how much do textbooks really cost per year?

[Guest mshammer]

hi...

 

I saw in the UofT info to budget ~$1500/yr for textbooks. I'm wondering if current students have found ways around that...ie, Library, Chapters prices, not needing certain things, etc...

 

thanks!

[Guest peachy]

There aren't any required textbooks for med school the way that there are for undergrad. Most professors will give a list of recommended textbooks, but it's up to you which books you want to purchase if any. Also, there will be paper notes distributed from every lecture, and that is the material that will be directly tested.

 

So, you could choose to buy almost no books, and you could choose to buy two or three books for every course, depending on how you like to learn or study. An anatomy atlas is probably one of the few purchases that virtually everybody makes.

 

For the books that you do choose to get, the U of T bookstore is undoubtedly the most expensive way to purchase them. There will be a used booksale at the beginning of the year, so that's one way to get cheaper books. I buy most of my books online, from Amazon.com, which I find to be way cheaper than Amazon.ca or Chapters. There was a thread about this somewhere-or-other, but I can't seem to find it. Also, once in a while http://www.bookcloseouts.com carries a useful medical book or two, at drastically reduced prices.

[Guest mshammer]

Thanks, Peachy!

 

Much appreciated - I've been saving some anatomy and physiology books from undergrad, so nice to know they might actually come in handy!

 

cheers

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hey there,

 

Another decent source for some textbooks is eBay. I've found a few very good prices there over the past couple of years.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest scrubbed]

Hi there,

 

If you wish to start the look for textbooks for the anatomy portion of Structure and Function, I'll pass on some brief recommendations. As others have pointed out, there is a used booksale at the start of the year, though, of course, there isn't enough books for everyone. As well, you have plenty of time to look right now, but I hope that this message will be more useful closer to the start of classes. I would definitely bring along your old textbooks, as they probably will come in handy as supplemental information during the anatomy and physiology portions of first year, though, as was pointed out, only the material in the lecture notes is examinable.

 

There are atlases: Grant's is the recommeneded book, though I prefered Netter's drawings. I did find that the binding on Netter's book was not very good. If the book was left open on a desk, those pages became loose. I returned one copy, and after a similar thing happened, to a lesser extent, I just said, "Forget it." I'm not sure if this happened to every student, but it is something that I found.

 

Rohen is a photographic atlas that is quite good. It features actual specimens, which is great for consolidating informatoin from the lab and studying for bellringer exams. I borrowed it from my roommate and from the library a couple of times. It probably isn't a primary text like the atlas is, but it is helpful.

 

For anatomy texts, I used Moore's Clinically Oriented Anatomy. Though it had a lot of text, I found that the clinical scenarios presented in the book made some of the fuzzy concepts in the lecture clear. Another option is a more condensed version, Moore's Essential Clinical Anantomy, though I and some other people found that it didn't provide enough detail while others found it just fine. I don't think that a textbook is mandatory, but I found that it made things much clearer for me.

 

I didn't buy most of the other recommeneded books. We get a clinical skills handbook along with a more detailed handbook, which I think is sufficient for clinical skills. In addition, there is a website that features videos for all the the clinical skills that we have to know.

 

The histology that we needed to know was covered in the lecture material or was featured online in an interactive anatomy atlas.

 

I did buy Shah, the community heallth book, though some people had other ways of getting the readings or didn't do the readings at all.

 

Through the U of T library and through the CMA (which you'll join), there is also an extensive online library of books.

 

Anyway, I hope this was a useful introduction.

 

Best of luck!

[Guest wjc83]

Hey Guys,

I'm an 0T9. I only bought three texts the whole year. 1 Atlas (Rohen), 1 Anatomy text (Essentials of clinical Anatomy) and the Shah text for Determinants of Community Health (DOCH). I felt that the notes were comprehensive and explained the material well enough that other textbooks weren't necessary. Then again I know a lot of my friends who bought textbooks for each block. I'd suggest that you get a feel for the notes first and then decide if you need a text or not. Hope that helps!

[Guest studentz]

Anatomy: Don't buy the big Moore book. It's freaking gigantic and while I may be a "textbook person" I didn't come close to going through it. The "baby Moore" (Essential...) is pretty good but a lot of people like the new Grey's for Students which is both a text and atlas. Rohen is outstanding for bell-ringer prep. I liked Netter over Grant's but Grant's corresponds to the sections in the anatomy museum, one of the Fitz lab demonstrators is the editor and some of the brain and behaviour lab dissections are illustrated in it.

 

For the rest of the year (if you like texts)...

 

For a general physio text which can be used as a decent source for Resp, Cardio and parts of MNU, Ganong's Review of Medical Physiology is good. If you want to spend endless hours reading a giant book, you can go for Guyton. If you want something for cardio or have a particular interest in it, Lily's Pathophysiology of Heart Disease is the best book, hands down, for med students.

 

You don't really need one for biochem or pharm, but to be honest I wasn't happy with the pharm teaching so I got a book. Even the Basic Pharm book is a decent start. Lippincott's Illustrated Review of Biochem is outstanding, easy to read, has nice diagrams, can be used for the 1 month of S&F after the break into MNU, and is gold for USMLE 1.

 

For Brain and Behaviour I trusted the Amazon reviews and went with Neuroanatomy through Clinical Cases and it's great for the first half mainly. You don't need an atlas, we get a great software program for free.

 

For ASCM, do not buy anything. For DOCH you COULD buy the book or just listen to the grapevine...

 

People will try to sell you the Toronto Notes next year too. I picked it up and it was nice to have for B&B and PBL, but it's not essential or anything.

 

I'd say get 1 of Grey's/Netter's/Grant's and Rohen at minimum, with an anatomy text if you think it would help. You really don't NEED anything else, though a text for B&B is nice to have.

[Guest KJ]

The only books I own are the ones I used for anatomy. I bought a photographic atlas and Netter's non-photographic atlas. I also used the Netter's flashcards. I also bought a small textbook for reading, Essential Clinical Anatomy. I plan to sell all my books this year so watch out for them at the used booksale at the beginning of the year!

[Guest uOttawaBch]

Peachy: I've been trying to order off of amazon.com but it doesn't want to ship to my canadian(ontario) address. I've confirmed that I'm ordering from sellers that indicate they ship to canada, but the site says that it cannot ship to my address when attempting to place the order. The reason I ask is because I noticed that amazon.ca is quite a bit more expensive than amazon.com for several of the items i've looked up (especially considering our strong dollar).

 

Any tips? Have you run into this problem in the past? I was hoping to order Netter's, Moore's, etc...but the best I can find from a canadian supplier (amazon.ca or chapters) is ~5% off of list price. I guess I will wait for the used book sale if I can't figure out this amazon.com issue...

 

Thanks!

[Guest peachy]

I'm not sure exactly what you are trying to order, but you should be able to order books that are sold directly from Amazon.com. However, you cannot order (most) other products sold by Amazon.com, and sometimes you cannot order used books or books sold by third-party sellers. So, if you make sure that the new books you are ordering are from Amazon.com directly, then it should work.

 

edited to correct the error about buying used books!

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi there,

 

Just to add to the above, you actually can order used books through Amazon.com--I've done it multiple times. In fact, my copy of Guyton came from Pakistan via a third-party seller on Amazon.com. What you have to do prior to ordering a book is check to see if the seller is willing to ship to Canada. In my experience, about 50% of sellers will.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest uOttawaBch]

I had a quick question about the used book sale at U of T:

 

Last year, for anyone that purchased books at the sale, what were the typical prices for the Rohen, Netter, Moore, Grant texts? Were the asking prices close to the list prices, or did the students drastically cut the prices?

 

I've found some copies on amazon.ca, specifically the Netter, Rohen, and Moore texts for a total (including shipping) of $220. Wondering how this compares to the deal I would get at the used book sale?

 

Thanks for any info!

[scrubbed]

Hey there,

 

Though you may have made a decision on the books, I think that you should go for it. Though there may be cheaper prices that this, the books tend to go fairly quickly if you don't get to the sale right away. Plus, you have the books right at the start of classes.

 

O-week is two weeks away ...

[peachy]

I've found some copies on amazon.ca, specifically the Netter, Rohen, and Moore texts for a total (including shipping) of $220. Wondering how this compares to the deal I would get at the used book sale?

There are also some books for sale on the TorontoMeds forum that you might want to check on.