Step I Books for Anatomy

[mimi1]

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I'm supposed to study Anatomy for the next 2 days. Anatomy was never a strong subject for me, so I'm really looking to improve in it now. I have BRS Gross Anatomy, FA and the Kaplan home study books. I feel like BRS is really detailed. Not sure how Kaplan is yet. Any suggestions as to how to approach Gross? Is there another book I should get? Like HY? Or should I just trudge through BRS?

Any suggestions are appreciated!!!

Thanks!

 

[doctom]

have a look at Instant Anatomy website as well with some audio podcasts as well as online pictures
http://www.instantanatomy.net
Good luck

 

[DOctorJay]

I personally used HY and thought it was pretty good, lots of people use this as their source. I have heard BRS wasn't that great for anatomy from other users here.

I have also heard that the book by James White, PhD is excellent (Road map series - he teaches for Kaplan and was my neuroscience prof).

at this point if you can go to the med library/bookstore to look at these it might be a good idea instead of buying another source. good luck!

-J

 

[jennyboo]

I'm supposed to study Anatomy for the next 2 days. Anatomy was never a strong subject for me, so I'm really looking to improve in it now. I have BRS Gross Anatomy, FA and the Kaplan home study books. I feel like BRS is really detailed. Not sure how Kaplan is yet. Any suggestions as to how to approach Gross? Is there another book I should get? Like HY? Or should I just trudge through BRS?

Any suggestions are appreciated!!!

Thanks!

2 days? Forget about trying to learn more anatomy, just cover what's in First Aid paying particular attention to neuroanatomy.

At this point, First Aid is enough for anatomy. Any other book you read should be only to explain the stuff in First Aid you don't understand.

 

[SurgeryRA]

I used HY for anatomy and it helped, but not to the extent that I hoped. If you really want to understand anatomy, i feel like you have to sit there with an atlas and visualize everything. I don't think the board review books really help with that. HY does have some good MRIs and CTs though. As with BRS, I looked at that thing and said hell no. Too much stuff and it would take forever to get through. But the bottom line is that I got rocked on the anatomy questions in qbank so take my advice for what it's worth.

 

[Paws]

I thought FA was pretty skimpy on anatomy, and yet the Kaplan is really huge. HY is ok, but the detail is exhausting. When I took a QBank test of anatomy I got, like 23% so I obviously need help.

How much anatomy do we really need to know? A friend of mine thought she would try and glide through and hoped not to get too many anatomy q's and you know!! she of course got killed on the exam. So she told me not to do that.

I thught I might try and focus on Kaplan for now. But do we need to know tons of anatomy? some people say it's a minor topic and we shouldn't go nuts ... 😕

 

[jennyboo]

I thought FA was pretty skimpy on anatomy, and yet the Kaplan is really huge. HY is ok, but the detail is exhausting. When I took a QBank test of anatomy I got, like 23% so I obviously need help.

How much anatomy do we really need to know? A friend of mine thought she would try and glide through and hoped not to get too many anatomy q's and you know!! she of course got killed on the exam. So she told me not to do that.

I thught I might try and focus on Kaplan for now. But do we need to know tons of anatomy? some people say it's a minor topic and we shouldn't go nuts ... 😕

Anatomy is a low yield topic on Step 1. That does change depending on what you think neuroanatomy is -- some would say the neuroanatomy is moderate yield.

Let's say you get 7 gross anatomy questions on the entire test and score, once again, 23%. How many "lost" points is that? Is it worth spending days on it when improving your pathology/physiology averages from 65% to 72% will earn you a LOT more points? There are a handful of gross questions, but pushing through an entire Gross Anatomy review book would not have been a good use of my last few days of studying. Since it is hard to predict what few details of a very large subject are going to be asked in very few questions on this exam, if you're out of time your best bet is FA.

In retrospect, most people look back and say they used too many books and should have used fewer. When cutting down your books, anatomy should be the first to go.

 

[ssm82]

So my take on anatomy is don't sweat the small stuff, but if you want to do well on the test, you're taking a gamble by not studying anatomy at all, past FA. What I did was read through FA anatomy and High yield, then spent a day going through HY better with Moore's anatomy, because thats the book they used pics from in High yield, so if you're a visual person the diagrams in Moore are better. Somethings a pic is all you need to remind yourself what you once knew (or sorta knew!)

I didn't read Moore or anything, just tagged a few great pages with colorful diagrams in Moores and made notes from High yield and am planning to glance through those once more before my test.

 

[lord_jeebus]

I haven't done much studying of anatomy, but I've found that doing QBank teaches you a lot of good anatomy facts. Especially because they overemphasize that subject so much.

It does help to have some sort of atlas handy when you review QBank so you can see what they're describing, however.

 

[Abacus1050]

I just finished HY anatomy - so the far the most brutal topic for me to sit down and try and relearn (cram). My plan: not waste time on the minutia, and to just make sure I know key relationships. In terms of personal contentment, I'd rather miss something obscure than something truly fundamental to clinical practice. HY seemed to do a good job of pointing out what might be impt.

 

[jameslynton]

I'm supposed to study Anatomy for the next 2 days. Anatomy was never a strong subject for me, so I'm really looking to improve in it now. Any suggestions are appreciated!!!

Screw the books with bunches of detail - instead look at most common injuries - know why if you break a bone X what other issues you will have - car injuries, sports and stab wounds to different places. Let your imagination run as wild as a slasher movie. Also know most common neuroanatomy lesions - and how to recon them. BTW neuroanatomy made ridicusiouly simple is quick read and reviews all of the above.

 

[DoctorWannaBe]

I haven't done much studying of anatomy, but I've found that doing QBank teaches you a lot of good anatomy facts. Especially because they overemphasize that subject so much.

It does help to have some sort of atlas handy when you review QBank so you can see what they're describing, however.

Do we not have to know as much anatomy as Qbank expects us to know? Most of the questions they asked about muscles/nerves aren't even in First Aid, so is FA enough?

 

[Hard24Get]

have a look at Instant Anatomy website as well with some audio podcasts as well as online pictures
http://www.instantanatomy.net
Good luck

Anyone bought the cd? Know if it's any good?

 

[lord_jeebus]

Do we not have to know as much anatomy as Qbank expects us to know? Most of the questions they asked about muscles/nerves aren't even in First Aid, so is FA enough?

I made that comment before the test.

My test was unusually anatomy-heavy (3-5 questions per block). For Gross Anatomy, FA was nearly useless. It could only answer about 4 or 5 of my gross anatomy questions, total. Throwing in QBank anatomy, that covered about 3-4 more. The majority tested understanding of how structures relate to each other. A minority tested really tiny anatomy minutia, some of which was skipped over in my anatomy course (ie. I remember our prof saying "we're skipping this because it's so unimportant," and he said that very rarely).

All in all, the questions came from a full set of anatomical facts that you would be expected to know post-anatomy course, and were by no means limited to "high yield" anatomy concepts. For instance I had no brachial plexus questions.

I wish I could tell you how to prepare for an anatomy-heavy test like I got, but besides spending a day with an atlas nothing would have helped. (I did spend a few hours in my last week of studying with my atlas and it helped more than FA and QBank combined). Perhaps the most efficient way to prepare would be to research world religions, pick the most promising one, and pray for the typical low-anatomy test (no one else I've talked to had nearly as much anatomy).

As for neuroanatomy, there was quite a bit of that too, and HY Neuroanatomy covered it 100%. What a book.

 

[Paws]

I wish I could tell you how to prepare for an anatomy-heavy test like I got, but besides spending a day with an atlas nothing would have helped. (I did spend a few hours in my last week of studying with my atlas and it helped more than FA and QBank combined). Perhaps the most efficient way to prepare would be to research world religions, pick the most promising one, and pray for the typical low-anatomy test (no one else I've talked to had nearly as much anatomy).

As for neuroanatomy, there was quite a bit of that too, and HY Neuroanatomy covered it 100%. What a book.

Great post Lord Jeebus, my friend would give you a thumbs up on this. 👍

I have become one with my HY anatomy and embryology books and I think I will absolutely pull out my dusty Moore's. It's amazing how much you can come to love a boring book when your life's future depends on the material inside. I actually feel like I am learning more and better (?) than I did during the courses. I mean, I am totally integrating stuff now. Amazing. And the HY neuroanatomy is also awesome.