Sternberg vs. Ackerman

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Sternberg or Ackerman?

  • Sternberg

    Votes: 15 62.5%
  • Ackerman

    Votes: 5 20.8%
  • Other

    Votes: 4 16.7%

  • Total voters
    24

hizo1

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I'm going into my 1st year of residency. I have Robbin's and baby Robbin's and our program director has given us each 500 to spend on books within the next year. If you could only get one for your home (lab has both of them), which would it be?

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I'm going into my 1st year of residency. I have Robbin's and baby Robbin's and our program director has given us each 500 to spend on books within the next year. If you could only get one for your home (lab has both of them), which would it be?

Reading surg path textbooks at home is not fun or high yield. IMO, they are best used as a reference and not for reading cover to cover. If you must, take Robbins home and read it. Otherwise, wait a few months, see what books you like, and then consider buying something for your personal library.
 
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Definitely Sternberg. No contest IMHO. I wish someone would have told me that 2 yrs ago.
 
I wouldnt buy crap. I didnt during training and waited until my first job that had an educational allowance so high I bought a full library in a single day....

You finish previewing/grossing, grab dinner and head back to your resident quarters, read 50-100 pages a night, maybe 200 on the weekend and read both in under 6 months. There is no reason to have books at home FFS. You are sitting on your couch with choice of Capt Morgan/Coke, Paris Hilton's X-rated movie, reruns of South Park, your X-box360, your roomate's Wii and some 20lb text....that is a joke. Even if you could read undistracted, you wont retain as well if you were in a quiet cubicle in the residents room.

Plus you can look like a total gunner to the attendings. You will be that guy drinking Starbucks coffee at 9pm on a Wednesday reading Rosai's chapter on salivary gland tumors..how pimp is that?

This whole buy a microscope and preview at home or read at home thing is stupid IMO. If you are reading for boards, you can do that in 6mos before the test date with ease. If you are reading to learn pathology, actually seeing tons of cases is FAR superior.
 
Yeah, but if you get a book fund, you might as well spend it on something, especially if it doesn't roll over every year. I think it's good to have your own copy of some surg path text, although you don't have to bring it home.
 
Yeah, but if you get a book fund, you might as well spend it on something, especially if it doesn't roll over every year. I think it's good to have your own copy of some surg path text, although you don't have to bring it home.

I can think of quite a few things to do with an edu allowance:
~Go to Osler year 1. I think going to Osler early is actually far more productive than doing it 2 weeks before the test..
~Buy a laptop with microsoft office suite, work on powerpoint presentations from home.
~Go to the ASCP board review course, once again similar to Osler you will get alot out of it doing it very early in your training rather than late.
 
LADOC,

I have always though you probably think the way I do by the way you post. Unfortunately I have to spend this half a g on books instead of other educational endavours like courses (though I will consider those).

I'm in canada and i have to do an internship year before hitting the lab... as such I won't have too much experience with surg path texts until after this money expires.

If you HAD to spend 500 of someone else's money on books, what would you get and why?

thanks

hec
 
You can certainly opt to buy books the moment residency starts.

From what I know of book funds, you have until next June at least to spend your $500. You will have a better idea by then what books you like to use. For now I strongly advise making the most of your resident and medical school library, rather than making an expensive purchase you might regret.

I like Sternberg, but own Rosai. I use both. I've also been quite impressed with Silverberg, after having done a cytology rotation.
 
I'm a book guy. I buy a lot, I read a lot (25 pages per day, every day of the week at a minimum). At the end of 3rd year of residency I've read: Silverberg, Robbins (x3), McClatchey, selected Henry chapters, baby Demay, Cibas, and several of the Foundations in Diagnostic Pathology books (including Rapini's dermpath book which was supposed to be one of them).

Robbins is a great book. There is a ton of great info there and it's cheap. Buy it and read it multiple times during residency.

Don't buy a major surg path text during residency if you have access to one (eg. Resident library). I think that it is useful to read a big surg path text during residency without the goal of mastery of information, but with the goal of solely being introduced to a lot of material you might not see daily or have ever come across.

Buy and read all of the Foundation series. I seriously love these books.

CP is a wash -- buy clinical pearls and the Henry review and hope that the CP boards cover stuff that you've studied. Our seniors who just took them two days ago verified everything I've heard for five years -- there is no way to predict what they will ask, and if they failed they would not have any idea what to study again in order to pass.

After I finish residency I'm going to buy the new Fletcher book (beautiful book) and the new Enzinger
 
Here's a satisfying answer for you: it depends. For just kicking back and reading a book straight through, I like Rosai, so that is the book I keep at home. It just reads easier for me. If I am looking up a particular topic and need a reference (like while previewing), I prefer Sternberg's, so that is the book I keep in the office. Both have very good chapters and some bad chapters, so it probably doesn't matter too much. It does seem like most of the upper levels in my dept prefer Sternberg's though.

I guess the other wrinkle is the new Silverberg. Several of my classmates bought that book. I haven't heard them complain, but the few times I've looked something up in it, I wasn't overly impressed. The cytology is nice, but most residents are going to buy some sort of cytology book anyway.
 
I read a lot (25 pages per day, every day of the week at a minimum)

I too am a book person, but I could only hope to read as much as you do. Of course, after tomorrow, I leave the dark side and head off to Camp CP, so my reading time should skyrocket.
 
I bought Rosai for the same reasons everyone above has stated...easy to read.

On a related note, how much reading is everyone doing on average?
 
Ackerman

This is just a personal choice but I think it is the best one out of the 3, let me know what you think of this...I am not sure if everyone will agree with me.
:idea:
 
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