The best review source, without competitors., October 5, 2006
Constant updating of medical information, diverse and specialized skills of contributors, realistically concise book size, and practical itemization of review topics have made Kaplan Qbooks the best source for preparation to USMLE. It is difficult for competitors to catch up with the excellence of Kaplan. I noticed an example of such imitation by a professor of biochemistry, coauthored with another physician, where you could easily sense the circumstantialities of their questions and the poor itemization of their answers. In that imitation, the authors cram their answers in a long paragraph, single spaced and single column page, with poorly chosen font. In Kaplan Qbook, medicine is being tested in eight 50-question tests, compared to two for each of the other subjects. Each of the 50 questions presents a challenging differential diagnosis of relatively related medical issues. The answer of each of those questions shows the excellence of Kaplan that imitators fail to duplicate. Each answer is depicted in good, short, and legible paragraphs. Each paragraph addresses the topics of the question in consideration and explains the basis for choosing the correct answer and for rejecting the others. The topic of each paragraph is italicized to get the reader's attention to key medical entities. Though numerous sub-items are not bulleted or numbered, yet that soothes the readability of the answers. An example is the use of barium enema versus CA scan in diagnosing diverticulitis. The answer was CA scan which goes against the main stream old fashion of using barium enema. Here, the author explains the harm of leaking dye from ruptured diverticulae and justifies the use of CA scan over barium enema. Moreover, many answers entail direct hint by the author on the mood the drives the USMLE in picking their questions. The Goodpasture disease versus Wegener granulumatosis is picked up to stress the close similarity of both illnesses that is preferred by the USMLE folks. Over 50 pages are devoted to the strategy of taking the exam. Those are invaluable advices in humanizing the overwhelming challenge of dealing with obscure case management and fast progressing medical knowledge. As the USMLE is getting ridiculously obsessed with information that physicians seldom keep on the top of their mind, Kaplan is catching up too. Examples of such race testing students' memory are cases of various porphyrias, their diagnostics differences, presented together with those of endocrine neoplastic syndromes which are assigned numbers to differentiate their grouping. Microorganisms and drugs are also tested for the differences between their prevalence and side effects, as if medical students have to function as terabytes servers rather than human professionals. The generosity, dedication, and aptness of the Kaplan's contributors are well served by the practical design of the book materials. Keeping heavier and massive references close by, while studying Kaplan could complement its conciseness by adding more details to highlighted topics.
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Law 101
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