Text Books

[Guest uchiha itachi]

Hey, out of curiosity, what kind of textbooks do we need for med year 1? I might be purchasing them from somewhere cheap (i.e. HK ). In addition, are textbooks an necessity in med or do we merely study from the thick notes that we are going to receive.

[Guest adduction]

Last year the first years used Gray's Anatomy for Students - coauthored by Dr. Vogl. I'm not sure if this was a required book or a recommended book or what...but this was also the same book we used in Anat 391...

[Guest TKP 123]

I actually tried to get the booklist used from bookstore website, and it shows the books in the 2nd term of first year.

 

I could only find 1 out of 15 of these books in HK last month. It would be very tough to find these books in HK.

 

Also, the books used last year may not be completely the same as what you will be using this coming fall.

 

TKP

[Guest uchiha itachi]

errrr....did you say 15?! and this is only for 2nd term?!!! :x

[Guest TKP 123]

If you go to the UBC bookstore/health science store website, they list about 15-20 books for courses starting Jan 05 for 1st year med. Out of those books, I can only find 1 in HK.

 

The point is most bookstores in HK only sell books for secondary schools. There are some which sell colleage level, but you will have a hard time finding the books listed there in the website.

 

Besides, these are the books used by the current 1st year student. It may be a bit different from what you will use.

 

TKP.

[Guest uchiha itachi]

Thanks for the tip. I actually dunno much about HK's bookstores but i've just been hearing a lot of good things about them (like how cheap the books are compared to that of canada). I guess i won't be wasting time searching for books in HK this summer

[Guest calbearod]

this has already been addressed in another thread before, but i can't find it right now. my best advice for you would be to wait until you get your orientation package. it will contain a list of books and their ratings from 2nd years. the official list is definitely overkill in my opinion and its best to get advice before spending so much money. especially in the first term where you are covering variety of material, you could theoretically buy a text for that week and won't crack it open again for the rest of the term. i believe the most common practice in our class was to use the references when needed and use books online. in the 2nd term there will be some books that you should get (eg Lilly for cardio).

also, look for the used book sale and once you get your email accounts set up, you'll find people selling books there as well.

[Guest 604EL]

Don't worry too much about textbooks right now. The thing is, what you need really depends on what you know already and how you learn. For example, if you have a background in genetics, then obviously you don't need to go and buy a book for that week. Also, some people may already understand the material from going to lectures, while others may need to read more.

 

You'll find that there's a great diversity in what people find useful. For example, some people find Robbins really helpful, while some of us think it's just an expensive chunk of paper. And like calbearod said, a lot of the textbooks are online.

 

My personal opinion is to wait until you actually have the lectures, and if you find that you don't understand something and you need a textbook, it's never too late to get it then. Also, most of the books that you're gonna use are not that thick and there're already photocopy versions floating around, so it's actually quite quick to photocopy them.