Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple (Medmaster) Reviews

• Unorthdox, but it can be effective

  
  By A18Q1I4W1HVSTW on 2004-06-26
  When I received this book, I was not sure what to make of it. Rather than seriously examining key points of organisms with illustrations to show how mechanisms worked, the book is packed with mnemonics and weired cartoons meant to help you remember what you need to know for the boards (for instance, Chlamydia has a "clam" necklace; Salmonella is shown as a salmon hanging out and smoking a cigar in a gallbladder to remind you that's where chronic Salmonella carriers retain the bug).

  I grew to appreciate these stupid cartoons, as I did remember stuff I would have otherwise forgotten. If you are burning out, this is a good resource!

  This is not a real textbook, however. You get a guerilla introduction to some basics, but the presentation of material is not as systematic as a text. At the end of each chapter is a chart to summarize the information presented, but the font is tiny and I never bothered using it.

  I would recommend checking this book out to see if the book's style works for you. If it does, this is a good way to study microbiology even if you are tired and sick of studying for Step I. If it does not, there are plenty of more standard texts and reviews to choose.
  
  

• Excellent review of microbiology..

  
  By A16W8HTCIWYDZ6 on 2002-04-29
  This text will give you a good review of clinical microbiology. The information is geared towards the medical student. Important facts are presented in a easy-to-memorize manner which gives the student what is needed to pass exams. This is not meant to be a textbook on clinical microbiology and therefore one should not expect cogent narratives. However, if you are over 50 like myself; make sure you have your reading glasses or magnifiers handy. The font size is quite small and the print could have been a little darker. Also you may find parts of the book a bit too flippant but remind yourself that this is supposed to be a review text.

  Well worth your time.
  
  

• Micro Can Only Be Learned Through This Book

  
  By A2BSURXXW37359 on 2000-07-02
  You can go to class, or you can read a big fat ugly book, and still you won't learn about micro bugs until you buy this book. AN EXCELLENT REVIEW on almost all of the important bacteria, fungi, virus and parasites. The toons are very funny (and you keep them in your head all your life ). And for learning the basics on antibiotics it is wonderful. This book has helped me in the most desperate conditions (impossible exams), and believe me, YOU GOTTA HAVE IT !
  
  

• An otherwise excellent book compromised by poor editing

  
  By A4XJE2MZ65ELY on 2005-01-08
  This book is of the typical "Ridiculously Simple" style. This is an excellent book that transforms a boring subject into something fun to read. Mnemonics, coded in words or illustrated by cartoons, are scattered all over the book. Many of them do help!
  
  However, as other reviewers have complained, this book is full of spelling errors, typos, and misplaced figures and legends. The overall impression about its editing is "ridiculously chaotic". Try to imagine that. An example is the CD4+ T-cell count. On page 197 and 198, it is mentioned many times when its unit is "ul", "uL", "ml", and "mL". How confusing! The last two are the correct ones. But "ml" may be a preferred format. Or simply leave the unit out if you are not sure about it. Improve this. This kind of problem has nothing to do with being "Ridiculously Simple", I believe.
  
  Some information in the book is outdated. For example, smallpox probably will not show up in the exam any more. And the vaccines for polio. Does the author know that we use a combination of Salk and Sabin vaccines today? Why is this not mentioned in the book?
  
  Cartoons are nice. But I also like some real pictures about the worms and the diseases that they cause.
  
  This book has the potential to get a 5-star rating. However, it is spoiled by abusing the word "ridiculously".
  
  

• Very readable and generally good book

  
  By on 1999-07-02
  I can't believe the shitty book that I was forced to try to read for my course. This one gives you a good picture of what's relevant. I'll toss this one in since everyone else has - it has excellent tables. I rate them book as execellent. Don't force yourself to read another book. There's nothing to understand in micro - just memorize it. This book makes it easier. I only wish I had had this as a text for the course!
  
  
• TERRIFIC
  By A3J0UUNMU4TOIQ on 1999-10-19
  This book has everything you need to know about Microbiology, and prepares you wonderfully for the shelf exam and the national boards. The text is clear and very well organized. You will memorize tons of information just by reading and watching the diagrams. BUY IT!
  
  
• THE BEST !
  By AE0GMEZLYZJHH on 2000-01-14
  a "MUST HAVE" for anybody studying those 'little critters'. u read this book & u'll remember stuff for life...full of 'med-toons' & crazy pictures, that help u remember stuff- u'll love microbio !
  
  
• fun and easy way to study microbiology
  By A1HO4QUEVRPNFL on 2001-09-01
  This book can make studying microbiology very enjoyable. The illustrations are really catchy and you will remember them for a very long time. The tables are very concise and give you the important points. No unnecessary data, just plain old facts. You should have it while in medical school and not just for the board exams.
  
  
• very good book
  By A1O28EE1JD8ADD on 2000-03-13
  This an example of how medical books for students should be written, nice understandable way to deal with a lot of critters! Very good for IMGs.
  
  
• Makes learning fun (well, at least it eases the pain)
  By on 2001-12-31
  With the help of diagrams, funny stories, and pneumonics, this book helped me remember my facts and keep the bacteria organized in my head. Here's how I studied (for my class and the Board Shelf Exam): I xeroxed the charts found in the book and studied them over and over in a nice packet. Everything you need to know is in the charts. I also looked over First Aid to put it all together. Pretest Microbiology or Appleton and Lange's Review of Microbioloy are excellent sources of clinical based practice questions. If you need a reference, the new Lippincott Microbiology by Strohl is good.
  
  
• valuable resource for medical./ p.a./ n.p. students
  By A4BTQ8XHCNN6T on 1999-12-21
  reader friendly text accompanied by humourous memorable cartoons,(many worthy of "R. Crumb")& whitty mnemonics. Occasionally goes a bit overboard in it's "cuteness". However the concise summary tables & it's overall enthusiasm made this book a hard-to-beat investment in time & money.
  
  
• An update
  By A1MJMYLRTZ76ZX on 2002-06-13
  This is a very well written, concise, and even fun book on clinical micro. The mnemonically oriented illustrations are a nice idea and add to the overall enjoyment of reading the book. Some of these are really pretty entertaining. I give the authors points for creativity for including them. Some people might find them a little flippant at times, but I enjoyed them, and remember, this is mainly intended as a review book, which might be especially useful for those taking their boards.

  The book does a good job also of including the latest information on the newest antibiotics and treatments, although these things of course change rapidly. To just mention possibly the most important of these: since the book was published, there have been the first reports of a strain of staphylococcus aureus that is resistant to the powerful new antibiotic, linezolid, and also of strains of enterococci that are resistant. Unfortunately, the drug has only been in use for about a year. This one of the few drugs still effective against tough, resistant, gram-positive bacteria.

  To keep matters in perspective, however, the report from the UK said it was the only patient known out of 3000-4000 who have been given the drug. Since then a number of other cases of resistance have been reported here in the US also. No doubt there will be others but we're still talking about a very low incidence rate. However, it's a reminder that we can't rest on our laurels and the evolved resistance problem is going to be an ongoing issue.

  But getting back to the book, this is a highly readable, informative, and even entertaining book on an important clinical subject. It's worth noting also that the credits page lists dozens of MD's who reviewed the different chapters, presumably for accuracy and completeness, so I would have confidence that the book has the best information possible as of the time it was published. All in all a good book which should be a useful resource for anyone needing to learn or bone up quickly about this important area, especially for anyone studying for their boards.
  
  

• The book that saved me....
  By A3G09875FQZ37W on 2000-12-06
  This book is the best. It helped me sail through my exams as one of the students that managed to answer all the unexpected microbiology questions. It actually makes you want to read it, even if you don't think you have to. And allthough some of the drawings are a bit far out, the good ones stay with you.
  
  
• Excellent Learning Aid, Must Buy
  By on 2003-06-27
  This book made medical microbiology a lot easier. It is concise and written to teach. It is helpful because it explains conditions in every day language. My study group and I used this book and the following which is also available on amazon.com:
  Microbiology Study Guide: Key Review Questions and Answers by Patrick Leonardi (ISBN: 0971999635)
  The second book helped me prepare for the type of questions on my medical microbiology exams. I also used both these books as helpful references for the microbiology portion of the USLME 1. It just goes to show, everyone in my study group not only got high grades in our medical microbiology class, but also we all passed the USLME Step 1 the first time.
  
  
• Must-buy for any medical student
  By A1BQAL4QMHLAEC on 2003-10-06
  This is not only the best microbiology book I have ever used, it may well be the best textbook of any kind. It contains everything you need to know about microbiology presented in a way that actually helps you learn and remember it. Perfect for board review or learning the subject for the first time.
  
  
• Full of misplaced figures and pg# and spelling mistakes?
  By A1MN9UPM25DC7W on 2003-10-18
  The book is great overall.
  But it's full of spelling mistakes; they really need to look at that for their next edition.
  And I also I dislike this about this book as well ;which is that When they tell you to look at a certain page number or a figure, it's always different most of the time,, it just ain't there for you look at?
  Why are they so disorganized with that sometimes?
  I wonder...lol
  I like the book tho; it's got some consistency throughout, which helps you to retain it more...
  And it's a lot better then the levinson book in some respects; easier; more interactive; more fun; I mean, just the information that you need for micro is in there r. The Levison book great info but its too much for you to digest, and hence in preparing for the exam; it's better if you're taking class or something like that in school ; it's also sort of outdated on its didactics; some of its format for the students I think could be improved ; some more pictures added to the scenes... the Levinson book is a classic tho; but not a lot of illustrations to go along with it; so its really gets boring reading it sometimes...
  ...
  The other guy died; seems like the book does not have the same stamina students saw coming out of this book once as it once did.
  If you're reading the MRS book, Make sure you get something for immunology; if you're reading the MRS book, because there is nothing there for immuno,you can then use the levison book. Hope that this review was helpful to you.
  Yours truly,
  Dr.Claudio A.G.Monteiro Filho.
  Recife, Pernambuco.
  Brazil.
  IMG
  UPE/FESP.
  CRM: 13.652
  
  Full of misplaced figures and pg# and spelling mistakes...
  
  
  
• Medical School Micro Review
  By A6KBULX03ISIS on 2006-03-26
  I am using this for USMLE review. There are plentiful mnemonics and cartoons in the book which help a great deal with memorization. This could be the best review book in the Ridiculously Simple Series. It has definitely helped me. The exam is still pending and therefore I cannot judge this based on my score. You cannot base your sole Micro preparation on this one book alone. You will have to have BRS Microbiology or NMS Microbiology along side this. You may need Zinsser on occasion. The good thing about this book is you can work through it quickly compared to some of the other books. When I receive my score I will further preface my remarks here. This is a good starting point however.
  
  
• GREAT book for coursework and boards!!!!
  By A2TQZTEDRN4HM0 on 2006-07-04
  this is such a good book for coursework...during my classes i felt the professors went TOO Much into random detail and i could not tease out what was important and what was junk...when i started using this book...all the important facts became obvious...there are charts at the end of each section...I used those as quick review before the boards...a month before my exam i re-read through the book from front to back...and during my 2 days of microbio review i just read through the charts...the corny cartoons actually help a lot!!! and they give some good clinical facts....goofy book...but great information...almost every single students at our med school had one...
  
  
• The best and only micro book you will ever need!
  By on 1999-02-22
  This was and is the best microbiology book out there. Clever mnemonics and images for the visual learner. Complete yet concise tables at the end of every chapter. GREAT for FIRST OR SECOND YEAR. GET IT NOW! You will kick yourself for not getting it sooner.
  
  
• One of my alltime favorite usmle books
  By AVFFVWIQ24O28 on 2003-01-02
  This book is just awesome. It has all the points you need for the boars exams. WOW its that good. I read it for my course and then for my board exam review. I read it cover to cover 2 times and some sections in it 4 to 5 times. The antibiotics section is so good you don't struggle trying to retain info. A must have!!!!
  
  
• Annoying.
  By on 2003-06-17
  This book may be the greatest micro review book in the world. I wouldn't really know. I couldn't get through more than 5 pages without feeling nauseous due to Ridiculously Simple's sense of "humor". I purchased the book because an upperclassman told me it was invaluable and "everyone uses it". Had I bothered to flip through it for more than 10 seconds before buying it, I would have realized I wouldn't be able to stomach it. If you're a fan of Jay Leno and/or Carrot Top, this may be a great book for you. However, it was absolutely worthless to me. That's not to say I'm not a huge Carrot Top fan...or something.
  
  
• Very good review for microbiology
  By on 2003-06-21
  This is the BEST book in the series by far. I would HIGHLY recommend this book for FMGs, like myself. It is easy to read with great mnemonics. The table charts are good, but the print is somewhat small. However, one of those magnifying bookmarkers will help. If you know this book very well you should not have any trouble with the microbiology questions on the boards.
  
  
• Johnny 5
  By AZIY4D69N38IZ on 2004-12-01
  This is a great book to supplement a medical school class. The tables at the end of each chapter are amazing and will really help out on exams if you can commit most of that information to memory. I know that sounds like a lot, but by the end of your medical micro course, you'll understand what I mean.
  
  
• A Must Have!!!
  By A163K7LG1IOCUP on 2006-03-24
  I didn't discover this book until half way through my Microbio. course as a MSII. I wish I had it for the whole course because it was truly that useful. It gives you clever ways to categorize and memorize everything. I had professors that would jump around a lot and I would get confused, Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple helped me so much!
  
  I'm going to use it to study for Step 1 and a lot of my friends are using it as well. It will even help with the pharm sections as they go over what kills these little critters.
  
  Happy Studying!
  
  
• GREAT BOOK FOR BOARD STUDY OR FOR THE COURSE
  By A1EGLTRVN5BG74 on 1999-05-06
  The book is very concise, very complete. The nemonics are great to remember. I used it for the microbiology course, and I did great. Now I'm using it to prepare for the boards. I really sugest it as the best board review I have found till now.
  
  
• (aka My Meager Memory Might Master Micro with MedMaster)
  By A18J2W664G88QN on 2001-05-02
  Not only is this great for microbiology, but it has also helped me out a lot with the infectious disease portion of my pathology course and the antibiotics section of my pharmacology class. This is a whole lot more fun to read than the regular text, has good information, and provides great mnemonics - both verbal and visual.
  
  
• The best book for MEd school period!!
  By on 2001-06-11
  Funny, memorable, the BEST book for med school or college micro EVER. The best of the ridiculously simple series!
  
  
• RELIABLE, LOGICAL, AND CONSISTENT
  By A3NG3IWQSNNMHD on 2003-01-17
  Reliable, accurate and concise, this well-summarized book was designed for learners who need a comprehensive revision text. It presented medical microbiology in a straightforward manner. All the main branches of the subject: bacteriology, virology, mycology, and parasitology were analysed using the most up-to-date and the most reader-friendly format.
  This book is less than three hundred pages, yet, it offered outstanding illustrations whose correlations with the included case-studies are unique. Everything about this textbook is superb. The well-laid out chapters and paragraphs ensured that every piece of information is at the reader's disposal.
  
  
• Very good review of microbiology and entertaining to read.
  By on 2003-03-04
  This is a good source to help make microbiology easier. The words are easy to understand, to the point, and clear. It is refreshing since it is not boring to read. Actually, it keeps your attention and makes studying more fun.
  In addition, I also used Microbiology Study Guide: Key Review Questions and Answers by Patrick Leonardi. This study guide helped prepare me for the type of questions that were asked on my microbiology exams in med school. I even used it to study for my USLME Boards. I passed the boards the first time. This says something about both these books.
  
  
• Definite Source For USMLE Step 1; A Masterpiece
  By A1PPXRJ1OJ4HSD on 2003-09-16
  This is the best book that you can read for USMLE step 1. It is very easy to read, funny, and complete. You cannot miss anything, because you will learn everything using association method (mnemonics, stories, pictures). It also has vey good tables at the end of each chapter to review microorganisms. I definitely recommend it to everybody taking step 1. Who can forget ciprofloxacin mechanism of action after reading the story about "flocks" of sinners "gyrating" their hips in a party?!! (DNA Gyrase).
  
  

• Rapid Review Pathology: With STUDENT CONSULT Online Access
• BRS Pathology (Board Review Series)
• BRS Physiology (Board Review Series)
• First Aid for the USMLE Step 1: 2008 (First Aid USMLE)
• Robbins & Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease, Seventh Edition