Emergency Medicine: Pearls of Wisdom, Written Board Review

Rating:
Summary: Fast comprehensive review
Review: I have read several books in prep for the written boards. I found this book to be the most comprehensive. Questions are short answer so that a great deal of information can be covered quickly. I read it twice in about 20 hours.

They nailed about 1/3 of the questions I saw on boards.

Rating:
Summary: Best review available
Review: I read this text twice and scored in the 94% on written EM boards. This book is updated frequently. Several residents used it for the inservice and blew it away. GREAT BOOK

Rating:
Summary: Do not buy this book
Review: If you're looking for something to help you review emergency medicine in general, or to review for your boards, do no buy this book. I have read through it myself and talked with two colleagues who have also used it- we all agree that it is filled with useless minutia not relevant to the practice of medicine either in real life or as would appear on board exams. There are a lot of other texts on the market today that are better in terms of their focus and relevance.

One other thing that is not reflected in the description: this book contains only questions and answers. The format is text- not multiple choice. There is no general overview in any section so the only information you get is contained within the terse answers that contain almost no explanations.

Rating:
Summary: near essential for board prep
Review: this is better than rivers by far-44 cases that you do with another person acting as the examiner, or do half as the examiner & half as the candidate, with a friend who is also studying for the orals-rivers is ok, but this more accurately simulates the exam process & has enough repetition that is becomes second nature-they especially look for the picky details that are easy to overlook & presumably a big part of your score in the real thing-i recommend both rivers & pearls, but this has a higher yield