Text books
Books
We are aware that you will have many questions about the course and what you should be doing to prepare.
We are often asked ‘What shall I do about textbooks?’ For this reason we thought it would be useful to give you this list of recommended texts and to offer some advice about buying them. Please do not feel that you must rush to buy the texts before you get here (excess baggage can be heavy and expensive!) plus you will have access to all core textbooks electronically.
If you do wish to buy textbooks, we recommend choosing textbooks that will be useful for your 3 years in St Andrews and your 3 years at clinical partner schools: take some time to ask peers in the years above, or to appraise how much benefit you’d get from owning physical copies knowing you wil have e-textbook access and access to physical copies via the library too. Although our list may seem lengthy and expensive, it is unlikely that you will have to buy any other essential texts while you are at St Andrews.
In making a decision to select textbooks, not only do we try to find those best suited to our course but also, if possible, the books also include access to the publisher’s on-line learning resources.
ebooks
The Medical School and the University library have licensed several ebooks from different publishers (see reading list) providing you with electronic access to all the core texts required. This provides on-line access to the texts without restriction using your University user name/password combination. In addition to the core reading list which you may consider buying some books from, there are additional texts available on-line. Though these are considered to be very useful throughout our curriculum, we do not think it is essential for you to buy these actual texts.
An important thing to note about most ebooks is that they are often not accompanied by the extra on-line resources which are available if you buy the texts and activate the access codes to the publisher’s web site.
Is there anything I could be reading before I come?
Students often ask us if they should read anything in preparation for Medical School. Rather than burden yourself with facts before you actually come, we suggest that students might rather read something that stimulates the mind! Suggestions of books staff have read include:-
- Rebecca Skloot: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks ( ISBN-10:150987702, ISBN-13:978-1509877027)
- Atul Guwande: Being Mortal: Illness, Medicine and What Matters in the EndT (ISBN: 978-0-8050-9515-9)
- Dason Evans / Jo Brown: ‘How to Succeed at Medical School: An Essential Guide to Learning’ (ISBN 978-1118703410)
- Tools of the Trade: Poems for New Doctors feature some St Andrews faces and is given to St Andrews students when they graduate, you can read about the project here