Anatomy coloring book?

[Slide]

I've been fortunate to be accepted into a medical school and will be enrolling next academic year. I've been told by one of the physicians I've shadowed that one of the best things to do before med school, other than have tons of fun, is to buy an anatomy coloring book and go through it at my own pace. According to him, the main benefit is familiarity, rather than actually learning the deteails, so when I do start gross anatomy, it'll be easier to learn the material.

Is this true? If so, any recommendations for a certain anatomy coloring book?

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[symphony]

I'm starting medical school in a few weeks (I'm going to the caribbean one), and I got myself an anatomy coloring book. I just studied a little bit of the planes and familiarize myself with an atlas.

For the coloring book, I got Wynn's and for the atlas, I got Rohen and Netter. However, many people in the forum tell us not to study but relax....
Oh! I also did some reading. I read Medical School Confidential. I think that it's a pretty good book, considering I don't know many people who are in medical school and I am the first in my family to jump into the field of health care.



All the best!

 

[medicomel]

Gray's Anatomy for Students flashcards are really good if you don't want to spend time coloring. they're more detailed and they coincide directly with the book. i personally don't like the coloring books on the market because they're cartoonish looking and are oversimplified.

 

[anon-y-mouse]

I've been fortunate to be accepted into a medical school and will be enrolling next academic year. I've been told by one of the physicians I've shadowed that one of the best things to do before med school, other than have tons of fun, is to buy an anatomy coloring book and go through it at my own pace. According to him, the main benefit is familiarity, rather than actually learning the deteails, so when I do start gross anatomy, it'll be easier to learn the material.

Is this true? If so, any recommendations for a certain anatomy coloring book?

Err, I don't think so... I have one, but I got it for free... the princeton review one... it's not detailed enough for med school. Even if you're not going for details, you might still be biased with the previous knowledge, and it might not be very applicable. The kinds of questions you get in anatomy and the sorts of things they expect you to know are not something you can easily predict... I know when I opened BRS anatomy for the first time before the course, I was absolutely mystified by what it all meant, how much of it I was expectd to know, and most of all the seemingly difficult questions.

If anything, you should be familiar with anatomical terms... like frames of reference... proximal/distal, medial/lateral, superficial/deep, sagittal, frontal/coronal, transverse, flexion/extension, pronation/supination, adduction/abduction, etc. I'd say if you knew that, you'd have a pretty good start. All this information will be in the first chapter of any clinical anatomy textbook, so if anything, try to read that.

Anatomy's a lot like learning a new language... at the beginning of the course, I didn't know how nerves/arteries/veins worked and interacted with muscles, ligaments, tendons, aponeuroses, fascia, etc. but once you become acquainted and lay the framework in the first few weeks, the rest of it should come fairly easily. Without this framework, it's sort of futile to try to learn anatomy because you might not be sure exactly how to organize it within your head. This is why you may not want to do that coloring book thing!

 

[vtucci]

I hated the coloring book and gave it to my little sib to see if she could use it. I was not a flashcard person either. I would highly recommend getting Rohen's Atlas and Moses' Atlas if you want visuals.

Familarity is the name of the game. Some of your classmates will have taken anatomy previously and it is a wicked advantage for those that did.

 

[MissAmerica]

Do NOT do it.

It is nothing but a shear waste of time . Only buy it if you have endless hours to waste!

What I do recommend is getting Gray's Anatomy Flashcards for students and try to learn as many illustrations as you can. Even if you learn the superficial and deep muscles of the back, the meninges, and the layers of the spinal cord -- you will be far ahead than your peers when it comes tim eto roll. It makes more sense to invest your time in this way.

Then, if you still feel teh review is not enough, then, after having learned the cards,

you could buy yourself the coloring book, since , now, you will have an idea about the structures and their respective locations.

Yours,

Miss America

 

[njbmd]

I've been fortunate to be accepted into a medical school and will be enrolling next academic year. I've been told by one of the physicians I've shadowed that one of the best things to do before med school, other than have tons of fun, is to buy an anatomy coloring book and go through it at my own pace. According to him, the main benefit is familiarity, rather than actually learning the deteails, so when I do start gross anatomy, it'll be easier to learn the material.

Is this true? If so, any recommendations for a certain anatomy coloring book?

One of the things that you will learn very quickly when you start medical school, is that you will come up with a system to master everything. If having seen the names of structures before is helpful, then maybe the coloring book might be worth doing. I certainly wouldn't spend the precious time that you have before starting school working on an anatomy coloring book unless you are totally want of something to do.

I would strongly suggest having a look at one of them in a medical book store. Most of my classmates who purchased one of these items found them pretty useless and tedious. One person did like doing the coloring but found it too time consuming after a while.

If you wanted to study one of the atlases like Rohen or Netter, especially to know what the plates are all about and where things are located, relative size etc, that might be worth doing but you should really enjoy this time. You will have more than enough time to study Gross Anatomy and everything else when school starts. You will feel rushed but you really will get everything done.

 

[med_heidelberg]

The coloring book is useful for learning functional groups of muscles, but not much else.

 

[78222]

Don't waste your time, it wont help you at all. The pace you will have to learn Gross when you actually start medical school will condense anything you will have learned into one or two days of medschool.

 

[DropkickMurphy]

The way I learned anatomy really well, and killed time on a couple of REALLY long transoceanic flights, was to redraw the plates from the anatomy atlas that I have. I also added my own drawings (to show anatomical variants, etc) from dissections and autopsies I've assisted with.

 

[deleted98681]

I disagree with nearly everyone who has posted here. I just finished anatomy and loved my coloring book (Kapit and Elson). After a couple of weeks I figured out that it was useless to read Grant's or try to study a region before I had dissected it. Instead, I familiarized myself with the region that we were going to dissect the day before the lab by coloring it in the coloring book. I very rarely found it lacking information and when I did I would add a label. I think the people who hate coloring books must be the ones that actually worry about coloring between the lines.

As for coloring before you start med school, go for it. I did. Just steer clear of the detailed plates because you won't learn them and you will wish you hadn't already colored them when the time comes to actually study the region.

 

[MrBrightside]

I didn't use a coloring book and know nothing about them so I will give unsolicited advice. I found it very helpful to draw things out like arteries and the brachial plexus etc. If it will make you feel better to start studying now, go for it but the majority of people don't. It might ease some anxiety but how much it will help is debatable.

 

[Arginine]

I really loved The Anatomy Coloring Book by Kapit & Elson because I am a very visual person. True, it is rather time-consuming to color, but the book really helped me visualize muscles, blood vessels, and the various organ systems. The level of detail--while nowhere near as high as a "real" anatomy textbook--was pretty decent. Is it helpful? That really depends on your own individual learning style.

 

[blz]

ghey.

go party instead.

 

[JohnAltman]

I hope this helps. You can look at this very extensive Anatomy Resource in video format.

http://the-structure-of-man.blogspot.com/

 

[78222]

ghey.

go party instead.

tru dat

 

[Hurricane95]

I highly recommend Netter flash cards, second edition by John Hansen... $35 on amazon.com These cards are essentially the same plates from Netter's atlas but organized and with fewer labels per card than plate. I got fed up with the atlas because each plate has like 80 things labeled on it...it gets frustrating to find things effectively and study from it. The cards on the other hand isolate structures by group. For example, under the Head/Neck section, there is a card that reads "External carotid artery" and labels only the branches of this artery on the displayed plate. Additionally each card on the back has written descriptions of structure and funciton, relationships between structures and important clinical correlates to know. They are awesome...great buy.

 

[daeojkim]

The coloring book is not something that I would recommend once you have started med school. But it is worthwhile to look at it before med school. Just go to Barnes and Noble and take a look at it before you buy it.

But like everyone else said, preparing for some classes before med school is a wise choice if you have time. If you can do it, more power to you, you will be much better prepared to handle the load work if you know the basics. But remember to go out and have some fun as well.

 

[Flopotomist]

I gotta say - don't do ANYTHING to "study" before med school. There will be plenty of time for that while you are IN school. What there WON'T be time for is a lot of recreation, extra trips etc. SO... spend this time having fun.

Once you start anatomy - I personally didn't like the coloring book... I used Rohen (a true must) and Chung (helps on the written portions of exams). Have a Netter just for the basics, and a baby Moore to use as the primary text to look at before you look at the Chung.

 

[Hurricane95]

Yeah I used Rohen and Moore too....didn't really read too much of Moore at first because it's a LOT of reading (not the baby version, the full thing) but as the course went on I started reading most of it. It takes forever to get through, but helps tremendously. Damn...I spent like $250 for anatomy alone this semester...ouch. But I guess you gotta do what you gotta do.

Oh and ditto on not studyin before med school starts. There's plenty of time to do that once you start....Drink, go out, sleep, spend time with your girl/boyfriend, whatever. But don't try to get a head start.