White Coat Companion (2021 Edition)

If you are spoilt by the conciseness of First Aid Step 1, and struggle to find a similarly efficient resource for Step 2 and 3, here is the solution, finally. All keywords, no extra stuff, literally.The book may not be that exciting for audio-visual learners though, as there are no pictures in it. After all, it is the lecture notes companion to their website, so the pictures part are in those video. Use a palette of highlighters and treat the keywords as your coloring book maybe...Binding issues? Yes, the book looks like a home-made laser-printed lecture notes collection. Maybe that's exactly what it is. Get some binding rings man. You have the flexibility to organize it according to the system/clinic you're working on. Why do you need to bring the ObGyn section if you're going to a cardiology clinic? The pages are arranged according to different systems (page numbers format: Cards1, Cards2,... Endo1, Endo2... Heme1, Heme2...) so my guess is they expect you to re-organize the pages according to your study plan anyway.After all for exam purpose everyone knows what the gold standard is (UW, UW, UW!). Having a well-indexed list of diseases according to systems definitely helps to put things in place.

Cons: the binding is a bit flimsy and very bulky. Definitely handle with care. It’s too thick to be lugged around as a white coat companion, so use it as a home study reference instead.Pros: the inside material is really good. It’s a “summary of summaries” — basically gives you the high yield stuff only. Kind of like Deja Review if you have that book. I like how it talks about electrolyte imbalances and how to manage them. This book is divided into systems and rotation needed materials so very helpful for step 1/2 IMO. I think if you do not have access to BandB and love BnB, or just want to have a summary of BnB this is a good buy.Bottom line: would I recommend this book? As a study supplement, yes. If you want things to be summarized in the absolute simplest way then buy this. But it shouldn’t be your primary source of study material. If you want something that is travel friendly, then this book is not for you.

The media could not be loaded.  This book friggen rules. I have recommended it to so many people. Does it actually fit into your white coat? No. Do I actually care? Also no. The information is organized, succinct, the perfect amount of digestible details. Bring a backpack to rounds and study it on your down time. I have been asked on every rotation “what book is that?!” Just get over that it actually doesn’t fit into your white coat (or just go to staples and have them bind it into 2 smaller books with smaller rings). Literally the best $40 to $50 you can spend on your education. One million stars. So many times I’ve looked like a rockstar on rounds because of something that I just read that morning. Thank you!

In terms of the actual content of the book, it's actually good in all honesty. I feel it covers most of the important information for the USMLE step 2. However I have a couple of different issues regarding this book. First of all, the size of the book is actually small and thick compared to other books such as master the board or first aid. It makes it more difficult for me to read, study, annotate, and review. I would have preferred if the book was physically bigger and thinner at the same time. As well as being able to annotate without worrying about the space. Also, I would have preferred if the book had the index in the back rather than downloading a document with the index. Finally, the book doesn't have any colors and barely any pictures. I really wanted to use this book to it's fullest but unfortunately that was not the case. Hopefully the third edition would be much better.

When this first came out and now, people consistently complained of the binding and are still doing so. It really is terrible and I don’t think I realized how bad until my first time trying to leave my house with it. This book isn’t cheap- and a binding ring is- so why used such a crummy, weak, oversized ring? And then fail to fix it? Really it’s my primary complaint. I wish there was a smidge more rooms for notes but overall I like the book a lot, but a white coat companion it is not.

I like this book for preparing Step2 CK and the content they listed are sometimes difficult to find topics and also the paper quality should be good enough as First Aid book.

BINDING IS FINE. I almost didn’t buy this great resource over binding concerns. The binding is stronger than these other reviews say. You remember the lab note books with curl binding we had for labs in undergrad ? It’s like those but with stronger and more durable construction paper. It’s sturdy enough!!!! Buy with confidence.

The book is amazing, but the glue binding and the quality of the printing is very poor. I think that this book will begin falling apart once it's used.

Great content!!!