Category Archives: Medical School

Gunning Med School: Books for First Year


All the stuff you will forget.

Congrats on getting into your first year of medical school! There have been a ton of questions on what books and materials to buy, so here’s my list and suggestions. These are everything that I bought and/or used to study in-addition to the powerpoints. I wasn’t a biology major so in many classes and I didn’t have quite the background knowledge that some of my classmates had. I found these books all helpful in learning the material which is why I compiled a list.

Try to have these books before the first day of each section. Some courses are only 2-4 weeks, so if you order them after it starts, you’re already a week into a course without the book and you’ll fall behind quickly.

I’m guilty of this, but have changed this last year. I used to not write in my books to keep them in a new condition, but in medical school, the material is just too important not to fully understand. You’re in a professional school, utilize the materials that you need and get the most out of it. It’s not worth saving a few bucks on the resale value if you master the subject. Many of these books will be good for the first two years and board review studying anyway, so go crazy, make it colorful!

If you’ve found this list helpful over the course of the semester, please share it with your current and future classmates! 🙂

Also, if you don’t already have an Amazon prime account, I would appreciate it if you would sign up at my Amazon prime referral link. It’s free for 6 months and 50% for the following year after that if you decide to stay a member. Thank you for supporting my blog!

Update 6/28/12I forgot about the Thieme Atlas of Anatomy: General Anatomy and Musculoskeletal System which you will use every week in OMM for the anatomy quizzes and during MSS. It has tons of nicely labeled pictures

Update #2 9/29/12 – Added Neuroanatomy: An Illustrated Colour Text by Crossman for Neuro

Tentative Update #3 6/17/13 I have my USMLE this week, but I will be updating this list by the month’s end for the class of 2017, taking into account suggestions from the class of 2016 and some curriculum changes.

Update #4 6/30/13 Updated for the Class of 2017!

High-Yield Book List

The high-yield books you’ll use all year long. These are a must-buy and you will use them for a majority of the year and beyond. The rest of the books detailed in this post are simply the books I used and my thoughts on each of them. I suggest browsing the books you are interested in at the library as they likely have every single one mentioned. Alternatively, load up your iPads with the books to have them anywhere!

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