It may be a little early to ask this, but can you give your opinions on what books you really found useful for VM-1 vs. what books we really DON'T need to waste our money on?
Thank you, thank you!
I wouldn't worry too much about this yet. When you get your big sib (we're choosing littles as we speak!), they'll be able to tell you what books they found helpful, what books were essential (even if they weren't that helpful), and what books are a waste of money. It helps to give them a list of the books on the book list you probably won't receive until July or August when you ask, because our memory of these things is limited at this point lol.
That being said, I am not a book learner, so if you are also not a book learner, my recommendations might help.
Short version: Books to Buy
Block 1 & 2: Dissection of the Dog, Histology book, Histology notes
Block 3: NONE! (minor possible exception: LA anatomy book--see below)
Block 4: Epidemiology book, (maybe the Endocrinology book--see below)
Long version:
In the first and second blocks (August-December), I only bought the dissection of the dog book, the histology book, and the histology class notes. Other books are technically required, but I didn't need them and most of those, quite frankly, went unused and unopened by my classmates. The dissection of the dog book will be your lifeline and you most certainly cannot go without it, but you might be able to go without the histology book. I don't recommend that because there are reading assignments from it that show up on each exam, and the book in general is a great reinforcement for the class notes, which you also need to buy. Those aren't technically a book, but you're going to need them, so don't hesitate to get them. DEFINITELY don't purchase the physiology book! We have the entire book on the shared drive on campus, so you can access it for free and save yourself a ton of money... although I never opened it once LOL.
In third block (January-March), I bought no books LOL. The only book from that block that is worth mentioning is the large animal anatomy book, which, while being largely useless due to both a sincere lack of dissection direction and some inaccurate pictures, you won't need unless no one in your dissection group has bought it. If at least one person has one, don't bother spending the money!
In fourth block (March-May), I bought the epidemiology book and the endocrinology book. You CANNOT survive without the epidemiology book because all of the exams are open book, and you're going to need that help! It's basically like buying the most expensive notebook in history, though, since you can write or tape all of your class notes in it, which is helpful only if you don't cover up the portions of the book which were covered in class. The professor will sometimes take things straight out of the book that weren't mentioned in the notes from the sections he covered, so beware. As for the endocrinology book, I bought it because there were questions on each exam from the book that would drop you a letter grade if you missed them all, but I would NOT recommend buying it for that purpose. The assigned readings are several hundred pages in length, total, and for what might only be 5-10 questions on an exam, it's not worth it. However, the book did come in handy for a number of the homework assignments we were given in the class, and I would recommend having it for that purpose. Just don't bother reading the required material before the exam lol. It's not even necessary for the assignments, though, so if you don't want to spend the money, don't worry about it too much. It just helped me a lot to have all the information I needed in one place with a glossary.
As a final note, be sure to ask for your big sib's opinion on this when the time comes, though, just to see whether they have a different perspective or not. They may be willing to sell their old books to you at a reduced cost, too. Failing that, check your email around the time classes start for other second years trying to pawn off their old books for cheap, check out Amazon and other text book sites for price comparisons, and only head to the bookstore to buy books if those avenues don't pan out.
Hope this helps!
I'm just planning on giving my company a solid 4 week notice (our policy is only two weeks) to help find and at least start training a replacement.
Can you be my big sib? Haha!
