Suppose i want a headstart in Anatomy

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juddson

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. . . what books should I buy. I'm thinking books for gross anatomy. Please provide title and author. Also, I have found that many anatomy books are titled "anatomy and physiology". Is this standard. Do the med schools use this one book to teach all this physiology?

Judd
 
Netter's atlas of anatomy and Moore's clinical anatomy. pretty good books, netter is literally a must have. Depends also where you are going to school. Maybe someone on SDN goes to your school and could point you in the right direction
 
Anatomy is not worth trying to get a head start on. I had never had an anatomy course before and I have survived just fine this year. Anatomy is about memorizing details and you won't remember all those origins and insertions in 6 months. The big picture really only comes togther when you integrate the structures with their functions. That is the purpose of first year. In addition, if your program has an organ-based curriculum you will most likely dissect and be tested on anatomy throughout the year as you work your way through the body's systems.

Relax and enjoy the time you have now. If you really can't sit still until the fall without learning something - review some physiology. Understanding some of the major concepts in physiology helps much more than reviewing anatomy. The BRS book by Costanza is excellent (full size book, not the little one).

Keep an eye out on eBay for books - I got my Rohen Anatomy Atlas for $20 and it is in perfect condition.
 
I agree with the previous poster who stated that spending any time on anatomy right now would be a waste of time. You will be overwhelmed when you first start anatomy, but so will everyone else, and almost everyone adapts pretty quickly. If you must read something, I agree with the BRS Physio book. You can do practice questions at the end of each chapter too. You could buy BRS gross anatomy and do the questions at the end of each chapter there too, but I don't think that it will help you as much as a solid foundation in physiology would since anatomy is just route memorization and regurgitation whereas physio is more based upon comprehension.
 
The first one...its ISBN is 0-7216-9549-3. I know that because mine is sitting right next to me and I should be reading it instead of playing on SDN.

Deirdre
 
Two words: Color Atlas... aka "Rohen and Yakochi".

You'll minimize the time you have to spend in the lab because this atlas has real cadavres in it. I think it's worth the investment

~doc
 
I third the advice not to start stuyding anatomy now. The amount of material is immense. You have to fit it all together in the anatomy lab, and I do not at all think you can learn anatomy from a book. Or if you do, it will take 40 times as long. It's March -- if you're not done with undergrad, you will be soon....then you'll have one of the last summers ever. You need to relax, take a well-deserved break, and realize med school will start soon enough -- there's no need to rush it.
 
Agreed. Forget studying now.

There will be plenty of time to be a gunner in med school, relax a bit. 🙂
 
Don't study for it. It's brute force memorization that has a real short half-life in your brain. It's just not one of those subjects where you can spread it out over time and absorb the morsels... it's one of those high-volume, high-frequency repetition classes that's best done under a compact amount of time. Better time is spent outside playing.

I recommend Baby Moore if you're a text reader, Rohen is a good color atlas, Netter is standard/free from AMSA, and First Aid for Step 1 to study for Anatomy.

Get First Aid early and buy the newest addition when you're taking the Boards. The topics in First Aid are the topics you HAVE to know. Then study to do well on in the class.
 
chillllllllllllllllll ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut
 
I agree with all the above. Chill out, relax! Trying to learn Anatomy out of context is the least benifical thing you can do.
 
the best way to study anatomy is to look at the cadaver itself and dissect it.
 
this is the reason partially of my anxiety over med school..... 🙄 Just relax I am starting this fall and the best way to get a head start is to RELAX and HAVE FUN!!
 
I have fourth and fifth what everyone is saying. I've had anatomy in undergrad and what I'm learning now, is no where near what I had in any undergrad class I had. By the way, my school is one of those school who do not work on cadavers (thank GOD).

As far as text books are concerned, I'm currently using Netter's and Gray's Anatomy. I'll be getting Moore's as soon as I can aford to pay the $60 book fee unless I find it online. Netter's is good for illustration since we don't do cadavers. Gray's is good at going into detail on the section of the body we are studying this week. Currently we are on the Upper Extremities (Bones) and there's so much to learn that I turn to my Netter's book and just get a picture of what the Gray's book is talking about. Once you get into the bones and it's articulations you'll know why everyone here is telling you to take a break while you can. Just to think we are only on the Upper Extremities of the bones and I still have muscles and nerves to cover :scared: . Nevertheless, I'm loving it all the way.

Take that break while you can
 
I don't recommend memorizing anatomy atlases like Netter's. However, I do recommend that if you find yourself with time, to read big Moore. When you start anatomy in medical school, you'll be too busy reading the dissector and memorizing Netter's that you won't have time to read Moore. Moore, however, explains anatomy and has clinical correlations.

I personally would read an anatomy textbook before reading a physiology one for the simple reason that anatomy is much more time consuming in the sense that one has to integrate reading the dissector, looking at Netter's, going into lab and physically dissecting, and then reading Moore to get the bedside correlation.
 
Anatomy is a hard topic to study on your own and without a cadaver in front of you. It can be really overwhelming without a professor to focus your efforts. Getting a head start really isn't necessary.... anatomy isn't the killer everyone makes it out to be. I was more annoyed by the smell than the difficulty.

If you insist on getting a head start, buy an anatomy coloring book. I had one in college. It was fun for killing time while I was waiting for my laundry or something.

If you're a real gunner, buy Moore's Clinically Oriented Anatomy. There's an abridged version called "essentials" or "basics" of that title, I forget. The big book is a good reference. I was never able to finish it, so I wish I had bought the abridged version.
 
I agree with all of the previous posters who told you not to bother studying. There's precious little you can do to "prepare" for med school, other than GETTING IN. In most cases I think it's a stupid thing to do. It's been said on this forum over and over again, but understandably few M0's actually believe it. When you get there you'll realize just how stupidly useless it is.
 
juddson said:
Also, I have found that many anatomy books are titled "anatomy and physiology". Is this standard. Do the med schools use this one book to teach all this physiology?
Click to expand...

The texts entitled anatomy and physiology are undergraduate texts, usually for Human Anatomy and Physiology courses that nursing students and allied health professions students take. I took a course like this in college and they are not even close to the scope of medical school anatomy and physiology. You will have a separate text for each of the different anatomy's (gross anatomy, histology, embryology, neuroanatomy) in addition to a very dense text in physiology (for the meaning of small print check out Guyton and Halls Textbook of Medical Physiology). So in medical school you will have about 5 texts to cover "anatomy and physiology" with instead of 1!
 
Unleses you have your own dead cadaver at home, studying ahead for anatomy will be the biggest waste of time. Trust me, I know how you feel...u got into medschool and you're feeling very eager...i've been there. But u would be screwing yourself over if you start studying before you start school...
 
everyone learns differently. . i wouldn't be too quick to tell someone that they shouldn't start studying anatomy.

i know with 100% certainty that i need more time than most so i am starting to study anatomy again now, for the fall.
 
care bear said:
everyone learns differently. . i wouldn't be too quick to tell someone that they shouldn't start studying anatomy.

i know with 100% certainty that i need more time than most so i am starpting to study anatomy again now, for the fall.
Click to expand...


why not enjoy the months before the fall and study hard during medschool?
plus i can garuntee that whatever you actually memorize between now and the summer will all be gone from your mind by the time you actually start medschool or when you actually start the specific organ system. I took a very intense anatomy course my last semester in college and it didn't do a damn thing for me in medical school. Trust me, I'm an M3 and I know what im talking about.

good luck
 
i know with 100% certainty that i need more time than most so i am starpting to study anatomy again now, for the fall.
Click to expand...

I'm writing that down. Will ask you again whether you think it was really useful, next year. 😉
 
Most people join AMSA and take the free Netter's and then have an unreasonable devotion to it. I think Clemente is a far superior atlas, with more conceptual pictures and radiographs. Most people who tell you that Netter's is the best have never seriously looked at another book.

Just my two cents on atlases. Please don't study anatomy over the summer. That's silly.
 
beriberi said:
Most people join AMSA and take the free Netter's and then have an unreasonable devotion to it. I think Clemente is a far superior atlas, with more conceptual pictures and radiographs. Most people who tell you that Netter's is the best have never seriously looked at another book.

Just my two cents on atlases. Please don't study anatomy over the summer. That's silly.
Click to expand...

I thought I was the only one! Netter's never had the angle I needed, and Clemente usually did ... Grant's is pretty good, too. My anatomy professors didn't think too highly of Netter's, either.

I learned anatomy from my cadaver, so studying ahead of time would have been useless.
 
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