Books?

[nguyenkd]

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My pharmacist, who graduated many moons ago from University of Houston, told me that when he was in pharm school he had no use for the textbooks. He studied from his notes and the packets the professors provided them and only used the textbooks for reference. What is everybody's take on this? Also, about how much do you spend on books each semester because my school says it will be about $1,500/sem. 😱

 

[Brill]

The only reason to buy the books is if you want to reinforce your understanding of the material that is given during lecture. All of the tests come straight from the notes. I bought a couple of the books for first year and never really used them (they helped when I skipped lecture). The ones I didn't buy were never needed.

 

[jdpharmd?]

Also, about how much do you spend on books each semester because my school says it will be about $1,500/sem. 😱

They are usually useful for some things, but our exams usually come from lecture material more than textbook chapters. Expect to spent ~$500/year if you buy almost all the good ones, but skip the insane ones that they would "suggest" that you buy (i.e. instead of koda-kimble + dipiro + goodman gilmans, just get dipiro used for $90, instead of all three for $500+)

 

[lord999]

But also consider getting a pocket reference or update a PDA as well. I prefer Lexi and CCM myself.

 

[jemc2000]

Does anyone have a good source of cheaper prereq books? My A&P books, for that series will total $442 at the school bookstore. Then another $200 for OChem.

Any secrets?

 

[GravyRPH]

I concur with all the above posts. But, I still bought everything because I was too chicken to risk not being fully prepared for an exam. My last semester, I did an unscientific test to see how my scores would be if I didn't do any reading from the textbooks and did all my studying from lecture notes. I think I either got a 4.0 or 3.8. 😎 But it took me 5 semesters to get the guts to try it.

 

[Trancelucent1]

www.half.com !!!! I got all my books for undergrad their and plan on buying my Pharm books there too. I also have sold back most of my books. I actually sold a book back for $10 less than I paid for it...not bad at all! Now it's moving to the ebay format but you will still be able to search by ISBN. This is the best way. www.amazon.com is also good for used and new books!