Ophthalmology Board Review: Pearls of Wisdom, Second Edition: Pearls of Wisdom, Second Edition 2nd Edition

This review book is a great, rapid fire question book with answers, similar to the Recall series most of us remember in medical school. So high yield I'm certain I bumped up my OKAP and Board scores by at least a few points. Some of the questions are out of date but so are the boards. Best section is the rapid fire optics questions. No pictures but that makes this book easier to review quickly, use it with the basic science books or friedman's open for pictures.

This is by no means a complete review book, but it's rather point by point of high yield facts. Note that rarely on the WQEs are the asking you such simple, factual questions. You're talking cases there--so you have to be able to use these points and apply them (think!)... and of course, it's never that clear cut. Still, if you're looking for a quick review...something to read through before an in-service quiz, the OKAPs, or prior to the WQEs, this might help.It's not as good as any of the First-Aid USMLE review books. There are no handy charts, etc. Heck, in looking through it, there are no pictures even. Two big flaws, IMHO--especially in ophthalmology which is so visually driven. This book could be done much better. In full disclosure, I returned it.There's a new version out of Chern's actual book, Ophthalmology Review Manual that looks good. A lot easier to get through than the BCSC (at least the first version was.) It also, to me, is a much better high yield review than this book. There are pictures, charts, graphs, etc. which I think you would be better off knowing than just bullet point after bullet point. Chern is 560 pages. This is 316 pages.You're going to want a separate Optics review, unless you were a physics major. Last-Minute Optics: A Concise Review of Optics, Refraction, and Contact Lenses is a time-tested favorite.Good luck. If money is an issue (which it is for most residents/fellows), this is not the first book nor the second book you buy. Buy the Chern questions. Your program probably gave you the BCSC, so buy the Chern Ophthalmology Review Manual as well. Then buy Optics, unless you're one of the guys who like/remember optics. Then buy this. If you don't have a good course that you can review/watch, then go for the Osler MP3 version. The Osler in-person Orals is extremely highly rated as well.

I bought this book in order to study for my residency exam, it is almost enterely based on the American Academy of Ophthalmology Basic and Clinical Science Course. I love it, gives you key facts that you must know.

Only use for a last minute review as important topics.3 stars instead of 5 because of silly editing errors and wrong information... Right off the bat they had the anterior and posterior lacrimal crests backwards and there are some other mis-spellings and grammatical errors. I keep finding errors the more and more I read it... It also lacks some of the detail that you may need for the boards.If you used the Step-2 quick review, this is near identical but with bigger font. Rapid fire questions and answers. Ophthoquestions is great, but not organized for initial studying and making comparisons/contrasts between pathology. It's a "quick read" and I still recommend Last Minute Optics for the optics review... this book is a little cumbersome for that.

Excellent

exellent presentayion

Bad quality

I think this book overall is a great resource. I love how it's easy to go from question to question in the way it's laid out.However, I think a lot of the details are too nitpicky and it's difficult to find information once you flipped the page. The organization of the questions are not the best and there are some repetitive questions in the same section.Overall I still would buy it simply because there isn't another resource similar to it.