Undergrad textbooks-useful in med school?

[DocFox]

Do any of you have experiences where having undergrad science textbooks were useful in med school?

I have a lot of biochem, cell bio, and physiology books and could use the money if I sold them but wouldn't mind holding on to them if they would be of any help. Thanks.

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[Jack Daniel]

Do any of you have experiences where having undergrad science textbooks were useful in med school?

I have a lot of biochem, cell bio, and physiology books and could use the money if I sold them but wouldn't mind holding on to them if they would be of any help. Thanks.

I sometimes have used my undergraduate physio text, just to get a big picture before diving in to the nitty gritty.

I brought a few other texts with me, too, but I never look in them. I barely have enough time to complete all the reading assigned in class. I think you'd get more out of using a medical review text like LANGE before rehashing undergraduate texts.

 

[nvshelat]

I find myself using Lehninger's Biochem a lot, but that's because I never took an undergraduate biochem course. I've heard that several schools use that text for undergrad and I've found it the most comprehensive so far for med school

 

[bostongirl22]

I didn't use any of my undergrad bio, chem, or physics book for medical school. I guess some are good to hold onto, but I'd try to sell some on ebay so you'll have more $ for med school books.

 

[DocFox]

Sounds like they won't really help. Thanks everyone.

 

[Jamers]

Sounds like they won't really help. Thanks everyone.

Where he hell do you guys find time to read an EXTRA TEXT BOOK???? Reading the notes, listening the MP3s, keeping up with the power points and MAYBE using a little BRS before the exam is all the time I have. Reading 90 pages in a text book to get the same information I could get in 20 of notes is just INSANE. Maybe if you are looking for the three point difference between a 94 and a 97 but, my own opinion would be to leave the text books at home.

 

[scpod]

...but wouldn't mind holding on to them if they would be of any help. Thanks.

Sell them, and use that money to buy beer while you still have a chance to enjoy life.

 

[J1515]

I absolutely have used some of my undergrad texts. It's not a matter of reading them. It's a matter of using them as a reference to look things up, and they certainly have served their purpose. Stuff like intro bio, biochem, physio, general chem I would hang on to, maybe even an orgo book. My intro to psychology book actually came in handy a few times during the behavioral science unit as well. Stuff like upper division chem classes probably will be useless. But upper division bio classes you took as an undergrad like virology or immunology can be useful as well. I'd hang on to this stuff if I was you. You'll be over $100,000 in debt, a few $100 isn't going to make a difference and at 3am when you're ripping your hair out trying to make sense of the basics of viral replication, those undergrad books can come in handy.

 

[bravotwozero]

maybe the biology related books (physiology, biochem, etc.) could likely come in handy.

But as for physical science, general chem, orgo, physics, I'd toss them as fast as I possibly can. Sorry, waay too many bad memories from those courses.

Seriously though, most of that would be useless. Sell them, and invest in a nice laptop or something.

 

[emeddo]

I used Lehininger in undergrad and it helped a lot during biochem (in fact I caught some of my professors using it's charts in their powerpoints). It was nice to study from what I had studied in undergrad (it was more like review). Besides that I haven't had a need for any other old textbook. I would sell it while you can get the money and usually you can buy back anything you really feel you need when you are in medical school for less than what you can sell it for now (school book depreciation is worse than buying a new car).

 

[puddlejumper]

Sell them. Until last week I had a stack of undergrad books I kept. They hadn't been opened in 4 years, so I sent them to the recycling plant. You will get plenty of info from notes. If you need to look something up from a different source, make a quick run to the library.

 

[Pooh Chong]

sell them.

 

[SM-UCLA tech]

none of them will be helpful or necessary.

sell them......and if you can't sell them....then throw them away so you don't have to lug them around anywhere.

and if you really want to save money, you could tear out the pages and use them for toilet paper. that could save several hundred dollars over 4 years. probably more money than you can get from selling them back!!!

 

[Boxer1]

none of them will be helpful or necessary.

sell them......and if you can't sell them....then throw them away so you don't have to lug them around anywhere.

and if you really want to save money, you could tear out the pages and use them for toilet paper. that could save several hundred dollars over 4 years. probably more money than you can get from selling them back!!!

 

[Kuba]

I kept Basic Medical Biochemistry: A Clinical Approach from my undergrad biochem class. It is really easy to follow so I thought it might be useful as an overview of biochemistry. We shall see.

 

[Jamers]

Yeah...Wikipedia is far more useful and, its free!!

 

[SM-UCLA tech]

I kept Basic Medical Biochemistry: A Clinical Approach from my undergrad biochem class. It is really easy to follow so I thought it might be useful as an overview of biochemistry. We shall see.

i'm assuming you haven't started yet......

but seriously.....you do not need anything from undergrad. and you don't need to pre-study......

everything will be made clear as to what is needed for your particular school....and for boards, everyone pretty much studies from the same few texts......

an undergrad book will either be too dense, too superficial...and not focus on what you need to know for class and/or for boards.

med school is not very difficult....the difficult part is learning to study for long periods of time....managing your time.....and memorizing...especially the first two years.

i remember what i felt like before i started...and yes i kept a couple of books from undergrad....and i NEVER have needed to look at them.

good luck to you and everyone else about to begin....it will be the best and worst times of your lives!

 

[mitawa]

As paper weights when I am studying outdoors. To make my bookcase library collection seem impressive. As weights when working out. Seriously I doubt you'll have time to refer back to them b/c you'll have enough reading assignments to cover in your med school books.

 

[JustPlainBill]

Do any of you have experiences where having undergrad science textbooks were useful in med school?

I have a lot of biochem, cell bio, and physiology books and could use the money if I sold them but wouldn't mind holding on to them if they would be of any help. Thanks.

Well, let's just say that the school I'm at can't make up their minds about
which phys text to agree on. The prior class had the wonderful Berne & Levy monster. People complained, including some of the phys profs, and now we're using the Lange series (about $30 each) for phys texts. Guyton? No way.... I was told by a phys prof that the reason why we can't seem to find
and agree on a phys book is that they can't get the phys profs to agree on one. To my thinking, you get a majority opinion, pick the book and then that's the text the profs are required to teach from......

Bottom line - keep either your notes or books on acid/base reactions, conceptual stuff on hydrolysis reactions, and some basics on oxidation/reduction reactions. Also keep any human phys books. Get the Lippincott's biochem review and the clinical biochem made ridiculously simple for the chart that goes with it. Other than that you'll probably need a netters and a BRS phys review and you'll be cool.....