This book has fast become a regular amongst my peers when exams are looming. It contains 5 clear tests, comprising two formats of question styles on a wide variety of topics, and bases the vast majority of questions around clinical scenarios.

 

The major selling point for this book is that at least half the book comprises of the answers! It not only goes through why the right answer is right, but why some of the other options are wrong. This is a big bonus when looking up the answers as you not only learn something, but can link back to the question, justifying your own answer in your head and changing the pattern for (hopefully) future success.

 

One gripe I do have is that some of the questions aren’t the best worded I have ever read, and sometimes you are confused as to whether you are answering a question on the patient in the scenario, or the condition as a whole. Sometimes there do seem to be the odd question where there is a very long clinical scenario with many test values, and a question which could have been asked without the scenario, and it seems to have been included for the sake of it. Although not a regular in many exams, I feel that as a revision aid a few photographs of clinical signs, or diagrams in the explanation would add to the book. It would also make the book a little easier to use, as particularly in the answers section there are reams and reams of text, only separated by a number next to the first line of a paragraph.

 

A more worrying trouble the book may have is misinformation. I have gone through several of the papers with friends, so we could pool our knowledge and work out some of the answers, and the group conclusion (after consulting several textbooks is that the answers are in fact wrong). Reading a few more student’s comments online has confirmed that it’s not just myself that thinks this. So when going through the answers, it may be advisable to use it as a revision platform for general learning, and use other textbooks to reinforce the information.

 

Having raised these concerns, I still have no regrets about buying this book. The vast majority it is great to use, and if you use the clinical scenarios as just that it makes a great learning tool, shedding light on areas you should improve on, and the book is small enough to do a little bit whenever you have a couple of minutes to kill.

Review by Paddy Green

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