Blueprints Pediatrics (Blueprints Series)

Customer Reviews

• Quick for on-the-wards reference and test review  Jul 8, 1999 (16 of 16 found this helpful)

  "Blueprints" is a terrific book for medical student use during a basic or advanced rotation in pediatrics, written by Pediatric residents at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Although it's certainly not exhaustive, the book provides a brief (usually 2-3 pages) discussion of a disease, its presentation, the differential diagnosis, and its treatment. The text is often in easy-to-skim bullet format, with illustrative tables/x-rays accompanying it. I read this book as I went through my rotation, and then when the test came along, it was a nice one-day review--I'm saving it for the USMLE step 2!

• Excellent for the shelf exam!  Jun 23, 2002 (11 of 11 found this helpful)

  I just took the Pediatrics shelf exam having studied this book thoroughly, and I thought it was superb. The authors did an excellent job selecting high-yield topics and covering them without extraneous detail. However, you really do have to know everything in the book, basically everything that made it into this book is pretty critical.

  I also found it handy to add any other facts I learned over the course of the rotation into the margins of the book. It leaves you with a reasonably thorough study guide.

  Some people insist on reading Nelson's or another mega-text, but I can't imagine anyone remembering 900 (dense) pages with only three weeks or so of studying. I'd go with blueprints any day.

• The ONLY book to buy for step 2 peds  Sep 19, 2003 (9 of 9 found this helpful)

  this is THE pediatrics book to buy if you are preparing for the step 2. i found the questions asked on the step 2 exam were not as demnading as one may contemplate upon reading this book. Its great if you have the time..(the first reading takes a while)..and some tables (eg baby's milestones table) are very long and boring, sometimes even so detailed that they seem silly for a review book. I had no problems with any pediatrics questions after i read this book.....i got a cool score on the step 2. the other fabulous BluePrints book is the OBG one. DOnt even bother buying any others....

• Quite good review for Step 2, and excellent for the wards.  Jan 23, 2001 (7 of 7 found this helpful)

  This book helped me score well on the Step 2 exam; I did particularly well on the peds section and I'm not going into that specialty! The book has too much detail in some chapters, but overall it's an excellent review. It goes well with the other blueprints books, particularly medicine and surgery. Ironically, this book helped me understand many adult diseases too! Well worth a buy.

• Blueprints is Basic  Jun 3, 2000 (5 of 5 found this helpful)

  Blueprints in Pediatrics is definitely a quick read. Good for preparing brief presentations and boning up on important topics. However, it is NOT a good prep for the boards. Much too basic. However, I recommend carrying it around for reading when you have breaks throughout the day while on your Pediatrics rotation.