Similar to MCAT studying, medical school has a plethora of resources that are advertised to students. It can be extremely overwhelming. In fact, our financial aid advisor makes a point to have a conversation with every medical student at our institution that we do not need all those resources. 

Thankfully, I learned my lesson with the MCAT. I spent so much money on different resources, and I felt so overwhelmed. The desperation to do well resulted in purchasing many resources that I did use, but I think it would’ve been better for me to trust the process and pick only a few to work with. 

From that lesson, I knew I was not going to buy too many resources for medical school. At the time I had my meeting with my financial aid advisor, I had only purchased the Netter Anatomy and Physiology coloring book. She told me that I was doing exactly what I had to do, and if there were resources I wanted, buy them later. That is exactly what I did. I also got super lucky, and got free textbooks at the end of the year.

My biggest tip is the following: DO NOT BUY RESOURCES UNTIL YOU ABSOLUTELY KNOW YOU NEED THEM. 

I do have affiliate links in this blog post if you wish to purchase resources. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Resources Paid by My School

These are resources from my school so I did not have to pay for them. I think many medical schools choose what they want to do for their students so you should ask your school or the older students. However, if your school does not pay for such resources, I empower you to ask them for it. Tell them other medical schools do it, and advocate to yourselves to your Student Affairs. 

Textbooks: My school has specific textbooks that are given to us for free throughout our library with a reliable internet connection. These same books are also available to us as hard copies in the library’s reserves. Truth be told, I had no idea which textbooks would work for me. Each block had multiple different books and some of them were for different subjects. Thankfully, one of my classmates loves the textbooks and he recommended the Physiology by Linda S. Costanzo (remember her name). 

Tip: See if your school provides your textbooks for you. If not, ask upperclassmen if they use textbooks and see if that’s something you want to do. For instance, if you aren’t sure if you want to try textbook reading, see if the library has copies on reserve and use those for a while and see if it’s a tool you want to use. 

Otherwise my recommendation is Physiology by Linda S. Costanzo because of the companion BRS book.

Link: https://amzn.to/3HpiV2I

Board Review Series (BRS): These books are really great in my opinion. I’ve extensively used the Physiology BRS book especially in the last block of M1. They are essentially review books meant to help with studying for board exams. These are available to me through the school, BUT you can find them for free as PDFs online.

Each book has their own authors. The Physiology BRS book is written by Linda Costanzo. The BRS book she wrote summarizes key points for physiology. I used it for GI-Endo-GU-Repro and it was so helpful. There may be a few mistakes here or there, but using it in conjunction with other resources is super helpful. I plan to continue using it next year. 

From my observations, this book, along with First Aid, is used extensively in the Anking decks. 

Link: https://amzn.to/40Mfr17

First Aid: This book is everywhere on social media! They are also a series of books, but I think most people have seen the Step 1 versions. This book is also a summary of what you need to know for Step 1. This book has mnemonics and other aids to help you remember information. 

To be honest, I did not use this resource well. It’s pretty great. I just didn’t figure out how to use it for M1. It is definitely going to play a bigger role in M2.

Link: https://amzn.to/3ALA1UF

Boards and Beyond: For those of you unfamiliar with this resource, Boards and Beyond is a bank of videos with associated practice questions. The resource was created by a medical professor from UCONN’s medical school. His name is Dr. Ryan, and he basically narrates videos that cover board exam specific content. 

Each video has practice questions. These videos were not super helpful for me as I like animations. His videos are mostly powerpoint slides with messy annotations and voiceovers. Other students love these videos, so it really is up to your learning style. Regardless of format, they are a good summary of what content is expected to be known for Step 1. My favorite part of this resource are the practice questions. I also really liked downloading the PDFs of the videos. 

As a M1, at least for my school, I had to really figure out what content is important for this year and which content we will be covering next year. I also did not pay for this, my school bought us subscriptions and we were able to activate them halfway at some point in the first two blocks. 

Resources Paid by Me

Netter Anatomy Coloring Book: This is a coloring book with some information about the organs and organ systems. There are clinically relevant tidbits of information throughout the book. I found this coloring book helpful, but I never colored in it early enough. Most of my book is not colored, however, it is a really great resource if you have trouble knowing what organs look like and where they are located in the body. I discovered much too late that the neuroscience chapter has really good images to help with learning. I would recommend stopping by your local bookstore, and flipping through this coloring book to determine if it is the one for you.  The coloring book looks like it is around $21 USD. 

Link: https://amzn.to/3AC9kSy

Netter Anatomy Flashcards: These are the official Netter Anatomy flashcards. These flashcards are divided by body system, and have numbered images to test recall. These cards have clinical correlations as well. A new set of these flashcards will give you an access code to their practice questions. I found these questions pretty helpful for basic information especially in the Neuroscience block. 

Link: https://amzn.to/3VgBz2s

Someone on Reddit created a deck for these notecards so you can see if this is a resource that works for you by downloading the deck. This option does not come with the multiple choice questions. Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/medicalschoolanki/comments/mumuco/netters_anatomy_flash_cards_5th_edition_deck/

These flashcards are a bit pricey as they are around $35 USD. 

Visible Body Human Anatomy Atlas App: This app is useful for manipulating a digital animation of the human body. I found it very helpful when we first began anatomy. I did not use it too often. There were some quiz functions that I used throughout the anatomy heavy blocks. Some schools offer anatomy donor apps, so wait until you get to school to see if this is an app you want. 

Do not buy this while it is $25 USD, it looks like it goes on sale every year around November. I only paid $1 USD for it. 

Anki app for iPad/iPhone: Anki is free for desktop use on both PCs and Macs. However, the app is not free for the iPad and iPhone so I finally paid $26 USD for it. It was worth it because it helped me learn the MSKI anatomy well as I would walk on the treadmill for an hour and study at the same time. 

Tip: Figure out if you like Anki first before buying it. It takes up a good amount of storage on your devices. I found that Anki is helpful for rote memorization of facts and anatomy which is why I relied on it during MSKI for the anatomy portion. 

Free Resources 

Anki: Anki is a spaced repetition program that you can use if you like flashcard learning. I have a whole post on study tips that discusses Anki. It’s not the prettiest platform, but the desktop version is free. There are many decks available for use. I found making my own was effective, but was time consuming. I have started using the Anking deck, but I don’t think I used it as extensively as I thought I would for M1. It might be best for me to use it during M2, but that is an experiment for this upcoming year. 

Youtube

1. The Noted Anatomist: This account was recommended to me by my mentor/best friend. This playlist is created by an anatomy professor His videos are clear, concise, and cover clinically relevant material. He’s currently coming out with more videos so this resource only gets better. Some playlists have corresponding worksheets that can be downloaded, and filled out as you watch the video. Link: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheNotedAnatomist
2.   Ninja Nerd: This account is incredibly popular in the premed and med world. The videos I watched were mostly physiology based. Some of them might be more detail than necessary. I really like the white board drawing because I need to be able to draw things myself. Link: https://www.youtube.com/c/NinjaNerdScience
3.  Armando Hasudungan: This account is also popular in the premed and med world. Again, the videos I watched were physiology based and helpful to me because of the drawings. Link: https://www.youtube.com/user/armandohasudungan
4. Medicosis Perfectionalis*: I only used a Liver Function Tests video to help me study during the last block, but it was really helpful so I might be looking at this more for M2. Link: https://www.youtube.com/c/MedicosisPerfectionalis
5. Lance Miller*: These are animations for only the kidneys and thyroid. I like animations so I was very happy to find these. Link:https://www.youtube.com/c/LanceMillerPhD/playlists

*I only used one video or a set of videos from this channel/creator. There are some one-off videos that I thought were helpful. 

Liver Structure and Function: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5_BxsbmXcA&list=LL&index=3&ab_channel=jessdholland

The above video is just a short video about the liver that I thought was super helpful. 

Other Resources

These are resources that my classmates used. I don’t really have a lot of experience with these resources, but I figured I would add them in case you would like to see what they are like.

• Draw It to Learn It: One of my classmates really liked this resource. I did not use it because there is a subscription for it. However, there are some free Youtube videos that you can check out to determine if this product will work for you. 
• Osmosis: These videos are recommended all over the online med student community. I used a few that are available on YouTube, but don’t have much experience with it. 
• Sketchy: These videos are also recommended all over the online med student community. I have zero experience using them. 
• Amboss: At my school, many faculty mentioned that this resource may not be helpful until Year 2. Our financial aid advisor said she’s also heard students say that for our school specifically. For that reason, I chose not to buy it because it is a bit pricey and I would rather have the question banks for this upcoming year. 

One note about Osmosis and Sketchy, don’t feel like you have to use them because you see everyone pushing their discount codes. I was able to get through my first year without them. 

Overall

These are the resources that I used throughout the year. I listed whatever I paid for this year. However, I rely on the resources my school gives me because tuition is already around $63,000. I don’t want to purchase anything unless I absolutely have to get it. I used the Anatomy Model Room extensively at my school. This room contains anatomical models for students to study from. These models include bones, skeletons, plastic hearts etc. 

I also got super lucky at the end of the year, and got many free books that upperclassmen were giving away. That’s another thing to be on the lookout for: free and discounted books from students at your school. I was able to get the BRS Physiology book and the Physiology textbook for free because I just happened to walk by our student lounge while studying on campus. 

Those are the resources I really enjoyed, and hope you find some of them helpful! Let me know in the comments what you think!