Ok, let me start of by saying with a disclaimer: "I hate anything behavioral science(BS) related: ethics, epidemiology, psychiatry, psychology, you name it. Either I never really understood the subject or I just had bad teachers, I don't know. But, questions about Behavioral always left me frustrated and annoyed." If you're like me, then you will enjoy this book by Barbara Fadem. I always liked the BRS(Board Review Series)style and format. It is usually clean, straightforward and usually leaves me with a good understanding of whatever the topic is. This BRS book was no different, and I think it is one of the best of the series. Why did I use this book? I used this book while I was preparing for my USMLE, part 1 exam. I used it to cover all aspects of behavioral science, which was one of consistently weak areas. I bought this book off of another medical student from ebay and it cost me only about five dollars(including shipping). I think it was well worth the time and investment. What does the book cover? The book has 26 chapters(approximately 270 pages) of short, short, short chapters. Each chapter is followed by some questions, which I used to assess if I really understood what I just read. There is also a comprehensive exam at the back of the book with about 119 questions or so, which I used towards the end of my study for further self-assessment. Topics covered by book include:psychiatry, psychology, medico-legal/ethics, development, biostatistics and epidemiology. All medical students think that the BS questions are easy and only require common sense. This is TOTALLY WRONG. The BS questions are NOT INTUITIVE and they require to apply many principles, most of which are found in this book. Once one knows these rules, then one has half a chance of getting the BS questions right. The format of this BRS book would start a chapter with a TBQ(typical board question) at the beginning of the chapter, which was related to the chapter discussion. I'll give an example. On a chapter for "clinical assessment of intelligence, personality and achievement", the TBQ is : A child in the 5th grad is functioning mentally at level of a child in 2nd grade. What category of intellectual function best describes this kid? a) severely retarded b)moderately retarded c) mildly retarded d)borderline e)normal Ok, so I liked this style because it would let me see immediately how much I knew about the mini-topic and would fuel my interest in reading the rest of chapter. This format was not something that I encountered while reading other BRS texts. The chapters are usually about 5 pages long, so very, very, very short. Again, this was good for me because my attention spans rivals that of a 3 year old. I would read this book when I was bored from studying other topics like biochemistry, microbiology, etc. I thought of it as a "break". There are many charts throughout the book which are good at quickly summarizing the material at hand. I usually read all the text in the chapter first then I would go back to the charts and used to quiz myself, that I could constantly reinforce this material. I really liked the medico-legal/ethics chapter. I found the topic interesting, even though I never a medical ethics course. It also made me aware of several "principles" which are needed to answer these questions. Again, I am giving an example. " A married 17 yr old woman sustains brain damage after an unsuccessful suicide attempt. She is in coma and requires life support. Clinical exam and EEG reveal irreversible damage and cessation of brain function. Her father insists that the doc not withdraw life support. The most appropriate action for the doctor to take is to: a)withdraw life support b)do nothing c)get a court order to withdraw life support d)get the patient's husband to authorize withdrawal of life support e)get the patient's mom to authorize withdrawal of life support answer is A Ok, so if you don't know the rules, this question becomes difficult. After reading this book, I felt the BS questions to be a little more approachable. What I didn't like? I wasn't too thrilled with the pharmacology section of this book. I used my Pharmacology text to get this information instead. The chapter on Substance Abuse was so-so. I felt that it didn't go in depth with all the signs and symptoms of the use and withdrawal of each drug class. Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone preparing for USMLE, especially if BS is a weak area. It is easy to read and has nice outline format.