Medical Textbooks before Uni Start

[LightElf7]

Hello, I will be starting medical school at Imperial this October, and am currently searching for some books I might buy beforehand so I could read ahead a bit.

From the researches I have done so far, the books below are some which people recommend, but I am not entirely sure about it, nor do I feel the neccessity for me to purchase all of them (it would be quite costly too!).

So if some experienced people in this area could tell me which books to get, it'd be very helpful.

The books some people recommend are:

-Clinical Skills: Oxford Core Text
-Clinical Medicine from Kumar and Clark
-Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine
-Gray's Anatomy for Students
-Oxford Handbook of Medical Sciences
- Pass Finals: A Companion to Kumar and Clark's "Clinical Medicine"
-Pharmacology from Rang & Dale
-Medicine at a Glance

Any helpful advice will be very appreciated!

[agneishd]

as people have said mefore, no point reading aheaed, seeing as you'll learn everything at uni anyway, and it's rather strenuous, so relax now (tis the message i got anyway)

[yazoo]

Originally Posted by LightElf7

Hello, I will be starting medical school at Imperial this October, and am currently searching for some books I might buy beforehand so I could read ahead a bit.


The books some people recommend are:

-Clinical Skills: Oxford Core Text

Any helpful advice will be very appreciated!

Is perhaps the only book I would buy, but only if I really wanted one. It will be slightly easier to understand and you will probably use it, but mostly from 3rd year onwards. The others are too heavy going or beyond year 1 to do pre-course reading.

An excellent and free resource for pre-medicine reading is:

Patients | Health Information | Medicines Guide | Patient.co.uk

These are detailed information leaflets targeted at lay understanding. Topics to read about could include:

Angina, myocardial infarction, diabetes, asthma, copd, arthritis, pregnancy, contraception.

It's much better to get a solid and reliable introduction at a level you can understand. A good foundation on which to build .

[Dr Noodle]

I have to admit I can't be arsed reading ahead, I ain't no Hermione Granger. Though the anatomy colouring book is a lot of fun to flick through and realise that what you thought you had learnt in quite a lot of detail at school, really wasn't any detail at all

EDIT: ^That's a good idea, thanks for that link yazoo.

[yazoo]

NB This resource is also awesome as a starting point for people doing PBL courses (when they actually start). Read this first, get an overview.

General Practice Notebook

Is also very useful. Both will need the supplementation of decent basci sciences texts, but choose these after you've been to the library to try the variety available. Everyone likes different styles.

[Hughman]

Originally Posted by agneishd

as people have said mefore, no point reading aheaed, seeing as you'll learn everything at uni anyway, and it's rather strenuous, so relax now (tis the message i got anyway)

No point in reading ahead?
I'd have to disagree there. My continuing success at school has always been because I read ahead.
Then again, each to him/herself styles, huh?

I bought last year off ebay Robin and Contran's Pathalogic Basis of Disease (its meant for the USA and I got it a silly low price). Vast chunks of it I can't understand, but when it comes to actually learning related topics at schools (like the immune response), I find it much easier to learn and do worksheets and essays.

Just don't got blowing hundreds of pounds on books you might not need. I only got mine cus it was cheap as chips.

[Dr Noodle]

Coolio, thank you

[agneishd]

Originally Posted by Hughman

No point in reading ahead?
I'd have to disagree there. My continuing success at school has always been because I read ahead.
Then again, each to him/herself styles, huh?

I bought last year off ebay Robin and Contran's Pathalogic Basis of Disease (its meant for the USA and I got it a silly low price). Vast chunks of it I can't understand, but when it comes to actually learning related topics at schools (like the immune response), I find it much easier to learn and do worksheets and essays.

Just don't got blowing hundreds of pounds on books you might not need. I only got mine cus it was cheap as chips.

i ain't been unsuccessful myself, and prereading hasn't really been a great part of this "success" for me so far, but everyone works differently as you say

here i was referring to med skl specifically, and quoting what i've heard others say
lots to learn at uni, and times ahead are tough...

i guess if one is gonna read ahead, they would, regardless of what i or anyone else writes here

[LightElf7]

well the reason I am asking for advice is not just because of prereading (I have been quite successful with prereading myself by the way...not to say that I cant work if I dont...but I just like studying that way).

I got these coupons for a local bookstore with which I can buy 3-4 decent books in the list I provided above, but the expiry date is like in a week or two!

So I thought to myself to get some medbooks beforehand, even if I will not preread all of them.

Any more books you people recommend? I only have a week or two to think about!

[agneishd]

ah k, in which case the word round the forum is that this book called mnemonics for med undergrads is pretty gd - one with a blue elephant on the front i think

prob useful once you've started, and apparently worth having, and since you have tokens, why not have a look