Is med school studying textbook heavy?

[JJAngel]

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So I'm a sophomore bio major right now and so far I really haven't had to do much textbook reading to do well in school. I read textbooks first semester but I realized it wasn't particularly an efficient use of time.
I was just wondering is studying in medical school very textbook heavy? That's what I hear and I'm prepared to study with textbooks if it is, but I just wanted to ask real people about it.
Back when I was in high school teachers told me up and down that undergrad would be extremely textbook heavy but that turned out to not be the case.

 

[Principia]

Basically no one at my school uses textbooks for anything other than occasional reference. Even on our sequences with a 'required' textbook, they were (1) available online for free, and (2) easily passable through using lecture materials and boards materials. Mileage will vary depending on the school, though.

 

[JJAngel]

It depends on what resources you have available, how your school does things, and your preferences. For instance, at my school most people used board review resources for organ block studying. Some of the best-liked micro and pathology resources are video lecture series; my favorite physiology reference was a textbook. At some schools you may be spending a lot of time reviewing lecture material/powerpoint slides.

Thanks, it sounds like med school isn't as textbook heavy as some people make it seem which I'm glad for. I prefer studying from PowerPoints.

 

[JJAngel]

Basically no one at my school uses textbooks for anything other than occasional reference. Even on our sequences with a 'required' textbook, they were (1) available online for free, and (2) easily passable through using lecture materials and boards materials. Mileage will vary depending on the school, though.

Cool I'm pretty relieved to hear that

 

[Goro]

So I'm a sophomore bio major right now and so far I really haven't had to do much textbook reading to do well in school. I read textbooks first semester but I realized it wasn't particularly an efficient use of time.
I was just wondering is studying in medical school very textbook heavy? That's what I hear and I'm prepared to study with textbooks if it is, but I just wanted to ask real people about it.
Back when I was in high school teachers told me up and down that undergrad would be extremely textbook heavy but that turned out to not be the case.

Textbooks? Med students use textbooks???

 

[efle]

I didn't touch a subject-specific book once. Everyone uses the pdf of First Aid, though.

 

[907914]

I didn't touch a subject-specific book once. Everyone uses the pdf of First Aid, though.

Do you basically just take notes next to the relevant first aid passage, or are the first 2 preclinical years basically “Memorize first aid and you will know all you need.”

 

[907914]

First Aid is a review resource, not a primary learning resource. You need to do lots of other learning first, then First Aid will help you identify, organize, and memorize the important info.

ETA: Also depends on your school. Some have professor-written tests based on lecture material, in which case FA/other board-oriented resources may not be adequate.

In today’s age, this feels very antiquated. FA/Pathoma/Sketchy/Anki/Uworld etc. have been the great equalizers in medical education, so I have heard. It seems odd to hold on to non-standard testing...

 

[efle]

Do you basically just take notes next to the relevant first aid passage, or are the first 2 preclinical years basically “Memorize first aid and you will know all you need.”

First Aid is a review resource, not a primary learning resource. You need to do lots of other learning first, then First Aid will help you identify, organize, and memorize the important info.

ETA: Also depends on your school. Some have professor-written tests based on lecture material, in which case FA/other board-oriented resources may not be adequate.

In today’s age, this feels very antiquated. FA/Pathoma/Sketchy/Anki/Uworld etc. have been the great equalizers in medical education, so I have heard. It seems odd to hold on to non-standard testing...

My school was Pass/Fail so I did all my learning at home from Boards and Beyond, Pathoma, and Sketchy. Medicine is standardized enough that it was always easy to pass unit exams without watching a single professor's lecture or looking at any of their slide decks. First aid you mostly use as a reference/quick review resource during dedicated.

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

It varies by school, but I bought 1 book - first aid. If you learn best from text, go study from texts, but for most of us that’s not the most efficient way to get information

 

[MedicineZ0Z]

First aid and pathoma. Also +/- master the boards for 3rd year. That's it for books. But be prepared to do thousands of questions.

 

[aldol16]

I don't think I've opened a single traditional textbook yet. Textbooks are meant to be references for when you need to look something up in more depth. And nowadays with Google and UpToDate, there's nothing you'll find in a textbook that you can't find elsewhere. The information on Google and UpToDate will probably be more accurate too as new trials come out and thinking in the field shifts. So no, med school isn't particularly textbook heavy. There are suggested references but those are for your reference only (nobody is going to assign you readings from a textbook and if they do, it's no essential that you read it).

Now, review books are another story. Just like how you probably used some form of review books for the MCAT, you will be using review books for Step 1. First Aid and Pathoma are a must, and I found Goljan's Rapid Review to be good for review as the organ blocks went along. If anything, Goljan has good pictures. Regarding clinical rotations, I've found that Step Up to Medicine is quite useful as it condenses the material down into a manageable chunk. This one is more like a textbook but it's more of a reference as well. You don't have to read it cover to cover unless you have the time and want to really crush the medicine shelf exam (but there are easier ways to do that). People use it as a reference to read up on whatever diseases they need to know about to manage the patients they have. Supplement with UpToDate.