Which BRS books are worth owning?

[318038]

Hey all, I recently used the BRS Gross Anatomy book for one of my final exams and it was a lifesaver! I have also checked out BRS Physiology and thought that book was the most concise, well organized physiology review text I have yet to see.

I have noticed that there are BRS books for many subjects and since I have been so impressed with the two I have used, I am considering purchasing a few more. Which ones are worth picking up and which ones should be avoided since there are so many different BRS books available? Thanks in advance!

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[MilkmanAl]

I'd honestly buy an old, crappy used copy of all of them just for the practice questions, if nothing else. The BRS for phys is probably the best one, and the chapter summaries and questions in the one for gross rock for the NBME. They get substantially less awesome outside of those two, but they're still worth having around.

 

[DrBowtie]

Anatomy, Physio, Path are the only ones I have used or heard good things about.

 

[MilkmanAl]

Oh yeah, path too.

 

[abmd]

Oh yeah, path too.

path? doesn't everyone use rapid review?

 

[MilkmanAl]

Yes, but RR doesn't have questions. It's also still super long, despite being a review book. The path BRS is sort of a middle ground between reading Goljan's margin notes and actually reading the text. Since path is arguably the most important subject (for the boards and otherwise), more quality material is never bad.

 

[DrBowtie]

path? doesn't everyone use rapid review?

Rapid Review is a good text but stylistically I prefer to use BRS Path with my classes since it uses sentences rather than just bulleted lists for everything. It helps me learn it the first time.

 

[MossPoh]

The neuroanatomy BRS is god awful. Avoid it. Physio and anatomy were the only worthwhile ones I've seen. I liked the physio case questions book too.

 

[MilkmanAl]

The neuroanatomy BRS is god awful.

It's certainly the worst one I've read so far. I guess it's marginally useful for the most glaringly important points, but it's pretty much a paperweight for anything else. Even the questions suck.

 

[Dwindlin]

I have bought each one for the classes I've taken thus far (ANatomy, Embryo, Biochem, Histo/Phys), and as others have said in terms of content phys/anatomy are by far the best. However all of them have VERY good questions imho.

 

[starkcrazy]

anybody else feel like they're going broke from buying textbooks?

i have brs physio but from what u guys are saying, i suppose i'll buy the other brs ones too for the questions.

 

[MilkmanAl]

It's hard to go broke if you buy used on Amazon. It's even harder if you buy old editions. I've spent far less than $500 on every book I own which includes 2 anatomical atlases, every BRS, FA, RR Path, HY Embryo, Grant's Dissector, HY Anatomy, Robbins Review, CMMRS, and Kaplan QBook. I probably forgot at least a couple, too. Most of the cash went to the atlases, the dissector, and RR Path, all of which I (unfortunately) bought new.

 

[MossPoh]

Maybe it is because my school is cheap in general, but books really haven't been that expensive to me. I buy stuff off of amazon used quite often. I might spend 150 bucks a semester max. I can justify that relatively easily since it takes near 50 dollars to fill up my car and I can easily drop 75 in a night when going out. I usually get more use out of these than either of those. A few texts have been complete paperweights. Pretty much everything in neuroanatomy except the ridiculously simple book. My large biochemistry book. My anatomy text. Everything else, I've gotten pretty good use out of. It also allows me to get away from my computer in order ot minimize distractions.

 

[username456789]

Anyone recommend getting a used/cheap copy of BRS Anatomy for the boards? I've been considering picking one up but I don't know if this will just be a waste of time with a "low yield" subject (not that it's representative of the real thing, but if Kaplan QBank was, I'd assume I only need to know the brachial plexus [inside and out for the 50 questions I will receive] and nothing more).

I did really well in the class first time around, but it's obviously mostly memorization so I'm sure I've forgotten just as much stuff as anyone else.

 

[MilkmanAl]

I'd get one. Make sure it's one of the more recent editions that has the chapter summaries so you can read only those. The board questions I've done for gross so far (the shelf and the basic science shelf) have all been quite easy, so you're not going to need to know much more than the big highlights.

 

[username456789]

I'd get one. Make sure it's one of the more recent editions that has the chapter summaries so you can read only those. The board questions I've done for gross so far (the shelf and the basic science shelf) have all been quite easy, so you're not going to need to know much more than the big highlights.

Good deal, thanks. I never used it in Gross (obviously, since I don't have it) but looking back after reading peoples' reviews of it, it might've saved me a little extra hassle.

I'll probably pick up a copy and use it for the chapter reviews like you said.

 

[metallo]

I bought quite a few of them first year, but the only one that was really worth it was BRS Physiology.

 

[jdh71]

For first year, I remember liking the anatomy and biochem really well, especially the questions. Cell and physio were ok (although the BRS case reviews for physio were OUTSTANDING [yellow book]). Neuroanatomy and embryo sucked ballz.

 

[jackets5]

The anatomy one was really good, used as my only source for class along with Netters. Embryo is good as well. Phys is really good, used Costanzos big phys book as well, but really prefer the Rapid Review Phys book, think it is the second best review book out there behind RR Path. I like the RR series better than BRS, but the style of the rapid review isnt for everyone. The BRS ones id say the Neuro, Micro/immuno, Biochem are terrible. Anatomy, Embryo, path are prett good and Phys is excellent.

 

[RySerr21]

I used BRS histo and physio....Physio was pretty good but i preferred her textbook and just used BRS to review for the shelf and sometimes skimmed it before an exam.

BRS histo was good i guess, i dont really have anything to compare it too. It is really really dense and extremely painful to read. I attribute that more to the subject than the book.