Wish had read Robbins Path?

Started by MDpride
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MDpride

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As we , MS2, are about to prepare for boards, do u guys wish u had read robbins pathology?

I never read robbins because, I had no problem understanding class notes.

Now, as I prepare for boards from RR path , I wish i had read ROBBINS.

Is it worth reading robbins now?
 
MDpride said:
As we , MS2, are about to prepare for boards, do u guys wish u had read robbins pathology?

I never read robbins because, I had no problem understanding class notes.

Now, as I prepare for boards from RR path , I wish i had read ROBBINS.

Is it worth reading robbins now?
Click to expand...

Which Robbins? The one that could hold down a small mobile home in a tornado or the smaller review books or Basic Robbins? You should have read some of it, or at least used it to flesh out your class notes. If you were able to pass your classes so far without touching it at all....then hats off to your medical school or hats on, because the tests were not nearly strenuous enough to prep you for the boards.
It is probably _not_ worth starting Robbins in the middle of your second year with boards six months away. There are excellent pathology review books, such as Goljan, out there that will offer a less detailed but no less rigorous review of pathology.
However, if your path question scores on UWorld or Kaplan are low, you may want to read the Robbins chapters in areas you're weaker on.

Thought: I started using MDConsult's online Robbins as a searchable supplement in my second year, mostly to do more in-depth reading on weak topics. You could consider that.
 
If I were you I'll consider to take a review on robbins basic pocket companion as time is short without happening to check the hole text .. if you think robbins is a must in this point I think with that you'll get thru.. 🙄
 
I've taken to reading robbins (big robbins) lately, and, everytime I do, I feel like I've just wasted my time. The one benefit is that I don't feel like I'm missing out on important information or diseases that my school, inexplicably, doesn't teach.

It's just so long and wordy, and goes into far too much detail in some areas, but not enough in others, that it just leaves me feeling like I've spent the past hour unsatisfactorily mentally masturbating.

I really don't know if having read big robbins is necessary to rock the boards, but I've heard that it isn't. For what it's worth, I was doing fine on robbins' review questions w/o reading the book--I've heard those q's are harder than board questions, so I figure course notes + rr path are enough.
 
I haven't used big Robbins very much, mostly used class notes along with the review books. So far I've done ok in the classes, I guess we will see when it comes board time.
 
Go to your school's medical library and have a look at the pictures (and captions) in Robbins on MDConsult if you feel that you have missed something major. While it's a good resource, you don't need to read Robbins in order to do well on Step I. You have class notes and a review book which is likely more than you need unless you didn't learn what you needed to learn in pathology in the first place. If that is the case, Robbins isn't going to save you.
 
I wouldnt waste the time now with big robbins. My advice would be to read the first 7 chapters in baby robbins outright and then supplement RR path with baby robbins if you dont understand some of the mechanisms. Maybe peruse through the path atlas at some point too.
 
Robbins is good for learning anatomical pathology. Depending on how your school teaches Path, this may be a good thing or a bad thing. We pretty much follow Robbins, so we get almost no clinical pathology at all. I think this is the major drawback in using Robbins. I feel it really puts us at a disadvantage in answering pathophysiology questions on Step I.
 
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lildave2586 said:
Robbins is good for learning anatomical pathology. Depending on how your school teaches Path, this may be a good thing or a bad thing. We pretty much follow Robbins, so we get almost no clinical pathology at all. I think this is the major drawback in using Robbins. I feel it really puts us at a disadvantage in answering pathophysiology questions on Step I.
Click to expand...


ROBBINS has clinical course in few chapters I happened to skim such as heart.
 
I heard someone once say that according to goljan, robbins is unnecessary unless you're going to be a pathologist.


I may have misheard that person, or that person could've been wrong.
 
what's this big robbins, small robbins, baby robbins? and which one would you suggest getting?
 
Big Robbins - Pathologic Basis of Disease
Small Robbins - Basic Pathology
Baby Robbins - Companion guide to Pathologic Basis of Disease
 
So, you folks recommend supplementing RR path with path lecs? I'm an M1 and we're doing path in systems based (haven't started any systems-based yet...next trimester which is in a month or so).
 
Rollo said:
So, you folks recommend supplementing RR path with path lecs? I'm an M1 and we're doing path in systems based (haven't started any systems-based yet...next trimester which is in a month or so).
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I would recommend supplementing your path lectures with rr pathology.

Goljan is a great teacher--he connects the dots in a way few others do, but you're not gonna learn pathology by reading his book.
 
turkeyjerky said:
I would recommend supplementing your path lectures with rr pathology.

Goljan is a great teacher--he connects the dots in a way few others do, but you're not gonna learn pathology by reading his book.
Click to expand...

I disagree. He helps you learn path with integrations of basic clinical and lab findings, enough to succeed your third year. RR is much more comprehensive than BRS. Plus, I bet just memorizing some bunch of details from your class notes isn't going to help you much with your clinical practice. If you want to be a pathologist, go ahead and memorize all the slides and different staging systems, and so forth
 
HPSPpayissues said:
I disagree. He helps you learn path with integrations of basic clinical and lab findings, enough to succeed your third year. RR is much more comprehensive than BRS. Plus, I bet just memorizing some bunch of details from your class notes isn't going to help you much with your clinical practice. If you want to be a pathologist, go ahead and memorize all the slides and different staging systems, and so forth
Click to expand...
Really dude? I know a couple of guys who opt for the whole memorize first aid/rr path and f--- class approach. Talking to them is like discussing the weather with an eggplant.

They might be able to spout off the findings in hypothyroidism or the different types of dyslipidemias, but there's no context, and it's obvious they have minimal actual understanding.

Ditto for people who just memorize the slides. It's the same approach, the material's just a little different.

RR's a great book, but you need to have some background to benefit from it.
 
so you guys don't recommend getting robbins? if you do use robbins, which one do you suggest?
 
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i like baby robbins. big robbins is in my room somewhere....i haven't looked at it and i really don't want to.

and when i say baby robbins i mean the "pocket companion" i also like the question book.
 
abmd said:
so you guys don't recommend getting robbins? if you do use robbins, which one do you suggest?
Click to expand...

As painful as it's going to be, I'm going to stick to the Medium-sized Robbins as my profs. overemphasized the need to read it (mainly 'cause they read it as medical students). But I'm definitely counting on Baby Robbins to save my a** on the final.
 
Like it or not, Robbins is the most popular medical book in the world, and for the right reasons.

Reading Pathologic Basis of Disease will not be a waste of time.
 
Like it or not, Robbins is the most popular medical book in the world, and for the right reasons.

Reading Pathologic Basis of Disease will not be a waste of time.
 
shadsupremacy said:
Like it or not, Robbins is the most popular medical book in the world, and for the right reasons.

Reading Pathologic Basis of Disease will not be a waste of time.
Click to expand...

I disagree...with both of you post...

I read like the first 4 chapters of Robbin's, and did great on my first path exam, but poor on my first pharm and micro exam because I spent most of my day reading Robbin's (big Robbin's, that is). After that, I just used Goljan, class notes, webpath, and Robbin's review (the qbook), and still kicked ass in path, and had a lot more time to study for my other subjects.

People often say you can't learn from a review book, but I call those people liars.
 
thechad said:
I disagree...with both of you post...

I read like the first 4 chapters of Robbin's, and did great on my first path exam, but poor on my first pharm and micro exam because I spent most of my day reading Robbin's (big Robbin's, that is). After that, I just used Goljan, class notes, webpath, and Robbin's review (the qbook), and still kicked ass in path, and had a lot more time to study for my other subjects.

People often say you can't learn from a review book, but I call those people liars.
Click to expand...

True that but still doesn't change the fact that it's one of the most popular books used around the world. It's a requirement to use either Big of Medium Robbins (along with lecture notes) for the Patho final exam in many European countries. Sucks...but can't do anything about it.
 
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