Books for Prep | |
 - A Single Source Reference, It Is Not.Rather than writing a repeat of all the reasons you should buy this text, which you can read from MANY other reviewers, I'd like to leave a comment or two of what you miss in Netter's and why you cannot use Netter's as a single-source reference. First, I'm a 20-yr vet of semiconductor manufacturing engineering (MS Chem Eng), so I wasn't as mentally prepared for med school as much younger students seem to have been. But having said that, I needed and expected a lot detail, and I mean a lot of detail. Netter's, while providing a ton of detail in a magnificent artistic format, cannot provide every angle necessary to avoid confusion. This bit is easily solved using highly detailed photographs. For this reason alone, Netter's (or any other single text) should never be considered as a single-source reference. As an example of this problem, what may be interpreted as a small fossa, may not be as apparent to the student. This is a big deal. Second, muscle orgins and insertions, at least from my personal experience (and I know everyone is different), seems to be difficult to learn from Netter's. The same goes for nerve innervations and blood flow. I have found the detailed photographic texts to be far more useful to learn innervations over Netter's art work though nothing compares to actually being in the lab. Conclusion: If you're having to learn Anatomy, then Netter's is a necessary tool. The interactive CD is a nice feature but not completely necessary though the $30 extra is probably worth the money. But realize that you must not use Netter's as a single-source reference. A careful review of the photographic anatomy texts (my personal favorite being McMinn's Color Atlas of Human Anatomy) WILL be of great use - these two different styles of text greatly complement one another, and hence your understanding of the subject. Skip the coloring books. Rating: - You need this oneThis book is a must for a medical student! The illustrations are clear,simple and are drawn in a special way which makes it very easy to understand what you are seeing. The pictures are not always "real", they reflect what you SHOULD look for in a particular area of the body,a fact that helped me a lot. Comparing to Sobbota, this book contains more information in most of the aspects, although Sobbota may be found more useful for dentistry students due to a bigger section of the scull region. Another thing which is good in Sobotta are the more detailed carpal bones illustrations which may be of value to some students. In conclusion, Netter book is reliable, clear and understandable both for the learning beginner and the reviewer. I know I would have never passed my Anatomy and Neurobiology without it. It is simply the best atlas there is! Rating:  - OverratedNetter's genius shines in the CIBA books, not on this atlas. It lacks fundamental correlations with what today's student must acquaint themselves with: MRI, CT, x-rays, and not to forget physical examination. I guess the rave is all about only knowing this atlas, and also because older professors only know this atlas. I am not saying this is a bad atlas at all. All I am saying is that there are other choices that integrate information in a more meaningful way for today's medical student. Our anatomy dissection group had Netter, Sobbotta, Grant's, Yokoshi's, and McMinn's atlases. We found Netter and Sobbotta to have "pretty pictures". Yokoshi had cadaver sections only, but they were executed by anatomy experts. If you followed it, you would get in trouble and section something you shouldn't (we become so appreciative of the human body's simmetry because of that). Same with McMinn's (and we also found some dissections not very inteligible, I might add). Students that displayed avoidance behavior towards dissection, and were more of the "exam cram" types favored Netter (that might also have been because of a lack of curiosity regarding other atlases). But we were not so, we stayed until late in the dissection room, only leaving when the night shift guard *made* us leave. The atlas that truly delivered a nice view of anatomical *relations* between parts, and had dissections we could follow on the table, and that contained clear correlations with clinical and imaging information (part of our anatomy exam involved not only cadaver but x-rays, CT, and clinical topography) was Grant's Atlas of Anatomy. That was what we discovered trough trial and error. It costs a lot less than some other atlases, and it is underrated, but it delivers much more. But YMMV. Rating: - The gold standard for learning anatomyNetter is simply one of the best books you will find for learning human anatomy. Interestingly the book is all based on drawings and not photos. However, that is where the clarity of it stems from. Netter gives you an ideal picture of each anatomical field so when you see the real thing the pieces fall into place. The book is very strong in all areas of the body except neuroanatomy. A separate book is needed for that. Rating: - Illustrations could be betterThis entire book consists of color illustrations of human anatomy. No explanation - just pictures. That was what I was looking for. I got this to study from to improve my drawing. I wouldn't recommend it for that purpose. The quality of the illustrations is OK, but definitely not good. It is sad to see such high quality print job go to waste. In terms of medical use: It is easy to locate structures, both using the index and when mentally separating the object of interest from background in pictures. (I was premed so I have used this for anatomy.) Probably Netter was drawing a diagrammatic ideal human. The vagueness in the illustrations is good or bad depending on your purpose. This is a good book for anatomy and medical students to study from. It is extremely expensive, but so are all your books. If you are studying anatomy to improve your art then you are better off going with a photo based book or even a reprint of Vesalius. I don't know what to recommend (still looking), but with this atlas you will likely be disappointed. Just look at the cover to see why. Netter's illustrations leave much to be desired. In association with Amazon.com | |