does knowing latin help you in medical school ??

[abracadabraone]

what do you think ?

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[EBTrailRunner]

If you're planning on competing in a spelling bee during your medical education.

 

[tiedyeddog]

No. Sometimes it will help you understand the roots of medical terminology. Most of the time it won't. I wouldn't call it an advantage.

 

[mmmcdowe]

Not enough to warrant taking it for that reason. Low yield.

 

[STxHorn]

Learn Spanish instead. It'll actually help you with patients and you'd get some useful familiarity with Latin to boot.


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[tryp]

Not really. I took 3 years of Latin in high school and so far in medicine it hasn't really availed me anything.

 

[vin5cent0]

If you have a strong Latin vocabulary, of course it'll help. It'll help you recognize roots, which could prove valuable if you forgot the actual answer to something and needed those clues to answer it correctly.

That being said, I don't think it's high yield enough like someone else mentioned to justify taking it.

 

[ppfizenm]

uva uvam vivendo varia fit

 

[link2swim06]

Not really, rarely question in med school can be answered by knowing the "meaning" of the word. Most questions make you go a step further, it wouldnt really help much imo.

 

[dreamweaver1988]

what do you think ?

Latin is one of the few languages that becomes less useful as you approach fluency.

Seriously though, I took four years in high school and it's been only moderately helpful. The Romance languages are derived from Latin, so it's sort of a rudimentary intro to Spanish, Italian, etc. Every once in a while, it helps to figure out what a word means (e.g. antebellum: ante = before, and bellum = war, so antebellum = before war). Like a previous poster said, very low yield stuff.

Most colleges offer a medical terminology class that covers a lot of the Greek and Latin origins of medical terms--that would be a better use of your time, I think.

 

[1TB4RKSB4CK]

veni vidi vici.
That's all you need to tell the adcoms.

 

[sonia1177]

what do you think ?

I think a course that focuses on medical terminology would be useful, latin by itself, no.

 

[Ron G]

no but i heard mandarin is practically a prerequisite

 

[tiedyeddog]

no but i heard mandarin is practically a prerequisite

Yeah.....

 

[Northwesterly]

I'm pretty sure Latin will help you at Hogwarts.

 

[Neurosis]

veni vidi vici.
That's all you need to tell the adcoms.

👍

 

[IMSingular]

Actually it might. Unfortunately scientific names of many (all?) part of the body are of latin origin. Latin has a peculiar way of forming and aglutanation of words. Understanding this process may help in remembering these latin words. Some times knowledge of one word may lead to formation of another word in a logical, i.e. gramatical, process. But learning latin just for this facility may be too much of an effort.

 

[Mazdave]

When my high school first started offering Latin, they tried to claim it was a medical school preqrequisite. No one believed them.

 

[wanderer]

I think learning Spanish or Italian will give you enough familiarity with Latin roots. Even knowledge of high-brow English will give you enough familiarity with Latin roots to help you remember things. It helps only slightly though. Why become fluent in a language that no one speaks? Complete waste of time unless you have an actual interest.

 

[Suncrusher]

my teachers often tell us what the root words mean as a memory device anyway, so being one of the few people in the class who knew what the greek and latin roots meant before they tell us doesn't give me any advantage. I took 2 years in high school and 4 semesters in college and ultimately, I wish I had a working level of Spanish-speaking ability instead.

 

[NickNaylor]

Knowing the root meanings of names isn't necessarily helpful. It might help you know what a name is referring to, but it's probably not going to help you recall a name from memory, which is me how you're likely to be tested, at least for anatomy.

 

[GetThePointe77]

also with anatomy sometimes the greek/latin names arent all that helpful
(i have a year of latin and this is just my experience...)