Medical school gives you a variety of different books to choose from. It’s not like high school where there was one standardized textbook everyone would buy. You’ll have many options to look and choose from. As I start my first year of medical school I really want to start with the right mindset. I wanted to write about this for a while but couldn’t find the time to. There’s so much confusion around medical books especially as a first year. In anatomy, you have 3 choices; BD Charausia (India), Gray’s Anatomy (UK), KLM Clinically Oriented Anatomy (US). Most people either go with Gray’s or KLM. BD has a lot of details, but its diagrams are terrible and it’s difficult to understand. However, some students still choose to read through it. KLM has amazing content that allows you to explore the clinical aspect of your studies too which is great but is a little weak in the diagrams. Gray’s builds concepts well, and has amazing diagrams, but lacks the nitty gritty details KLM has. So, you see the confusion. You might say, well, buy all of them? However, that’s not a good solution, because you’ll always be confused then: Gray’s, KLM, or BD? You’ll never know which one to read from. These are not thin novels, they’re thick medical books. You might not even get the time to read through the whole book. Along with that, there’s so many other subjects. In first year, you study Biochemistry, Anatomy, Histology, Embryology, and Physiology. For each subject, you can choose from a variety of books. Yes, you can buy all of them, but unfortunately medical school does not give enough time to read through all the books. So, I decided to do a little bit of research and ask some seniors what books they used and why. I found that everyone had different suggestions for the books. They personally preferred some books over others. That’s not to say the other books weren’t great. It just depends on what works for you. Additionally, you’ll need two books to study from for each subject – a textbook and a review book. The reason is when exam season kicks in, you won’t have time to look over your textbooks. You’ll need quick helpful notes to crunch all the information.
Anatomy
1. BD Charausia’s General Book of Anatomy. This is required for the Foundation Module (first module). To be honest with you, I didn’t really like this book. It doesn’t explain difficult concepts well, and its diagrams are very weak in comparison to the textbooks. Also, it contains lots of unnecessary information. I think reading this book was the first mistake in medical school for me, but this is just my opinion and experience. There are a myriad of students of support this book.
2. KLM Clinically Oriented Anatomy: The diagrams are phenomenal, and it’s also super detailed. It is a little hard to understand at first since it’s super detailed. It’s not like Gray’s, which focuses on building concepts. However, it has a lot of blue clinical pages which will supplement your understanding further.
3. Additional Resource (10/10 recommend):Netter’s Atlas of Human Anatomy: This book contains tons of detailed diagrams that will come handy in all five years of MBBS. Whenever you’re studying anatomy, make sure to have this book with you because it’s a gem.
Biochemistry
1. Lippincott Biochemistry: Detailed textbook that explains it all well. However, it takes time to grasp concepts and understand the text.
2. Faiq Ahmed Instant Biochemistry Review Book: Puts all details into little notes to remember. Perfect for exam season. However, it isn’t great at explaining concepts, and is not the most reliable resource.
3. Kaplan Review Book for USMLE Step 1: It’s a great reliable book for Biochem review. It’s suggested to follow with this book when watching the lectures from Turco.
4. Additional Resource: Dr. Sam Turco Lectures for Biochemistry (Kaplan). This was suggested by a senior. Biochemistry is all about knowing processes, and he explains them well.
Physiology
1. Guyton and Hall Textbook: Huge textbook with loads of details. It’s important to read through some if not all this textbook. It’s got tons of diagrams too.
2. BRS Physiology: This is a review book that condenses all information into a very tiny book. Describes concepts very well, plus tests you by the end of a chapter.
3. Additional Resource: There’s tons of 3D animations on YouTube for different concepts of physio, watch those because they help you visualize the processes so much better.
Embryology
1. KLM Clinically Oriented Embryology: Detailed book with clinical perspective in there too.
2. High Yield Embryology: Contains amazing notes to help you review for exam season.
3. Additional Resource: Dr. Najeeb’s Lectures on Embryology (all his lectures are literally for $5)
Histology
1. Wheater’s Functional Histology: There’s only one option for a textbook in Histology, and it’s awesome. It’s filled with tons of microscopic images.
2. Laiq Hussain Medical Histology Review Book: This is a great light book to start the first year with. All of foundation module Histo can be taken from this book.
3. Additional Resource: Shotgun Histology: It’s a YouTube channel that’s great at taking away the stress of complicated histology.
Pathology
1. Robbins and Cotrans Basis: It’s very lengthy, and boring at times too (you risk sleeping when reading this textbook). However, this is the recommended textbook you use. Some profs will tell you to get Basic, please don’t make this mistake and stick to the textbook that’s a little thinner (aka your Basis).
2. Goljan Pathology:This book has been suggested by several seniors for its easy understandability. I believe, this book has been written for the USMLE (but I should confirm on that). However, it is far better than Basis.
3. Pathoma (Hussain A. Sattar): It comes coupled with a CD where Hussain A. Sattar explains each of the concepts to you and follows through the review book with it. It is a review book, so you can’t rely on this alone to get all your patho in.
Microbiology:
1. Levinson’s Microbiology: Most students in my batch at Dow use this book. It’s great, but it is pretty detailed (for first year) since there isn’t’ much microbiology.
2. I’m still researching on a good review book to supplement Microbiology. I do have Sharjeel, the local book, and it’s okay, but I’m looking for something with a little more detail.
This is my personal choice of books and you don’t need to get the same ones. I’m getting these books based on what they offer to me. Yes, a final year student has advised me to get these books, however it’s important to consider your studying habits and needs. Buy books that make sense to you. If KLM Anatomy is what you understand, get that.
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