I had to buy this book as a text for a class I'm taking for my degree in Medical Transcription. I came into this class with zero background in Anatomy and physiology. There are some things I like about this book and some I don't.

First, this book is jammed full of interesting information. I love the way it breaks down the different body systems and explains them. I also thought the diagrams were very well done and very easy to understand.

Now for the negative. My biggest complaint is that it wasn't always easy to determine what to write down. I wish they would have bolded or italicized key terms. At times, I thought the writing got a little technical and confusing sometimes. Especially the chapter on the nervous system.

Also, I think this text tends to be very wordy. They take a whole paragraph to say something that could easily be said in a couple sentences.

But overall, I think this is a good book for someone who has little or no experience in anatomy and physiology.

First, let me explain myself a little so that you may know where I am coming from. I am a pre-med biology major who will be a senior for the fall '06 term. I have never had any A&P class whatsoever because the biology department's requirements...well, that is another story. I bought this book because it is not too detailed to lose sight of the big picture but just detailed enough to explain pretty much all the A&P that will be on the MCAT. Of course, this book has tons of stuff that is NOT tested on the MCAT, but I have the examkracker books and I use this book for the (very) few times examkrackers does a poor job explaining things. It's also always good to read the same thing from various sources because the information is much easier to retain that way. I like the pathology that is intermixed throughout the entire book, and the outline pages at the end of each chapter are nice as well as the "case studies" that you are presented with. All in all, this book would be 5 stars for its high yield, one semester A&P (and some pathology) content, but I had to take off one star for the abysmal section on nutrition and metabolism. Glycolysis, CAC, and ETC are barely mentioned. The one or two figures are childish (the others are really good). I may be biased though because I just got out of biochemistry and metabolism was beaten into my brain. Still, I can recommend this to those who want a cheap, basic A&P book to supplement their MCAT Biology studying. The pathology stuff is just bonus and fun to read as sort of a segway into my senior year and my pathology class.