SGU PD Kit Amazon Links - Save yourself some $$$ *updated*

+ Everything you need for your SGU PD KIT in Term 2 and term 4/5 + beyond. These are the main items.  + Despite what your medical school tries to sell, you DO NOT need to get the School kit for $800+. You can save hundreds of dollars and buy yourself a nice trip to Barbados instead. + Remember, these instruments are for Practice/Learning, not clinical practice. Many of these items will be provided to you in hospital/clinic, and you won't be required to carry them around. Even for Step 2 CS and OSCE exams, they are provided to you. If anything, get a nice stethoscope and penlight (the two things you will carry with you everywhere you go). + If you'd like a Quality Otoscope/Opthalmoscope than the ACD, go with Welsch-Allen, (posted below). It magnifies what you're seeing better, but it will cost you. Still, Amazon will save you a hundred bucks. There are two cheaper options, the ADC and Welch Allyn, they work well enough, but lack things like different colored lenses (which they don't teach us to use), and a slightly dimmer light compared to the Welch. I have this and it works fine. + The automatic BP Cuff by ACD is really easy to use compared to the old school EMT type cuff too near the bottom, most hospitals/clinics will have the old school type. + The stethoscope you choose needs a diaphragm and a bell, like the Littmann. +All in all, you are learning technique, and most of the time your tutors will supply these things for you, these are mostly so you can practice on your own. Some people borrow a friends for the few exams you need them for in term 4, but it looks like most people bought their own. + Happy Shopping!

+ There are many styles of "Doctor Bags" in case you want something suited for your style. +Also, the penlights, BP cuff, and Reflex hammers all have multiple colors if that suits your style and you want to match scrubs. 

<-- +Here's a link to the Quality Welsch-Allyn Otoscope/Opthalmoscope
(Still Cheaper than SGU website). I actually reccommend this one if you plan on using it in the future (beyond medical school) 


+Don't Forget Extra Disposable Specula! You'll need more of the larger ones (4mm, **Latex-free are posted down below - Especially for the ACD kit. (btw, the 2.5 mm are more for children)

+Here's the tourniquet you need btw, if you want to get it, again this is one of those items you don't need because it's usually supplied, but if you insist its gotta be big enough for your thigh.
+ This pocket chart (although not snellen, has a RULER on the side, super useful to measure JVP. . .
*** THE PANOPTIC WELCH ALLYN OPTHALMOSCOPE IS SO GOOD. I came across this in clinical practice and I swear, you can finally see the whole eye in a circle like the textbooks!!
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+IPHONE/GADGETS!! I am excited to announce some nifty products for those who like using new technology!! This is the medicine of the future people, start getting used to it + check it out!

• Iphone Pulse Oximeter adapter!
• Iphone blood pressure cuff adapter!
• USB Otoscope + portable veinfinder
• *soon there will be otoscope/opthalmoscope adapters + Ultrasound adapters for Phones!       
• also, Check out this Free App you can use to measure your heart rate --> FREE HR App - it tracks the fluctuations of color in your fingertip as it is perfused with blood with each heart beat, giving you a waveform and surprisingly accurate heart rate.

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Micro Questions Block - If you missed it in the margin

Hey, I wanted to emphasize that this micro question block was 75% helpful for the midterm, and the rest of the questions helped for the final. I'm not quite sure who the guy is that posted these, but the questions are in line for the most part with the class, and the style of questions are similar. I put this link in the margin, but I doubt it got noticed so I wanted to make sure this was a post in itself.

Enjoy!

http://multanimatti.blogspot.com/2008/02/microbiology-questions-block.html

SGU Preparing for 3/4th Term **updated**

 Term 3

Term 3 is a hodgepodge of a bunch of subjects crammed into a short term with an excellent schedule. The tests are not easy, and you need to study, but it just didnt seem as bad as the other terms at all. Keeping yourself upto date, organized, and having fun is probably your best bet. Might be your best opportunity to see around the island.

No prep necessary. Behavioral Science in Medicine by Barbara Fadem is the MAIN book you need for term 3. It has all the information in the notes, plus a few things that should be in the notes (and aren't) yet, are in the objectives (atleast, it felt that way when i took the course). It is written very straight forwardly, the link is to your right  ==========================>

Reading this is better than lecture in most cases, but occasionally theres stuff in lectures not mentioned in here. For the most part this is most of the Behavioral Science part.


As for the other parts of term 3, BRS statistics is perfect, as the statistics notes were waaaay too much material.

For the Health Care section of Term 3, the Lange Understanding Health Policy book was recommended by somewhere, i forget, however I don't know how useful this text may be for the tests. I would stick with the... notes. sorry.
FIRST AID, first aid, first aid.
It has really good stuff for Term 3 (and 4), don't forget about First Aid!

** Term 3 is a vacation. The schedule is nice, so the best advice really is: Don't Get Too Behind...  I know
Grenada is nice, but don't forget to study!!!**

* UPDATE * - make sure you are getting the most upto date FIRST AID book by now so you have something you've scribbled in that you can use by the time youre ready for USMLE Step 1. You dont want to have to re-write all your notes.
============================================

Term 4
1st) PUT TOGETHER A GOOD GROUP OF 12-13 people for your Pathology Lab Group. These people you will be spending 10 hrs a week presenting pathology slides to each other. This is kind of like Histology lab in term 1, except you are responsible for 1 slide, instead of 50, and you must know what you're talking about. Don't be worried if you don't get into a group, there tends to be a lot of drama involved in this. Group lists will be posted a week before term 4 starts, and anyone not in a group can email the group leader and find a spot. Don't stress out about it.

4th Term Prep - for those of you who want to get a head start. 

The worry for a lot of people is decelling. I can only guess that people neglect other courses (like micro) to do well in Path. Here's the secret. don't prepare for pathology. Prepare for MICRO. Do some preparation during the 3rd term and during the first couple weeks of Path. Especially for those of you who are skipping the Micro-Mandatory Lab sessions, the lab manual is IMPORTANT. They take a few questions from there in the midterm, and bunch for the final, so don't forget to learn that stuff as well.


When to do this: BEFORE you start term 4, during Term 3. 



okay. So its a few weeks before term 4 starts...

 A) Make sure you pick up a copy of BRS Micro and Microbiology Made Simple. You can go ahead and start memorizing the first 2 chapters of Microbiology made simple. This will help you put everything in perspective. Just get acquainted with BRS micro. To see what's in store for you.

B) Watch the General Microbiology Kaplan Videos - some of this won't come in till post-midterm and will sound foreign, but when you need to apply it, it will be so nice knowing what is going on. Memorizing which bugs were +'ve and -'ve and what shape helped later, and will lessen the burden of memorizing these things in a pinch later as well.

C) First Aid. During the course, there are some really helpful mnemonics and categories that First Aid Puts together for this course. Just know they exist and don't forget about them.

You're going to want to make a differential chart for as many of the organisms possible for both Bacteria and Viruses. First Aid begins to do this, but it is not detailed enough for what you need to know for exams. Don't worry about this until later. Just be aware. For questions, you should turn to UWorld, BRS, Exammaster, flashcards, whatever you can find. I have some good links in "helpful links" on the right margin for you. Bookmark them. Micro Question Block is good.

If you care to do some Pathology Prep:

1) Get familiar with the KAPLAN VIDEOS and Goljan Audio Lectures, the WebPath Website (ALL OF IT, tutorials, examinations (Both picture + MCQ), and special secrtions (includes sections on MI's, AIDS, etc). Then you'll know how things are setup when you need them. Don't bother memorizing quite yet. Remember, its the lecture notes that are important, not the Kaplan video material, although for the most part they are the same. You may start watching the General Pathology Kaplan Videos, this can help you along, but to be honest, the first leg of Pathology is a breeze compared to the second and third parts, so relax. Just get ready for the storm when it hits. BE PREPARED.
2) This is more important. Review Immunology, again, the Kaplan videos are a great way to do this. especially at 1.4X speed.
3) read about general pathology in Robbins, don't worry about Systemic pathology because we will not cover everything in the book, you skip around the sections a lot and you don't want to fill your brain with a lot of pathology you don't need. Trust me, theres plenty you have to learn already, don't make it worse. Read PATHOLOGY - 4th term, to see what to expect when you get there.
So, yea, lightly prepare for general pathology for now.

Goodluck guys, 4th term is a mental battle. You will get frustrated, you may even get angry. Just keep your cool, try the best you can, and make it through. Don't forget about micro. CPD you can cram for and do okay. Don't argue with the CPD department, its tempting, but it wont help you.

CPD
     Oh yea.... almost forgot. ... its a frustrating class. Make sure you pick up your PD Kit items, you WILL need them for exams and practice. The department threatens that you will lose 5% if you don't goto class and they use your clickers as attendance markers. I cannot tell you this isn't true, but the department won't prove it. So, its up to you if you want to call their bluff. See, you're already getting the feeling of frustration. Just get used to this feeling, put a smile on your face, and move on. You have path to worry about, don't let this kind of non-sense stress you out.

When you actually DO get around to studying for CPD, a lot of great questions can be found in the back of Bates Guide to Examination (big green one), i think its in the version with some kind of cdrom package. I saw these questions in the FileTube pdf Version. The pink pages and boxes in this book are testable stuff. But honestly, I think this book is lacking detail and full of shortfalls to be the GO-TO book for training doctors. I have seen quite a few people carrying the Pocket version, although I think the pictures are worth a thousand words. In short, I have nothing to offer in terms of a better resource. It was decent enough to pass the course. Honestly, the best things available for this class are the information the Lab tutors give you, the handouts from Lab, and study notes from previous students. So milk them for what theyre worth!


Nutrition
This is an easy class. Goto class if you like, but its MUCH faster to sonic it. Do listen because there are a lot of annoying graphs that need interpretation, and its just easier to have someone explain it to you.
Make your own notes, you can do this in a couple days, I think you have 16 lectures. I do not endorse "Nutrition Monsta". There are lots of versions of this, and some of them have blatant errors, some are completely out of scope of the class. I don't know what people are thinking. Best shortcut? Study someone's notes who took the time to put together thorough, complete notes that listened to/went to all the lectures. Everything is in the notes, and I think with the exception of 1 question out of 50, that was true. 

That sums up Term 4. Don't lose your head. Seriously, this term is not for the weak minded. You need to keep a clear head through all the bullshit *excuse me* and frustration. So, prepare yourself mentally. Don't complain when you get there. Just deal with it and make it through. Goodluck!

Cheers!

Xmind - Do your concept maps on the computer

I haven't tried too many programs but I was happy with this one, and other people were too. Maybe start with this one and ask about to see if theres something better, but let me just leave you with my suggesstion for concept maps, which really shouldnt take you more than 30 min to make. Come on, its busy work.

Check out Xmind. You can get it FREE right here: http://www.xmind.net/downloads/

Pathology - 4th Term - **updated again** example question added

This article pre-cedes this article:
http://preparing-for-34th-term.html
=======================================
For Pathology in 4th Term, you EXPLICITLY need 2 resources: your notes + the LARGE "daddy" Robbins Basis of Disease (the one with the purple cover). 


Let me clarify why people prefer Baby Robbins: Basic Pathology in the next two paragraphs. If you need a book in your hand when you study, get Robbins Basic Pathology (baby robbins). Trust me, you don't want to carry around this big guy, its huge. That' mainly why people prefer small robbins. BUT, if you prefer PDF textbooks, it's a no brainer. Even if you don't, it would make more sense to get Daddy Robbins for the GOOD reasons explained later.


Big Daddy Robbins is what the pathology department uses. Go meet with Dr. B. There's stacks of this book sitting in his office. Even if you study with Baby Robbins, many people prefer the Big Robbins for your slides. Get a digital copy, and use Control + F to quickly scan the text for topics, to do your slides Quickly, otherwise you'll spend too much time. Its +1400 pages so this is really the only way to do it. Little "baby" Robbins is good as a readable text but will occasionall tends to miss out on extra important details for fully understanding concepts. Things in itallics in Big Robbins will be used for exams,  I notice they pop up here and there verbatim, moreso on the 1st midterm exam than the others. In addition, many pictures in Big Daddy show up in your lab module slides, as well as exams. All the details you need are in there. Thirdly, graphs and tables in Big Robbins are useful and pertinent to the lecture material, some of which are in little Robbins but not all of them. 


How to get a digital copy: Goto www.filestube.com and search for Robbins Basis of Disease or ask around for digital copies. For those of you with mac's, you may need to download a .CHW file viewing software. Just do a google search for ".chw mac viewer" and download the free software. There's also an ipad app, CHW+ lite, its free, but you cant quickly search the whole book for keywords like on a computer.


Read the notes in and out. Make your own questions and associations, making sure to re-itterate medical terms in common terms. Cue-words are oftentimes blatantly not used so that you can recognize what is being referred to using descriptive language. Be aware of how to verbally describe everything, especially histology. Instead of "psammoma bodies", which clues you into 4 specific cancers... you could be given "concentric eosinophillic calcifications". Hence, you need to know what things look like (so look at pictures!!)

**update - I would highly recommended the Sukumbi Slides if you can get a hold of them. They help you along with the correct type of thought process you need in this class.

THIS IS ALL YOU NEED. I swear. I know you'll get sucked into using outside stuff so, that's why I included the rest... if you want to not hear it atleast read this article for specific strategy suggestions:
http://doctormuggle.blogspot.com/2011/07/my-suggestions-for-path-exams-1-2-3.html
=======================================
OK, so for those that insist on using outside sources:

1st) above all else, like I mentioned in an earlier post, BE FAMILIAR with everything. Keep it simple, you have a LOT of information to learn. The last thing you want to do is waste your time stumbling through 12 resources looking for something or doing hours of questions that will inevitably not help you on the exam. Check out ALL these resources early, know what they contain and if they will be helpful to you, and then build your priorities. When you're in a battle, you want to know exactly where to reach for your gun, get it? Don't get lost in space, remember Robbins Textbook is #2 and lecture notes are #1.

Okay, so for the list of other sources you can use with concrete information. I reccommend Utah's WebPath, the visual tutorials to learn the material, and the examination (picture quiz + MCQ) sections for questions, along with the 2010 Kaplan Videos. First Aid is always a good idea to keep taking notes in as well, and is a good summary to make sure you aren't missing something. Don't go out of your way much more than this. DJ3 I REALLY LIKE. It does a great job organizing some of the information and is a nice review sometimes if you have time, You should look at this website atleast once because the way the information is on this site is how it should be in your notes, but isn't. Emedicine is a fantastic and reliable source as well, divided into logical presentation, causes, associations/prognosis, treatment, etc. Pathconsult is great for those verbal descriptions from gross to microscopic appearances, as well as Differential Diagnosis. Goljan is great for commonly confusing concepts and neat associations you may have missed. He brings in a lot of physiology and biochemistry as well as microbiology, which is great especially as you take Microbiology simultaneously with Pathology and it all starts to blurr together. Anyway, check out these guys.

KEEP IN MIND: some resources will be helpful LATER in the class (after MT1), so don't look at these in the beginning, deem them useless, and never go back to them again. You're shooting yourself in the foot. The class changes dramatically after MT1, and you need to re-evaluate which resources you want to be using during that time. (example question below is in NO way indicative of exam 1 from what I can recall)... correct me if im wrong.

The reason why I recommend Kaplan Videos, First Aid, and WebPath, is because they stay moderately useful during the entire course. First aid contains a lot of useful info for microbiology, and Goljan does a good job integrating the two like I said, so these will be helpful during the 1st and 2nd parts of path course. The last 3rd of the Path course, you will be done with Micro, and Goljan becomes less helpful. Researching things into detail is better (robbins primarily), but you can get extra insight with pathConsult, histological pictures with SurgPath4U and Webpathology.

• First Aid 2011 - your holy Bible
• Kaplan Videos + Qbank***
• Goljan's Audio Lectures
• Utah WebPath ***includes lots of great MCQ
• Webpathology
• SurgPath4U
• PathCONSULT  is no longer available for free - only through paid subscription
• eMedicine
• D3J - this is actually quite good organized material, but you have to reference the notes so you don't learn extra stuff that wasn't presented in class. 

*****ADDITION****** MY EXAMPLE QUESTION using the renal section at end of the course:

This is not to scare you, and please read the other article about strategies for this Class!! 

I just wanted to try to explain why the questions you choose to do and the material you learn from are more important than doing questions that emulate the real exam (which is incredibly difficult to find).  

1)      A 10-year-old girl is brought to the physician because of increasing lethargy and passing dark-coloured urine for the past week. She had a sore throat two weeks prior to this. On physical examination she is afebrile with blood pressure 140/90 mm Hg. Laboratory studies show her serum creatinine is 2.8 mg/dL and urea nitrogen 24 mg/dL. Urinalysis shows 2+ blood, 1+ protein, no glucose, and no ketones. Microscopic urinalysis shows dysmorphic RBC's. A renal biopsy is performed and on microscopic examination shows glomerular hypercellularity, with PMNs present. Electron microscopy shows subepithelial electron dense "humps". Which of the following laboratory test findings is most likely to be present in this girl?

A)     Elevated serum glucose

B)      Antibody to double stranded DNA

C)      Antiglomerular basement membrane antibody

D)     Positive C3 nephrogenic factor

E)      Elevated antistreptolysin O titer

*** You have to know quite a lot of information to be able to... listen... NOT answer this question wrong. However, you only need to know 2 words in order to answer this question correctly. Once you have done the notes through and through, and thoroughly reviewed each disease with First Aid and Kaplan, understood what things look like, why they are measured, and what they are associated with, and enough "EASY" questions such as , Webpath, Qbanks, robbins rapid review, and other... you will have accumulated this knowledge in order to AVOID WRONG ANSWERS and dissect a Path Exam question like this (as well as Pathophys questions in 5th term, and USMLE Questions on your big day).

**What do I mean? 

**You have to understand WHY each piece of information is being given, whether or not you should give it weight towards being something sensitive (applicable to many disesases), or something specific (to a limited few diseases). The specific pieces of information are what you want, because all the other information therefore doesn't matter, and you can quickly narrow down your differential diagnosis (which is sometimes asked for with a "most likely" question). Who cares how old, what gender, or what symptoms this patient is having in this question, because you know they recently had an infection (1) and have "subepithelial" deposits (2). You'll learn that's enough to answer it. E is the answer: associated with post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis. Why? because sub-epithelial humps occur commonly in 2  or 3 conditions. Now you're pretty much at a 50/50, and just need to know some basic facts about 2 diseases instead of pulling your hair out at the limitless possibilities.

**BUT, im not saying the age, gender, or symptoms, etc are not importnat!! They may, and WILL be the SPECIFIC  information required to answer other questions!!  They will be. When are certain peices of information Specific and when are they not??! You must know when to pay attention to what, and this will come with practice and time. 

So knowing this, when you study, you can ask yourself, oh.. hmm.. what OTHER diseases have this risk factor, what OTHER diseases have this lab value, or this histology, or this symptom? Now, you are building the knowledge you need to take 100 words and turn it into a very short list of possibilities. And you will find out, this process is INCREDIBLY time consuming, hence the horror stories of 4th term. Its a lot of work guys+gals. At some point you knew this was going to happen. 

******Please take a read through the other Pathology Suggestions Article, you'll find it Helpful, and I don't want people thinking the early parts of this course are way like this. 

For additional Questions, This next resource is VERY good, although it helps you learn the material, it does not prepare you for the long vinettes on the 2nd and 3rd Pathology Midterms.


Robbins Review of Pathology - ***QUESTION BOOK*** the red one  ----->
Rapid Review Pathology - great review book                           
Robbins Atlas - Really good with visuals and short captions - didn't have time to look long at this but when i glanced at it, looked to be quite in tune with the class.

My Suggestions For Path Exams 1, 2, 3

This is a disclaimer in the sense that I am not garunteeing your testing experience in Path will be similar to my class and the class before me, but I would like to make you aware of how exams in the past have gone in the past. The path department is aware and seems to change up their tests every time to prevent student from predicting how hard the exams will be and keep everyone on their toes. But, it seems that without doubt, one of your exams will be scary hard (for us it was a timing issue that made it so bad). It is possible that all 3 exams are made hard, so again I don't want to mislead anyone, but for our term, we had one incredibly difficult exam, and a lot of people either had to drop the class, lost their morale, or just settled for a grade lower than what they were hoping for, and I don't want this to happen to you too. So I wanted to at least give coming students the heads up all of us should have gotten.

What to study

• The notes. Study the notes like Crazy, read them over and over
• Know the lab slide topics directly from Robbins (big one preferably), make sure you get all relevant information about them. You can do this by reading robbins and being nice to, and getting as much info from the tutors as possible. They know exactly how things will be on the exams. Know IMDEPS for all lab items. That's Identify the organ, Morphology, Diagnosis, Etiology (cause), Pathophysiology (mechanism), Similar Pathologies/Symptoms/Signs, Investigations, Complications (Sequelle). You'll also want to know epidemiology as well, age/sex, symptoms at early onset, risk factors. This is how you'll want to set up your lab slides too. 
• Objectives. Objectives!! THIS IS IT. You must study these. It's literally all in the notes. Sometimes, occasionally, some objectives are not covered in the notes, you should goto Robbins for the rest of the information. That will be enough for the exam. 

Ok. You have to get your studying habits down, its a ton of material, like usual. 

So, first just take a deep breath, you'll get through it, no need to feel stressed out and make bad decisions.

Here are some things that helped me and others:

1) During the exam, as you flip through the pages (to see if they are all there) when they ask you to do so, you should be scanning for 2 things:

         1)  Where, and how many matching questions there are

         2)  How long the question stems are throughout the exam

If your tests are like ours, you may notice that the vinettes tend to be much longer in the beginning of the exam, and get progressively shorter towards the end of the test. You may want to start at the end of the exam and work backwards in order to get as many questions answered before time runs out if time is going to be a problem. 

When I say time is going to be a problem... I mean... if you're one of those people who finish the exam early... you will not even finish the exam, so you HAVE to be prepared. That was how bad our second path exam was, and in the past is has been the final which is such a big issue in terms of time. (by the way, for our final, timing was not an issue, so again it changes term to term, but you should be aware that this can become an issue for one or more of your exams).
Which brings me to the next (albeit obvious) point:

2) BUBBLE IN AN ANSWER FOR ALL QUESTIONS. Atleast guess for god sakes. Do not lose track of time, glance at the time clock and make sure you bubble in before time runs out. The Path Dept is relentlessly strict about the timing issue. You won't get time to bubble those guys in at the end. 

More about the exams...

• Some may be, but Many of your "clue" or "keywords" will NOT be used on the exam. So this means not only do you have to know these key terms, but you also must know how to describe histological and macroscopic features of organs with certain pathologies with descriptive terms. Colors, shapes, patterns, etc. not just "Psamomma Bodies". You should be able to recognize it if they say "papillary structures with eosinophilic calcifications". Don't go on a rampage trying to study this every way possible. There are standard descriptions that pathologists like to use, and you'll pick up on them as you go through the class. For the most part, Big Daddy Robbins Basis of Path has what you need here in the "Morphology Boxes". Don't forget about the morph boxes. Seriously. don't forget.
• Again, italicized points for any covered topics from lab/lecture in Big Robbins can and have/will be tested

• There will be visual slides..30-35 of them. The key is DON'T LOOK AT THE SLIDE. Here's the strategy: Read the vignette straight away and try to answer the question. If you need to wait for the slide to make your answer, decode all of the answer choices while you wait. This won't make sense until you see a sample question. What happens on the exam that you aren't used to is that you need to make a diagnosis from the information given. After you have done so you will look at the answer choices and see that the diagnosis is not an answer choice, but you will have 5 histological descriptions, or a complication, or a risk factor or a causative agent, one of which will be characteristic or MOST Characteristic of that Pathology. So, you will have to make a diagnosis, know what features are present in such a pathology, know which one is most common, and then be able to describe it in common terminology to make your answer. SO... while you are waiting, decode the descriptions, and write the name of the pathology that each answer choice is trying to depict. After you have done this, you have basically turned the question into a 1st order question. This is the best use of time.
• There will be matching questions. Hard ones. It will be many descriptions and will require decoding like I just described. In your freetime you have gained by not looking at slides, you can finish the visual section early, and skip right to the matching questions. Find each set of matching, and decode all the answer choices A, B, C, D, E... writing the diagnosis next to each answer, turning it into a 1st order question as best as you can. Now head to the back of the exam and work forwards. 
• Lastly, for long vignettes, Read the last sentence first. This will give you an idea of what to look for in the vinette when you read it. You will get bogged down by things like lots of symptoms, lab values, etc.
• The golden rule, Look for that one thing that makes each pathology unique. Whether it be a positive test, a histological feature, a symptom, an age/race predeliction, etc and know everything about that unique feature. If its a positive test, for example, know how the test is done. Know how to interpret the test, know the test's name, know what fluids are being tested, etc.
• Know your most commons. There will be questions asking what the most common complication is, what the most common cause of death is, what the most likely diagnosis is, so you must know your epidemiology as well. Age, Sex, and Race are very important. Know most common cancers, most common cause, most common route of spread. 
• Make connections, dont forget they can ask you to make a diagnosis, figure out what features are characteristic of that pathology, then the final question will ask something like "What other pathology has similar features/risk factors/complications/causes/morphology? So make connections, and know when things cross paths. "what other pathology demonstrates Psammoma bodies?" 

That's all for now. Utilize what works best for you.

Exam 1 is typically more 1st order questions, asking diagnosis, asking straight questions. 

Exam 2 will be more oriented the way I have described, with 2-4th order questions, which are a matter of diagnosis, decoding, and then answering the questions.

Exam 3 (the final) will be the same as exam 2 in terms of toughness of the questions.

All three exams are not easy. One or more is usually a time game. Just relax, get as many questions as you can, and lastly... GOODLUCK!!

Errors! Master the Boards Errata Step 2/3 - Kaplan - First Aid CK, CS Mistakes!

Of course, if you read my "two biggest advices for medical school", you'd agree that you never trust what other's tell you, why? because we are human, and we make mistakes. A lot of people are really liking the Master the Boards MTB series for Step 2 and Step 3 studying, and of course these are without exception. Even the might Dr. Conrad Fischer makes booboos. But like responsible adults, we take responsibility for our mistakes and graciously post the Errata online so you don't walk into the Test believing the mistakes are true.

So just be aware. The errata are posted here for Master the Boards and Kaplan's Books, just scroll down to the medical section and fix them:
http://www.kaptest.com/publishing

Probably more important is Step 1: 
In the past I posted about First Aid, and how when studying for Step 1, you should scour the errata and FIX THEM! In 2011, there were 11 pages of errors in the sacrad First Aid book! Well, there are errors in all the books for CK, CS, Step 1, Step 2, Step 3... And of course they have posted the Errata as well. Before its too late and you commit them to memory wrong...

you can find and fix them here:
http://www.firstaidteam.com/updates-and-corrections

Don't learn from your mistakes, you don't get second chances on the STEP!
Better to prevent them from ever happening!!!

Cheers!

Control + F = Find (Apple + F on a mac)

Attention Medical Students!

If you don't know about this computer shortcut, I am about to change your life.


When looking for information on a website, in a word document, and ESPECIALLY a digital copy of a textbook or PDF file.... Press Control + F. A search box comes up, you type in what you're looking for and it instantly finds what you're looking for.

Save yourself a ton of time. Don't sit there and flip through pages and pages of textbook or scrolling and God-Forbid... READING... through a long wikipedia article, or even bother with a glossary!
STOP IT. This is 2011.

I make sure I take all my notes in digital form, save all my textbooks in pdf, and have digital copies of nearly everything. Why? So if I ever want to quickly look up something from a previous class, I can find it in seconds, instead of russling through stacks of pages from 2 years of basic science coursework. Even the most OCD of us are annoyed by the huge stacks of papers we accumulate after 2 years of medical basic science courses. Save yourself the hassle and think ahead for the Step. If you want to reference something, you want to do it quick. Control + F. 

Pathology Groups

I will update this later. But I want to point out how to make file sharing with your group members really smooth and easy. Click my link here.

http://doctormuggle.blogspot.com/2011/06/dropbox.html

My goto guys when confused by Lectures

Often times our lecture material is not organized. You would think after all that money we poured into our school, that's the least they could do.

So, check out this website. I use it quite often to get the Epidemiology, Facts, and Correlations for most of everything when I need it. Enjoy!

http://d3jonline.tripod.com/

Unlock your PDF's in 4th Term

The path department locks their PDF lectures, and it gets really annoying because some people like to highlight on Acrobat and type their notes in. Well, you have to unlock the pdf's in order to use them like that. Here's the website to do that. (such a cleverl URL).

http://www.pdfunlock.com/

Robbins Pathology Flash Cards for Apple Devices

Ipad, Iphone, and Ipod Users... Pick up this handy Robbins & Coltran Pathology Flashcards App.
Nothing much to say about it except it ROCKS>!

You can buy it for $35 on apple istore, or while you're out there in England or Grenada, you pretty much want to jailbreak your device anyway, so you might as well download it for free.

If you find me around, ill be more than happy to help you out with that, especially for $35!

...or not. Here's the Apple store link:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/robbins-pathology-flash-cards/id367031323?mt=8