Books for Prep | |
 - Not a good text for surgery!If you are looking for something to review and help while on the wards or for Step2, this is not a good text. It is way too general. Blueprints for some other topics are great, but not this one. I was very disappointed. Rating: - Just not enough...You can consider a book in two ways: (1) USMLE/shelf exam prep or (2) clinical rotation/patient exposure prep. This book fails in both respects. It is astonishingly brief, one of the smaller blueprints books in the series. It skims the surface of most surgical concepts and lacks much detail. It lacks the detail and topic coverage to be an effective textbook for exam study. As for rounds and actual surgeries, this may cover some of the topics that you will be pimped on, but you'll likely be running to up-to-date for more information. I would suggest First Aid for the Surgery Clerkship which more than prepared me for both the clinical aspects and the shelf exam or Essentials of General Surgery. Rating:  - don't believe the anti hypethe shelf exam emphasized all the main topics that were indeed covered in blueprints surgery. The shelf exam emphasizes application of concepts, there is no single text or question source out there that is so comprehensive that you will be able to take the shelf and generate the answer on the basis of straight memory recall. You need to be able to answer the questions de novo and apply what you've learned. Blueprints Q&A was a great accompaniment to blueprints surgery and there were actually repeat questions on the shelf exam from blueprints q & a. I read blueprints Q&A, and blueprints surgery, half of preTest, most of First Aid, and also Underground clinical vignettes for the shelf, I didn't learn a whole lot on rounds in the clerkship, but when I took the shelf I felt like there wasn't really anything on the shelf that wasn't discussed in blueprints. Rating:  - Not that good.I used many of the blueprints books during my clincal rotations in medical school. This one was by far the worst one. The information is more of a cursory overview of several topics. There is just not enough scope or detail in this book for it to be useful. I used this book in conjunction with "Surgical Recall" which is an excellent book. I also referred to the "Essential of General Surgery" book on some specific topics such as fluid and electrolyte management that are not well covered in either book. Perhaps future editions of this book will be better. Rating:  - Superficial materialThis book was far too superficial to use as a review book for shelf exams or to obtain an adequate understanding in general surgery. I would recommend the Lawrence surgery book, which takes longer to read, but at least you are gaining a better grasp of the material. page 1 of 2
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