Saturday, September 12, 2015

Books I Used to Tackle My First Year of Medical School

During your first year of medical school it is easy to spend hundreds on books that you may never glance at. Early on you will quickly find other students that have all the books on PDF and will gladly share them with you. However, if you are like me (old school, lol) you learn best with an actual textbook that you can carry around and highlight in....it's something about physically turning the pages!

Below is a comprehensive list of what I purchased for my studies. Clicking on the book will take you to where I ordered it with reviews.

Anatomy
 
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1582558566?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00
I would definitely recommend purchasing this book. It's great for practical exam preparation. I could not make it into the lab tutor sessions every evening and this book provides photos that are neatly labelled.
 
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1604067454?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00
I found this book to be helpful. At Ross we learn the entire anatomy in one semester so it goes by FAST! This went more in depth than the PowerPoint notes and I was able to connect the dots with this text.
 
 
Cardiovascular and Respiratory
 
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1451187955?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00
This book is amazing! It literally condensed everything my professor said into easy to digest pages. My lecture notes matched this perfectly, great for reading before bed. The questions were extremely helpful. I would recommend this to anyone.
 
 
Neuroscience
 
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1451187955?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00
Unfortunately, this was a book that I did not take full advantage of. This block went by so fast and the lecture notes were enough. However, the recommendations on this book was very high so it must be somewhat helpful, I wish I used it more.
 
Gastrointestinal
 
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1451187955?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00
This is my go to book! Once again, it condensed all of my lecture notes into high yield points. I read it at night and did the questions. It comes in paper back and it is fairly small so it's easy to carry around. A must read for any student taking physiology!
 
Endocrinology
 
http://www.amazon.com/First-Aid-USMLE-Step-2015/dp/0071840060/ref=pd_sim_14_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=0JCEYM68HCKK6FEM3Z06&dpID=51R7ASoA35L&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR125%2C160_
This was my last block in the semester. It helped me weed out what was high yield for the course and it also provided me with additional information that although was not in my notes proved to be high yield for Step.