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merck and others?


Guest arcticaguy

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Guest arcticaguy

I realize that the merck manual is available on-line, for free. My first question is do I need to have a hard copy version as well?

2- can someone differentiate the toronto notes (= MCQE notes??) and the princeton review series for me, and do I need them in first year (we start with Anatomy and Histology first!)??

any help is greatly appreciated :)

cheers.

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Guest Ian Wong

You don't even need the Merck Manual period. I'll be selling mine this year. :) I didn't use it all that much in the first two years, but kept it along for the ride because I thought I'd use it in third year, and that never happened.

 

I would stick to the on-line version and save the cash.

 

As for the Toronto Notes, it's a compilation of study notes put together by the Toronto med students, and is aimed as prep material for the LMCC exam, which is written at the end of Med 4 for Canadian med students. As such, it's mainly a clinical exam, with some basic science content.

 

In contrast, the USMLE Steps 1, 2, and 3 are board exams written by US med students. The Step 1 is written after Med 2, and therefore has a lot of basic science content, although the trend has been to incorporate much more clinical relevance. Any prep books you see will have a much heavier focus on clinical sciences.

 

As a result, I think although the Toronto Notes are a very well put-together book, with lots of clinical mnemonics and useful diagrams/differential diagnoses, if you are looking to learn the basic sciences, the Toronto Notes won't help you as much as you may want. I don't think that the PR book for USMLE Step 1 (the one I got from the bookstore, don't know if there's a different one for the actual course) was all that good either. I wouldn't buy it again if I were doing things over.

 

Ian

UBC, Med 4

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Guest medicator007

Ian or anyone else,

 

Where would one go in order to peruse the Merck Manual online? Is there any difference between the resources available online and that contained in the book?

 

Thanks,

Medicator

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