Books that aren't required for course.

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Specializes in Medical-Surgical, Hemodialysis.

I have two books on my list that aren't required (visual dictionary of the human body and a study guide for A & P) and I'm thinking of getting them anyway to use as an aid for my journey through A & P. I was just wondering about every one else's opinions on this.

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I personally get every "help" I can. If you have an isbn number, you might check out amazon and type it in and see if there is any feedback as to how much they helped other people.

Good luck...I'm taking A&P in about 10 days and am a nervous wreck!

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Specializes in Medical-Surgical, Hemodialysis.
I personally get every "help" I can. If you have an isbn number, you might check out amazon and type it in and see if there is any feedback as to how much they helped other people.

Good luck...I'm taking A&P in about 10 days and am a nervous wreck!

Thanks Diana! I work part-time in the bookstore on campus so I will get my discount when I do purchase them plus all of the people I've known at my college say to get all of the books recommended. I know last semester they had a coloring book for A&P and that freaked me out. I can play nicely with others but staying between the lines in a coloring book isn't my thing.

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I have the coloring book and can't wait to play!

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Specializes in Medical-Surgical, Hemodialysis.
I have the coloring book and can't wait to play!

Now if was connect the dots I'd be jealous but I'll let you have your coloring fun. :lol2:

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Specializes in NICU, High-Risk L&D, IBCLC.

It depends. When I first started nursing courses, I bought EVERY recommended text and after the first year realized that I had a lot of books just sitting around that I never even opened. Now I only buy study guides if the instructors say they take some test questions out of them.

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Specializes in ED, ICU, MS/MT, PCU, CM, House Sup, Frontline mgr.
I have two books on my list that aren't required (visual dictionary of the human body and a study guide for A & P) and I'm thinking of getting them anyway to use as an aid for my journey through A & P. I was just wondering about every one else's opinions on this.

I purchased extra "help" books and textbooks for my A&P and Micro classes. I plan to do the same for Patho.

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I have two books on my list that aren't required (visual dictionary of the human body and a study guide for A & P) and I'm thinking of getting them anyway to use as an aid for my journey through A & P. I was just wondering about every one else's opinions on this.

It depends on how you study, and how your course is organized. For example, when I did A&P I we had a "visual lab guide" that was somewhat helpful for histology earlier in the semester, but when it came to bones, muscles, and nervous system I found that the lab time we spent on dissections and identification cemented the information in my head without spending valuable study hours coloring in a book or looking at pix that were "too perfect" compared to what we actually had to identify in lab. As far as a study guide goes, it depends. Most A&P books come with study guides/fill-in the blank chapter notes on their websites, and there are a ton of practice quizzes and animations on line on the web for free. But if you don't often have access to a computer or can't print out the chapter-based study guides I suppose buying one would be an option. Also, be advised that you may have a teacher who doesn't teach directly from the text book leaving you with a study guide that is way more detailed than the subject matter you're actually expected/required to understand.

In the end, I suppose it all comes down to what works best for you, but I would probably wait a week into your lab & lecture to get an idea of the approach your instructors take before spending $60-100 on superfluous books.

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Specializes in LTC.

I second that it depends on how you learn. A lot of the times I will page through the recomended texts to see if they are something I will acctually use. Most of the time they are not.

There is one textbook recomened for my mirco class that I'm thinking about getting, but I plan on waiting until the class starts to see if it is something I will find useful.

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when i took anatomy i got the supplemental text (atlas of the human body) and found it really helpful for lab. especially on the practicals when the body had pins in various muscles and we had to name them, insertion point and such.

but if we only used the cats for the practicals, i don't think i would have found it too helpful.

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I have the coloring book and can't wait to play!

haha i want that book

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