The number one thing I wish I knew last year was to not buy too many books. It is sooo overwhelming to have so many sources. For example, in Anatomy, lets discuss your options. There are at least several versions of each of flashcards, review books, atlases, dissectors, clinical books, and question books. You have videos, models, powerpoints, etc. Plus you have class notes from the note-taker, lectures, professors slides, professor's reviews, etc. The point here is that you are inundated with material... and it is incredibly overwhelming to try to synthesize it all together.
I let myself be too influences by what "everyone" else supposedly thought was best. I'd buy book #1, then "everyone" would rave about book #2, and I'd buy that. Only to find out later that I like book #3 and the other 2 are worthless. Or I'd try to use all 3 and then get super stressed.
So here's the advice in all this:
Pick one or two sources that YOU like, and use them consistently and thoroughly. Skip the review books, those are for REVIEW, not FIRST TIME LEARNING. You can use those later for a shelf exam or Step 1 but you don't really need those all that much. And if you don't feel like you are learning, try a different approach. Some people need to draw structures (which for me is a waste of time). Some people re-copy their notes, some people are addicted to flashcards, some people memorize slides. Don't get bogged down with what others are doing. There is no "right" way to study in med school. And pretty much every class feels completely unknown the first week or two until you get the hang of things.
Don't get bogged down in what everyone else is doing!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteAwesome advice. Med students are notoriously neurotic, and overbuying make many people feel better.
From 1st semester, I bought waaaaayyyy too many books. If I had to do it over again, I would have stuck with the following:
1. Embryology -- use course notes only
2. Genetics -- course notes only
3. Physiology -- course notes only
4. Immunology -- Course notes only, though I did buy a book (Kumar?) for this that turned out to be useful.
5. Anatomy -- Flash cards + Netter were indispensable for me (flash cards more so than Netter). They recommended a big old text book for it, but in the end our best resource was this test-prep book written by James White. I could have done the whole class using the flash cards and Dr. White's book.
6. Microbio -- I got microbio made ridiculously simple, and it was a good buy..... but that's also because you can use it to study for step 1 too.
7. Epid -- Class notes only.
8. Histology -- I used Kierzenbaum, and I liked it a lot. Pretty much all you need to know about histo and normal path is in that book.
For the organ blocks, everyone recommended Robbins, but I hardly used it. Our class notes were excellent, and there really was not need. The Lilly book was very useful for cardiology though.
Great advice! I'm just a little baby premed, so I'll be paying close attention to these posts. :)
ReplyDeleteGood advice - hadn't totally considered that point! Our M2s had a used book sale for the M1s this weekend and it was hard to resist the temptation to just buy all the recommended books and call it a day - and a lot of people did.
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