When to buy books for 1st year

[mtwop]

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So an older med student friend of mine told me it would be a good idea to buy books for this year within the next month or so before most of the cheap ones are already sold on amazon, etc. My school has a website that gives recommendations on which books are actually worth buying (less than a third of the "required" ones), so I have a good idea of which books I'm going to get. I'm just trying to save as much money as possible, so any advice on when to buy would be appreciated. Also, our curriculum is graded so obviously I'm not just wanting enough material to pass the classes. Here's the list, so feel free to let me know what you think:


Already have netter, netter's flash cards, grant's dissector, and baby moore's essential clinical anatomy from undergrad (have heard Rohen's pretty good too?)
Wheater's for histo (or Kerr, not sure which)
Lippincott's for biochem (and possibly pharm)
Basic and clinical pharm (katzung)
Costanzo physiology (larger text, old 3rd edition)
Lange's cardio, renal phys books (needed if I have the costanzo text?)
respiratory phys (west) (needed if I have the costanzo text)
Robbins path
micro made ridiculously simple
The immune system (parham)
Medical micro and immuno (levinson)

 

[fahimaz7]

BRS Physio
First Aid
High Yield Biochem
Micro made Easy

That's all you need. When do you expect to be able to read all of these text books? We covered 3 feet of handouts during MS1 alone.

 

[ButImLETired]

So an older med student friend of mine told me it would be a good idea to buy books for this year within the next month or so before most of the cheap ones are already sold on amazon, etc. My school has a website that gives recommendations on which books are actually worth buying (less than a third of the "required" ones), so I have a good idea of which books I'm going to get. I'm just trying to save as much money as possible, so any advice on when to buy would be appreciated. Also, our curriculum is graded so obviously I'm not just wanting enough material to pass the classes. Here's the list, so feel free to let me know what you think:


Already have netter and moore's essential clinical anatomy from undergrad (have heard Rohen's pretty good too?)
Wheater's for histo (or Kerr, not sure which)
Lippincott's for biochem (and possibly pharm)
Basic and clinical pharm (katzung)
Costanzo physiology (larger text, old 3rd edition)
Lange's cardio, renal phys books (needed if I have the costanzo text?)
respiratory phys (west) (needed if I have the costanzo text)
Robbins path
micro made ridiculously simple
The immune system (parham)
Medical micro and immuno (levinson)

Rohen's has pictures from actual dissections. I know a lot of people found it super useful- I didn't.

You definitely need to get Grant's dissector to bring to lab.

I loved Wheater's for histo.

Instead of Costanzo, I'd personally just get the BRS Physio (it's awesome, but definitely very much abridged) if your school has good physio notes.

I also liked Langman's Medical Embryology.

If you're an index card person, Netter's flashcards (or Grant's, or Clemente if you want a different view) are pretty useful when you're "on the go". Microbiology flashcards were useful, too.

I really didn't have any need for the other books.

Honestly, you're better off waiting to get the books until you speak to some older students about how good the notes are for each class. Also, you can probably buy a ton of that stuff from 2nd years who are trying to unload their old books or 3rd years who are done with step 1- you don't need to get it from amazon.

Oh and if they say it's "brand new"- don't get it. Means it was useless.

 

[mtwop]

Thanks for the feedback. Keep them coming if anyone else has any opinions

 

[DrYoda]

The only book I think is even somewhat useful for M1 is an anatomy atlas.

 

[bruinhd]

BRS Physio
First Aid
High Yield Biochem
Micro made Easy

That's all you need. When do you expect to be able to read all of these text books? We covered 3 feet of handouts during MS1 alone.

I totally agree with this guy. These books are all you need, and maybe also Costanzo's Physio textbook in addition if you want. Add to this list Netter's, but not Grant's Dissector (you will be shown how to cut by lab directors, rendering this book useless).

Lippincott's Biochem is also very good but I am willing to bet your professor will provide you with sufficient lecture material, combined with your previous biochem experience to get it done without a textbook.

Parham's immuno text is almost total garbage.

 

[mmmcdowe]

See if there is a book fair where older students can sell them to you cheap.

Rohen's is okay, netanatomy.com is just as good though. I would never bring a Rohen's to the lab though.
Wheater's for histo (or Kerr, not sure which) any histo book is probably okay.
Lippincott's for biochem (and possibly pharm) Would not buy
Basic and clinical pharm (katzung)
Costanzo physiology (larger text, old 3rd edition)
Lange's cardio, renal phys books (needed if I have the costanzo text?) would not buy unless they are pathophysiology books
respiratory phys (west) (needed if I have the costanzo text) also don't see why you'd need it
Robbins path
micro made ridiculously simple
The immune system (parham)
Medical micro and immuno (levinson) (maybe, do your classes have a syllabus (notes)? )

 

[ruiner]

I'm probalby going to go all out and then regret it later. But i want a big library.

 

[silverhorse84]

To be honest, I rarely opened a text book this past year. The notes they give are enough for my school.

The books I used the most were: Rohen's atlas, Rohen's flashcards, and Netter's atlas. At my school the professors wrote their own dissector manual, so we didn't need to get one - you may want to check with the school before you buy one.

 

[psipsina]

First year I used my class notes and ppts, netters, rohens, a dissector, lippincotts biochem and brs physio. At my school we have a big buddy system where we hand our books down to someone in the class below. Check to make sure that doesn't happen at your school before you go drop a bunch of cash that could otherwise be in your entertainment fund instead 🙂

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

Definitely wait until school starts. Several reasons:

1) The "official" recommended list from the school may bear little resemblance to what the students actually use. You want to talk to the older students and find out what helped them the most

2) Cheap books - there are constantly emails from 2nd, 3rd, and 4th years selling books. I guarantee this will be a better deal than amazon. You might even get free books from some people (we had a 1st year/2nd year "mentor" program and my mentor gave me 5 or 6 books)

3) Why bother getting them now? It's not like the internet is going to run out of books. Those will all still be on amazon in a couple of months