Question for those in Medschool- what to learn beforehand!?

Hi there,
I am going to medschool next term and I want to know what books/study material will really make my first year smooth. It should be noted I am doing Graduate Medicine so the course is much more rapid at 4 years.

I am UK based, so anatomy, physiology books etc that are UK friendly would be ideal.

Thank you so much
Ally

This question was asked several days ago, you should find these replies helpful:

https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4841648

I'm not sure if I'm alone in this but I haven't needed to open a physical text book in the two years I've been at med school... If I've needed book information I've just looked up the information from papers or on online text books.

You might even be able to wait and see when lectures start what or even IF you'll want to buy some books? The only resource I ended up buying even like a book, was Netter's flashcards.

The thing is- I learn quite well from books and the illustrations etc help. What online resources did you use? I am looking at kenhub for anatomy- seems excellent as it has videos, diagrams, then solidifies learning through questionnaires and flashcards.

Well I used the lectures slides mainly.

Concerning online resources, I only really used PubMed or Google Scholar to research papers. Nothing in terms of 'pay to win' medical resources.

I feel what you will need will depend on the teaching you are given. Our anatomy teaching was quite good and accompanied by comprehensive iBooks on the topics, given to us by the med school, I didn't need any extra books.

You must have had really comprehensive slides? Anatomy for example is such a detailed and intensive subject?

I will be doing the grad program so only 4 years study before FY1. I come from a BSc Psychology background so am more or less blind on Biology, Anatomy etc with the exception of Chemistry?

I thought it would be wise to just have a solid foundation since I have some time to prepare?

I suppose we did ! Although the Netter's flash cards I used were also very good.

In terms of the background, I didn't even do biology A2 but they re-teach you a lot so I wouldn't be too worried. Everyone will be blind on anatomy as well!

I would highly recommend the flash cards as well. Very useful for revision of anatomy.

Hey :-) If you're looking for good comprehensive books that lay down the core material really well before going into detail I would recommend... Human Physiology by Richards and Pocock and Clinical Anatomy by Snell (the latter is super old but human anatomy doesn't really change much haha). For the more clinical stuff, Kumar and Clark's Clinical Medicine is a solid book.

Best of luck,

Alex, 4th year UCL medic
6med

Hey Alex,

Thank you! These look excellent. Snell appears to have an updated version of the book but it's over £100! Can you tell me what editions I can get away with? I really just want to get some basics down but as understanding changes many of the older editions become tricky to fit into the newer curriculum.

How are you enjoying UCL? It would have been my first choice but was not possible for GEM.

Ally