So I get this question a lot from both pre-meds and those who I lovingly dub pre-pre-meds (high schoolers). The bottom line is, you can not prepare for medical school on an academic level. Cramming a biochemistry or anatomy book into your skull is not going to significantly improve your performance in medical school. Chances are, most of what you read won't be covered, or will be covered from such a different angle that your knowledge could be cumbersome. I recommend a different kind of reading. Rather than trying to study for medical school classes, try studying medicine and doctoring from a more philosophical and social perspective. The bonus of doing this is that it will help you better decide if you want the kind of life that most doctors have had, and it will prepare you mentally for the things that others have experienced before you (both good and bad). It probably won't hurt your interviewing skills either by letting you talk intelligently about the Art of Medicine (which is all they are looking for, in my opinions. If you got an interview, they probably thought you were smart enough to tackle the Science, but whether or not you fit into a school's idea of how a practitioner of the Art should be is what will make or break you- Salt Shaker Alert!).
On this note, some recommended reading. My all time favorite book is On Doctoring. It's a compilation of poetry, memoirs, and philosophies of various doctors over several hundreds of years. The first editor's name is Richard C. Reynolds, if you are having trouble finding it.
Other than that, any good memoir book will do (though I warn you some of the books are a little pretentious in my opinion). Some of the most highly acclaimed books that I know of are:
The House of God, and other books written by Samuel Shem/Stephen Bergman
Better, by Atul Gawande
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat, by Oliver Sacks
There are dozens of others out there, and if anyone else has some recommendations feel free to let me know.
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I'm an upcoming senior in high school and was looking for information about what major(s) to take in an undergraduate college that would be helpful in ophthalmology field. Thank you for the tips. This website is very informative.
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