Should you study from textbooks?

Whether to learn from textbooks or from other resources (question banks, lecture notes, summaries, videos).

Axis: textbooks are overrated, use targeted resources … read the textbook cover to cover

Answers by date: 6 records in 6 sources, newest first; the answers above are the current ones. The advice was refined (2018, 2019, 2020), never reversed, in these records.

date	who	answer	source
2020-04-14	Ali	Ali begins the First Aid textbook for the USMLE with its table of contents, which he calls the most important page of any textbook.	Study With Me in the French Alps - USMLE Preparation 00:02:29
2019-12-31	Ali	When revising a subject rather than learning it for the first time, Ali often skips a textbook's first chapter, which is often introductory and feels like a waste of time.	Study With Me - British Airways Business Class 00:02:26
2019-11-26	Ali	Looking an answer up in well-structured lecture notes or a well-written textbook shows which section it is in and where it fits in the bigger picture, so it is learnt in context.	How my friend ranked 1st at Medical School - The Active Recall Framework 00:09:57
2019-06-16	Ali	Ali says many students wrongly think rereading notes, reading the textbook, highlighting or even taking notes is a useful way to study.	How to Study for Exams - The STic Framework for Effective Learning 00:02:09
2018-10-21	Ali	Ali dislikes textbooks for medical school exams as far too detailed, but at the postgraduate level much of the information is in textbooks, so he will use them, especially in his third phase.	My Study Method + Revision Tools - Cambridge junior doctor 00:11:10
2018-09-15	Ali	Ali's eighth tip, which he calls very controversial advice, is that textbooks are massively overrated, though medical students love carrying and highlighting big heavy ones.	Study Tips for First Year Medical Students 00:16:37