t13monkeys's Full Review: I. Edward Alcamo, Barbara Krumhardt, I. Edward Alc...
In my search for good study guides to aid me on the journey to being a medical student, I found this particular gem. To be honest, from all the books I’ve been through on the way to studying for MCATs, I have found there are really only a few good study guides out there that can actually help a student. Most books out there are not useful to the average student, and are expensive too. Anatomy and Physiology: The Easy Way by Dr. Alcamo is surprisingly one of those few useful and cheap guides (retails at only $14.95). The book is published by Barron’s, a company often criticized for publishing study guides with numerous errors and extraneous information. Unfortunately one of the downfalls is it being published by Barron’s but I’ll get to that in a few.
Who is this book for?
Anatomy and Physiology: The Easy Way is an excellent study aid for anyone taking a college level vertebrate physiology course or studying for the MCATs.
So what’s the deal? Why is it better than the typical study guide?
Anatomy and Physiology: The Easy Way is one of those guides that most students will not notice at the bookstore. Most students search in general for a study guide that will prepare you for a test, (i.e. regents, MCATs, SATs). This book, through its review of college course material, could easily improve your college course grade and prepare a student for the biology section on an MCAT. It is written in extremely easy to understand prose. All terms are very well defined and most importantly there are loads of very good illustrations. The illustrations found in this book are the typical ones that one would encounter in a college course, and explain so much more than words often can. For example, diagramming how the circulatory system operates can save tons of time from reading a lengthy paragraph on it. The book pretty much has one or more illustrations for every organ and anatomy system described in the book.
In addition to just excellent standalone chapters on various subjects, endocrine system, respiratory system, skeletal system, etc., there are sets of 50 fill in the blanks, 25 multiple choice and 25 true or false questions to accommodate each of the 23 chapters of the book. These problems are fast and often very easy but they encourage active reading of the book, as students tend to concentrate more on the subject when they know there’s a self-test available at the end of the chapter. Most of us are too time-lagged to bother going through deep thought questions, so the book’s use of really fast and simple problems is very welcome. Often times the 100 problems sets provide a solid check to see if you’ve grasped the important vocabulary, and multiple choice problems are always good practice for those taking tests in the future. The self-test usually takes only about 10-15 min.
So what are the downsides?
I’ve found a few errors in the book, which I blame the Barron’s publishing for, as they are notorious for having really bad editors. Some problems are typed incorrectly. For example, one or two problems mistakenly state “all the following are false EXCEPT for…” instead of “all the following are true EXCEPT for…” One particular problem was just plain wrong, in the chapter it stated that a high concentration of HDLs is associated with a low incidence of heart disease. In a multiple choice later on, the correct answer is HDLs are associated with a high incidence of heart disease which is incorrect, LDLs are. Mistakes like this remove from what otherwise could be a very solid book. Out of the 2300 problems the book has, I would say only about 3-5 errors were spotted. I don’t remember which problems exactly but they do exist. A few problems just have poor wording in general and were not well written. I assume the problems were likely written by a separate author of the book, because the information found in the text is overall very solid and I found no gross mistakes otherwise.
Another downside to this book is probably in there are a few moments when the book gets rather extraneous with the visual description and will blather on and on about how something looks and where it is located. This is usually not of great importance in a vertebrate anatomy class as a diagram can illustrate most of it. My college course focused more on the conceptual information. As a result, the book could have spent a little less on detail in certain areas, but I suppose the extra information being there does not really hurt, it just is not really necessary
Closing comments:
Overall, if you are a vertebrate physiology student, this book can provide excellent quick review. It will not replace going to an anatomy class but if you are confused or need to review before a test, the way the information is divided up into well-organized chapters makes it perfect for reviewing before a test.
If you are a premed student studying for MCATs, this book is little bit overkill for the MCATs as it includes far more information than is needed. However, given the extra multiple choice problems, the very strong explanations of conceptual information, the excellent illustrations and just the overall ease of use for this book, it is highly recommended. Also, compared to most books that prepare you for the MCATs and are pricey, having this cheap book as a way of getting some extra review does not hurt.
Note:
A bit of a caveat regarding the practice problems. The multiple choice, fill ins and true or false problems are really basic, and not the sort you should expect to see on any test. It looks like they were written by someone who simply extracted the information from the chapter, so there are no tricky problems, it's very straightfoward and answers are very easy to find provided you've read the chapter. So for the potential buyer, do not expect actual MCAT problems here, the way this book prepares someone for the MCAT is it helps the reader memorize the important vocabulary and concepts they need to know. It does not refine test taking skills.
Books in the popular Easy Way series present basic subject matter in clear language. Material is presented in a way that makes these books ideal as se...More at HotBookSale
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