First Aid for the Match: Insider Advice from Students and Residency Directors

Rating:
Summary: Which book should you get to help you match successfully?
Review: I am about two months away from starting my internship and I'd like to offer those who are about to start the residency application process some advice. At my medical school, I am a member of a committee that provides guidance to students through the match process. Other members of the committee include residency program directors, interns/residents, deans, and clerkship directors. Our mission is to help students match successfully. Here are the books we reviewed:

FIRST AID FOR THE WARDS BY VIKAS BHUSHAN - It was the committee's feeling that this book is not as strong as some of the other books in the First Aid Series. It contains a lot of information about the different specialties in terms of spots available and competitiveness. But after reading through the various sections (personal statements, letters of recommendation, interview), most of our students didn't feel like they had a strategy for developing a great personal statement, securing a strong letter of recommendation, and knocking the socks off the interviewer. One of its strengths were the many examples of CVs and personal statements that if offers.

ISERSON'S GETTING INTO RESIDENCY - This book, which is now in its 6th edition, has an amazing amount of information. This is a book that clearly should be bought on day #1 of med school because it has info that is helpful in years 1, 2, 3, and 4. It's organized better than First Aid for the Wards.

THE RESIDENCY MATCH: 101 BIGGEST MISTAKES AND HOW TO AVOID THEM BY SAMIR DESAI - This is a new book that wasn't available when I was applying for residency last summer. It's a different perspective on the whole process, with the author focusing on the mistakes students make. After looking it over, the members of our committee felt that these were indeed some of the major errors made during the way. In many cases, these errors can hurt your chances of matching with your top program. I recall making some of these mistakes myself and would have found this book useful had it been available. It's probably better to use Iserson's book along with this book rather than either one alone.

And finally, none of these books can take the place of a good advisor. That's the last piece of advice I will leave you with. Best of luck!

Rating:
Summary: This First Aid series fizzles out at match time
Review: The First Aid books are a pretty good series (Step 1, Step 2, Wards) until you get to this book. It is noticeably thinner than the others, and there is a reason. Too little information. There are some good points, such as the Program Evaluation Worksheets and analysis on trends in the match process on each specialty. However, I would suggest Iserson's instead of or in addition to this book.

Rating:
Summary: great condition and great price
Review: This book is in real good condition and surprisingly low price.