(Part 3) Top products from r/premed

It's not specific to those two courses, but the Khan Academy app has really good tutorials on aspects of physio, like action potentials and muscle contraction. You can download it here, or just search on the store on your phone (it's free):

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/khan-academy/id469863705?mt=8

I haven't taken anatomy yet (I plan on it second semester this coming year), but I took a course on greek/latin origins in med terminolgy...this book is amazing and I feel will make anatomy a lot more manageble:

http://www.amazon.com/Exploring-Medical-Language-Student-Directed-Approach/dp/0323073085

Good luck this semester!

Thanks for the write-up, I'm just starting to study for the MCAT and I found it pretty helpful. I have a few questions:

1. I wanted to get some of the TPR books for content review and practice, but I'm not sure which ones to get because there are so many. Do you mind sharing the book titles of the ones you used? I did a search on Amazon and found this: http://www.amazon.com/Biology-Review-Graduate-School-Preparation/dp/0375427929/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373685891&sr=1-1&keywords=the+princeton+review+mcat Did you use that one plus the others for each subject? Do those subject specific books have enough practice questions for that topic, or do I need additional books for that? When I did a search for TPR practice books, I found Cracking the MCAT 2013-2014, MCAT Workout, MCAT Elite, MCAT Hyperlearning... not sure which one to use.
   
   
   
2. How many full length tests did you take, and when did you take them with respect to your test date? For the TPR FL's I assume you have to buy the book new to get the practice exams. Do you get 2 different exams for each book you buy or are they the same?
   
   
3. Has the MCAT changed any in the past few years other than removing the writing section? (I just want to make sure the study materials I use aren't outdated).
   
   
4. In the month leading up to your exam, did you devote all your time to studying, or did you have other commitments (work, school, etc.)?

Came here to say Oliver Sacks (neuroscience).
I picked up a used copy of the DSM-IV casebook; it's very cheap since the DSM-V has come out. Diagnoses may be outdated but the stories are still there!

There are casebooks in other fields, too-- Surgery, multiple specialities, medical ethics, [pediatrics] (http://www.amazon.com/Files-Pediatrics-Fourth-Edition-LANGE/dp/0071766987/ref=pd_rhf_se_s_cp_9_EQ6W?ie=UTF8&refRID=1WJ16SB6971PCJ94TK2S). Your college library ought to have new-ish ones you can read for free.

I'm also encouraged by reading scientific journal articles in medical fields (research is exciting).

Other stuff: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks isn't about a doctor, but it's about a patient and the HeLa cell line that's been so important to medicine. My decision to go into medicine was affected by The Plague, a novel by Albert Camus about a plague-stricken city. (Main character is a doctor, though not exactly a modern MD.)

I used The Princeton Review's materials, and I highly recommend them. TPR books go into a good level of depth. These are the books I'm talking about: Chemistry and Physics.

The books have an online component which has a lot of very good practice passages and practice tests.

Another book that's helpful is the Princeton Review MCAT science workbook (older versions may have "Hyperlearning" in the name). It's a big fat book with tons of free-standing questions and passages for general chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, and biology. You may not need this, given that you've got a set of EK books.

These two books helped me through Ochem: Organic Chemistry as a Second Language Vol. 1 and Vol 2. The guy also has a very good text book that comes with an absolutely ENORMOUS answer book that has every single problem in the textbook mapped out. I don't recommend the Wiley Plus/Orion online homework system thing, but these are great resources.

Aside from your MCAT prep, I recommend:
https://www.amazon.com/Sociology-13th-Richard-T-Schaefer/dp/0078026660

I've read this a few times. It's a really good textbook.

http://www.amazon.com/Doing-Right-Practical-Trainees-Physicians/dp/0199005524/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

https://depts.washington.edu/bioethx/topics/

Both these helped me with the normal interviews & MMI interview stations with ethics questions :)

There are a lot of pop psychology books that cover at least the social psychological parts of what I learned:

The Person and Situation by Lee Ross and Richard Nisbett

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

What Makes Love Last by John Gottman

Nudge by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein

(Caveat: I've only read Thinking, Fast and Slow and Nudge, but the others are from well-respected authors/leaders in their fields.)

Here's a published collection. They're for US medical schools, but I'd imagine that UK tastes can't differ too terribly.

https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Biomedical-Ethics-Beauchamp/dp/0199924589

https://www.amazon.com/American-Sickness-Healthcare-Became-Business/dp/1594206759/ref=sr_1_1?crid=12GOKZ3DTRX3W&keywords=an+american+sickness+by+elisabeth+rosenthal&qid=1550980133&s=books&sprefix=an+american+sic%2Cstripbooks%2C151&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Med-School-Confidential-Complete-Experience/dp/0312330081

Two of my favs:

[Arrowsmith] (http://www.amazon.com/Arrowsmith-Sinclair-Lewis/dp/0451530861): by Sinclair Lewis

[The Citadel] (http://www.amazon.com/Citadel-J-Cronin/dp/0316161837/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377406710&sr=1-1&keywords=the+citadel) by AJ Cronin

This book will lay it down for you.

Here ya go: http://www.amazon.ca/Doing-Right-Practical-Trainees-Physicians/dp/0195428412

https://www.amazon.com/Organic-Chemistry-David-R-Klein/dp/0470917806

This. Stick with the 1st edition of you are on a budget. Buy used.

If you are really on a budget there is always the pirate bay

• The spirit catches you and you fall down
  
  
• University of Washington's topics in bioethics page
  
  
• Complications: A surgeon's notes on an imperfect science
  
  

Erasing Death: The Science That Is Rewriting the Boundaries Between Life and Death