Reddit mentions: The best medical reference books

Overall, you're off to a good start! If you're feeling lost, I recommend this book for personal statement help, it really helped me to organize my thoughts: https://www.amazon.com/Write-Physician-Assistant-Personal-Statement/dp/1517303753/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1517512652&sr=8-1&keywords=pa+personal+statement

The story about your father is very compelling, and your care and concern for him is clear in your writing. However, I would try to consolidate the first two paragraphs of your paper (probably to about half the size they currently are) so that you'll have room later in your essay to discuss more about your background and experiences.

You mentioned you were in microbiology when your father had his accident, so were you already interested in medicine at that point? I'd like to hear a little more about your background prior to your father's accident.

You talked about how your father's medical team made you interested in team-based medicine, but what specifically drew you to PA? Was there a PA in particular that inspired you to pursue the profession?

Your passion for the underserved and non-English speaking population is awesome. I'd love to see some more details about why being a bilingual psychometrist cemented your desire to become a PA specifically. Did you work with PAs there? Was there one patient that really touched your heart that made you more determined to become a PA? You talk about how hearing how grateful they were made you want to pursue your graduate studies, but sometimes telling a brief anecdote about a specific time this occurred can create more of an emotional connection for the reader.

Finally, with the extra space you've hopefully gained by consolidating the first two paragraphs, what other things do you want the admissions committee to know about you? Do you have any other patient care, healthcare experience, or volunteer experience that you feel will make you a great PA in the future?

Hope this helps and good luck!

Let me start by saying -- I went on an entirely selfish vacation earlier this year. I would say anyone can have multiple types of dream vacations, right? Since I already took one of them, this is another dream for me.

The vacation would be a medical service trip to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. While my CNA certification would not be valid there, I could still take blood pressure, and help the docs and nurses with administrative tasks. I also speak Spanish, so I think my skills would be very well used there. Trips like this help us learn things that can help us in serving our own community. The group going on this trip is also active in providing free medical and dental services in our community, and they always say that doing these sorts of trips helps them to think outside of the box to find new ways to serve, new ways to address issues, and new ways to relate to people. It also helps bond the team together, and this helps communication and also results in better service to the community.

I believe our accommodations will be with local families, which is also really exciting. First of all, have you ever had Dominican food? Secondly, I know from some of my Dominican friends that this can mean all night spent up talking, even dancing, especially on welcome night.

I would take A med bag, fully stocked to include all sorts of medical supplies, and most specifically relevant, a medical spanish reference because you never know what medical term, disease or part of the anatomy you'll encounter that you may not have had opportunity to learn before.
The team is already assembled, but I wish I could take my husband. He also speaks Spanish, (actually, he's a native speaker) and I feel like this would be a good opportunity for him to understand things I am passionate about.

Thanks for the fun contest! I needed this today as that trip is definitely on my mind. I know I cannot go, but just thinking of it led me to email the program coordinator to see how I can help from here.

Excuse me for allowing my personal experiences to get in the way. I was trying to give my perspective on why someone would want to do something that changes their personality and why a personality change should not be viewed as a bad thing you wouldn't want to do if you like yourself. Much like I would enjoy hearing the opinions of someone who was in the military if I was wondering why someone would want to join the military. Everything they say might not have a source besides their opinion, but since this is a first hand account, their opinion can be important for understanding.

How about I word it like this:

Therapy can change your personality permanently by giving you new outlooks. Do you consider therapy something that you wouldn't want to do because you like yourself and it would change that?

I feel that is less opinionated and a more direct representation of what I am trying to get at.

>You just stated that shrooms=therapy.

No, I pretty clearly said it is similar.

And you want a source? Read this.

>An advantage of psychedelic drugs in exploring the unconscious is that a conscious sliver of the adult ego usually remains alert during the experience. Throughout the session, patients remain intellectually alert and remember their experiences vividly. In this highly introspective state, they also are actively cognizant of ego defenses such as projection, denial, and displacement as they react to themselves and their choices in the act of creating them.

There. I trimmed the opinion off of the question and re-presented it, and I provided a source supporting my opinion while simultaneously debunking your idea that I'm saying "shrooms=therapy."

My undergrad was pretty solid, 1/2 of it at community college, and the rest at a local state uni. I got into vet school 1 semester away from getting my bachelor's degree (biology major). Most of my grades were A/B with like 2 C's in there. My GRE score was low-average when looking at typical vet student application stats. But being a registered tech with a fair amount of general practice experience along with a few internships and courses in dentistry, ophthalmology, emergency med and exotics helped round things out. I was not immediately offered a spot but was called off the waiting list in March.

The big things are experience and good enough grades to prove that once you're in school, you will be able to "hack it." The myth of C=DVM is just that. Vet schools nowadays have more stringent academic probation guidelines, so you can only afford to get a few C's during each semester. I think currently if you hit 2.0 or below you go on academic warning at my school. And we've lost an average of 2 students a semester so far because of poor performance.

Many schools these days are looking for more lab and research experience. If you have any of this with post-grad work, that will help you out. Also variety of experience is good. Don't forget about large animals; farm/production animal type experience is more and more rare and could help you stand out.

The [AAVMC(]http://www.aavmc.org/) site is helpful to look at, and there is an annual publication VMSARwhich lists the incoming class statistics for the previous year, so you can see what kind of students the schools have been accepting.

There is a good pre-vet forum on the Student Doctor Network that is pretty active.

Good luck!

If you are looking for a book to maybe help you out with preping for the interview they I could recommend you Medical School Interview Secrets to Success. Its a really small book and you can finish it in like one sitting, but I found it super helpful in getting your brain in the interview mentality. It gives you a bit of homework too as a form of prep. Its not super groundbreaking or anything, but it is very helpful for compartmentalizing what you need to cover over an interview. I'm 3 for 3 right now on interviews and acceptances, and I do attribute it to this book.

I put the amazon link here.

https://www.amazon.com/Medical-School-Interview-Secrets-Success/dp/097795594X

btw, i dont make any money from recommending this, it was honestly a good book

I need this book for a class this semester. It is on my $20+ WL, and used is perfectly fine.
I am going to school for my Bachelors's of Science in Nursing. My mom always told me I would be a nurse, but I never believed her. I'm so excited, but when we received our book list, I wanted to cry. One of the classes has FOUR required books (and I'm taking four classes)! Anyhow, thanks so much for this contest. You are amazing! I saw that you are studying physics- wow! I took a intro to physics class just to see if it was something I was interested in- nope, not for me! lol. Good luck in school though, and thanks again for the contest!

Fantastic score! As far as getting into an elite IM program, I would definitely start by identifying a mentor at your home IM program; they'll be better able to guide you. And with a 260 Step, I'm sure they'd be more than happy to help you achieve your career goals.

Also, be on the lookout for research projects that you can help out with, be it case reports or systemic reviews.

Otherwise, the usual advice applies: do well on your rotations, study hard for each shelf, and do well with CK.

Also, buy a copy of The Successful Match. It has useful advice for obtaining letters of rec, what to write in your personal statement, etc.

https://www.amazon.com/Successful-Match-2017-Success-Residency/dp/1937978079

You've got plenty of time to bring up you grades, don't worry. In, addition showing a positive trend overall is very powerful so as long as you begin to improve from this point medical schools will notice. Do you have any ECs? With the strong possibility that your GPA won't be stellar you are most likely going to want to have very strong experiences, (shadowing, volunteering, research, etc.) and crush the MCAT. Since you're so young, here is a link to a great book which really helped me to develop a competitive application and earn acceptance. You may also want to check out the timeline, I pretty much based my whole undergrad off of this.

Book:https://www.amazon.com/Med-Students-Guide-Getting-application-ebook/dp/B07BD45JTN/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1521161058&sr=8-1&keywords=a+med+students+guide+to+getting+in

Timeline: https://masteringmedicaleducation.wordpress.com/sample-timeline/

Yup. Adcoms tell us constantly that if they invite you for an interview, they believe you could do well at their program.

Of course I wasn't there to see you interview, but there's always the possibility that you messed up some of the important questions. At the same time, it's 100% possible you did just fine at the interview, but there were people that the adcom liked little better. Or the adcom thought you were a good candidate but ultimately not a good fit for the class. Who knows.

I highly suggest you get this book. It's geared towards med school admissions, but basically you can apply everything it says to PA schools. There's a section that lists the most common interview questions by category and provides the "right" answer. EVERY interview question I got was in this book. (Personally I don't think the popular "How To "Ace" The Physician Assistant School Interview" by Andrew Rodican is very good.)

I realize some may think my advice is overkill, but I'm just going to put it out there. If you can do all of this, and aren't some socially awkward/antisocial person, you will ace your interview:

• know good answers to most of the questions in the book I linked
  
• REALLY know good answers to "why do you want to be a PA," "tell me about yourself," and "why this school"
  
• keep your answers to 30-50 seconds, you can go closer to 50-60 seconds with the important questions in the 2nd bullet point
  
• make a list of "life stories," so to say, that you can draw upon when asked behavioral questions. It's very handy to have 5-6 anecdotes that can be molded to answer typical behavioral questions like "tell me about a time you worked with someone you didn't like" or "tell me about a time you used teamwork." Just google behavioral questions and the STAR technique
  
• practice interviewing with anyone, preferably someone who's really good at interviews
  
• be yourself. i.e. If you're a quiet person, don't force yourself to be the life of the party.
  
  A lot of people poo-poo so much preparation for interviews by saying stuff like... "you'll sound rehearsed" or "stop worrying so much and be yourself." Basically call you out for being a try-hard. Buuut idgaf because it worked for me.

Try a few different techniques to see what works best for you. Everybody is a little different. Some people learn very well by teaching - even if it's to an inanimate object like a television or the wall. I think it's more effective teaching it to a human, because to make them understand, you need teach them the basics needed to understand that subject matter. (You may be tempted to skip that step if your "student" is a wall.)


The teaching process forces you to rethink the concept in your head, and to imagine different ways of explaining it, like thinking up analogies.


I read this book. His method involves making notes - that is, handwriting or typing all the information he needs to know. This not only condenses notes to make future review easier, but in the process of paraphrasing and summarizing the material, you are actively thinking about it - describing it in your own words, or drawing diagrams to summarize mechanisms, etc. THAT is the main reason you want to make notes - to force yourself to think about the material. Getting condensed notes from someone greatly diminishes the learning process. Yes, you have condensed notes, but you skipped the most important part, which was forcing yourself to think of the material in a way other than passively staring at the textbook or handouts given to you in class.


Making notes is very time consuming, but the advantage is that you know the material better, and reviewing later on is much faster. If you have to study from those notes years down the line, you will understand it easier since you wrote it, and since you made it concise.

They're all super, super selective - and I'd say they're probably about equally selective! If you're in Pennsylvania or very close by, you might have a solidly higher chance at all the Drexel ones (though I bet you could aim for somewhere higher ranked if you keep up your performance in undergrad/MCAT)

If not, apply to the main ones - Northwestern, Brown, BU, Case Western, Rochester, etc. I would highly recommend this book https://www.amazon.com/BS-MD-Programs-Complete-Guide/dp/0983213240 - it's a little old now but it has all the acceptance numbers and stuff, helped me get interviews when I applied (though I wasn't ultimately accepted at any LOL)

Good luck!! Remember, you'll probably do great in undergrad anyway.

I graduated with a 2.95 GPA. However, I received many A's and a few B's the last two years of my undergrad. My GPA was low because the first two years of my undergrad I was undeclared and pretty much had no direction or desire to do school. I am attending a 1 year biomedical program that I have already been accepted into at a major Philadelphia medical school, and after that I will be applying to medical school. I have also completed an extensive 9 month internship in molecular research where I worked on Aptamers, and I also volunteer regularly. I will be taking the MCAT this fall.

In addition, take EVERYTHING you read on Student Doctor network with a grain of salt. Several of my friends received 25 - 27 on their MCAT with a 3.5 GPA and were accepted into multiple DO schools. Another friend of mine had a great GPA (3.95) and 32 MCAT and was offered a 100K dollar scholarship to a great MD school in Maryland.

A great book to read is "How to Get Into Medical School by Someone Who Has Actually Done It" by Daniel Mijares. He points out that many students who get into medical school have to re-apply.
http://www.amazon.com/Into-Medical-School-Someone-Actually/dp/1430326808/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1312554379&sr=8-1

Yes I'll be happy to tell you more.

I guess in circles outside the common health system it's well known that bacteria in the gut controls the immune system?

By recolonizing the gut with bacteria from a healthy donor the gut will re-balance and the immune system will be operational again.
This is at least the theory and in many cases it seems to work!

I'll suggest you have a look at this:

• Probiotic Therapy Research Centre
  
  
• Taymount Clinic - these guys are doing FMT.
  
  
• The power of poop - do it yourself.
  
  
• A list of doctors performing FMT
  
  
• Fecal Transplant Guidebook A pretty comprehensive guide. includes a take on psychological aspects. This is the guide I used.
  
  I just wanted my life back and it seems like I'm on my way to a healthy future without having to think about shit, literally, all day. Hope it'll help you too.
  
  
  
  
  

For me, being flexible on the hour-to-hour schedule and instead focusing on my daily task list worked best, especially for research life. The American Physician Scientist Association website has a series called "Day in the Life" which you might find interesting. For medical school, this book "How to Study in Medical School" offers some tips on how to structure your day and might give you insight into what the medical school schedule might look like.

Here is how my schedule has been year-by-year (we do MS1-3, grad school, MS4).

During MS1 and MS2: M-F classes 8-12n (either in class or streaming videos), lunch, mandatory activities like labs, standardized patient activities, other special sessions in the afternoon 1-5p, studying all evening. Variably working out, hanging out, or playing video games for breaks. I'd study all weekend for as long as I had motivation (~6-7hrs), and socialized for breaks. I did not participate in any research during these years.

MS3 schedule depends completely upon what rotation you are on. Outpatient is 5 days a week, inpatient is 6. You can assume at least 8-12 hours of your day (usually within a 6a-6p window) are spent on clinical duties, and another 2-3 on studying for the rotation and shelves. I prioritized working out as soon as I got home before studying as it provided a lot of stress relief. I got involved in a clinical research project which worked on during the weekends.

Summer lab rotations between MS0-MS1, MS1-MS2, and GS1 (where I am currently): I go to lab at 8a, work on experiments until seminars/classes/meetings happen around 12n, and then stay in lab until the tasks I set for myself are done (normally 6-7p). I write, work out, and hang out in the evenings.

Hope that helps!

I agree that rather than studying the curriculum ahead of time, work on preparing for the rigors and planning ways to make your study more efficient.

This is a great book on Learning Medicine: An Evidence-Based Guide https://www.amazon.com/dp/0996153306/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_q2Qdzb1K0HAAA

Maybe take a free, online course such as Learning how to Learn or Mindshift on Coursera.

And start playing with apps to see which ones will be the most helpful. I love the Studies app for flash cards, but Quizlet or Brainscape are more popular.

I highly recommend the IC Berkeley anatomy course taught by Marian Diamond, available on iTunesU or Apple Podcasts.

[this book](http://www.amazon.com/Isersons-Getting-Into-Residency-Students/dp/1883620368/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409576577&sr=8-1&keywords=iserson%27s+residency
)
I have had the opportunity to sit on both my med school admissions committee and a couple of my residency rank list meetings and the biggest thing that it always boils down to is 1) Don't be a douche...seriously. You can have a 45 MCAT and have set up an HIV shelter in a 3rd world country, but if you're a douche nobody is going to want to work with you. 2) Common sense-that book is a pretty good resource (I used it for both med school and residency) 3) don't lie 4) It's all a game... if you show interest, they will show interest back. If you try too hard-they'll see right through it.

You should know the basics of healthcare, but to be honest, I was never asked a single question about healthcare, and I've only asked a healthcare-related question once, and it was as a follow-up to something that the candidate had said.

My advice is to work on commonly asked interview questions (which you can easily obtain from Google). It's also very helpful to find people to practice with in person and have them give you feedback.

Also, I don't know how helpful this would be for you, but I read this book when I was interviewing. Most of the content was stuff that I already knew, but there were a couple of tips that I found to be particularly helpful.

1. wake up, dress up, show up -- be on time
   
   
2. always know what time to show up and where to be etc.
   
   
3. be nice and don't be a burden
   
   
4. being dumb and nice is better than being smart and annoying; being dumb and annoying is the worst
   
   
5. feign interest in every speciality and don't bash the specialties to their faces -- the answer to "do you have an interest in X?" is always "I've always found X interesting and am looking forward to learning more about it..." if you don't have an interest in it or something along those lines. Or maybe you're lucky and actually have a genuine interest in it.. then let them know.
   
   
6. surgery sucks and it will always suck
   
   
7. have things not rotation/medicine related to talk about that is fun for the team -- it doesn't always have to be about medicine
   
   
8. eat whenever you can
   
   
9. study whenever you can
   
   
10. leave whenever you can
    
    ____
    
    Don't know what to study for each rotation? Look at the wiki
    
    In regards to how to study: OnlineMedED is now your Pathoma. UWorld is still UWorld. There is no First Aid for Step 1 for Step 2 so it is made up of a couple of books for each rotation you used / general review books (Step UP, First Aid, master the boards etc.)
    
    The Match is really scary? Buy The Successful Match for a decent run down of the entire process etc. and tips of how to build an application
    
    ERAS is still really scary? Check out these example applications.. start at like pg 29 unless a Pritzker student then ^read ^^it ^^^all ^^^^?
    
    Worried about H+Ps? Get the Perfect H+P book(or download and print a bunch of decent looking templates)
    
    Need more templates etc?? Check out Medfools! for more!!

The Successful Match has some good stuff. Maybe see if you can borrow one from a friend or Amazon prime that shiz.

I recommend compiling a document with all interesting patient encounters, presentations you did on the rotation, notable things you accomplished on the rotation. Then when it comes time for your Letter writer to compose your LOR send them that information. Then they can have anecdotes to go off and write in your letter, this will be much more powerful than a generic LOR. This book goes into much more detail about this and I recommend reading the chapter on LORs https://www.amazon.com/Successful-Match-2017-Success-Residency/dp/1937978079/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1522800836&sr=8-1&keywords=residency+match

I'll have to talk to my pre-med advisor about that move first! Not sure if there are any technicalities involved. In the meantime, I advise you to look at Barron's Essays That Get You Into Medical School. Short, concise, and helpful read. Definitely available at your local Barnes and Noble or off of Amazon here!

This book is good for focused interview prep and strategy

This book is good for common sense interview skills

I am using both of these books myself, and I like them a lot. They really only deal with traditional interview formats however. No books for group interviews or MMI format.

I used this book to get a good idea of what med school personal statements look like. The ones in the book aren't exactly groundbreaking (in fact, a lot are pretty cliche), but it was still useful to at least have that framework to look at.

I am a person who likes to learn from other people's mistakes and successes. For this reason, I find books that describe what other people did extremely helpful. Here are some that really helped me:

First Aid for the Match

Iserson's Getting Into Residency

I searched my library for "medical school interview" and perused this book which was pretty helpful.

I bought The Medical School Interview: Secrets and a System for Success last year and it seemed to be pretty helpful in my preparation.

I recommend Barron's Essays That Will Get You into Medical School. Very helpful guide and they give you a dozen or so essays written by past applicants.

This was a great book to prepare for MMIs:

https://www.amazon.com/Multiple-Mini-Interview-Mind-Advisor/dp/1628908637/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1466318494&sr=8-2&keywords=multiple+mini+interview

"The Successful Match" goes through all of this by specialty plus just general app info.

https://www.amazon.com/Successful-Match-2017-Success-Residency/dp/1937978079

I bought this to use for inspiration. I would be cautious though--it can be tough to come up with an original idea if you've been reading examples.

I used this [book] (https://www.amazon.com/Multiple-Mini-Interview-Mind-Advisor/dp/1628908637/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1480737225&sr=8-2&keywords=multiple+mini+interview) to prepare for MMIs. You can also just find scenarios online. Get with a friend and practice

woah... reapplicant?

I recommend this book: http://www.amazon.com/Medical-School-Interview-Secrets-Success/dp/0977955907

So I read a couple of books because even though I've interviewed for jobs, I realized I had no idea what adcoms on a med school were looking for. Link Here: https://www.amazon.com/Medical-School-Interview-Strategies-Admissions/dp/193797801X/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=3BM4D155KR9XWQ3TCT0A

That got me in the right frame of mind. There is a MMI version too. After that, I practiced the more common 8 questions aloud and got them within 2 minutes time frame. Did some mock interviews. I usually over research and read on ethics too. Haven't been rejected or waitlisted post II yet.