When I heard about Picmonic, I actually let out a little yelp of excitement and anger. Excitement because I wish I had such a tool while I was in the first and second year of medical school; anger because I thought about building just such a company about a hundred times but never went through with it. Picmonic was developed too late for my first years of medical school, but I keep hearing great things about it from our medical students. Because of all the buzz, I recently downloaded their trial software to test it out and I am impressed. The idea behind Picmonic is to develop absurd images in order to help memorize difficult to understand concepts. Each Picmonic image contains a number of important pearls that should be memorized. Picmonic walks the learner through the image to highlight each pictoral 'mnemonic'. The staff at Picmonic were kind enough to send us their image for clindamycin [shown below]. In this way, any time a student is placed in a situation (in the hospital or on an exam) where he/she must remember these important concepts, the absurd image will pop right into their head, increasing memory recall.
Increased memory retention using absurd images is actually a well-known phenomenon in teaching organizations. In fact, the best memorizers in the world often use abstract and absurd imagery to memorize lists of random words and numbers. The developers at Picmonic openly state that their software increases memory retention by "300%" and may increase scores on exams by "50%". These numbers seem a bit outrageous, but they recently published their results in a peer reviewed journal (pub med link) and they seem to have some evidence to support their claims. Thousands of medical students are using their software and I have never heard anyone unhappy with the purchase. Some use it far more than others, but everyone who purchases the resource appears to be quite happy. Of course, the utility of this type of device is likely more useful to those students who are more visual, but its effect on memory retention is likely to be universal.
If you haven't tried it out, go to their website, www.picmonic.com, and download their free trial. This is a great resource.
because I like bright colors, but each atlas has its own advantages and disadvantages. Below are a few links to the best known atlases.
because it is brief and very high yield. I have also heard good things about 
.
works just fine. You will want to know all the important structures that you dissected, but you will NOT want to study out of your anatomy lab book! Gross.
, they are bright and color coated for easy memorization.
.
review is concise (albeit 500 pages) and high yield review of everything to do with anatomy and its clinical correlations. The best book for high yield review, however, is likely the 
. This will include review of many other subjects, but it is very high yield and a fantastic resource.
and 
.
does not seem like anything special at first glance. However, I have never met someone who used the Gilroy atlas and did not love it. In fact, it holds the #2 position for 
is a well known text with a great history and crisp images similar to the Gilroy text. Many students use the companion, 
is well liked by its users, just Google the title and you will find loads of students who love it. However, I have never actually met a student who used it. We had a couple copies in our library, but no one every looked at them. If you are a textbook lover, you might want to look at the Thieme book. It reads more like a textbook than an anatomy atlas.
is a sort of cult-favorite atlas. Many believe the illustrations in Clemente are the best on the market. They are clear and straight forward. There is a good mix of clinical information. The price is low, and the satisfaction is high. I have not used Clemente's but those who have used it say that they would use it again.
is one of histories best-known atlases. However, I think that the atlases listed above have surpassed this historical text. There are newer versions, but I fear the TV show named after the atlas will forever be more famous than that atlas itself. The images are nice and there are a number of photos and radiologic images which accompany the anatomy illustrates. Because of Gray's historical status, it warrants a few minutes to flip through the pages, but I would not purchase this text myself.
and 
(#3). I prefer the BRS book because it is a no-nonsense text with a few pictures and tables but mostly focused on simple and clear text. You should browse through both books before deciding which one you will use.
. This book is also very good, more concise, and easy to read. It does not have questions.
in print format, which is another great distraction of texts and computer questions.
. As I have said in other posts, I am a fan of the Kaplan books. I am not paid by them, I just think they have a good product. Good Luck.
.
, 
, and 
for second year students. Each is rated very well by students.
is a priceless book. Buy it early, use it your first two years, and then devour it while studying for Step 1.
My name is Andrew and I am a first year resident training to be an ophthalmologist. I created ShortWhiteCoats to provide medical students, residents, and the public with all the information I spent so many hours looking for during medical school.
