Must-have Books

Anatomy atlas (Gilroy or Netter and/or Rohen) and BRS physiology. These are really the only books I would consider "must have" for M1 year.

Best source of info is your school's M2's for textbooks - they'll tell you specifically which ones you need which ones you don't. I'd also say get an anatomy atlas - Rohen if you're taking it with you to the dissection room. Netter's is too abstract/cartoon-like to easily follow along while you're cutting. Other than that, chances are you're going to get a syllabus (not like undergrad where it's 1-3 pages of the schedule) that's going to be a book in itself, which will be what you need to know for the tests most of the time.

DO NOT buy any books before school starts. DO NOT.

Best two systems-specific books that I've come across that saved my butt:
Lilly Cardiology
Vander Renal Physiology

Two really fantastic resources for when you get into cardio and renal

If your school has a clinically oriented anatomy class, get BRS Gross. The practice questions following each section will mirror what you'll see on your class exams.

ManBroDude said:

Thanks guys. My big sib is apparently kind of a (good guy) gunner so I'll definitely ask him.

Any love for annotating First Aid or Costanzo's BRS physio book?

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I used BRS physio and loved it - very concise yet easily understandable.

First Aid is good for some things, but it likely won't be sufficient for your classes. It's a good way to review the "basics," but at least for us simply knowing First Aid probably wouldn't be enough to pass the exams.

Other books I would recommend are Netter's and Rohen's for anatomy and Micro Made Simple for microbio. I didn't use anything for genetics/cell bio/biochem or pathology as our notes were sufficient and the most efficient way to study. As someone else said, though, you really should wait to talk to older students and see what they did. Study tools are very school-dependent since what will actually be covered and how you will be tested depends on individual professors and school policies.

NickNaylor said:

Other books I would recommend are Netter's and Rohen's for anatomy and Micro Made Simple for microbio. I didn't use anything for genetics/cell bio/biochem or pathology as our notes were sufficient and the most efficient way to study.

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I agree with this.

Anatomy: Netter's and possibly Rohen
Micro: Micro Made Rid. Simple. It will help you, for real. Best money spent on a book during my m1 year.

If I could go back I probably would have not bought big robbins. I actually read it during M1 with my classes. Can't say it helped tremendously, if at all.

How does Thieme's atlas compare to the others mentioned here?

Feed Me said:

How does Thieme's atlas compare to the others mentioned here?

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I used Thieme AKA Gilroy. The atlas tends to break things up more than Netter which throws everything at you at once from what I understand. Although the pictures in Gilroy were beautiful, I would have liked to see more complete plates (rather than a picture of blood vessels superimposed on a skeleton, yeah this is awesome for clearly seeing the vessels but you kind of lose the anatomic relationships to other stuff which is what anatomy is really all about). That being said, I'm not really sure I would switch atlases if I had to do it again considering I did quite well in the course with Thieme.

Feed Me said:

How does Thieme's atlas compare to the others mentioned here?

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I hated thiemes(gilroy's). I am in the minority here but I loved grant's. I also liked netter's I just didn't buy it, but the flash cards were helpful.

This might be school specific, but at my school a ton of test questions were taken out of the "blue boxes" of essential clinical anatomy. You might consider buying ECA just for those little boxes. They have external location points, too, which are bound to come up on exams.

I'm a big fan of the BRS series, and I have used BRS physio in several classes. I used Rohen's book and Netter's cards for anatomy and it worked very well. Goljan's Path is a must, in my opinion. I also used First Aid Basic Principles and Organ Systems quite a bit. Micro Made Ridiculously Simple was hilarious and helpful. The pictures are priceless.

I bought every book for my first class in M1, and they are all still in my locker. I don't even remember the combo to my locker, as I haven't opened it since about 3 or 4 weeks into M1.

However, it really depends on how your school runs classes. My school does NBME finals, so while the textbooks are superfluous, the review books are golden.

Feed Me said:

How does Thieme's atlas compare to the others mentioned here?

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I have Thieme's and the pictures are top notch. Much less cartoony than Netter's which is what I really like about it. I'm not a big textbook guy though so I really only busted it out to look at when I needed some better visual review of something.

Regarding the prior post about it, I thought it showed relationships pretty well. There were barebones plates but the plates tend to go deep to superficial so you definitely get plates with everything on them. I don't think it throws as much stuff on one plate as Netters or Greys though so you might not see one single plate with everything labeled. The atlas also has tons of useful tables and diagrams that simplify everything.

I'd definitely get the atlas again if I were to get one. The pictures are just awesome and I liked the organization. Like I said before, Netter's is too cartoony for me and Grey's is a gigantic textbook (I think they do have an atlas but I never saw it).

calvnandhobbs68 said:

I have Thieme's and the pictures are top notch. Much less cartoony than Netter's which is what I really like about it. I'm not a big textbook guy though so I really only busted it out to look at when I needed some better visual review of something.

Regarding the prior post about it, I thought it showed relationships pretty well. There were barebones plates but the plates tend to go deep to superficial so you definitely get plates with everything on them. I don't think it throws as much stuff on one plate as Netters or Greys though so you might not see one single plate with everything labeled. The atlas also has tons of useful tables and diagrams that simplify everything.

I'd definitely get the atlas again if I were to get one. The pictures are just awesome and I liked the organization. Like I said before, Netter's is too cartoony for me and Grey's is a gigantic textbook (I think they do have an atlas but I never saw it).

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I also prefer Theime. The art is better. Netter's advantage is better anatomical relationships.

My school's clinical intro stuff was non-existent and my attendings had better things to do, so Sapira's Art & Science of Bedside Diagnosis was absolutely invaluable in teaching me how to think when I see patients. In comparison, other physical diagnosis books seem like they were written for children.

Once you get past basic sciences physiology and you're sitting in the emergency department staring at a sheet of paper with no idea what's going on, you're going to need to actually understand clinical electrophysiology, so chuck Dubin and pick up Tomas Garcia's 12 lead EKG: The Art of Interpretation. Arrhythmia Recognition: The Art Of Interpretation is the sequel and it's pretty amazing as well.

Once you get through those books you really have a leg up on being able to see who knows what they're actually talking about. I believe that gunners don't read them because it's mostly untestable material, though.

Still haven't found a solid book for clinical pharm, that's my next goal.

VenusinFurs said:

DO NOT buy any books before school starts. DO NOT.

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I thought this advice was bull**** when I was a pre-M1 but he's right.

FunnyCurrent said:

I thought this advice was bull**** when I was a pre-M1 but he's right.

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Rinse and repeat and I think that describes receiving advice from older students pretty well.

VenusinFurs said:

DO NOT buy any books before school starts. DO NOT.

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This.

If you're gonna get something, look into BRS/Made Ridiculously Simple/High Yield series.

Honestly even these will only be used to supplement lecture notes which should be your primary source of study material for class. At least the review books will also be helpful for Step 1 studying.

You barely have enough time to learn/memorize the stuff in lecture, getting a bunch of huge texts that you'll never have time to read is just a waste of money.

Or u can be like all those M3/M4's who try to peddle their unused books to unsuspecting M1s during orientation week - "Its brand new, never been opened! I'm practically giving it away for 1/2 price!"

lol I wonder why?

I didn't read your post very well.

I agree that you shouldn't buy anything until you're in your first week and ideally after you find a mentor at your school who isn't trying to sell you anything.

Great Thread. This helps me, too.
Netter has an ipad app. The trial version looks pretty good. has a quiz function.
What do you all think of the app? do you think it is better than the physical book?

redhotpokerb said:

Great Thread. This helps me, too.
Netter has an ipad app. The trial version looks pretty good. has a quiz function.
What do you all think of the app? do you think it is better than the physical book?

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I'm interested in a response to this as well. I have the free version right now and it seems pretty great, plus it's light and portable so I can study on the bus or wherever I am without lugging the atlas. The quiz feature will help me a lot more than the Netter's flashcards since I was never a flashcard person. A couple people in my class are also considering the app, but since it's so much more expensive than buying the book off an upperclassman, we're not really sure. Anyone have success with the app?

ismet said:

i'm interested in a response to this as well. I have the free version right now and it seems pretty great, plus it's light and portable so i can study on the bus or wherever i am without lugging the atlas. The quiz feature will help me a lot more than the netter's flashcards since i was never a flashcard person. A couple people in my class are also considering the app, but since it's so much more expensive than buying the book off an upperclassman, we're not really sure. Anyone have success with the app?

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jb???

Ismet said:

I'm interested in a response to this as well. I have the free version right now and it seems pretty great, plus it's light and portable so I can study on the bus or wherever I am without lugging the atlas. The quiz feature will help me a lot more than the Netter's flashcards since I was never a flashcard person. A couple people in my class are also considering the app, but since it's so much more expensive than buying the book off an upperclassman, we're not really sure. Anyone have success with the app?

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I have only been in class for a week now, but I have been using Netter's iPad app and really like it.

I started using the Netter's iPad app after the first test block and found it extremely helpful. I also used the rohen's atlas. For the last test block (pelvis and lower limb), I downloaded the Inkling version of Grant's Atlas. It was nice, but I preferred the iPad Netter's Atlas of the two electronic.

redhotpokerb said:

jb???

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I thought about that but in retrospect every iphone i jb'd ended up functioning super slow. It really slows down the operational speed of the device, even AFTER I revirginize it! So why on earth would I do such a thing to my beautiful new iPad?

patmando said:

I started using the Netter's iPad app after the first test block and found it extremely helpful. I also used the rohen's atlas. For the last test block (pelvis and lower limb), I downloaded the Inkling version of Grant's Atlas. It was nice, but I preferred the iPad Netter's Atlas of the two electronic.

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Inkling books are awesome!

House of God. While it won't help you in class, it's a classic that every med student needs to read before residency.