Alright! Here's what I use in order from least to most expensive:
- Free: Khan Academy and coursera and youtube. They're really awesome for basic math skills especially.
https://www.khanacademy.org/ I especially like Khan Academy, they're really easy to use, and they have details and the way the 'courses' are set up are really easy--you can skip to sections you need to re-learn. I find it more beneficial than just a math book alone--and, you can always research questions online via google for practice quizzing, but they have some quizzes on the site I believe. I know coursera does that.
Coursera has more structure to it, and lots of quizzes and professor-style assistance and help when you need it, so you can sign up for any number of classes and participate in them on a weekly basis.
Youtube is great for specific questions--there are professors, students, and normal people that love this stuff teaching on there for free all the time. You look up how to calculate ABGs, they show you how to get it right every time without fail.
- Cheap: Renting Amazon books.
The Nutrition manuals from Amazon are great for brushing up on the basics of proteins, carbs and sugars, and vitamins and such. I liked this one a lot:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B7JUIAK/ref=oh_d__o00_details_o00__i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and it's only $15 for 60 days of rental. Enough to work through a chapter, write down the main points, and go on.
That's just one example. You can rent textbooks on there all the time for 30-90 days for a fraction of the cost of a new textbook.
- Cheap, but requires leg work: Previous edition textbooks.
Go to your local college bookstore. Look at the books they have available for the classes they're teaching: biology, for example, or microbiology. Then, look up that author's previous editions. 1 edition or 2 back will MASSIVELY drop in price and be widely available because of the textbook market being a total mess. You can capitalize on this and get a $160 textbook for like $20-40 dollars because students won't be able to buy old editions.
Textbooks that I love that I'm sure if they don't have new editions yet, they will soon:
- Medical Terminology A living Language by Fremgen
- Human Anatomy and Physiology by Maneb
- Pathophysiology: A biological basis for disease in adults and children .. I have the 4th edition, but the 3rd edition has mostly correct information
- Personal Nutrition by Boyle
- Microbiology: With diseases by body system by Bauman
- Less reliable but still cheap: Half Price Books
They usually sell "X subject made easy!" books there, or CLEP study books which have the added benefit of having CDs sometimes, and they usually get straight to the main teaching points.
- Expensive but affordable: The Kaplan MCAT crunch series and HESI exam study guides.
After you've worked your way through some free online courses, you can always go to the local library for HESI books. You can buy them too, they're expensive, but they do a great job of teaching from the very bottom up, depending on how advanced you want to go--entrance HESI exam study guides are WAY easier than further editions for like the NCLEX or something.. So just browse through the different kinds.
I highly recommend the entrance HESI because, while the math is far too easy in it, it does a very thorough job of teaching each section in its absolute basics. Physics, grammar, vocabulary, math.. it literally starts from addition and subtraction and works its way up the ladder. So if you're starting from zero with a subject, and they have it, it's a great place to start, and most colleges have it for free to rent for a few days at a time.
The MCAT study books are pretty good too. I ordered them when I was determined to study to take the MCAT as a back up plan for nursing. I use this series for the basics of things, and I love it because it's really a summary of subjects in order. it doesn't go far into detail, it just refreshes the memory of what you were taught--if I get confused on a particular section, I can look it up on youtube, and then check the block and move on. And they have quizzy questions too.
