Tips

**theicemaiden** · 18-05-2005, 03:51 PM

Its that time of year again when I’m looking for excuses not to revise and lots of people here are looking for information about doing medicine at Bristol, so here are my top 5 tips for the 1st year (may turn into top ten when I have more time!)

1) You can easily get through 1st year buying just 3 textbooks:
* Essential Clinical Anatomy by Moore and Agur (£24.95)
* Colour Atlas of Anatomy by Rohen, Yokochi and Lutjen-Drecoll
(expensive ish, but the anatomy department will get it for you at a
discount… brings it down to about £35 I think, but it is a fantastic
book)
* Crash Course in Metabolism and Nutrition by Roach and Beyon
(£16.99)
Under no circumstances buy the Scrambler book that they will keep
recommending to you… you will never use it. Any other book that is
recommended you will need so infrequently you can make do with the library
copies.

2) Join the MDU and MPS (medical defence associations, in case a patient tries
to sue you). They are FREE to join (every students favourite word) and they
give you good freebies, typically a pocket ‘Introduction to Clinical
Examination’ and the ‘Oxford Medical Dictionary’. For this reason, DON’T buy
a medical dictionary before you go to med school as 2 just takes up space in
your room!

3) Take all the fancy dress bits and bobs you have to uni with you… virtually
every medic event will have a fancy dress theme, and having to buy things
gets expensive! So dig out your old toy doctors/nurses kit, bring along that
hawaain skirt and anything else you think may be useful (by the end of first
year virtually everyone has a dressing up box again!!)

4) Make use of your medic parents, who you will be told about in your first
couple of weeks. They should feed you at least once, they will have
textbooks they may lend you, they will buy you drinks (in the case of some
parents they will get you horrendously drunk) and will generally be willing to
offer bits of useful advice.

5) Enjoy it, and grasp all the opportunities you get given!! I particularly
recommend getting involved in medic sport (if female go for womens football
if you can’t really do sport but fancy an excellent social life!) and the Revues,
as you’ll get to mix with other years and generally have a lot of fun!

**dr.jv** · 18-05-2005, 08:21 PM

Originally Posted by theicemaiden

4) Make use of your medic parents, who you will be told about in your first
couple of weeks. They should feed you at least once, they will have
textbooks they may lend you, they will buy you drinks (in the case of some
parents they will get you horrendously drunk) and will generally be willing to
offer bits of useful advice.

haha, who are your medic parents?

What a good idea tho - nice work

I'll pop some ideas in too once i've recovered from exam-brain-drain

**theicemaiden** · 18-05-2005, 10:50 PM

I had 2 fathers, whose idea of a 'meal' was several different flavours of vodka jelly!

My comment about getting horrendously drunk related more to this year, when I found one of my friends medic daughter at the medic mum and dad event making friends with the toilet at 8pm while cussing him under her breath! I would've made him come and look after her, but figured he would've enjoyed being in the ladies loos too much!

**dr.jv** · 19-05-2005, 12:11 AM

haha, i feel like such a good daddy to my children now - trying to figure out who yours might be, but need more clues!

**brismed05** · 28-03-2006, 10:19 PM

i never met mine

**cakelover** · 28-03-2006, 10:34 PM

Another thought about books. I would wait before buying any till you've really got going. I bought some books at the outset and then wished I'd waited as I saw some other books which looked more up my street. Everyone seems to have their different preferences and there are loads of second hand available at the beginning of term. Lots of people like the At a Glance Books and Crash Courses. Another tip someone suggested (which I never followed!) was if you're really keen to do any prep work beforehand buy the Anatomy Colouring Book and start colouring, as you'll never have time to do it during the course!!

Other great books include:

Biochemistry by Champe, Harvey & Ferrier, (can be used both terms)
Anatomy & Physiology by Seeley Stephens Tate (has a bit of everything in anatomy, biochem, metabolism, immunology, embryology, physiology)
Crash Course Cell Biology & Genetics (good for cell stuff but also a nice birds-eye 'overview' of much of the cellular basis of medicine component)
Again, try from the library before you buy.

Another suggestions from anyone else?

(Another one here who should be revising. I did meet my mum and dad and they were really nice.)

**samed** · 28-03-2006, 10:55 PM

Originally Posted by cakelover

Another thought about books. I would wait before buying any till you've really got going. I bought some books at the outset and then wished I'd waited as I saw some other books which looked more up my street. Everyone seems to have their different preferences and there are loads of second hand available at the beginning of term. Lots of people like the At a Glance Books and Crash Courses. Another tip someone suggested (which I never followed!) was if you're really keen to do any prep work beforehand buy the Anatomy Colouring Book and start colouring, as you'll never have time to do it during the course!!

Other great books include:

Biochemistry by Champe, Harvey & Ferrier, (can be used both terms)
Anatomy & Physiology by Seeley Stephens Tate (has a bit of everything in anatomy, biochem, metabolism, immunology, embryology, physiology)
Crash Course Cell Biology & Genetics (good for cell stuff but also a nice birds-eye 'overview' of much of the cellular basis of medicine component)
Again, try from the library before you buy.

Another suggestions from anyone else?

(Another one here who should be revising. I did meet my mum and dad and they were really nice.)

Hi.

Would you recommend these books for 1st year and who wrote/published the anatomy colouring book. would you recommend abit of prep work?

Thanks.

**brismed05** · 28-03-2006, 11:00 PM

prep work? Are u insane? youll have enough to do when u get here. Dnt buy anybooks until u get here, theres always dis****s in the first few weeks. the only books ive used this year are an anatomy textbook and atls. We get VERY good lecture notes which are bound (sort of) and form a mini textbook themselves of what you actually need to know and using a textbook just to clarify can be done in the library

**samed** · 28-03-2006, 11:05 PM

Originally Posted by brismed05

prep work? Are u insane? youll have enough to do when u get here. Dnt buy anybooks until u get here, theres always dis****s in the first few weeks. the only books ive used this year are an anatomy textbook and atls. We get VERY good lecture notes which are bound (sort of) and form a mini textbook themselves of what you actually need to know and using a textbook just to clarify can be done in the library

Ok thanks. Which anatomy books are they? Would you recommend getting the colouring in one...?

**brismed05** · 28-03-2006, 11:27 PM

nope. i wouldnt recommentd the colouring in one. You need to be able to look at pics. If it helps you could skech urself rather than wasting money on a colouring in one.The diagrams in that I find very unclear, Ive got moores anatomy (the big one) which is what they recommend. They also recoommend grays so whichever suits you the best, Go to a bookshop and have a look.
Anatomy atlas is even more essential. i cant remember the name of the one ive got but its got a black cover and its a lot better thna mc minns which is the other they recommend when i remember ill post it.