Is it possible to avoid textbook use in med school?

[DrFizition]

Hey guys. I will be an M1 this fall.

I am not a big fan of reading. I find textbooks somewhat time consuming since I am a slow reader. As a visual learner I work better with lectures, power points (taking notes on those) and drawing pathways and diagrams. Textbook is my last resort and a secondary/tertiary resource, even behind Google.

In your personal experience, do you think it is possible to get by M1 and 2 with minimal usage of the textbook (reading page after page) and simply using other resources like slides, drawing/writing, and note taking on lecture recordings? What seems to work for you future docs?

I can't imagine how anyone would be able to read every required chapter in medical school honestly haha. Thank you all.

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[Ismet]

I almost never used a textbook. Our lecture notes were printed out and spiral bound so pretty much everyone just studied from that.

I used Netter's Atlas for anatomy, as most everyone does. I had a couple other textbooks for reference, like little Robbins for pathology, but definitely not something I read page by page. Bates is incredibly useful for history and physical exam. Clinical Micro Made Ridiculously Simple was pretty helpful for micro, and it's unlike traditional textbooks - kind of an amusing read/reference that helps you keep all your bugs and drugs straight with silly pictures and mnemonics.

Clinical years are different. Usually you'll use 1, maybe 2 books to study from as well as a question bank.

 

[CherryRedDracul]

Can't recall a single time I've ever properly read through a required textbook. The ratio of time consumed to yield of knowledge relevant for exams is too high.

You could most probably pass the first few years solely on lecture slides and note taking as long as the lectures are of decent quality. However, if your school administers NBME shelf exams, review books are invaluable IMO and not as exhausting of a read as are the bigger textbooks. I had electronic copies of those bigger textbooks if I ever needed to refer to them, and that was rarely done because Google was there for me.

 

[Law2Doc]

You won't need to use a "textbook" per se, but you won't do well without "reading". Med schools rely heavily on syllabi, which frankly are home grown textbooks under a different name, and yes, you'll be expected to read and retread that. The lectures/PowerPoint slides are but a portion of what's fair game for tests at a lot of schools, though probably the highest yield material. Could you pass the course just from them? Maybe, but you'll have more ground to cover for the step exams and if your goal is just to skate by you might be taking yourself out of the running for a lot of specialties sight unseen. And as mentioned you'll slog through a lot of review books before the various shelf exams and standardized tests. So the short answer is you won't be carrying something around that's labeled a "textbook" per se but you will be doing a LOT of reading in med school. Hundreds and hundreds of pages. More than any college course, just not bound as professionally.

 

[673441]

Depends on your course and professors. Some schools throw a course pack at you and everything within that pack is fair game. Some will do lecture notes with learning objectives and the same goes for them. I use Robbins review of pathology quite frequently to review my weaker path areas. However, I'm mostly hitting the 3rd party sources like Pathoma, sketchy, and DIT quite frequently (and of course first aid). Book work is not the same as undergrad as it is in medical school since now you're sort of trying to capture high yield principles and not get bogged down by minutia.


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[pre med 2014]

No but in 3rd year you'll have to read textbooks front to back like case files and blueprints


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[DrFizition]

I almost never used a textbook. Our lecture notes were printed out and spiral bound so pretty much everyone just studied from that.

I used Netter's Atlas for anatomy, as most everyone does. I had a couple other textbooks for reference, like little Robbins for pathology, but definitely not something I read page by page. Bates is incredibly useful for history and physical exam. Clinical Micro Made Ridiculously Simple was pretty helpful for micro, and it's unlike traditional textbooks - kind of an amusing read/reference that helps you keep all your bugs and drugs straight with silly pictures and mnemonics.

Clinical years are different. Usually you'll use 1, maybe 2 books to study from as well as a question bank.

Thanks everyone! This was insightful. So I've heard of Pathoma, Uworld, and other review books. It's a bit overwhelming as someone starting M1 this fall. What's the time line of when these books should be purchased and when I should start reviewing them? Do you guys use review books starting M1 within each subject that you are working on throughout the year? Or wait until the summer or sometime M2 before step 1?

 

[trs88]

Thanks everyone! This was insightful. So I've heard of Pathoma, Uworld, and other review books. It's a bit overwhelming as someone starting M1 this fall. What's the time line of when these books should be purchased and when I should start reviewing them? Do you guys use review books starting M1 within each subject that you are working on throughout the year? Or wait until the summer or sometime M2 before step 1?

Don't buy any books just yet. Talk to your second years. They will have tips they can share with you or they can sell you their copy of the textbook that they will no longer need. The only review book I would suggest is BRS to help get the main ideas down, and they have a good amount of questions at the end of each chapter.

 

[Ismet]

Thanks everyone! This was insightful. So I've heard of Pathoma, Uworld, and other review books. It's a bit overwhelming as someone starting M1 this fall. What's the time line of when these books should be purchased and when I should start reviewing them? Do you guys use review books starting M1 within each subject that you are working on throughout the year? Or wait until the summer or sometime M2 before step 1?

1) Pathoma is for when you start organ systems. If your school starts doing stuff like cardio, pulm, renal, etc in MS1, then start using Pathoma alongside those classes. Pathoma doesn't do anything for basic science courses.

2) It doesn't hurt to grab a copy of First Aid to look at along with your coursework, just to get an understanding of board-relevant material. But definitely focus your efforts on the stuff you're taught in class.

 

[NYCdude]

No, not in this day and age where you can just google anything or watch a youtube video about it.

The only textbook I'd say is worth the time reading is Costanzo for physiology. That book is dope.

 

[sloop]

Hey guys. I will be an M1 this fall.

I am not a big fan of reading. I find textbooks somewhat time consuming since I am a slow reader. As a visual learner I work better with lectures, power points (taking notes on those) and drawing pathways and diagrams. Textbook is my last resort and a secondary/tertiary resource, even behind Google.

In your personal experience, do you think it is possible to get by M1 and 2 with minimal usage of the textbook (reading page after page) and simply using other resources like slides, drawing/writing, and note taking on lecture recordings? What seems to work for you future docs?

I can't imagine how anyone would be able to read every required chapter in medical school honestly haha. Thank you all.

The first two years I never bought a textbook. My school has an online library of texts available to view for free which I used as references for projects, etc. Otherwise, it was all lecture notes. The only books I bought at all in preclinicals were an atlas and review books for step 1 (Pathoma and First Aid).

In the clinical years, I think you would be remiss if you did not buy books, unless your school is truly exceptional in that it provides some sort of comprehensive note series or includes substantial amounts of didactics in clerkships. Almost no school does this, so you should buy books. Third year, most of the books are better classified as "review books" than textbooks, with a few exceptions (Beckman's for OB/GYN, for instance). In any case, you will likely be buying books in third year.

 

[Taddy Mason]

Thanks everyone! This was insightful. So I've heard of Pathoma, Uworld, and other review books. It's a bit overwhelming as someone starting M1 this fall. What's the time line of when these books should be purchased and when I should start reviewing them? Do you guys use review books starting M1 within each subject that you are working on throughout the year? Or wait until the summer or sometime M2 before step 1?

Depends on your curriculum and the quality of the lecturers and lecture notes. My school is organ systems with embryo, anatomy, histo, and phys 1st year, and path, micro, and pharm 2nd year. No syllabi or note packets, just very crappy to mediocre PowerPoints put together by lecturers. I tried using textbooks 1st year but didn't find it manageable; a few people in my class study from actual textbooks (e.g., Guyton and Hall and big Robbins) but they're definitely the exception. I'd defer to people in the classes above you at your school, but here's what I found helpful using along side lecture (or completely replacing lecture with at times) during the first 2 years:

Anatomy - Netter's Atlas of Anatomy, Rohen's, Acland videos, and UMich anatomy website for questions

Biochem - BRS, Lippincott, and/or Rapid Review

Phys - BRS (aka Skinny Linda), Costanzo Physiology (aka Fat Linda), and Guyton and Hall review/question book

Neuro anatomy - Haines atlas

If micro is part of 1st year - Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple, and/or Sketchy Medical

Embryology - ??? I just brute forced it with lectures but wish I had found an outside source, so not sure what to recommend. Some people in my class really liked High Yield Embryo

Immunology - Abbas; a lot of people also recommend How the Immune System Works

Path (not needed until 2nd year unless path is integrated with phys) - Pathoma or Goljan Rapid Review and Robbins Review of Path for questions

Histo/path lab - Could get by just memorizing my school's slides and specimens, but if you're struggling or want an additional resource, Netter's Atlas of Histo is excellent for histo and Robbins Atlas of Path is excellent for both gross and histo path.

UpToDate is awesome if your school has a PBL type curriculum and you have to do presentations

 

[jorjorswens]

Almost done with first year and haven't used any textbooks. There is too much low yield stuff in them.


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[sloop]

Thanks everyone! This was insightful. So I've heard of Pathoma, Uworld, and other review books. It's a bit overwhelming as someone starting M1 this fall. What's the time line of when these books should be purchased and when I should start reviewing them? Do you guys use review books starting M1 within each subject that you are working on throughout the year? Or wait until the summer or sometime M2 before step 1?

Buy Pathoma when you start doing pathology, which is most likely in second year. Some people here have said it doesn't hurt to review First Aid some minimal amount starting first year. I disagree with this. First Aid is kind of terrible to read if you haven't already learned the material. I started reading it over Christmas of my second year and even then I found it a difficult read. Mostly it's difficult because the format is bullet-style with minimal explanation and tons of mnemonics (about half of which are memorable enough to be useful). It's a great review resource for Step 1, but I don't recommend touching it until like halfway through second year.

If your school provides substantial lecture notes—which it likely does—focus your energy on those. I did extremely well with this strategy. If you use other resources too much, you're just more likely to spend time on things your professors won't test.

 

[differentiating]

So far in first year, I haven't used or bought a single textbook, and haven't had any issues. So depending on your school, you can definitely get away with not reading textbooks. But I do skim through my syllabus after lectures, to fill in the holes in my notes.

As for review books, I bought Pathoma since it was on sale, but haven't found it very useful for anything we've covered in class so far. I'm saving it for when I actually start studying specifically for step 1. Otherwise I'm holding off on review books for now - I don't think you need them in M1, but that's just me.

 

[sloop]

So far in first year, I haven't used or bought a single textbook, and haven't had any issues. So depending on your school, you can definitely get away with not reading textbooks. But I do skim through my syllabus after lectures, to fill in the holes in my notes.

As for review books, I bought Pathoma since it was on sale, but haven't found it very useful for anything we've covered in class so far. I'm saving it for when I actually start studying specifically for step 1. Otherwise I'm holding off on review books for now - I don't think you need them in M1, but that's just me.

For what it's worth, you probably shouldn't have bought Pathoma. When you start reviewing for Step 1, you are really gonna want the videos. If you mean that you just bought the text from someone, you'll still have to buy a subscription for the videos which would give you a (newer, updated) book with it. If you meant that you bought a subscription on sale, unless you bought the 21 month or literally just bought the 12 month and are taking step 1 super early, it won't hold over to your test date.

Not saying it's the end of the world, just for the sake of informing other people: I just don't think buying Pathoma before you are taking path is a good idea. It's a subscription service so it's going to be a waste of money any way you cut it if you purchase before you are going to get real use out of it.

 

[differentiating]

For what it's worth, you probably shouldn't have bought Pathoma. When you start reviewing for Step 1, you are really gonna want the videos. If you mean that you just bought the text from someone, you'll still have to buy a subscription for the videos which would give you a (newer, updated) book with it. If you meant that you bought a subscription on sale, unless you bought the 21 month or literally just bought the 12 month and are taking step 1 super early, it won't hold over to your test date.

Not saying it's the end of the world, just for the sake of informing other people: I just don't think buying Pathoma before you are taking path is a good idea. It's a subscription service so it's going to be a waste of money any way you cut it if you purchase before you are going to get real use out of it.

I have the videos - I bought the subscription because it was cheaper to buy 18 months now versus a few months later thanks to a promotion my school was doing. We do path integrated with our curriculum throughout first year anyway, though I haven't found Pathoma very useful for that so far. The textbook is definitely useless, though, so I wouldn't have bought it by itself.

 

[Taddy Mason]

The textbook is definitely useless...

 

[sloop]

I have the videos - I bought the subscription because it was cheaper to buy 18 months now versus a few months later thanks to a promotion my school was doing. We do path integrated with our curriculum throughout first year anyway, though I haven't found Pathoma very useful for that so far. The textbook is definitely useless, though, so I wouldn't have bought it by itself.

Yeah, fair enough.

The text is not useless (I think it's great actually, as long as you make notes). But the money really is his videos. For what it's worth, I actually think the biggest value in Pathoma is being able to sit back with some breakfast and a coffee, relax, and study when you're exhausted from reading (thereby avoiding burnout while still being productive).

Good luck next year with your studies, dude.

 

[differentiating]

Yeah, fair enough.

The text is not useless (I think it's great actually, as long as you make notes). But the money really is his videos. For what it's worth, I actually think the biggest value in Pathoma is being able to sit back with some breakfast and a coffee, relax, and study when you're exhausted from reading (thereby avoiding burnout while still being productive).

Good luck next year with your studies, dude.

At least when it comes to slides, I've found the text to be a huge disappointment so far - I tried to use it to clarify some questions I had, but they don't bother labeling the pictured slides or identifying characteristic structures, which is what I was expecting when people said that it was great for pathology. I'll admit I haven't used the notes in it much, though, so those are probably more helpful.

But thanks! I'll definitely keep your suggestions in mind when I start ramping up the studying for step 1.

 

[Moose A Moose]

Hey guys. I will be an M1 this fall.

I am not a big fan of reading. I find textbooks somewhat time consuming since I am a slow reader. As a visual learner I work better with lectures, power points (taking notes on those) and drawing pathways and diagrams. Textbook is my last resort and a secondary/tertiary resource, even behind Google.

In your personal experience, do you think it is possible to get by M1 and 2 with minimal usage of the textbook (reading page after page) and simply using other resources like slides, drawing/writing, and note taking on lecture recordings? What seems to work for you future docs?

I can't imagine how anyone would be able to read every required chapter in medical school honestly haha. Thank you all.

Absolutely, but you'll be doing yourself a disservice if you avoid certain text. Netter's Atlas of Anatomy comes to mind.

 

[Ismet]

Buy Pathoma when you start doing pathology, which is most likely in second year. Some people here have said it doesn't hurt to review First Aid some minimal amount starting first year. I disagree with this. First Aid is kind of terrible to read if you haven't already learned the material. I started reading it over Christmas of my second year and even then I found it a difficult read. Mostly it's difficult because the format is bullet-style with minimal explanation and tons of mnemonics (about half of which are memorable enough to be useful). It's a great review resource for Step 1, but I don't recommend touching it until like halfway through second year.

If your school provides substantial lecture notes—which it likely does—focus your energy on those. I did extremely well with this strategy. If you use other resources too much, you're just more likely to spend time on things your professors won't test.

If you're going to look through FA during pre-clinicals, you do it as a part of a review before your exam. FA is not meant to teach you the material. You learn primarily from your course materials, then go through the FA chapter (if you want) as you're reviewing for the exam. There are a lot of helpful mnemonics and tips in there that ended up helping me remember facts that were tested on in-house exams. Again, it's not a primary source, but it's not a bad idea to have a preliminary review of the material before your dedicated Step 1 study time.

 

[sloop]

If you're going to look through FA during pre-clinicals, you do it as a part of a review before your exam. FA is not meant to teach you the material. You learn primarily from your course materials, then go through the FA chapter (if you want) as you're reviewing for the exam. There are a lot of helpful mnemonics and tips in there that ended up helping me remember facts that were tested on in-house exams. Again, it's not a primary source, but it's not a bad idea to have a preliminary review of the material before your dedicated Step 1 study time.

Fair enough, but I really think this depends on your school and your professors. At my school, the lecture notes were of such high quality that they went over the high yield stuff very well but also concisely covered all of the details you could be tested on. For me, reviewing FA before block exams would have wasted time. The only exception to this was my microbiology final where I felt the mnemonics were very helpful.

It also depends on how you learn. At my school, I can attest that if you learn the professors' lecture notes cold, you will both honor the courses and be in a great position for Step. I know this because I pretty much exclusively studied from the notes (reading them on average 3x+ before each exam), honored almost everything, was scoring >240 on NBMEs before any dedicated step study, and wound up with 250+ on Step 1. If your school does not have good notes, your strategy may be different. If you don't study well from notes, your strategy may be different. All I can say is that if you can learn from them, everything you need is in the notes at my school.

 

[Ismet]

Fair enough, but I really think this depends on your school and your professors. At my school, the lecture notes were of such high quality that they went over the high yield stuff very well but also concisely covered all of the details you could be tested on. For me, reviewing FA before block exams would have wasted time. The only exception to this was my microbiology final where I felt the mnemonics were very helpful.

It also depends on how you learn. At my school, I can attest that if you learn the professors' lecture notes cold, you will both honor the courses and be in a great position for Step. I know this because I pretty much exclusively studied from the notes (reading them on average 3x+ before each exam), honored almost everything, was scoring >240 on NBMEs before any dedicated step study, and wound up with 250+ on Step 1. If your school does not have good notes, your strategy may be different. If you don't study well from notes, your strategy may be different. All I can say is that if you can learn from them, everything you need is in the notes at my school.

Agreed that it does vary by school, so it's always best to get the most specific advice from upperclassmen at your school. My school had pretty good lecture notes, so if you studied those you would be good for the exam, but definitely did not teach to Step 1. Case in point - realizing during dedicated study time that what Step 1 tested in biochem was pretty much not covered by our biochem class.

 

[Goro]

The trouble with this logic is that sadly, there are still too many faculty who think that required texts are the only way to learn Medicine.

No, not in this day and age where you can just google anything or watch a youtube video about it.

The only textbook I'd say is worth the time reading is Costanzo for physiology. That book is dope.

 

[meowfish6868]

At least when it comes to slides, I've found the text to be a huge disappointment so far - I tried to use it to clarify some questions I had, but they don't bother labeling the pictured slides or identifying characteristic structures, which is what I was expecting when people said that it was great for pathology.

The characteristic structures are pointed out in the videos. The down side of Pathoma is for boards prep, so it's not an all encompassing pathology resource.

 

[ortnakas]

The characteristic structures are pointed out in the videos. The down side of Pathoma is for boards prep, so it's not an all encompassing pathology resource.

Agreed. The wonderful thing about Sattar is the video and getting his voice in your head. The book by itself is helpful, but not anything to get super excited about.

 

[el_duderino]

Textbooks.

lol.

 

[Ismet]

Pathoma: Textbook + videos > videos alone >>>>>>>> textbook alone. Money is definitely in the videos, but the book was great to annotate stuff from the videos and have the path images handy.

 

[Law2Doc]

I think a lot of you are hung up on the word "textbook". The OP was really asking if he would be reading a lot. If your school puts together an 800+ page handout, and labels it "syllabus" or "lecture notes" or something like that, either all at once or in smaller spiral bound installments, his answer should still really be "you'll be reading a LOT". So I think a lot of the responses of "I didn't buy a single textbook in med school", though "true", are off mark, and going to be very misleading to someone whose frame of reference is college where all the reading comes from textbooks, and handouts are pretty negligible. The only real difference between the "syllabus" we used in my med school and a "textbook" was a publishing deal, and the fact that some editors would have made our professors shorten certain "chapters" pretty significantly.

 

[Brahnold Bloodaxe]

I like reading textbooks. Much easier to sit down and relax with a well flowing passage then force feed on disjointed facts in a PPT.

 

[DrFizition]

I think a lot of you are hung up on the word "textbook". The OP was really asking if he would be reading a lot. If your school puts together an 800+ page handout, and labels it "syllabus" or "lecture notes" or something like that, either all at once or in smaller spiral bound installments, his answer should still really be "you'll be reading a LOT". So I think a lot of the responses of "I didn't buy a single textbook in med school", though "true", are off mark, and going to be very misleading to someone whose frame of reference is college where all the reading comes from textbooks, and handouts are pretty negligible. The only real difference between the "syllabus" we used in my med school and a "textbook" was a publishing deal, and the fact that some editors would have made our professors shorten certain "chapters" pretty significantly.

Well I mean I don't mind having to read handouts or slides. The issue with textbooks is that they sometimes have way too much information that isn't relevant and is useless knowledge. Handouts are more focused on what you are tested on and what are important for boards. A giant textbook on biochemistry may have too much information, and it makes you ask yourself whether it's worth your time reading all of that.

Anyway thanks everyone for your answers!

 

[Ismet]

I think a lot of you are hung up on the word "textbook". The OP was really asking if he would be reading a lot. If your school puts together an 800+ page handout, and labels it "syllabus" or "lecture notes" or something like that, either all at once or in smaller spiral bound installments, his answer should still really be "you'll be reading a LOT". So I think a lot of the responses of "I didn't buy a single textbook in med school", though "true", are off mark, and going to be very misleading to someone whose frame of reference is college where all the reading comes from textbooks, and handouts are pretty negligible. The only real difference between the "syllabus" we used in my med school and a "textbook" was a publishing deal, and the fact that some editors would have made our professors shorten certain "chapters" pretty significantly.

Might depend on the school, but reading our syllabi was drastically different from reading a textbook and it was pretty versatile. Some people didn't even use the syllabus, just went to or listened to lecture and took notes on the slides or annotated on their tablet. I liked to listen to lecture and follow along in the notes, jotting down diagrams and highlighting key concepts. It's still a lot of reading, but it's better laid out for what you're expected to learn and it's pretty flexible for most styles of learning.

 

[KingAtlas]

I haven't read a single textbook all year and I've been scoring in the top quartile consistently. It's not necessary at all. I use a lot of review resources when I prepare for our finals but before then just lectures and powerpoints and Pathoma and Sketchy.

 

[Goro]

At our school, a syllabus can be everything the student needs for a particular course. But other syllabi are bare bones and basically reminders on what dates the exams are on, and what chapters/lectures are covered on the exam.

Might depend on the school, but reading our syllabi was drastically different from reading a textbook and it was pretty versatile. Some people didn't even use the syllabus, just went to or listened to lecture and took notes on the slides or annotated on their tablet. I liked to listen to lecture and follow along in the notes, jotting down diagrams and highlighting key concepts. It's still a lot of reading, but it's better laid out for what you're expected to learn and it's pretty flexible for most styles of learning.

 

[tymont12]

I love Pathoma and services like Sketchy Medical, but there's an art to being able to divulge the proper information from a sea of resources, which is essentially what being a physician is.I can tell which people in my class only study Pathoma and First Aid because they are only capable of reciting facts, with no intellectual interpretation of it. M3's and M4's have told me that only using those sources puts you at a disadvantage in your clinical years. Develop your fund knowledge.

Medical textbooks are references, not novels. You don't need to read them front-to-back. And to be honest, you can find pirated copies of most textbooks if there isn't already a school Dropbox bouncing around. If there's ever a reason to buy an Ipad, it's to store dozens of medical textbooks. That's revolutionized my thinking about medical tomes, but there's still room for paper. Similarly, figure out if your school has an online book service like Access Medicine. I would also consider paying for e Pocrates, it's $50/yr as a med student.

People always poo-poo on 'required' texts, but many times they thoroughly explain what you are learning. So if you need help with a topic, suck it up and read.

 

[deleted646902]

I love Pathoma and services like Sketchy Medical, but there's an art to being able to divulge the proper information from a sea of resources, which is essentially what being a physician is.I can tell which people in my class only study Pathoma and First Aid because they are only capable of reciting facts, with no intellectual interpretation of it. M3's and M4's have told me that only using those sources puts you at a disadvantage in your clinical years. Develop your fund knowledge.

Medical textbooks are references, not novels. You don't need to read them front-to-back. And to be honest, you can find pirated copies of most textbooks if there isn't already a school Dropbox bouncing around. If there's ever a reason to buy an Ipad, it's to store dozens of medical textbooks. That's revolutionized my thinking about medical tomes, but there's still room for paper. Similarly, figure out if your school has an online book service like Access Medicine. I would also consider paying for e Pocrates, it's $50/yr as a med student.

People always poo-poo on 'required' texts, but many times they thoroughly explain what you are learning. So if you need help with a topic, suck it up and read.

Whole heartedly disagree with this post. Powerpoints are sufficient enough for your preclinical years with other resources spattered in like sketchy and pathoma. All other resources are Redundant as the professors just copy and past the same info onto the slides and lets be honest...your goal is to pass pre-clincial years so you can start to learn to be a doctor in your clinical years. These resources I listed will get you enough info to be a catalyst to your actual learning on the wards.

 

[tymont12]

Whole heartedly disagree with this post. Powerpoints are sufficient enough for your preclinical years with other resources spattered in like sketchy and pathoma. All other resources are Redundant as the professors just copy and past the same info onto the slides and lets be honest...your goal is to pass pre-clincial years so you can start to learn to be a doctor in your clinical years. These resources I listed will get you enough info to be a catalyst to your actual learning on the wards.

Recommending someone to never crack a textbook as a medical student is s*** advice. The only professors I had that copied a textbook were pathologists and they copied Robbins. The bigger problem was PhDs who thought the minutiae in their field of expertise was clinically relevant.

 

[Mad Jack]

I read some, but not much. Largely used audio and visual resources like Sketchy and Pathoma.

 

[deleted646902]

Recommending someone to never crack a textbook as a medical student is s*** advice. The only professors I had that copied a textbook were pathologists and they copied Robbins. The bigger problem was PhDs who thought the minutiae in their field of expertise was clinically relevant.

Should have gone to a different medical school then if your PHD's are wasting minutia ours are not allowed to do that, even if they do sometimes... I didnt recommend that no one ever opens a book but it is by far NOT necessary and I find them to be wastes of time for the way my school sets up their courses. For anything else that may be confusing you have a plethora of sources online today that make learning MUCH faster. A video on such and such disease or clinical skill at 2.5 speed is much more efficient that waddling through a book. Thats how my brain works though and I have found I am the majority and not the minority in this aspect

 

[tymont12]

Should have gone to a different medical school then if your PHD's are wasting minutia ours are not allowed to do that, even if they do sometimes... I didnt recommend that no one ever opens a book but it is by far NOT necessary and I find them to be wastes of time for the way my school sets up their courses. For anything else that may be confusing you have a plethora of sources online today that make learning MUCH faster. A video on such and such disease or clinical skill at 2.5 speed is much more efficient that waddling through a book. Thats how my brain works though and I have found I am the majority and not the minority in this aspect

I'm a visual learner too and Pathoma & Sketchy are great, but there aren't videos for everything. I don't completely agree that videos can be faster. 2.5 speed doesn't mean s*** if you can't retain. Honestly, who can watch a video past 1.8 without constantly pausing? I know too many people who wasted time with Najeeb when cracking Costanzo would have served them much better. Similarly, there isn't a "Najeeb" for 3rd year or residency. Or literature, for that matter.

 

[Beezlebub]

Be flexible. It doesn't matter what resource you use as long as you grasp the concept and make it stick.

 

[The_Sunny_Doc]

You won't need to use a "textbook" per se, but you won't do well without "reading". Med schools rely heavily on syllabi, which frankly are home grown textbooks under a different name, and yes, you'll be expected to read and retread that. The lectures/PowerPoint slides are but a portion of what's fair game for tests at a lot of schools, though probably the highest yield material. Could you pass the course just from them? Maybe, but you'll have more ground to cover for the step exams and if your goal is just to skate by you might be taking yourself out of the running for a lot of specialties sight unseen. And as mentioned you'll slog through a lot of review books before the various shelf exams and standardized tests. So the short answer is you won't be carrying something around that's labeled a "textbook" per se but you will be doing a LOT of reading in med school. Hundreds and hundreds of pages. More than any college course, just not bound as professionally.

We don't have syllabi - just powerpoints. I'm a fairly new school.

Textbooks are not necessary for our tests, with the exception of Guyton and Hall for physio block. Outside of physio block, I've referenced a book perhaps 5 times in the past 1 1/2 years. Trying to read Robbins a bit more to prep for boards.

 

[Vain Brother]

Whole heartedly disagree with this post. Powerpoints are sufficient enough for your preclinical years with other resources spattered in like sketchy and pathoma. All other resources are Redundant as the professors just copy and past the same info onto the slides and lets be honest...your goal is to pass pre-clincial years so you can start to learn to be a doctor in your clinical years. These resources I listed will get you enough info to be a catalyst to your actual learning on the wards.

lol, wrong. the point of the first two years is to crush so you can crush step 1 and get the residency you want. you can definitely pass without reading textbooks, but most of the top students are reading them. there are exceptions of course

 

[deleted646902]

lol, wrong. the point of the first two years is to crush so you can crush step 1 and get the residency you want. you can definitely pass without reading textbooks, but most of the top students are reading them. there are exceptions of course

Just like only the top students will get into medical school will have a 55 MCAT/ 5000 volunteer hours and will have saved 46 African children while running through a burning hut . People make medical school much harder than it has to be. Unless most medical schools are different than where I go what I said stands in regards to what the original poster asked. You do not NEED books to pass as most of the info you will get from the books is already spoon fed to you (Multiple times). If you want to argue that if you don't learn how to read now, after you have been accepted into the highest form of education, thats POSSIBLY an argument for when you get to clinicals but to ascertain that only the top students spend mundane hours learning from books is just wrong and putting undo stress onto Pre-Med students. Times have changed in regards to medical education and how easy it really is to get info on subjects you need. Some students learn from books, some learn visually, but from what I have seen the name of the game is efficiency and what I said prior is the most efficient way to smash info into your brain and retain a good amount of it.

 

[deleted646902]

I'm a visual learner too and Pathoma & Sketchy are great, but there aren't videos for everything. I don't completely agree that videos can be faster. 2.5 speed doesn't mean s*** if you can't retain. Honestly, who can watch a video past 1.8 without constantly pausing? I know too many people who wasted time with Najeeb when cracking Costanzo would have served them much better. Similarly, there isn't a "Najeeb" for 3rd year or residency. Or literature, for that matter.

Najeeb is worthless unless you are studying for boards and you crammed all of the 2 years of pre-clins. You'd be surprised how well you can retain at 2.5 speed.

 

[Vain Brother]

it's spelled "undue" (something i learned from reading books) and i thought my point was very clear that textbooks are not required to pass but are strongly recommended if you want to be at the top of your class. take from that what you will.

also i just realized that this was a random bump from a year ago so i'm not sure any of this is actually being helpful to anyone

 

[deleted646902]

it's spelled "undue" (something i learned from reading books) and i thought my point was very clear that textbooks are not required to pass but are strongly recommended if you want to be at the top of your class. take from that what you will.

also i just realized that this was a random bump from a year ago so i'm not sure any of this is actually being helpful to anyone

It's very relevant to anyone who is struggling with school and wasting hours reading books when the info is already provided to them from lectures. You won't agree with me and I won't agree with you. Its up to people to take whatever info they find. But thank you for trying to justify your point by correcting my minor grammar error after writing from my phone. You're the hero we don't deserve.

 

[Vain Brother]

we agree that textbook reading is not necessary to pass preclinical years, which answers this thread question. you went further, actively discouraging people from reading textbooks. all i did was point out that that was bad, one-size fits all advice, because some students with different goals may find them very useful. i know i and many of my classmates did

 

[deleted646902]

we agree that textbook reading is not necessary to pass preclinical years, which answers this thread question. you went further, actively discouraging people from reading textbooks. all i did was point out that that was bad, one-size fits all advice, because some students with different goals may find them very useful. i know i and many of my classmates did

And you stated that "most of the top students" are reading books. Thats just plain false as well. I'll be more careful to word my posts next time but I would say that you should do the same. sorry for misrepresenting what I said.