Is FA Immuno/Micro enough?

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Pewl

Pewl

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Do you need anything more than what's in First Aid for Immuno/Micro?
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FA + some annotation from the Lange review book was fine for me. I didn't use CMMRS.
 
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Law2Doc said:
Seriously? Most people find it the easiest read of all board reviews.
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I think that I felt it to be too much text for what it was trying to say. I pretty much relied entirely upon my school's syllabus for immuno and micro and managed to do very well in the course. But, I suppose I ought to consult other sources for board prep..
 
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if you feel CMMRS has too much text, I would recommend rapid review of M+I. it's BRS format, and content was pretty good compared to Levinston (lang review). extra questions from studentconsult that come with the book are up to date and really good.
 
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I'm pretty sure there wasn't a single micro question that wasn't directly out of FA. Immuno was harder- lots of TNFs, Infs, ILs (which were all in FA also)- but I think I had a micro/immuno light test.
good luck.
 
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I did go over and compared both rapid review M+I and Lang M+I. I would still prefer Lang M+I review for more thorough learning, but rapid review M+I should be more than enough for courseworks and board. their immunology section was pretty good, and all questions (+ 500) are clinically oriented, require 2-3 step thinking --more than adequate for actual board Qs..
 
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jsimny said:
I did go over and compared both rapid review M+I and Lang M+I. I would still prefer Lang M+I review for more thorough learning, but rapid review M+I should be more than enough for courseworks and board. their immunology section was pretty good, and all questions (+ 500) are clinically oriented, require 2-3 step thinking --more than adequate for actual board Qs..
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Is lange's format more text based and rapid review's M+I still outline format like the other RR books?
 
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lang review M+I is text based, rapid review M+I is outline based. I think other RR series is more text than outline ( like biochem), but this one is more outline than text.. just like BRS path or physiol
 
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Lange is fantastic for immuno. I was really frustrated trying to find a good, concise immuno source. Kaplan sucked and FA just didn't explain enough for me. Lange is where it's at for immuno. Pewl, since you didn't like MMRS, you get the added benefit of the micro stuff plus TONS of questions. Lange micro is pretty good, but it is a very dry read. It also seems like it has a lot of info in there that isn't board relevant, but it's the best bang for your buck if you need a micro source and you're weak in immuno. I'm still using MMRS for board study, but I open up Lange from time to time just to make sure there isn't something glaring that I've missed.
 
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I bought Lange (by Levinson) soley for the Immuno section....I thought it was excellent and at ~80 pages didn't take too long. As an added bonus...just about all of the diagrams in FA come from Lange. I didn't read any of the micro chapters (used mrs/fa), but the summaries of clinically relevant micro at the end of the book are awesome.
 
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I'm using the 2nd edition HY Micro. I think it's more than enough and the Clinical Q&A in the back are excellent.
 
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psychobob said:
I'm using the 2nd edition HY Micro. I think it's more than enough and the Clinical Q&A in the back are excellent.
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There seem to be a million choices of review when it comes to micro. I guess the bugs are still bugs no matter how you present them!
 
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For those of you who did use 'Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple' how did you guys parse the text for all the bugs? I mean, how did you root out the truly important factoids about each bug through all that text.
 
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I didn't use it as a high yield review. I read it early (as in read it, not highlighted stuff and skimmed) and then I used First Aid to organize my thinking and just did questions to hammer it home.

If you want to drink the CMMRS Kool-Aid like I did, you've really got to read it and let their idiotic, but useful images and comparisons lodge in your head.

If you just skim through the text, you'll be like "WTF? Why are they throwing a pipe bomb at pseudomonas? Why is there a salmon hanging out in the gallbladder? THIS MAKES NO SENSE!" But if you take the time, a lot of those stupid allusions are going to stick in your head so that you can name the anti-pseudmonal penicillins in a snap, or know that chronic salmonella carriers shed the bug in their feces because it hangs out in the gallbladder.
 
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PeepshowJohnny said:
I didn't use it as a high yield review. I read it early (as in read it, not highlighted stuff and skimmed) and then I used First Aid to organize my thinking and just did questions to hammer it home.

If you want to drink the CMMRS Kool-Aid like I did, you've really got to read it and let their idiotic, but useful images and comparisons lodge in your head.

If you just skim through the text, you'll be like "WTF? Why are they throwing a pipe bomb at pseudomonas? Why is there a salmon hanging out in the gallbladder? THIS MAKES NO SENSE!" But if you take the time, a lot of those stupid allusions are going to stick in your head so that you can name the anti-pseudmonal penicillins in a snap, or know that chronic salmonella carriers shed the bug in their feces because it hangs out in the gallbladder.
Click to expand...

off the top of my head the only good anti pseudamonal penicillins are piperacillin and ticarcillin, right? heh.
 
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I felt I was able to answer all micro questions just from the material in First Aid. I would memorize the table in Clinical Microbio for the viruses classification. It paints a clearer picture than FA. Beyond that, FA is sufficient for most questions when you supplement it from questions from your question bank of choice.
 
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I dont know
I am saving micro for one of the last subjects I study
but ive gotten so much from 2000 qbank questions
and I just started UW and its all reinforcement

I think besides the drugs and the cell and molec you just need first aid
especially since its bacteria that is heavily tested on
and viral mol bio
+ a few fungi and parasites that affect immunocomp people
and AIDs
and the Bad-19 TORCHES

izzy
 
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I thought that FA was enough if you knew everything cold. Every test is different, but it seemed like I got a ton of Staph a. and Strep questions, and not much else. I put a lot of time into micro, and I was a bit bummed that I didn't have more questions on that...
 
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