Step 1 Help Patho pathoma or goljan

[aspiringmd1015]

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Hello SDN, new member here.
Just need overall opinions when it comes to studying for step 1 for pathology.
When I was reading patho when i was in school i mostly used robbins, and goljan here and there,
but now as i'm reading different forums and asking some of my classmates, people are mostly choosing goljan or pathoma, so.. which one should i use?
also info regarding your experience with goljan/pathoma would be highly appreciated such as time consumption, efficiency, easier to understand etc.

 

[Polymyxin]

does Goljan refer to his Rapid review book or his audio lectures?

 

[aspiringmd1015]

review book(RR) and audio lectures

 

[EazyE1907]

I think they are both great resources. But it all depends on what kind of learner you are (visual vs just reading) and how much time you have. Personally i would recommend pathoma by a long shot. Dr. Sattar does an amazing job explaining some of the more difficult path concepts by drawing them out. He really engages active learning and understanding of concepts rather than just memorizing. The info in goljan (if it's the book you are referring to) has a lot of high-yield info but the bullet-form presentation of a ton of info made it so overwhelming to read and follow. what works for me is i'll do a chapter in pathoma, then the next day i'll open goljan RR and do a QUICK (keyword quick) read of the corresponding pathoma chapter just to review the material and fill in any blanks the pathoma guy didn't mention. hope this helps!

 

[Polymyxin]

I think they are both great resources. But it all depends on what kind of learner you are (visual vs just reading) and how much time you have. Personally i would recommend pathoma by a long shot. Dr. Sattar does an amazing job explaining some of the more difficult path concepts by drawing them out. He really engages active learning and understanding of concepts rather than just memorizing. The info in goljan (if it's the book you are referring to) has a lot of high-yield info but the bullet-form presentation of a ton of info made it so overwhelming to read and follow. what works for me is i'll do a chapter in pathoma, then the next day i'll open goljan RR and do a QUICK (keyword quick) read of the corresponding pathoma chapter just to review the material and fill in any blanks the pathoma guy didn't mention. hope this helps!

100% agree with above.

I've done Pathoma once, now doing a quick second run. After I finished Pathoma the first time, I bought RR Pathology, with the goal of reading it cover to cover. It is really an amazing book, but VERY long. I got through the first few chapters then gave up because of the time. Pathoma is MUCH quicker to get through, yet is sufficiently detailed. You specifically asked about "time consumption, efficiency, easier to understand etc." In that case, its a no brainer - Pathoma. RR might have more stuff, but that isn't a good thing. I haven't finished a question bank yet, but half way through Rx and I don't feel that Pathoma is lacking (as long as its supplemented with FA).

I still use RR, but only as a reference book. For example, I was getting confused with bilirubin stuff and RR did a better job than Pathoma in explaining.

 

[aspiringmd1015]

Thank you fellow medics, keep the info coming!

 

[swoopyswoop]

I'm 1-2 weeks away from my dedicated pd, and I have gone thru pathoma video+book alongside RR path book. I do RR after watching pathoma... I'm currently working my way thru the audio lectures while walking places / at the gym because I find them to be effortless ways to hear the material in a different way and hopefully help it stick.

during dedicated, i'm going to probably spend half the day reading a FA chapter + watching relevant pathoma + skimming thru RR images/blue text; and half the day doing uworld. I'm assuming that having seen pathoma/RR already before dedicated will mean that it's mostly just refreshing my memory / reminding myself of details.

 

[witzelsucht]

I've been using RR throughout the year as more of a reference, I don't think I'll read it during dedicated study unless for some reason I feel I need to change my methodology midway through. I also listened to 80% of the Goljan lectures in car rides or at the gym as more of passive learning. I did pathoma throughout the year and will redo it in entirety during dedicated study because there are a lot of high yield/pathognomonic items pointed out which I want to retain.

The problem with the Goljan book is it has so much information. The charts are really good but there's a lot. Pathoma is more to the point and basically, its based on questions which have appeared on step 1 in the last few years; I've heard from 3rd years they got questions that are very apparent someone told Sattar were on the test and he threw them into the video.

From another angle, I have enough "reading" material between FA and UW, so I feel as a general principle I'd like to have some videos in there too, more to mix up the day and fight the ADD, so that's also part of my reasoning for P>RR for dedicated time.

If I went to a carrib school or had some really long study time, I'd totally read RR cover to cover and then do Pathoma but that's not really my situation. I'm a good test taker and I did well in 2nd year so I feel like I should use my time to really fish for those key mechanisms/associations that you get from Pathoma and UW.

Edit: the Goljan audio is good but its also outdated; there are times where he says like "dont worry about orphan annie nuclei, thats for path residents board exams" which is clearly not currently the case anymore.

 

[Jemeni]

Pathoma by a mile. He's just in his own league when it comes to explaining concepts. That, and the level of detail is just about right.

You really won't go wrong with either though; they're both good.