Anatomy Recall

Rating:
Summary: anatomy made easy
Review: this book which is part of the immensley popular recall series focuses on active aquisition of knowledge as opposed to passive learning which is readily forgotten. With a topic as vast as anatomy, which is heavy on factual knowledge this text focuses in on key areas and delivers the must know facts clearly and simply. There are power review sections at the end of each chapter to help reinforce the most salient aspects of the anatomy and these really do aid with memorization of anatomy. It is not a replacement for a comprehensive text but with the aid of an atlas it is a fantastic method of maximizing your knowledge with minimum effort or as the series editor puts it high- yield information at your fingertips. buy it and get to grips with this immensley satisfying yet difficult topic.

Rating:
Summary: Great For Anatomy!
Review: This is a situation that most medical students will recognise. You've been humiliated by a surgeon in theatre and you desperately need to brush up on the anatomy of the wrist but you're tired, you're hungry, it's late and you just can't face trawling through a big anatomy text book to find the tiny pieces of information that your consultant will appreciate. Anatomy Recall is the answer to their prayers. Crammed into this relatively slim book is just about all the material that you'd expect to find in a standard anatomy tome. The difference here is that the information is provided in edible chunks. The entire book is laid out in a question and answer format, dramatically increasing the fact:word ratio and boosting your ability to recall it when quizzed. Diagrams are only included where absolutely necessary (brachial plexus etc) and contents, indexes and other 'wasted' pages are cut to a minimum. This means that the book is small enough to fit into a white-coat pocket. However, there are probably more important things to occupy the bulging pockets of medical students and this book will stay on the shelf by day. Even so, the small size and bite-size nature of the text means that this book is perfect for reading on the bus, over breakfast or anywhere else that you can snatch a few moments. At the end of each chapter is a 'power review' section providing the most salient and memorable points for when time is really short. There is even a handy bookmark provided to allow you to cover the question answers for self-testing. The authors claim that Anatomy Recall and a good anatomy atlas are all a preclinical student would need to learn anatomy. Having been there, I tend to disagree and feel that the only way to get a solid grounding in anatomy is by studying a respected textbook such as Snell's Clinical Anatomy for Medical Students. Anatomy Recall is useful for brushing up on anatomy knowledge once the foundations are in place but the edifice above is crumbling and decayed. This is a book that, in my opinion, no medical student can do without.