Thieme's Anatomy Books

Dear Medics,

This is a short review of Thieme's Anatomy series; Locomotor System, Internal Organs and Nervous System and Sensory Organs.

I used these books as my main study source during my first two years here to study Anatomy. They certainly contain more than enough detail for your examination, however I would recommend that you do not use these books as your only study source.

Simply, these books are best for students who are already familiar with the subject area about which they are reading.

The best way to learn with this series is by using it with either the skeletons or with the cadavers. Naturally, if you are physically manipulating the cadavers, you probably don't want to be turning pages in your nice new book, unless you like formaldehyde juice on your pages. Hence it is useful to have a friend watch your work with the cadaver, whilst reading the relevant page of Thieme's, and calling out the names and associated information of the structures you are viewing.

This brings me to my final point. All subjects in medicine are best learned actively. This generally requires more than one person but can even be done alone. The point of active learning is to teach your mind to recall information, and since you will need to do this in your exams, it's good practice.

The best scenario is to set a practice quiz session with a couple of your closest friends, and test one another equally. For example in anatomy, if two students work with a cadaver, the one reading the book can test the one manipulating the structures. That is how I learned anatomy. We had a volunteer teacher from the Czech program, and thanks to her active teaching, many of us managed to get a grade one in our final exams, myself included.

Best of luck

Russ

P.S. Trying to read Thieme's anatomy books can be difficult at times, because the books were originally German and were translated.