I am a first year student at Marshall University. If you all have any questions on what to expect, what to study, finances, or how to prepare, feel free to ask them here or shoot me a message and we can exchange emails. I remember coming into PT school I didn't know what to expect and its hard to prepare unless you ask questions. I couldn't do that because I didn't know anyone in PT school already. This does not need to be Marshall related (Message me separately if you have questions about Marshall), meant to be general for all schools.
Fielding any questions on PT school
As far as anatomy texts for PT school go, here is the best I can do:
Not a lot of programs have Rohen as a required text, but I picked up a used copy on Amazon for 20 or 30 bucks and found it immensely helpful in study for cadaver practicals. And once you have actually attempted to dissect a cadaver, the dissections in this book will pretty much blow your mind. It also has some awesome old-as-mold line diagrams of muscles that were very helpful to me in understanding actions. Highly recommended purchase considering how cheaply the 7th edition can be acquired.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/complete-anatomy/id1054948424?mt=8
http://applications.3d4medical.com/essential_anatomy_3/
"Complete Anatomy", which is an expanded version of "Essential Anatomy" are fantastic apps if you are using an iPad or the like. They are a little pricey but I think worth the investment if you are very dependent on visuals for retention of information. Essential Anatomy was very popular with students in my class, and it does sometimes go on sale. I think some of my classmates may have bought it for as little as $1. There are a plethora of other anatomy apps out there, but these two are the most comprehensive.
Standard gross anatomy texts used widely in medical and physical therapy education include: Moore, Theime, Netter, Grays and Grants. Go with whatever your program recommends/requires, although I will say if your anatomy professor primarily uses a book like Moore or Grants that is a text rather than just an atlas, having another book that is strictly an atlas without text is also very helpful (Netter is the classic and perhaps still the best. Some people prefer Thieme, but we didn't really use it in my program).
I also picked up a used copy of an older edition of "Neuroanatomy Through Clinical Cases" when we moved on from gross to neuroanatomy and found it to be a very helpful supplemental reference. The second edition is heavily updated, but I just bought the first because it is so cheap now (its like 13 years old or so) and it still has way enough on the basics for PT school. It is the most excellently written text if you really want to learn your neuroanatomy backwards and forwards in my opinion, but it is not commonly used in PT programs as it is a bit more in depth than a lot of programs go. I'm pretty confident I'm the only person in my class that even knows of its existence. But there is a lot of variability in this area, so other than that, there are quite a few texts that get used by neuroanatomy faculty in PT school, so just go with what they recommend/require.
The Neumann Kinesiology book is one of my all time favorite texts and in my opinion has the best pictures and diagrams of musculoskeletal anatomy that you will find. I often see other textbooks such as Magee stealing the pictures from this text because they are some of the best as far as orthopaedics goes. Another highly recommended purchase.
Also, disclaimer here: Some students really like and benefit from having textbooks, and others pass PT school successfully literally without opening a single text. The sad reality is that as much as it would be great to have all the time in the world to actually read all of these texts, 90% of the time you will be just learning from the handouts provided during lecture and lab by your teachers because that is what you will be tested on and that is already as much volume as you have time for. I'm sure the assigned chapters from all of my classes put together this semester would total at least 7,000 pages. But I do personally enjoy having the textbooks for most of our classes and I do frequently reference them when I want to look something up. But some people couldn't give two craps about any of that and just memorize the teachers slides and leave it at that, which works well for them.
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Do you feel like it would be beneficial to review things like anatomy before starting school? Or would it be better to take a break?
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Review anatomy? No.
Incoming students may want to read this thread:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/for-non-trads-things-i-wished-i-knew.990967/
Incoming students may want to read this thread:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/for-non-trads-things-i-wished-i-knew.990967/
Everyone has different opinions on what to do to prepare or not to even prepare at all and enjoy your time. I respect all of them because everyone learns differently.
That being said I think it is very helpful coming into school understanding most of your oina's for anatomy. For me I'm someone who learns by understanding. I can memorize and regurgitate for a test but to truly understand I need to picture it. I say understand most of the oina's and not memorize because you can compartmentalize what nerves innervate what muscles by the area of the body. Also, if you know where the muscle attaches you can understand how it makes the action it does. This will really help in future classes like human movement and when doing MMT's.
Another thing to do is start looking into medical abbreviations for surgeries, diseases, muscles, etc. This will help in lecture when teachers believe some abbreviations are common sense and no one knows what they are talking about. CPG for example, central pattern generator or clinical practice guidelines. When lecturing in a musculoskeletal class this abbreviation can be confusing. At least it was for our class.
Last thing I would do is find something you love to do that takes your mind away from everything school related. First year you have so much thrown at you that you will need something that can stop you from freaking out. Whether it's reading for fun, exercise, music, or meditation, you will need it.
Finding a second year that you can get advice from is one of the best things you can do. There will be a lot of questions in your program we can't answer because it's specific to your program. Having someone to shoot a quick text to is very helpful, if your school doesn't have mentors already.
That being said I think it is very helpful coming into school understanding most of your oina's for anatomy. For me I'm someone who learns by understanding. I can memorize and regurgitate for a test but to truly understand I need to picture it. I say understand most of the oina's and not memorize because you can compartmentalize what nerves innervate what muscles by the area of the body. Also, if you know where the muscle attaches you can understand how it makes the action it does. This will really help in future classes like human movement and when doing MMT's.
Another thing to do is start looking into medical abbreviations for surgeries, diseases, muscles, etc. This will help in lecture when teachers believe some abbreviations are common sense and no one knows what they are talking about. CPG for example, central pattern generator or clinical practice guidelines. When lecturing in a musculoskeletal class this abbreviation can be confusing. At least it was for our class.
Last thing I would do is find something you love to do that takes your mind away from everything school related. First year you have so much thrown at you that you will need something that can stop you from freaking out. Whether it's reading for fun, exercise, music, or meditation, you will need it.
Finding a second year that you can get advice from is one of the best things you can do. There will be a lot of questions in your program we can't answer because it's specific to your program. Having someone to shoot a quick text to is very helpful, if your school doesn't have mentors already.
My advice for atlas' for yourself is to go to your school's book store and look at the different atlas' they have for anatomy. I enjoy Netter personally. Being able to see the book and the illustrations they have for yourself can be very helpful before purchasing.
Thank you for the in-depth recommendations. I totally agree with you on books being more of references as opposed to something you know cover-to-cover, but frankly I'm a sucker for having good texts to look at, so I appreciate the info
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I'm starting PT school this summer. At my program, we have to buy iPads through the school. They come with most of our textbooks preloaded, so we wouldn't need to purchase books, with the exception of a few. I prefer old-fashioned textbooks. I like having the book physically in front of me and I think I retain material better this way. Anytime I've used an ebook, it was the free one that Amazon gives you while you're waiting for the actual book to arrive, and I didn't love it. My school estimates about $2,000 for books a year. Is it worth saving money and using the ebooks (or at least trying to get used to them) at the expense of how quickly I learn things?
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Only you can make that decision, it depends on how slow you learn and how much total debt you have. Regardless, if it comes down to paying $2,000 or passing your classes, I think your choice is pretty clear
Can these apps be used on Macs? I looked at "Complete ' " and it says on the app page that it only works on tablets from what I gathered. I would love to have something like this, it looks totally next level. Insight?
If their website doesn't have a mac/PC version, then there isn't one.
Student loans. Savings. Rich relatives. Get a job. Any way you can get your grubby little mitts on $$$ really.
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I would think the majority of us here apply to instate schools, but the realty is we don't get in and choose between the ones we do get into, that may be private or outofstate.
so how did you decide which out of state schools to apply to?
I looked at admissions criteria not in any order:
(1)did I have all the prerequisites? If not, can I take the respective prerequisite in time?
(2) the required author of the reference letters. If I do not have a quality individual in a specific required profession than it did not work in my favor. For example, taking online classes may lend itself difficult to build that relationship but my supervisor may provide more of a quality reference. Make sure you have a PT in mind to write one, most require one if not two.
(3) percentage of out of state applicants that get in, if 99% are instate it's not worth my applying
(4) location
(5) gre minimum
(6) curriculum and how clinical studies were incorporated
(7) as a nontrad, was there a timeline on prereqs, most CA schools required ALL prereqs to be taken within 10 years
I literally went through ptcas directory, and crossed off schools for one of these reasons. Whatever was left I applied. Some I didn't get to because I was sick of writing supplemental essays.
