to have buzzwords) then go for it. I used Goljan through the organ blocks to reinforce the material and to make sure I wasn't missing key Step 1 stuff.

 

[mistafab]

I used Robbins basic pathology in second year and I found it useful. Definitely set me up with a strong foundation for the boards and clerkships without using anki.

 

[Deecee2DO]

What about the robbins/cotran questions. I used that all throughout M2 fall and thought they were challenging and solid questions. I did not read robbins I just did all of the questions for each system/reviewed the explanations and thought it was useful

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

What about the robbins/cotran questions. I used that all throughout M2 fall and thought they were challenging and solid questions. I did not read robbins I just did all of the questions for each system/reviewed the explanations and thought it was useful

I did the questions for my first two modules and path was one of my best sections on my exams.

 

[Deecee2DO]

I did the questions for my first two modules and path was one of my best sections on my exams.

same here. I wrecked path this past fall and believe it was in large part from studying Robbins questions and doing pathoma

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

same here. I wrecked path this past fall and believe it was in large part from studying Robbins questions and doing pathoma

Yeah I didn’t do pathoma at all. I’m going to do it this module though if I can fit it in.

 

[MedicineZ0Z]

Robbins should be something you go read once you're in residency and are optimizing your niche. You need indepth knowledge of your niche but you don't need extreme indepth knowledge of every tiny area of medicine. Why? Cause it's impossible to retain as you just will not use it.