I am writing a series of reviews that are intended to help current medical students, or those reading medical textbooks, make informative decisions about which books to use during studies.Here are some:
Residency by Iserson
Robbins Pathology
Ekg?s by Dubin
Basic Histology by Junquiera
Immunology by Abbas
Embryology by Sweeney
Heart Disease by Lilly
Anatomy by Mather
Microbial Disease by Schaecter
Pulm. Medicine by Weinberger
Review of Physiology by Ganong
Pretest-Psychiatry
I am reviewing Pretest: Neurology. I used this book as a practice basis for the Psychiatry Shelf exam which was administered at the end of my clerkship in that topic. I used this book because I was informed that many questions on the Psychiatry exam were actually neurology questions. I had done a Neurology rotation previously but had not used this book to do the questions because our school does not have a neurology shelf. So, why should I let the book go to waste, right?
Anyway, I did find many shelf questions did reflect medicine and neurology. So I thought this book provided me with a good fund of knowledge. Along with this book, I used CCS Psychiatry and NMS Psychiatry for a good fund of knowledge. Those reviews will come later.
How I used this book?
There are over 500 questions in this book. My goal was to do a chapter per night. Each answer has a full explanation, along with references for further reading. The questions are in one of 2 formats: Multiple choice or Extended matching. Both formats are found on the shelf. I would limit myself to one question per minute. This way I could simulate my testing circumstances while I practiced.
The book is divided into sections with chapters.
These include: Neuro exam, Stroke, Seizure, Headache, Trauma, Infection, Cancers of the brain, Nutritional and metabolic disorders, Dementia, Movement disoders, Developmental disorder, Neuromuscular Disorders, Toxic Injuries, Eye disease, Hearing problems, Peripheral neuropathy, Spinal cord injuries.
The chapters on Neuro exam, Nutritional and metabolic,Infection, Spinal cord injuries and Cancers were written very well and had very good explanations. These questions reflected what I mostly encountered on the Psychiatry shelf. Please keep in mind I am NOT commenting on the Neurology Shelf. In the CNS Infection chapter the explanations were very straightforward, easy to understand. I actually enjoyed answering the questions in the chapter. The case presentations in the Nutrition chapter were very in-depth and interesting. They were moderately challenging. The explanations were also written well. I used the chapter on Developmental disoder to parallel my review of child psychiatry from Pretest: Psychiatry question review.
What is missing?
I was really hoping for a lot more imaging, such as CT/MRI/MRA/Plain film, within the questions. There were not too many of these. Since the boards is using a multi-disciplinary approach to their questions, I think Pretest should try to incorporate these into the book. It would help students preparing for the Step 2 exam as well.
The chapter on epilepsy had very obscure questions and the explanations were pretty bad. After doing these questions and reviewing the answers, I felt more confused and frustrated. This chapter needs a massive overall. In the explanation, it would be helpful to have a table or diagram that describes the seizure disorders and bullet-point the basic/important features of each disorder.
Overall, this book is a very useful resource for the subject of neurology. I think it is best to use this book during 3rd year Neurology clerkship. People should keep in mind that this book provides a good resource for practicing questions, which is important for preparing for the shelf. I have discussed the Neurology shelf with students who have taken it. They have commented that Pretest: Neuro does not really reflect the contents of the Neuro shelf. Pretest questions focus on localizations of lesions.
The shelf questions focus on a lot of outpatient Neuro which is not covered by this book at all. In regards to the Psychiatry shelf, I found this book to be quite useful, especially the dementia chapter. There is a lot of overalap between the two areas. I think looking at both of these resources would bode well for those preparing for the Psychiatry shelf.
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Here are others that I have written for preparing for USMLE Step ONE:
BRS Pathology
BRS Physiology
BRS Beh. Science
High Yield Biochemistry
HY Cell and molecular Biology
HY Neuroanatomy
Lippincott Pharmacology
Step Up
First Aid
Robbins Review
Recommended:
