Has anyone here taught themselves?

[hnbui]

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I was just wondering if anyone in here actually taught themselves a course (like microbiology, virology, embryology) ?

If so how did you do it?


I'm thinking about self teaching myself some subjects because i won't be able to take it at school (The time and courseload limit).

 

[Code Brown]

I was just wondering if anyone in here actually taught themselves a course (like microbiology, virology, embryology) ?

If so how did you do it?


I'm thinking about self teaching myself some subjects because i won't be able to take it at school (The time and courseload limit).

You grab a textbook and read it, making sure you understand everything you are reading. It's actually pretty easy to do. I mean, there are a lot of profs out there who basically just lecture from the book anyway, so what's the difference.

 

[faradayampere]

read the textbook, do the problems at the end of the chapter, and then look at the solution manual ... that's the best way I think

 

[hnbui]

anyone know any good books for orgo, virology, and spanish?

 

[SanDiegoSOD]

After the first two weeks of physics, I never attended a lecture again; that was for three quarters of physics, and I recieved two As and an A-. I think that most sciences can be easily self taught, provided that the Prof. provides a good outline of what is covered and that there is a solid text. But if most of a courses material comes from lecture, then attendance is a must.

 

[PublicEnemy]

teaching yourself is great. it can be so cheap too. i learned biochem, microbiology, histology, pharmacology and embryology doing that. i think i might try anatomy next and maybe pathophysiology if i have time. i feel like i've really saved about $50,000 doing this. haha

 

[hnbui]

teaching yourself is great. it can be so cheap too. i learned biochem, microbiology, histology, pharmacology and embryology doing that. i think i might try anatomy next and maybe pathophysiology if i have time. i feel like i've really saved about $50,000 doing this. haha

what texts did you use?

 

[acidhouse303]

Field's Virology is the best book in the biz. its a big thick mofo tho
i was a microbiology major and took alot of viro courses and that has been a very helpful text

 

[acidhouse303]

for microbiology, brock's is the most basic stuff.
if you want more hardcore bacterial genetics and stuff or bacterial physiology let me know. i like "the physiology and biochemistry of prokaryotes" by david white. i used it for my bacterial physiology class. good times.

 

[VeggieGal]

It's really hard to teach yourself a foreign language. i feel that in order to gain conversation skills, you really need to practice it with people. That is something you just won't learn from a textbook. If you want to learn Spanish, then you can start by going to a bookstore and picking up tapes, but I wouldn't expect to learn as much from that than taking a course.

 

[bewitched1081]

during undergrad i didn't attend many of my courses. so basically i learned from the book. it's do-able and you don't have to leave the comfort of your home. plus, you can take a nap or go watch tv whenever you want.

 

[sacrament]

I took the MCAT before ever taking a single class in biology or biochem (I crammed in all my pre-med pre-reqs as late as possible), confident that I could quickly teach myself what I needed to know.

 

[Rendar5]

lol @ public enemy.

look, there is very little need to teach yourself medical school courses until you actually reach medical school. you will not be getting that much of a head start. The only thing that'll really get you a head start (especially if dealing with interviewing patients first year) is to just get yourself into a volunteer or shadow position.

However, embryology might be worth it to study ahead of time depending on your school (since I honestly don't have the time to do it now with anatomy reading, and the class is combined), and shouldn't be too bad. look for a book called high-yield embryology.

As for Spanish, don't even bother. You cannot learn a foreign language from a book. Even with tapes. I can tell you this after attempting to learn Japanese from internet sources and books, and failing, and then succeeding really well in it when I got to college and took classes.

Take the time to take a language class at school if you're interested. It was a great non-science subject for me (chem major).

 

[Rendar5]

medical school is mostly self-teaching anyway. just with book recommendations, pacing guidelines, a microscope, a cadaver, patients and massive debt

 

[hnbui]

thanks for replying everyone.....


hey does anyone know anything about Molecular Biology of the Cell, Fourth Edition by Bruce Alberts ? Is it a good book? I'm thinking about reading up on it during the winterbreak....

 

[Rendar5]

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO
that is my answer on Alberts. It is a reference book more than a book you want to just sit down and read.

 

[PhotoMD]

Alberts is a great book, but yah it's just a ref. I had to teach most of organic to myself because of a god-awful 2nd-quarter teacher. I owe it to my book (Carey 5E 03), which was *amazing*. The problems at the end of the chapter were spectacular. If you learn from Carey the MCAT is a breeze.

PS - Brock microbio sucks. It covers too many topics, none of them well. For intro bio, everyone knows that Campbell is the gold standard. My school uses some random garbage intro bio book, which is written by one of my school's profs... go figure.

 

[Haybrant]

anyone know any good books for orgo, virology, and spanish?

text by vollhardt and shore for ochem; give prof vollhardt enough $ to buy another ferrari

 

[tank you]

for orgo, use Organic Chemistry by Brown&Foote, its great.

 

[acidhouse303]

thanks for replying everyone.....
hey does anyone know anything about Molecular Biology of the Cell, Fourth Edition by Bruce Alberts ? Is it a good book? I'm thinking about reading up on it during the winterbreak....

albert's molecular biology of the cell is a GREAT book. if you do end up reading it, what do you think is strange about the back cover ? 😉 i thought it was really helpful. i used it for my advanced cell biology class, and ive used it as a reference in graduate school. same thing with fields virology, great reference, not a good read for the basics since its very detailed

i dont recommend just sitting down and reading the whole darn thing over winter break- have yourself some holidays! read a shorter, simpler molecular biology book if you want. there are some great ones out there. i like those lange books. i have the mycology and medical microbiology ones

i never just sit around and read that kinda book for fun though. theres too much info to actually retain. read something fun like the curious incident of the dog in the night-time, that was great .

 

[acidhouse303]

PS - Brock microbio sucks. It covers too many topics, none of them well. For intro bio, everyone knows that Campbell is the gold standard. My school uses some random garbage intro bio book, which is written by one of my school's profs... go figure.

i really enjoyed brocks microbio. the reason it covers too many topics, not too much in depth is because it is an INTRODUCTORY text. it is great for people who have had no microbiology before. i used it for my intro microbiology class at Cornell, and then I taught from that book for three years as a TA. It has been really helpful. there are loads of other MUCH better microbiology texts out there, i would have to agree- but this is a good one for the basics. there is also a seely & vandemark manual that I used to teach the lab course. I like that one as well

 

[mercaptovizadeh]

Yes, I remember using "Cell" in my 10th grade AP bio class. I can say that it contained a LOT more information than any AP bio book, or any college bio book we had used later (Lewis' Genes VII is pretty thick, though, too). And the information was far more interesting. It was there that I read about the "perinuclear cisterna" and other fun stuff - which I won't see again until med school.

It's a great book, but to really retain ANYTHING, you would have to go over it in a year, or maybe half a year minimum. If you try the whole winterbreak thing, you will forget it.

I tried doing that two summers ago - I went through Boyce/DiPrima's Differenial Equations and Boundary Value Problems, and did ALL of the questions. However, since I did it so fast, I forgot all of it, and now don't know how to solve 1st and 2nd order ODE. I would have to open the book again to figure out. Really pathetic.

Right now, I am actually doing some quantum mechanics self study and TAKING IT SLOW. I started about a week ago, and am only on page 45 or so (out of 670). This is because I am making every effort to understand every single mathematical derivation, and every single physical and philosophical point, and I am taking the time to do every problem. Consequently, I know more from the 1st 45 pages of this book about QM, than I did from an entire whorlwind course, where I just learned to do meaningless manipulations and calculations.

 

[BerlinNeuro]

Semi-funny story about Molec. Bio of the Cell book... I took cell bio and one of the co-authors of this book actually taught my class. And he told us NOT to buy the book!! Now, it is a great book, but way too much to read. He gave us his own lecture notes that we more applicable to what we needed to know.

But as for teaching yourself, you're going to do all through med school, so it will be a good skill to have aquired.