Rapid Review Microbiology and Immunology

If you are a medical student, this is a great book for review but a bit dense. I got a 260 on step 1 and this book was helpful for microbio. The immunology content is a bit too dense for step. It is not as quick or entertaining as sketchy and a combo of first aid, sketchy and Uworld are enough on their own for microbiology and immunology for boards

I am a big fan of the Rapid Review series. The Pathology version by Goljan, as far as I'm concerned, is just as essential as First Aid when it comes to reviewing for class and Step 1. However, Microbiology and Immunology are what I would consider two of the most important topics covered on Step 1 along with pathology, pharmacology, and neuroscience. This book has some good review material in it, but is far from comprehensive. Many topics are discussed extremely briefly or omitted entirely. I could only recommend this book for someone who has Microbiology and Immunology down very well and just needs a super quick refresher. To be honest, First Aid does a better job of covering this material.*** This review is regarding the content of the book only. I do own this book, but I have not accessed the Student Consult online material. Although I have accessed it for the pathology book in this series. From that material I have deduced that it can't make that big of a difference; but I could very easily be wrong.

This book is very well organized, has great charts, and does a good job of parsing down to the most necessary material. One especially good component is the studentconsult.com part, which I didn't even know or care about when I purchased it. On the website, you can go to the "extras" section after you register the book and take practice questions based on information in any of the chapters or topics you'd like to study. The platform it uses is identical to USMLEWorld, and the questions were perfect difficulty in preparing for my exam.

My immunology course was unbearable and poorly taught. I used this book to get through the first part the course. There aren't really that many pages dedicated to immunology, but those that are were really succinct. I didn't do as well as I would have liked on the exam, but I attribute that to my teacher being certifiably crazy and not to the clarity of material presented in this book. Can't really comment on micro because I haven't had that course yet.

This book is a good review in bullet-point format, but it's missing crucial pictures of conditions such as impetigo, erysipelas, and common rashes found in infections such as measles and mumps. There are verbal descriptions of the conditions, but being able to recognize these conditions in a picture is essential for the boards. I recommend Microbiology by Harvey to supplement or replace Microbiology and Immunology Rapid Review.

Would need to look up terms in textbook because this book is not self-explanatory. Written for high-level readers and advanced college level students who have some understanding of micro and immunology. Needs more examples.

For the immunology section, I would recommend just getting the Rapid Review Pathology, the immunology is a lot more in depth and comprehensive in the RR Path compared to this book. I have not used the micro section yet.

Used this book to study for COMLEX. Very helpful. Good tables and figures inside. Wish I had bought it for my Microbiology class! Good quick board review.

A good start if you want to get your microbiology up to speed. Have used it also to revise for exams. The tables are extremely helpful. I like ghats you can download images in Power point for use in presentations.