Anatomy Atlas Question

[docmd2010]

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I'm goin to med school next year and want to buy an anatomy book before so i can study a little bit, which one would you guys recommend?

 

[Taus]

you will have PLENTY of time to study next year...and will have no clue about where to focus your attention w/o seeing how your profs want to present the material....just relax.....

 

[docsurglace]

I'll be starting med school this fall, too. I don't have any suggestions for a text, but I really like Netter's Atlas of Human Anatomy if you are in need of an atlas. Sidenote . . .I was advised not to study this summer as well, 😱 but it seems like a good idea anyway. I'll have to wait and see! Good luck with school this fall!

 

[Uvault05]

I too am beginning in the fall and I'll be doing some fun reading before classes start as well (partially because this interim year has been BOOORING). I've also heard good things about Netter's for anatomy, and I bought the '05 edition of First Aid for Step I (only about 20 bucks...) in order to get some comprehensive exposure to biochem & anatomy before the big dance!

I don't really care about the advice of those who think that studying before school begins is a bad idea. I never took biochem as an undergrad and I'm sure that doing a bit of review before the fall won't hurt.

 

[Koko]

I would also suggest enjoying your time or doing something else prior to starting. For anatomy, I used Netters and Rohen's Color Atlas (photos). The combo worked nicely for me. Good luck.

 

[Bernardo_11]

I'd buy a nice set of colored markers or pencils and then buy a good anatomy coloring book. Not so much to start memorizing specific organs and muscle attachments, innervations, or branches/tributaries of arteries/veins.... you'll have tons of time for that during school. But I think of I were to have done a few of the coloring plates before starting anatomy, I would have been less lost in the beginning, and the "language" of anatomy would not have been too foreign to me at the get go. You'll eventually figure i out regardless, as I did. But I thnk it would have been a little easier for me had I did that beforehand.

Regards,
Nardo
DB Peds Fellow

 

[Jedix123]

I've always heard studying before first year is something not to do. First you'll be wasting your time and when school starts, you'll be tired of it already. Thus, chill out.

 

[Deanmonster]

I bought an anatomy coloring book and I mess with it every once in awhile just so that I can ease back into the school thing (i've been out 4 years).

 

[sga814]

Netter's is good for forming a mental image... but to see stuff you'll actually be tested on in lab exams- ROHEN is superior (it is a photographic atlas... that is oh so good).

 

[DoctorFunk]

Casting another vote for the famed combo of Netter for learning and Rohen's photographic atlas for drilling it into your head before the lab exam. One of the things I really liked about Rohen was that structures were only numbered on each plate with a legend on the sidebar. This made it very easy to quiz yourself using the book.

That being said, please please please do not study this summer. Every school treats anatomy differently and there is no way to know what your profs will obsess about and what they will gloss over.

 

[CaptainZero]

Netter's is good for forming a mental image... but to see stuff you'll actually be tested on in lab exams- ROHEN is superior (it is a photographic atlas... that is oh so good).

Yup...that's the way to do it.

 

[Law2Doc]

I'm goin to med school next year and want to buy an anatomy book before so i can study a little bit, which one would you guys recommend?

As most have said on this thread, DO NOT try to study anatomy ahead of time on your own - it will be a waste of time and your summer. If you must buy a book, be sure to buy a heavy one so you can use it to pound some sense into your head on this point. 😀

 

[Taus]

I agree w/ the last few posts. I initially learned names,structures and most importantly RELATIONSHIPS from Netter. When it came to the week before the test I would quiz myself almost exclusively from Rohen. I feel that getting these two different perspectives really drilled the info into my head. To each his/her own though....you'll have to find out what works for you.

 

[tea4me]

I was in your position a year ago and asked a friend in med school how I should pre-study for MS1. After giving me an incredulous look and telling me to enjoy my free time while I still had it, she told me that Rohen's atlas was great and helped her do well in anatomy. So I went on amazon and bought it. I was super excited when it came in the mail - after all, it was my first med school purchase ever - and opened it to a random page. After I saw the embalmed, skinless head of a dead old man with bulging eyes and dissected blood vessels, I freaked out and decided to spend the rest of my year off drinking beer with friends and traveling.

Moral of the story: Listen to your friends when they tell you to relax/chill/do something you've never done before med school. It's not a bad idea to buy books that people tell you are helpful (i.e. review books - you can always sell them if you don't use them) but DO NOT STUDY! You'll do enough of that when you start class, trust me on this.

 

[docsurglace]

Okay, so all of us soon-to-be first year med students might need a good dose of some chill pills and resist a little pre-game studying this summer. . . But for those of you out there who just can't help yourself, I do recommend a good anatomy coloring book (especially if you are a very visual learner such as myself! 🙂 ) When I took gross anatomy as a grad student, I used the book by Kapit and Elson. I've seen it at Barnes and Noble a 1,000 times and you can most likely get it anywhere. As a BONUS for us upcoming first years who just can't seem to calm down, I know of this nice website called Net Anatomy (http://www.netanatomy.com/) that has excellent pictures of real cadavers. Click on gross anatomy, then click on anatomy lab, and there you have it! I used it for my grad course and it made the lab practical so much easier. So, if you can't read over the summer, then bookmark the site and look at some things here and there between soaking up some sun and those late night parties! Take care, everyone!

 

[CanIMakeIt]

Netter's is good for forming a mental image... but to see stuff you'll actually be tested on in lab exams- ROHEN is superior (it is a photographic atlas... that is oh so good).

I second that ... Netter and Rohen are the way to go but please don't substitute them for going to the lab or reviewing with the body... i, at least learnt best at the body...

good luck

 

[gdk]

you will probably use a netter constantly. heck, our lecturers had netter plates in their lecture powerpoint slides. i liked rohen on nights i didn't want to go to the lab, and used it as a quiz with the numbered tags. however, don't get too jacked up about learning a bunch of stuff now... i started highlighting the stuff in netter that we had to know and after marking about 90% of the stuff in the book, i quit. it would have been intimidating if somebody told me we would cover that much stuff ahead of time.
if you want to study something, i would suggest drawing out arteries and nerves and trying to get that to stick (brachial plexus, pelvic nerves, etc)... there will be way too much stuff in netter and rohen to just dive into

g

 

[OSUdoc08]

I'm goin to med school next year and want to buy an anatomy book before so i can study a little bit, which one would you guys recommend?

Netter (drawings)
Rohen (photos)

Don't let anyone tell you any different.

Gray's, Grant's, et. al. are worthless.

 

[logos]

Grants, as the drawings are more realistic. There is a reason that anatomy professors tend to recomend this one, its very good.

Netters is ok for getting the idea of where things are supposed to be, but the drawings are cartoonish in style and therefore tend to cheat you on the practical. ie. on the real body everything looks the same white/yellow color.

I have heard many times that Rohens is good but did not buy it myself.

 

[stargirl50]

this year, there was an offer for a free netters at the beginning of the year if you joined amsa and applied for some amsa credit card (which you never had to use). just another reason to hold off on buying the books...

 

[logos]

this year, there was an offer for a free netters at the beginning of the year if you joined amsa and applied for some amsa credit card (which you never had to use). just another reason to hold off on buying the books...

But before you join make sure you check out what AMSA stands for politically....some stuff that most physicians are morally and ethically opposed to.

A lot of people from my class joined for the netters without knowing about their politics. I personally wont have anything to do with them because of this, despite the fact that the local group actually does some usefull sounding stuff.
(I joined AMA-MSS, the medical student section of the AMA, instead)