I picked up a couple books on how to study in med school. It seems like they offer some good advice, things most students probably won't be doing (e.g. buying an old copy of First Aid before school starts). We'll see if it helps.
It's a nice idea, and heck it may even help, but the little bit you may glean from FA during the summer before medical school may not be worth the effort and time--time probably better spent relaxing. Buying FA now is okay, just don't open FA until school starts. Trust me, a few months off now seems like some sort of fantasy. ****, I'm happy just to have a day off (and when I do, it's usually spent catching up on stuff I put on the back burner months ago).
In my opinion, you'd already be ahead of the game if you can even comprehend the gibberish in FA at your level (in which case you should most definitely relax). It's not written as a narrative, but kind of resembles someone's notes with lots of mnemonics, tables, and graphics. You have to know the background for it to be truly useful. The real value of FA at your level is to use it as an outline for what is emphasized on the boards when you actually start medical school and attending classes, not before it. It's a board REVIEW book, which implies you should already be familiar with the material before reading it, otherwise it will appear to be a lot of key words without necessary context. HOWEVER, that being said, I do think it is a great idea to have FA on hand and to use it once school starts and you begin to get the hang of things. It's definitely a valuable resource and it probably would have benefited me if I had used it earlier on. Another great resource is Goljan. I sure wish I had looked at his stuff earlier than months before boards. Again, not to use before medical school starts, but during.
But, anyway, if you insist on trying to learn something before medical school, try to do it lightly and have a good time, if you can. Seriously, though, if I were in your shoes again, I'd do as much non-medical reading as I could. I still can't manage to find the time to do ANY reading for pleasure. Enjoy the free time, because you will see real soon that it's a rarer commodity once school starts.
I've been on this forum for a while, long enough to see the cyclical nature of the process. If you end up studying this summer, you'll probably just end up regretting the loss of a perfectly good period of time off and be back in half a year telling premeds to enjoy the summer. Good luck.
