USMLE books

	USMLE Road Map: Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (USMLE Road Map)
	By: Timothy J. Bos, Kenneth D. Somers ISBN: 0071435077 Publisher: McGraw-Hill Medical Release Date: 12 September, 2004 Bioscience book rank: 342684	This book is written by two of the professors at my school. Both are very good lecturers. They text is clear and concise and can serve as your primary textbook for most medical microbiology classes provided you use a supplemental image source. The book is done in an outline/prose format with bold words signifying important pathogenesis concepts. There are review questions at the end of each section encourage integrative board style thinking. The pathogenesis cartoons are simple to understand and professionally drawn with an emphasis on clarity. Essentially this is what the BRS microbio book should be. I am extremely glad I own this. There are no images of the organisms themselves; you will need another source for that (most likely your powerpoint lecture notes). The SHELF exam doesn't contain images, but if you study this book you should do very well. <br /> <br />SHELF Tip: If you know this book and the microbiology section of the FIRST AID book you will ace your SHELF.
	USMLE Road Map: Physiology
	By: James N Pasley ISBN: 0071400761 Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Appleton & Lange Release Date: 25 March, 2003 Bioscience book rank: 545043	This book is so plagued by errors that I wonder whether the author knows even the basics of physiology. Use the "Look Inside" feature on Amazon, where the first few pages are available to view. Notice one of the first points that the book makes is that "The Na+/K+ ATP-ase generates high intracellular Na+ concentrations." This is, of course, absurd, as the ATP-ase pumps sodium out of the cell. Given that this atrocity carried over from the book's first edition, I would avoid this book at all costs. <br /> <br />Instead, I recommend the BRS review book by Constanzo or the new Elsevier's Integrated Physiology. people always recommend the brs, however, I felt that I need to read another review book to enhance my understanding of this subject. Therefore, I picked this book. And I am actually surprised that I am the first one to write a review. and it was published in 2003! This is 2007 already. (I didn't know that my review was published under the 2005 second edition, but the one that I read was the first edition.) <br /> <br />Anyway, I haven't finished reading, and it seems to be an ok book. sometimes, it has less information than the BRS book which could be good or bad. however, I have two problems which I felt the need to write them down just in case I may forget about them in the future. <br /> <br />1. The way he writes sometimes is confusing, hard to understand. For example, on page 157, he wrote:"Resorption of bone by osteoclasts is dependent on an increased H concentration in the resorption zone and an increased release of lysosomal enzymes to promote breakdown of the bone matrix." And that is one long sentence which made for one paragraph! <br /> <br />I just found another one on page 48, "This response, called cushing' phenomenon, is caused by cerebral ischemic stimulation of vasomotor regions in the medulla that help maintain cerebral blood flow in the face of increased resistance caused by expanding intracranial tumors." <br /> <br />I had to read those several times, and it got me frustrated, because it is not easy to understand especially when i am studying late at night, when I am already tired. Now I just realized why my reading is not fast enough, it was partly because of the way he writes the book. Another reason that I picked this book, because it seems to have less information than the BRS book. However, the BRS sometimes has a little too much information, and it gets boring quick. So now I am studying those two books together, pick on a chapter and see which one is better written, and just read that particular chapter. <br /> <br />2. on page 190-191, he wrote:" if the head is rotated to the left, both eyes move to the right." however, on page 191, the picture has "head rotates to right, with a big arrow pointing toward right." So as you can see, it is confusing. You are reading one thing, and the picture is showing you the opposite direction. So that description and the picture only make readers more confused. <br /> <br />Since I haven't finished reading, maybe I should stop reading, I will rate it a 3 as average. One thing that I like is its clinical correlation, that is one thing that I like about the whole series.
	Kaplan Medical USMLE Step 2 Qbook (Kaplan USMLE Qbook)
	By: Kaplan Medical ISBN: 0743262395 Publisher: Kaplan Publishing Release Date: 31 August, 2004 Bioscience book rank: 320507	This is the book that I need to prepare my CS test. It's good. The questions in this book were helpful and seem to be exactly what will be asked on the exam. In fact, they may even be more difficult than the actual exam, which I feel makes it all the more valuable to those preparing for step 2. Another aspect of this book I really enjoyed was that the question blocks were broken up by subject (i.e. peds, surgery, internal medicine, etc.). This helped me realize which subjects I'm good at and which ones I need to work on more. Hopefully this book will help me get a competitive score on the exam.
	Clinical Vignettes for the USMLE Step 1: PreTest Self-Assessment and Review (Pretest Series)
	By: Editors of McGraw-Hill ISBN: 0071471847 Publisher: McGraw-Hill Medical Release Date: 04 October, 2007 Bioscience book rank: 174158
	Usmle Step 1 Lecture Notes: Microbiology / Immunology (Kaplan Medical)
	By: Louise Hawley, Mary Ruebush ISBN: B000KZX9PS Publisher: Kaplan Medical Release Date: 2004 Bioscience book rank: 649186	great summary of immunology and microbiology. <br />best way to prepare for the USMLE if you have time.
	Kaplan Medical USMLE Step 1 Lecture Notes Behavioral Sciences 2006-2007 Edition
	By: Inc.; Daugherty, Steven R.; Gonzalez-Mayo, Alina; Reichert, Sonia; Thengampallil, Abraham; McGreevy, Kate Kaplan ISBN: B000WLB4A2 Publisher: Kaplan, Inc. Release Date: 2006 Bioscience book rank: 836652
	Lange Practice Tests for the USMLE Step 1 (Lange's Practice Tests for the USMLE Step 1)
	By: Joel S. Goldberg ISBN: 007144615X Publisher: McGraw-Hill Medical Release Date: 19 August, 2005 Bioscience book rank: 624265	The content and the format are similar to the Step 1 exam though a little less challenging. A good book to supplememt Kaplan Qbank and Qbook. Not a good book to start off with as there are some mistakes which can be misleading. The explanations are good and to the point.
	Kaplan Medical USMLE Step 1 Qbook (Kaplan USMLE Qbook)
	By: Kaplan Medical ISBN: 0743262387 Publisher: Kaplan Publishing Release Date: 31 August, 2004 Bioscience book rank: 91976	The book contains a lot of questions and thorough explanations for each question - this makes it a really good review book. Explanations are high yield and allow you to review quite a bit of info. Get it if you don't want to pay $200 or whatever for Qbank.
	USMLE Step 2 Mock Exam
	By: Adam Brochert ISBN: 1560536101 Publisher: Hanley & Belfus Release Date: 15 July, 2004 Bioscience book rank: 145930	a good book that helped me prepare for my test. i liked its format being divided into exam blocks like the real test. i don't think it's the best book available, yet, it's a good pick and investment as exam simulator. I heard both positives and negatives about this book but I love to have it. It has been pretty much helpful. Well, I must say that the best way to place high on Step II is to really build your foundational knowledge of the application of medicine during your 3rd year. That said, I feel that the importance of doing practice questions for several months before the actual exam cannot be overstated. <br /> <br /> But there is really an art to "doing practice questions." One part of that art is to have a huge bank of questions available. Basically, each question in the entire bank adds one (or sometimes a few) little fact(s) to your fund of knowledge. <br /> <br /> If you have a limited bank of questions, and that is your primary "test prep" source, then you run the risk of not being adequately prepared for the actual exam. Unfortunately, as we all know, USMLE can be rather nitpicky. So simply knowing a broader base of detailed facts can play in greatly to your advantage on the real exam. <br /> <br /> I found "USMLE Step 2 Mock Exam" to present a very good variety of facts that were not as well covered in other sources (Kaplan, NMS, other minor sources). Thus, it added to my overall knowledge base in a complimentary way, which is exactly what I hoped for when I purchased the book. <br /> <br /> I recommend this book as an additional resource while preparing for Step II. If you have the time, it can help to go through this book and your other resources more than one time each. I found that the questions I had seen more than once bought facts to my recall much faster during the exam. Many facts I learned in this book were directly applicable to helping me understand questions on the actual exam.
	Platinum Vignettes: Ultra-High-Yield Clinical Case Scenarios for USMLE Step 2-Internal Medicine Subspecialties (Platinum Vignettes)
	By: Adam Brochert ISBN: 1560535377 Publisher: Hanley & Belfus Release Date: 02 August, 2002 Bioscience book rank: 622494	Great series covers several high-yield "vignettes" that appeared on my exam. Very happy I used this series before the test, as my USMLE exam was nearly all long vignettes in the same format as this book. Well written and very high yield! Great vignettes, which were all over my step 2 exam. I got this series as a gift from my parents, otherwise I probably wouldn't have been exposed to it. In retrospect (and even as I was reading it), I realize that this series helped me more than any other source I used for step 2 review - and I used all the typical books (First Aid, NMS question book, Blueprints). I strongly recommend this series to all those preparing for Step 2.