2 cents on books from an MSII...almost III

[lynnetm]

As I am sitting here studying for boards, it occurs to me that I spent WAY too much money on books. I was one of those neurotic premeds who bought every book recommended by the school, friends, upperclassmen, strangers on blogs...and now I have an extensive library of pretty books, most of which I have cracked maybe ONCE. It occurs to me that a useful way to procrastinate about further studying today is to post the books that you really ought to buy, coming from a person who seems to own them all. If a subject isn't listed, I didn't feel strongly enough about it to recommend spending the money, you can get by on lecture notes or pick your own book.

Pathology: You MUST own a Robbins. Big, small, doesn't matter, choose depending on your learning style and how much detail you like when studying. You must also get the review question book, it's great for school exams as well as the USMLE. BRS Path when studying for boards.

Anatomy: Netter. Netter is a semi-divine being at my school. The flash cards are nice because they are so portable, you can grab a small stack for what you are studying and take it with you without needing the whole book.

Physiology: Costanzo. Ignore all other books, they will only confuse you. Ignore your professor also, they are probably only going to confuse you as well. Read Costanzo and all will be clear. Costanzo also wrote the High Yield Physiology book, which is an abbreviated version of her textbook for boards studying.

Systems specific:
Rapid Interpretation of EKG's, written so a kindergartener could read it.
Renal System at a Glance. All the pictures and diagrams you wish your teacher would show you.
Lilly's Pathophysiology of Heart Disease, to read when you go home confused about preload and afterload.
Haines' Neuroanatomy atlas AND Basic Clinical Neuroanatomy by Young. One for the structures, one for the clinical importance of the structures.

Well, that's my 2 cents, I guess I have to actually study now. Good luck and welcome to the wide world of medicine...;-)

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[the POONisher]

Pathology: You MUST own a Robbins.

f.uck that... if you at least stayed awake during 2nd yr, BRS path is enough

Anatomy: Netter. Netter is a semi-divine being at my school. The flash cards are nice because they are so portable, you can grab a small stack for what you are studying and take it with you without needing the whole book.

bah... studyin anatomy is LOW yield. what little anatomy there's gonna be on step1, they're gonna confuse you anyway regardless of how much you study it

Physiology: Costanzo

yep... i'll agree with this one

Systems specific:
Rapid Interpretation of EKG's, written so a kindergartener could read it.
Renal System at a Glance. All the pictures and diagrams you wish your teacher would show you.
Lilly's Pathophysiology of Heart Disease, to read when you go home confused about preload and afterload.
Haines' Neuroanatomy atlas AND Basic Clinical Neuroanatomy by Young. One for the structures, one for the clinical importance of the structures.

waste of time... way too specific

i say learn the general $hit really well and you'll be fine

 

[psipsina]

An added note, if your reccomended textbook is written by the proffessor DO buy that for the course.

 

[deleted77919]

For physio I used a combination of Boron and lecture notes to study for my class. Costanzo is written in a simple manner but also contains semi-significant errors due to oversimplification.

Come boards time this probably won't matter, but I don't think Costanzo was a good way to learn physio.

 

[naegleria brain]

what's up with all these BOOKS!?

BRS is detailed, great for accompanying classwork. maybe too much for boards (cept path and phys of course)

teachers notes were MORE than enough for me. i do have a path book that i use to look at pictures. i might as well just borrow it from the library, but its nice having one for yourself

anatomy - if you ever really needed to review this second year, i guess netter. google image search was good enough for me
brs anatomy had great questions

biochemistry - all biochem sucks. some say lippincott.

physio - BRS physio and lecture notes were fine

neuro - brs neuro for class was more than enough; hi yield probably for boards

path - brs. 'nuff said.

pharm - it sucks, just learn it as they teach it.

micro - ridiculously simple was awesome

 

[Pinkertinkle]

There's hardly any ECG on the boards, buying a book for it would be wastefull.

 

[Ultra7]

An added note, if your reccomended textbook is written by the proffessor DO buy that for the course.

I disagree. These books are more likely than usual to be overly specific and terribly written.

Avoid first editions of anything; they are usually riddled with typos. The exception is Netter (I think there has been only one edition, and it is a really fantastic book).

 

[Critical Mass]

These books are more likely than usual to be overly specific and terribly written.

Sad to say it, but I found this to be true with the review book that one of our profs wrote.

Congrats for a thread that hasn't been moved to some other forum!

It's like a graveyard on allo today.

 

[Hayden2102]

I disagree. These books are more likely than usual to be overly specific and terribly written.

Avoid first editions of anything; they are usually riddled with typos. The exception is Netter (I think there has been only one edition, and it is a really fantastic book).

Nah Netter is up to it's fourth edition.

 

[megadon]

yes, my free AMSA edition of Netter tells me that nine months ago, the fourth edition was the most current. There aren't going to to be many more new editions, look at the picture of the guy. I'm sure that in his late retirement he doesn't want to kick out an edition a year.

As far as your prof wrote the textbook, the reason you might want to at least look at it (maybe in the library) is their questions are probably going to arise from the text. Come step 1, switch to Constanza or Guidon.

 

[Critical Mass]

yes, my free AMSA edition of Netter tells me that nine months ago, the fourth edition was the most current. There aren't going to to be many more new editions, look at the picture of the guy. I'm sure that in his late retirement he doesn't want to kick out an edition a year.

Who is the picture of? Frank Netter has been dead for over 15 years.

 

[78222]

An added note, if your reccomended textbook is written by the proffessor DO buy that for the course.

I disagree. In my experience, everything I've read thats been written by my professors - questions books aside - have had way too much detail, or been written in such a confusing, obtuse manner, that they were essentially useless.

 

[78222]

Here's my opinion on first year books, and I used a lot:

Anatomy: Netter's is really all you need. Moores is crap, Gray's is crap

Physiology: Costanza

Biochem: Lippincott's

For everything else, course notes should suffice.

 

[WhoisJohnGalt]

f.uck that... if you at least stayed awake during 2nd yr, BRS path is enough

I have to agree on this one... I would only buy a Robbins if your path profs suck. Otherwise, it's way too much detail. I have BRS Path and Goljan Rapid Review Path, and they're more than enough for me with course notes.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

I disagree. In my experience, everything I've read thats been written by my professors - questions books aside - have had way too much detail, or been written in such a confusing, obtuse manner, that they were essentially useless.

Unless your professor wrote the BRS book for the subject and uses questions on the test that are very similar to the questions at the end of the book. Then, buy it and ignore all other sources of information.

Your description sounds like a lot of our course sylllibi.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

Who is the picture of? Frank Netter has been dead for over 15 years.

You haven't checked out the great Netter picture where he's smoking a cigar while sitting at his desk.

 

[78222]

Unless your professor wrote the BRS book for the subject and uses questions on the test that are very similar to the questions at the end of the book. Then, buy it and ignore all other sources of information.

Your description sounds like a lot of our course sylllibi.

I don't know how your school does it, but we have so many lecturers, that if we bought all of their books, we'd have to buy a storage facility to keep them.

 

[psipsina]

I don't know how your school does it, but we have so many lecturers, that if we bought all of their books, we'd have to buy a storage facility to keep them.

When a proff's book has been reccomended at my school, that proff is usually teaching the course for the whole block so using their review book really isn't that bad of an idea. It has their style of questions, gives you an idea of their emphasis, is usually more coherent than their lectures, and then you don't have to pace yourself with the class, you can read it at your own pace as long as you finish before the test. Our proff outright said at the beginning of the block that if you could explain all the figures in the book you would ace the test, way better then sitting thru lecture or digging thru a poorly organized student noteset.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

I don't know how your school does it, but we have so many lecturers, that if we bought all of their books, we'd have to buy a storage facility to keep them.

That's how most of our classes are, but we have a couple of classes where the course director has pretty strong control over the questions and teaches a significant part of the class. At our school, the course director for anatomy wrote the BRS book and wrote the exams.

 

[78222]

Well, like I said, I reccommend reading their questions/question books. I just don't think their books tend to be all that great (on average) of explaining the material. Especially since most seem to be principally interested in research science. There are exemptions of course (anatomy).