books

[stressed101]

Starting first year med school this September.

Was wondering if someone can give a list of good books for first year anatomy physio biochem etc to use? Especially at Galway? Please do share. Thanks

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[jnuts]

Don't buy anything. You'll open any big book once or twice and then be stuck carting it around.

In med school most of the books I found helpful were the slender review books available for between 20 and 30 euro (or used for a couple of bucks). If they were light on material I'd head to the internet, library, or powerpoints from class and annotate.

Reference books are a waste of money given libraries and online resources available to a student for free.

I guess there are a couple of exceptions:

Clinical Examination, Talley and O'Conner
Clinically Oriented Anatomy (though the set of flashcards might be of more value to you than the book)
Clinical Microbiology made ridiculously simple, Mark Gladwin and Bill Trattler
I also used ipod touch apps a fair amount. (MedCalc, Davis Drug Guide, a few other free ones)


The at-a-glance series is great in upper years as is Toronto Notes.

 

[med2UCC]

I know some people didn't like it but Crash Course Anatomy (from Mosby) is great. I used the Netter flash cards for anything I couldn't clarify through Crash Course. I also found most of the "Lecture Notes in" series useful. Cheers,
M

 

[bbydoc]

I got to agree with some of the above.
Micro Made Ridiculously Simple is very good.
Netter's Flash Cards is awesome too.
For Physio I would either get Vander's or Physiology by Linda Constanzo,
the letter, which I bought, has a lot of excellent diagrams and flow charts!

And I would follow the above advice in regard to big books, I bought a big Anatomy book, hardly read in it, Flash Cards are a lot better.

 

[med2UCC]

Physiology Lecture Notes was a good small physiology book. Vander is beautifully readable.
That being said, at UCC the lecturers tended to use diagrams right out of their favorite books, and questions based on these on exams. Once you recognised the diagram the question got a lot easier to answer. We also occasionally ran into questions that you couldn's answer unless you had read the specific recommended text.
Get as much as you can second hand. Text books are ridiculously overpriced. Also, make a trip to Dublin (if you're not studying there) and check out the Clarendon medical bookstore, on Clarendon St.
Cheers,
M
Gotta go round.

 

[blueberrybaby]

I did not really use any books except for Clinically oriented anatomy (monkhouse) and gray's for anatomy (card signings every other week).... by the time I started studying pharmacology, physiology and biochemistry the exams were 2 months away...and I used booked rarely.

You might need biochemistry book (lippincots) --> good for revision chapters you can access from library. I aced biochem by just flicking through this book. its amazing.

Physiology---> baby guyton or linda costanzo.... i only used it for respiratory system to understand the graph.

Pharmacology---> I didnt use books, but rang and dale review book is good if you are looking to understand concepts for example cholinergics working on a synapse and what it does..has good diagrams. i have pharm charts that i made in my first year i can post them here if you'd like.

immunology--> janeway is good for the diagrams, i wudnt get too bogged down on reading the material because it is way 2 much detail. i used a red colored review book i found in the library.

haematology---> i jus used lectures


thats pretty much evrything in my earlier yrs..... when you start pathology, micro, clin-med its a different story....I use books way more now than I did before...because lecture quality keeps getting poorer. and i'm not the best at attendance. lol.

 

[blueberrybaby]

Amazon is amazing for buying books (way cheaper than clarendon- soooo over priced...I payed 40 euros for MMRS...whereas its like 30 USD in amazon!!)

 

[med2UCC]

Amazon is amazing for buying books (way cheaper than clarendon- soooo over priced...I payed 40 euros for MMRS...whereas its like 30 USD in amazon!!)

But one important caveat with Amazon vs Clarendon: if you find the book and buy it at Clarendon, you have it to use. If you order it from Amazon it might arrive 2 weeks after the exam (Board Review Pathology springs to mind). I have cancelled many Amazon orders after they kept me waiting for 5-6 months for a "Very rare hard to find" book that was, in fact, neither rare nor hard to find. I've also returned a good few that arrived too late to be any use. Cheers,
M