no reading textbooks

[inositide]

I attend an allopathic med school with a very good reputation, etc etc. Anyway, what I've found is that at my school, the profs
give detailed handouts (ie. printed notes) and 70% of the students especially in the first year of med school read no textbook. They just read and study these handouts. Of course, for anatomy students use atlases, and some may read snell or moore, but that's about it. For example, for neuroscience lab, students use an atlas, but for the neuroscience class itself, students go by these stacks of notes given to them.
The students seem to do well enough, and every year the 2nd year do well on step 1. Is this how it is at other allopathic schools?

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[8744]

Reading assignments are generally wishful thinking on the part of the professor. I think 99% of all test questions at my school come from either notes, handouts, or information presented in class.

I'm sorry I wasted my money on quite a few textbooks including Lenninger's Biochemistry, Lodish's Molecular Cell Biology, and Haine's Fundamentals of Neuroscience.

Still, a good physiology textbook, a good pathology textbook, and a couple of good atlases are a must, I believe.

 

[mikegoal]

most professors are giving you what is important and is probaly very similar to the information that is in most textbooks with a little less detail. most of them are also aware what is on the boards and put alot of that in thier notes. i myself like getting things from various sources and find that most of the important stuff is usually in the notes and you really only need a textbook for clarification

 

[Dodge This]

You've describe my school almost exactly. Textbooks are purely supplementary. However, when the quality of the lecture notes are poor, they can be very useful.

 

[southerndoc]

This varies significantly from school to school.

At my school, if you don't read textbooks, you are pretty much guaranteed to fail. Professors give out very few notes that replace textbooks. Instead, they supplement them.

I attend a PBL school. I'm not sure if all PBL schools are like this, but I suspect they are due to the nature of the learning environment.

 

[galactica2001]

Originally posted by Geek Medic
This varies significantly from school to school.

At my school, if you don't read textbooks, you are pretty much guaranteed to fail. Professors give out very few notes that replace textbooks. Instead, they supplement them.

I attend a PBL school. I'm not sure if all PBL schools are like this, but I suspect they are due to the nature of the learning environment.

Same here. At some classes (like histiology) you hear about 30% of what's on the test later. Then you've got to study out of textbooks.
If you get detailed handouts and that's all you need to know - LUCKY YOU!- don't bother with texbooks

 

[DrMom]

For most of my classes last semester, I used the textbooks only to clarify as needed. I did have one professor, though, who would occasionally pull some minutia from the text for the exams.

 

[CANES2006]

Textbooks? What are they?!!!
Most of my class studies purely from the notes/handouts given by the professors for each lecture. I have used the textbook just as a supplement. For many classes, I haven't even opened the book once. I'm doing just fine in medical school with this technique. There are only a few people in my class who read the book. They usually just get one or two questions more correct on the exam than me. Sometimes I even do better than they do. One or two questions isn't worth studying 5-6 hours more than what I do. I rather continue doing what I do with that time: dating and going out with friends.

 

[inositide]

Wow....when I posted the original message of this thread, I thought most replies would be like "My school doesnt even have handouts...", or "If you don't read textbooks as the primary form of med school education, you will be a terrible doctor.." etc etc
but I reading the replies, I guess that handout notes are the
way med schools are teaching now. Reading what Canes wrote, it sounds like she is saying the same thing people in my school say. Best case scenario, reading a textbook in these classes may result in getting 1 or 2 more questions right on an exam, and worst case scenario, reading the textbooks rather than spending the time studying the handouts results in a much lower grade because not enough time is spent studying handouts. The handouts are where most of the exams come from anyway.

 

[Hotsauce21]

I agree inositide---the one thing i will say is that i thinnk it can be good sometimes to have a textbook to breeze through for the main idea--for instance, i would skim the text and pictures in my Robbins path book to get an overview of renal pathology, etc. not much time, and fairly high yield.

If anyone ever buys the Haines Neuroscience i will punch them in the tits--that is a truly awful book--unless you need the pictures for tests

Originally posted by inositide
Wow....when I posted the original message of this thread, I thought most replies would be like "My school doesnt even have handouts...", or "If you don't read textbooks as the primary form of med school education, you will be a terrible doctor.." etc etc
but I reading the replies, I guess that handout notes are the
way med schools are teaching now. Reading what Canes wrote, it sounds like she is saying the same thing people in my school say. Best case scenario, reading a textbook in these classes may result in getting 1 or 2 more questions right on an exam, and worst case scenario, reading the textbooks rather than spending the time studying the handouts results in a much lower grade because not enough time is spent studying handouts. The handouts are where most of the exams come from anyway.

 

[doepug]

The format at my school is very similar to that described by the OP.

Many first and second year students don't buy textbooks at all, save for an anatomy atlas (which is usually free from AMSA). If you save the printed notes you're given (and organize them as you go), it'll help immensely when studying for Step 1.

Cheers,
doepug

 

[Mig24x]

In my school is the same, handouts. They give us pretty good handouts, specially for pathology (robbins is too long), microbiology and Pharmacology too (the katsung book confuses a lot. So the only book i have read is the Psyq class because that class emphazise on reading the textbook.
But sometimes I get confused in a handout and then i go to the class book.