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Good Books for Pre-clerkship Med Students


Guest Ian Wong

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Guest Ian Wong

Here's hopefully the start of a new thread that'll be of use to the incoming med classes.

 

Anatomy:

 

Rohen and Yokochi. Realistic pictures and awesome cadaver dissections make this book invaluable if your school tests you using cadavers and prosections.

 

Netter. Much clearer than Rohen and Yokochi when you are first trying to learn the anatomy because of the enlarged pictures and the colouring.

 

Baby Moore's. The smaller version of the large Moore's textbook, which is overkill and which you'll never get through entirely.

 

Microbiology:

 

Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple. If you have this book, you need nothing else.

 

Cardiovascular:

 

Lilly, Pathophysiology of the Heart. This is truly one of the best written books I have ever seen aimed at med students. You would be foolish to do your cardiovascular book without this book.

 

Respiratory:

 

I hated all my Resp books, so I've got no really good recommendations here. I think I made do with course notes and a general physiology book.

 

Renal:

 

Ditto. I don't have any good books here.

 

Blood and Lymphatics:

 

Don't have any good recommendations here either.

 

Gastroenterology:

 

As a med student, you'll receive a free Gastro textbook from some Canadian society, which is of dubious value, but at least it's free.

 

Musculoskeletal:

 

Don't have any good books here either.

 

Endocrinology:

 

Don't have any good books here. I bought Greenspan which turned out to be way too detailed and not a really useful book.

 

Dermatology:

 

The Fitzpatrick Colour Atlas is good, and relatively inexpensive (for a Derm book), but not necessary to own.

 

Neuroanatomy:

 

I really like the High Yield Neuroanatomy, which is a tiny concise book that contains most of what you need to know in neuroanatomy that you'd get from textbooks.

 

Reproduction:

 

There's a mauve colored OB/Gyn textbook that I like better than Hacker and Moore, which I think is a really wordy textbook that hard to get into and read.

 

Growth and Development:

 

There are no good books for this block that I've found.

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Guest UWOMED2005

Hey JSS,

 

I decided to write my reply here instead. You don't need all three textbooks I listed. It was kind of an accident I bought all three. I bought Rohen & Yokochi first off, but then thought I'd lost it (it was on my bookshelf,) so I also bought Netter. If I had to only buy one, I'd buy Netter's - it's simpler. I bought Moore's as well because I found anatomy to pretty challenging, particularly in making the 8:00 am lectures. :) Having Moore's allowed me to follow the anatomy course on my own, but Ian is right - it is extremely dense and the baby Moore's (I didn't even know there is one!) is probably better.

 

Just to repeat, all you really need is either Netter's or Rokochi. I'd personally recommend Netter's if this is your first anatomy course - the drawings are colour-coded for arteries, veins, lymphatics and nerves. They can be hard to distinguish for the first little bit on a cadaver!

 

And don't forget to save your textbook receipts!!!! You can use them to claim the cost of your books later against income tax when you're practicing. You can claim the cost as "building a professional library."

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I'm sort of confused about textbooks - the med school doesn't give you a list of "required" books, like in undergrad? You're left to decide which ones would suit you best? How do people generally choose, given the fact that they've never been in the medical field before and thus do not know which books would suit their learning?

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Guest cheech10

Some schools give "required" books, but you usually don't need to get them all, and you're almost always free to choose different books if they suit you better. Other schools give a list of recommendations and expect you to choose the ones you like. As far as I know, VERY few students buy all the books on the list. And you will get a lot of guidance on book decisions from the second year class once you get started.

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Guest UWOMED2005

Yep, if you were to buy ALL of the recommended texts for Western, you'd be able to fill a library, not to mention the act you'd never have the time to read them all. Some students get by with only an anatomy atlas!

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Guest natalie78

would you guys recommend that we buy these books when we get to school? or is it better to get them beforehand (i.e., do these things sell out?! the thing i hate the MOST about starting school is not having an important textbook for a course until 3 weeks into the class)? if i were to buy them beforehand, where should i buy from?

 

thanks,

natalie

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Guest UWOMED2005

That's an interesting question. . . I'd say buy them once you get there, but I ran into the problem of having some texts sold out once I got to school. I think the best bet is to wait until you get there, find out what you need, then rush to the bookstore. Or use Chapters/indigo online. . . I think they might be cheaper for texts as well.

 

The only books you should count on buying at this point is an Anatomy Atlas and a medical dictionary. So if you want to pick those up, it won't hurt

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Guest natalie78

hi,

 

thanks for the info, uwomeds2005! for anyone who's interested, chapters/indigo online is selling the dorland's pocket medical dictionary for 30% off the list price. you pay 30.76 instead of 43.95. and they're also having a special deal where when you spend more than 75 dollars on books, they'll ship them to you for free. oh, speaking of chapters online, i found 2 listings when i searched for netter's anatomy atlas:

 

1) the atlas of human anatomy, by netter and colacino (hardcover, published in 1998) 138.95

 

2) the netter atlas of human anatomy, by the rittenhouse book distributors staff (paper text, published in 1998) 98.95

 

which one should we get?

 

thanks again.

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Guest UWOMED2005

I have the soft-cover. . . it worked well, is a bit lighter to lug around, though the edges are a bit frayed. I'd save the $40 and buy the soft-cover.

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Guest Ian Wong

Soft-cover Netter's. Netter actually drew up a lot of other pictures that were not released in the paper-back version. Most of these I believe were sold in hard-cover format in something known as the CIBA collection.

 

Needless to say, the book that 99% of your classmates will use is the paper-back version, and that is the one you should buy.

 

Ian

UBC, Med 3

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Guest cheech10

UofT's bookstore and amazon.ca each have the hardcover Netter's for $107, so it might be a good idea to spend only $8 more.

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Guest JSS02

Hey JJ,

Does the Western bookstore have a website listing the prices of their medical books? I was thinking about comparing prices with the U of T bookstore, and if they're cheaper here maybe I could pick them up before coming down to London.

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Guest UWOMED2005

JSS02 - I'm not sure. Try poking around the UWO website. From past experiences with the Dal bookstore, if you're worried about saving $$, Chapters & Amazon.ca almost always beat the university bookstore prices. BTW $99 seems like a good price for Netter to me. . . can't remember whaI paid, but it was over $100 for the soft cover.

 

Cheech10 - Johnson's "?Essentials of Medical Physiology" is the standard text, but it's extremely dry. I think the physiology text by Guyton is adequate, and explains things in a more understandable manner (after all, who has the time to work through all of the derivations for equations on the wards?) But I'd be willing to defer to someone else. . . the only textbook I've used is Johnson, and as I said, I wouldn't overly recommend it.

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Guest Ian Wong

I don't have any good recommendations for Physiology; I'm not a big fan of Guyton. Either you love that book, or you hate it, because the diagrams are small and crummy, it's really text-dense, and it goes into a lot of unnessary detail for the average med student.

 

I've heard that BRS Physiology is a good basic book to learn the big concepts (BRS= Board Review Series, a USMLE Step 1 review book), but I relied on my course notes, and organ-specific physiology books to survive.

 

Ian

UBC, Med 3

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Guest cheech10

Thanks guys. I have pretty much zero physio background, so I want to make sure I get an easy to understand book. A friend had recommended Ganong. Any thoughts?

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Guest tutifruiti

Thanks Ian and UWOMED2005 for your tips. I will follow your recommendations and will myself post books recommendations if I come across an amazing texbook in the future.

 

By the same mean, I would like congratulate JSS02 and cheech10 for getting in! I hope tosee you people in a near future... FSS, Medgames (I am not sure how it's called)!? Were you 2 in undergrad studies before being accepted... because your incredibly high marks are amazing! Congrats again!

 

tutifruiti!

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Guest UWOMED2005

Hmm. . . I really don't have a clue. As I said, I bought Johnson and I wouldn't recommend it - I found it even denser than Guyton, and the diagrams are worse.

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Guest gucio93

Many people at Mac like Tortora as a basic text to get overall details. It's laid out nicely, with great descriptions of essential concepts and lot's of pictures. I have Guyton, and I agree with Ian, for many things it's detail overkill. I also spent most time getting physiology details from organ specific books.

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Guest UWOMED2005

Yeah, I used a lot of organ specific books as well. . . but as you don't spend a whole lot of time on each specific organ (at least not at UWO) it might be a good idea to get a general Physiology text then borrow the organ specific books from the library (LRC at UWO) as you cover each organ.

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Guest cheech10

Thanks for the opinions; I'll keep them in mind when I go looking for books.

 

Tutifruti:

Thanks for the kind words! I finished 3 years of undergrad (at UofT) before being accepted, first to Queens, and then to UofT on July 3rd (really cutting it close: I got the call 3 hours before my Queen's acceptance would have become firm). IIRC, JSS02 was also in undergrad before being accepted. See you at all those med events!

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Guest JSS02

Thanks a lot, and best of luck at Ottawa. Although things didn't work out for me there, I have nothing but good things to say about the school, students, and interviewers (who were extremely friendly), based on my experience there in April.

 

And yes, as cheech mentioned I just finished the 3rd year of undergrad at U of T. See you at FSS 2003!

 

-Jeff

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