Crash Course: Cardiovascular System

Crash Course: Cardiovascular System, (Crash Course - UK)

Edition: 3
Published in 2007

Authours: Paul Sutton

Summary of review

This book, although maybe not the best for learning things first time round, is just the job when revising and cramming. It is to the point, easy to understand, and has lots of diagrams to aid visual learners, and there is a reasonably large question bank at the end, with justified answers, which is nice.

When working through topics for the first time, the learning objectives at the start of each section do help focus your learning, and as with the other Crash-Course books there are always little boxes jotted around with the important take-home messages. The explanations are also very clear, so you do get it the first time round unike the unrelentless text found in some books.

Despite this, you also find that there are times when you do need to use other books to add some substance to the bare bones which crash course has laid down. As well as this, one of the unfortunate themes that I keep finding in the series is that they do tend to be badly organised. Although the diagrams are plentiful, they are not always on the relevant page, and in some places it refers you to other sections of the book, which all in all results in a lot of frustrated page flicking.

Despite this it is not all doom-and gloom! For Clinical Year students it is very useful as a quick mind prompt and revision aid when starting a rotation. It is also reasonably cheap, and if bought in preclinical years as a revision aid, and used all thorough medical school probably is worth the cost. But if you already have another textbook, and make good notes…twenty odd quid can give you a really good night out!