Bought this book for my Ob/Gyn rotation, thinking it would be the best resource because it's designed around the APGO learning objectives, which the shelf exam is also supposedly based on.
Strengths:
- coverage of all topics you might see on the exam
- generally good resource for basic intro to ob/gyn
- some useful tables and graphs
- lots of multiple choice questions for testing recall after reading
Weaknesses:
- way too many typos and factual errors. This book has obviously been through multiple revisions over the years, without careful editing. For example, they say that you should get the tetanus booster shot once btw 14-16 yo. Most of us know that you should get this booster once every 10 years. There is way too much sloppiness in this book for it to be a reliable resource.
- questions are mostly pure factual recall; there is very little clinical reasoning. The shelf exam is almost entirely clinical vignettes with long stems, requiring clinical reasoning. So the book's questions are pretty much useless for preparing for the shelf.
- the questions on the CD-ROM are 95% the same as the back-of-chapter questions, but the answer choices are rearranged and there are more typos and incorrect answers marked. There is no reasoning given with the correct answer choice.
- the 5% of other questions are often outdated and seem to be left over from previous editions (e.g. questions on Norplant or other things that are not mentioned at all in the text).
- multiple diagrams seem to be left over from previous editions, not particularly clear; most of these should be redrawn. Some of the things you'd like to see in diagrams are not there.
- multiple tables have duplicate entries, or things have slipped from one column to another. Very sloppy typesetting/layout; poor design makes the book hard to read.
This is an OK resource for general background reading for the shelf. For better exam prep, I would recommend Case Files, which I used and liked very much; much easier read, with much better graphs and tables, organized for learning, understanding and retention.