Digital vs Paper Texts?

[Mosonik]

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Are there any courses or subjects (specifically or generally, I know texts may vary by school) that are intrinsically better to have a digital copy of the text instead of the hard copy?

 

[cliquesh]

I wouldn't buy any of the books your school recommends/requires. Most of them, if not all of them, will be available to you online for free via your school's library.

I think if you have an Ipad or tablet, the digital versions are the way to go for most things, except First Aid. If you are going to annotate a resource, like First Aid for board prep, I think its easier to have a physical copy.

Digital copies are nice when you are rotations. If you have to travel for your rotations, its nice that you do not need to bring a bunch of text books with you, and when you are at the hospital, its nice that you can pull out your ipad and read about your patients' diseases and treatments.

I think all you need for the USMLE is First Aid, rapid review pathology by Goljan, and Broad review series Physiology.... and lots of qbank questions. For the comlex, use the same resources plus OMT review by Savarese.

Buying an anatomy book would probably be useful. I liked a Color atlas of anatomy: a photographic study of the human body.

I dont think you need a microbiology or pharmacology book. You can get that information from your school's library if needed, and pretty much everything you need to know about pharm/micro is in first aid.

 

[Mosonik]

I wouldn't buy any of the books your school recommends/requires. Most of them, if not all of them, will be available to you online for free via your school's library.

I think if you have an Ipad or tablet, the digital versions are the way to go for most things, except First Aid. If you are going to annotate a resource, like First Aid for board prep, I think its easier to have a physical copy.

Digital copies are nice when you are rotations. If you have to travel for your rotations, its nice that you do not need to bring a bunch of text books with you, and when you are at the hospital, its nice that you can pull out your ipad and read about your patients' diseases and treatments.

I think all you need for the USMLE is First Aid, rapid review pathology by Goljan, and Broad review series Physiology.... and lots of qbank questions. For the comlex, use the same resources plus OMT review by Savarese.

Buying an anatomy book would probably be useful. I liked a Color atlas of anatomy: a photographic study of the human body.

I dont think you need a microbiology or pharmacology book. You can get that information from your school's library if needed, and pretty much everything you need to know about pharm/micro is in first aid.

Great, thank you for the advice! I am all for saving every penny I can so I will try to rely heavily on the school's "library" and only purchasing what is absolutely necessary.

 

[AFMD]

They still make books out of trees?

 

[GlowInTheDark]

I bought a hard copy of Robbins and Netters and that is all. I use electronic for everything else.

I tried an electronic Robbins, but searching, highlighting, and note taking are essentially impossible for me to do to my liking on a tablet/laptop. I do still have the anatomy book and Robbins on my tablet for access whenever I don't need hardcore reference.

Brief response: I have electronic copies of everything as well as hard copies of FA, Robbins, Netter, and Little Costanzo.

 

[Oo Cipher oO]

I wouldn't buy any of the books your school recommends/requires. Most of them, if not all of them, will be available to you online for free via your school's library.

I think if you have an Ipad or tablet, the digital versions are the way to go for most things, except First Aid. If you are going to annotate a resource, like First Aid for board prep, I think its easier to have a physical copy.

Digital copies are nice when you are rotations. If you have to travel for your rotations, its nice that you do not need to bring a bunch of text books with you, and when you are at the hospital, its nice that you can pull out your ipad and read about your patients' diseases and treatments.

I think all you need for the USMLE is First Aid, rapid review pathology by Goljan, and Broad review series Physiology.... and lots of qbank questions. For the comlex, use the same resources plus OMT review by Savarese.

Buying an anatomy book would probably be useful. I liked a Color atlas of anatomy: a photographic study of the human body.

I dont think you need a microbiology or pharmacology book. You can get that information from your school's library if needed, and pretty much everything you need to know about pharm/micro is in first aid.

I agree. First Aid is the only one you need in paper format. Netter's Atlas has a fantastic IPad app. It has everything from the book version with the added ability to search and quiz yourself. I'd also check out the texbook app Inkling. It has a good selection of the most common medical textbooks. I like it much better than using my library's electronic resources.

 

[spleencakes]

I met a few students who said that they preferred having hard copies in addition to digital copies for anatomy because it was harder to flip back and forth and compare structures between different books on a tablet. Thoughts?

 

[koan]

I preferred a hard copy of Thieme Anatomy (my strong preference over Netter's and Gray's) and I think the phone app is way too small although ipad / tablet or digital copy on your laptop may be ok. Maybe it's because I'm an old guy or just that the amount of screen time I was clocking during M1/M2 got insane, most of the textbook reading I did (maybe 10% of studying overall) was hard copy. Just use the stuff at the library, for god's sakes don't spend $2000 in loan money to buy big Robbins and everything else they tell you is "required"!!! Also, with regard to FA, definitely find a copy of the pdf in addition to a mandatory hard copy (for transcribing UWorld questions, highlighting, general notes)... with the pdf you can Alt-F and search for keywords throughout the text. This was always super helpful but became essential leading up to Step 1 as I would think, damn I know "light chain" was deposited in multiple myeloma but where else had I heard that?? If it's not in the appendix (or even if it is) you'll be flipping through 500 pages looking, whereas you could pull up the pdf and find every instance of the word / phrase in seconds. As Dr. Sattar would say, "this is particularly high yield for board exam purposes"

 

[joyping]

okay.I like it much better than using my library's electronic resources.