University of Oklahoma -- all peeps -- part 2

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soonereng said:
Deal fell through...stupid people who don't realize how much it's going to cost them to do a bridge loan while they sell their house. Oh well...
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:(
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I need some quick advice please! Would you suggest sending in more than three LORs? I have two majors and thought it would be a good idea to send 2 from each college. Does OU frown upon additional info?? Thanks in advance!
 
poppytart said:
I need some quick advice please! Would you suggest sending in more than three LORs? I have two majors and thought it would be a good idea to send 2 from each college. Does OU frown upon additional info?? Thanks in advance!
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Generally it's OK and actually good to send in extra recs. Unless OU specifically asks you to limit it to 3 recs, I'd say go for it. :luck:
 
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poppytart said:
I need some quick advice please! Would you suggest sending in more than three LORs? I have two majors and thought it would be a good idea to send 2 from each college. Does OU frown upon additional info?? Thanks in advance!
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I had a hard enough time getting my 3 to get the LOR in on time as it was, but maybe that is a good strategy. If you have more working on them maybe you will get 3 of the 4 to finish earlier than mine did (like the last day for one guy, I was pretty hot with him).
 
I wish I knew that many influential people that would have something good to say about me. :(

I'd turn 'em all in, if you get them in time. If not, I'd still hang onto them.
 
poppytart: OU does not mind additional letters - I had 6. Since I'd been in the hospital for 20 years, I had a couple of extra letters from docs who had actually known me for years and really supported my application. I also had a letter from the Chief Nursing Officer, which I thought showed great sensitivity on my part (hehehe.... ). Anything more than 6, though, is bad form.

soonereng: Jeez, that sucks. Sorry about the house. But, the Oklahoma real estate market isn't crashing - it's plodding along like it always has. If worst came to worst, I'd find a graduate student in some wonky discipline to live in the house - discounted rent with the understanding that the house has to be kept in showable condition. I'm no Pollyanna about renters - I rented my house out for three years after a layoff years ago - it can really be a nightmare. But, if you picked a tenant very carefully, you're close enough to keep an eye on the place - and it will ease the cash flow crunch. Hopefully, it won't come to that.

How'd those jeans work for ya today? I think they still had the building on the "empty for the summer" setting - the whole building was hot, including the lecture halls. Definitely not the norm.

I don't know about O'Don. Sometimes I like him, sometimes I don't. O'Don's questions can seem hard, but the answers are always buried in his lectures. I would transcribe almost word-for-word his lectures onto his power point slides, and I always did fairly well with his exam questions. I can't believe he trashed the whole old syllabus and went to just a skeletal syllabus - of course, nobody ever used the old syllabus. The days I wanted to hurt O'Don were usually after practicals. If he drags out that crusty brown pelvic section that has his favorite internal iliac distribution, I feel for you guys. I fail to see how recognizing things on a disemboweled section of leg/hip that is 10 years old is going to help me with a living human being - I never could tell which end was up on the, ahem, body parts that were separated from the rest of the original owner.

Leon I love. Leon is just a good guy. Y'all enjoy his gout lectures - what he covers in six or seven class periods would be one period, two max, when you get up to normal speed. But, that gives you a break on the mini exam and therefore more time to study for anatomy. Leon knows exactly what he's doing - when he comes back third block for porphyrins, he'll fly through it like everyone else.

I don't know how this happened, but I'm hosting the welcome-back BBQ Friday night for my mod. Ugh. I didn't show up to so many things last year, I really feel obliged. But I've got to finish cleaning this stupid house so that I can get down to studying.
 
Thanks for the advice guys! That's true....if at least three out of four have the LORs in on time my application will be complete earlier!! :)
 
Have books/resources for MSII (mainly, but step as well) been discussed recently? The cliff notes is should I buy Robbins monster path book...

Or do any of the MSIII's on a vacation rotation have time to shed some light on what's worth buying?

Basically, I was thinking, through some posts I've seen both here and on hippocrates:
BRS Pharm Cards, Path, and Behav. Science
Clinical Micro MRSimple
Robbins review (Is the big one worth adding here?)
lippincott's pharm cards
FA
QBook

Is anything woefully absent? Roadmap for Pharm? goljan? Any of the HY series?
 
Mr. Freeze said:
Have books/resources for MSII (mainly, but step as well) been discussed recently? The cliff notes is should I buy Robbins monster path book...

Or do any of the MSIII's on a vacation rotation have time to shed some light on what's worth buying?

Basically, I was thinking, through some posts I've seen both here and on hippocrates:
BRS Pharm Cards, Path, and Behav. Science
Clinical Micro MRSimple
Robbins review (Is the big one worth adding here?)
lippincott's pharm cards
FA
QBook

Is anything woefully absent? Roadmap for Pharm? goljan? Any of the HY series?
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Some of the MS3s here have recommended BRS Path (WIJG and Amx both have at least). I think WIJG was also a big fan of the Clinical Micro MRSimple book. Wizard of course would tell you buy FA -- since he's not here, I guess I have to tell you for him. :) I have it and haven't opened it, though. I bought Robbins giganto book because I can't help myself from doing things like that.

I'm curious about supplies. Do we really need an otoscope and opthalmoscope?

So you MS1s are going to want to cry on Monday when McNeill gives you his intro to the nervous system lecture. This is something that will all totally make sense to you eventually, though, because you'll go over it so many times. Also, Moore's book has a pretty good explanation. Just giving you a heads up if you feel like pulling your hair out. That was my first WTF lecture of last year.
 
I'll prolly buy it if it helps, and definitely if it helps and is useful beyond MSII. I think it'd be too meaty for boards, but prolly consultable if you've used it the whole time. But I dunno. I just don't want to spend a bill if it isn't necessary. I have read to get the binding cut off and throw it in a binder so you can pull out pertinent mat'l PRN...I'd need a few beers to do that though. Call me a purist.

On a related IHI note, you can get syllabus sections printed at Kinko's for 8 cts. /page. The following sections will be roughly the same length. You won't have to pay more than $10 for anything. I liked using the digital for last spring; it made searching easy (TBL, etc...) but I may kill a few trees this year. Not for $90 though.
 
Yeah, my thought was that the big Robbins will probably come in handy sometime even if not for this class.

From reading the syllabus so far IHI seems so much more interesting than the stuff from last year. :thumbup:
 
soonereng said:
Sure rub it in why don't ya...
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Yeah, I know. I've got to say second semester of MS1 was way more interesting than first semester, so I guess it just keeps getting better. The good news for you guys is that the content requirement is smaller, and you might really like anatomy -- some weird people do. ;) Biochem's another story. Embryo might be cool for you just 'cause it's relevant.
 
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soonereng said:
Sure rub it in why don't ya...
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Oh, you get to be an MS-II, just not until next year. I remember last year looking across to the East Lecture Hall, and thinking "those are the big kids." Well, I'm a big kid now, and I think anatomy is poopy. So there.
 
Doctor Bagel said:
Yeah, I know. I've got to say second semester of MS1 was way more interesting than first semester, so I guess it just keeps getting better. The good news for you guys is that the content requirement is smaller, and you might really like anatomy -- some weird people do. ;) Biochem's another story. Embryo might be cool for you just 'cause it's relevant.
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I did think embryo was kinda fun for that same reason. I would say do not, under any circumstances, leave the book out if you have it. Your wife will pick it up and have a nervous breakdown before you have time to get home. I **** you not. I came home from school one day and my wife was in the office, sobbing, and had read my entire Langman's while I was gone. She was like, "Don't any babies turn out normal!!?!? Do you think ours is okay!?!?"

In this situation, I should also warn you that the appropriate response is not in fact: "All the really big **** that could go wrong happened before you knew you were prego. So yeah, he's prolly fine."


I think Robbins'll come in handy in the truck bed this winter when it gets slick. Or maybe if I needed a stepstool to get something from that useless cabinet above my fridge. Or, I could save time going to the gym and just curl it.
 
If you've got no qualms about reading it online and you can think of funner things to do with $90, you can access the big Robbins book on MD Consult through the library's E Resources. I did that for a few sections, but mostly stuck to BRS Path, First Aid, and the syllabus.

You don't have to by a diagnostic tool set. You'll only use it a handful of times this year, unless they've really overhauled PCM II. For my preceptor last spring, I didn't even use it much then because all the clinic rooms had all the tools. On the other hand, you can save your receipt and write the expense off when you become a real doctor, plus it's just super cool to go home at Christmas and take turns looking at everyone's eyes. :p

Oh yeah, I'm a dork. ;)

And don't buy a panoptic unless you're seriously interested in opthamology, and even then consider it cautiously. The opthamologist that saw mine was very PC in her criticism. Personally, though, I got it because with my limited dexterity and ability to move around it really makes that aspect of the physical exam easier for me and my patients. Remember... as nice as the Welch-Allyn people seem, they're still salesmen out to meet a quota. :p
 
OK, so I guess I'll hold off on the tools for now. :) I've already spent too much money today signing up for insurance.

Speaking of which, you can now view the dental plan and enroll on the Macori site. I just skimmed it, but it seems OK. The good thing is that it covers 100% of all preventative care with no deductible, so you should get a good part of the fee back just for your 2 cleanings. It covers 80% of all basic care (extractions, fillings, root canals) with a $50 deductible, and the maximum annual payout is $750. It does not cover major procedure (crowns, implants, inlays, etc.). So not great but since it probably pays for itself with the preventative care, I went ahead and signed up.
 
Doctor Bagel said:
Embryo might be cool for you just 'cause it's relevant.
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Yeah, I actually enjoyed the embryo lectures today. I'm glad that class is only once a week though. I wish we could just do all of them that way. One day of biochem, a couple hours of embryo, a half day of HB, a half day of PCM, and then alternate the anatomy days in between.

That's just better for my particular learning style though. I get focused on one subject intensely then like to move on to another subject intensely, etc.

Now back to anatomy...
 
soonereng said:
Yeah, I actually enjoyed the embryo lectures today. I'm glad that class is only once a week though. I wish we could just do all of them that way. One day of biochem, a couple hours of embryo, a half day of HB, a half day of PCM, and then alternate the anatomy days in between.

That's just better for my particular learning style though. I get focused on one subject intensely then like to move on to another subject intensely, etc.

Now back to anatomy...
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Tomasek is a really good lecturer, and yeah, embryo's a nice break from anatomy and biochem. It was one of my least hated classes for last fall. :)

Bad news is that the schedule you like isn't going to happen. In the fall, neuro and phys meet every day each for 2 hours, and this year, IHI meets every day. Of course if you homeschool, the official schedule's a non-issue. ;)

How was lab today for the people in groups A and B?
 
Doctor Bagel said:
Of course if you homeschool, the official schedule's a non-issue. ;)
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I can feel the homeschooling rapidly approaching...like maybe tomorrow. I just can't handle Leon's slow pace. It drives me crazy. Plus it seems like HB is all common sense, read the syllabus and notegroups type of stuff.

I'm a group C'er, but we all went down to the lab and watched O'Don show us how to skin, saw my "anatomy tutor", and then I left. We'll see how Friday goes for me.
 
Amxcvbcv said:
You don't have to by a diagnostic tool set. You'll only use it a handful of times this year, unless they've really overhauled PCM II...And don't buy a panoptic unless you're seriously interested in opthamology, and even then consider it cautiously.
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Doctor Bagel said:
OK, so I guess I'll hold off on the tools for now.
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I already have a set with the panoptic; we bought it for my wife when she went through her training, and she never has needed to use her personal set anywhere she has worked. There is always a set around on the wall or whatnot.

Would any of you 3rd years suggesting getting a standard head for it come next year?
 
soonereng said:
I can feel the homeschooling rapidly approaching...like maybe tomorrow. I just can't handle Leon's slow pace. It drives me crazy. Plus it seems like HB is all common sense, read the syllabus and notegroups type of stuff.
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Yeah, Leon's pace wasn't for me, either. The good thing is that he covers amazingly little material going that way, but I had trouble paying attention in lecture just because of the pace. Biochem was the first class I started skipping, and I guess it was all downhill from there. :)
 
Amxcvbcv said:
And don't buy a panoptic unless you're seriously interested in opthamology, and even then consider it cautiously. The opthamologist that saw mine was very PC in her criticism. Personally, though, I got it because with my limited dexterity and ability to move around it really makes that aspect of the physical exam easier for me and my patients. Remember... as nice as the Welch-Allyn people seem, they're still salesmen out to meet a quota. :p
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What are the issues besides cost, Amxcvbcv? I've used the Panoptic several times and I really like it. What was the opthalmologist's critcism? I noticed that, at the new FMC in Tulsa, they have the panoptic as part of the standard set on the wall of exam rooms. I'm thinking of buying one so that I don't have to use a standard scope - which I know is an acquired skill, but they drive me crazy. I'm extremely near-sighted and, with a highly-magnified narrow field of view, I tend to have my whole visual field clouded with floaters. At 1000x with oil on a light microscope, I was frequently just about blind.
 
soonereng said:
So are the quiz questions on Hippo at all representative of the questions on the written portion for anatomy?

I was just wondering.
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Last year they weren't, but I still found them to be a good studying tool. Some seemed a little more detailed than what was expected of us, and the real exam questions are usually written in a more clinical way.

The thing about the questions on hippo is that some are really old and don't relate to current course material. So if you hit anything that seems totally unfamiliar it's probably because it's not covered in the class now and doesn't mean you need to learn it. Also, some have wrong answers or are keyed as having no correct answers. :rolleyes:
 
soonereng said:
So are the quiz questions on Hippo at all representative of the questions on the written portion for anatomy?

I was just wondering.
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If you can answer the questions correctly at the end of each chapter of Chung's, you're good. I don't care what O'Don says. :p
 
Non-TradTulsa said:
If you can answer the questions correctly at the end of each chapter of Chung's, you're good. I don't care what O'Don says. :p
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I've got to say this strategy worked less well for me on the last exam, which I'm guessing is more what this year's exams will look like since O'Don wrote it and all. My main studying tool was answering Chung's questions, and I could do that cold before the exams. However, I went from missing very few to none on the first exams to missing a few more on the last exam. So I don't know if Chung's questions are enough to comfortably ace the exams for this year. Just my thoughts, but who knows.

My feeling last year was that Chung always wrote easier questions than O'Don. I thought that was especially evident with the ARS questions. Chung's always seemed more big picture oriented and less nit-picky. More reasons why I'm glad I took anatomy last year. I know -- sorry MS1s!
 
Whew! First week of school down, 4 years to go. :eek:

Today's anatomy lab was really pretty fun. I actually liked it. Does that make me weird?

I am pretty sure I am not going back to biochem again until Dr. Bidichandani next Wednesday. I like Leon as he is funny and all, but his thought process is too random for me. I find him confusing me more than helping so far with his interjections of marginally related information that he covers again later at a more appropriate time.
 
soonereng said:
Today's anatomy lab was really pretty fun. I actually liked it. Does that make me weird?
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Yes! ;)

Dr. Bidichandani's a good lecturer. I think I either went or listened to most of his lecturers. He also gives a very thorough review before exams, which you'll appreciate. For Leon's stuff, I'd recommend notegroups and Lippincott, but you've got to be careful with the notegroups because Leon's style of lecture is especially not conducive to accurate notegroups.

Speaking of Leon's stuff, the latest issue of The New Yorker has an article about Lesch-Nyhans that's pretty interesting. Apparently the episodes of self-mutilation are horrifying to the patients, and they just feel like they can't control what they're doing.
 
soonereng said:
Today's anatomy lab was really pretty fun. I actually liked it. Does that make me weird?
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Absolutely.
soonereng said:
I am pretty sure I am not going back to biochem again until Dr. Bidichandani next Wednesday. I like Leon as he is funny and all, but his thought process is too random for me. I find him confusing me more than helping so far with his interjections of marginally related information that he covers again later at a more appropriate time.
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I understand your feelings, but be warned that Leon's material is probably the most poorly covered in the entire biochem syllabus - no real narrative - and Leon does not permit streaming video or synchronized PowerPoints to be posted. Plus, he uses his terrific chalkboard drawings and overhead transparencies <g>. You'd have to listen to the audiotapes to know everything Leon wanted to cover, plus you won't have his in-class visuals. Leon weights his own material very disproportionately on the first exam because it's so easy - but there are a lot of questions. Leon is apt to cover something not in the syllabus because, while a lot of instructors really don't care, Leon gets irritated by people who don't come to class. He's probably not your best first teacher to home-school. Only two more days. Just my $0.02...
 
God I'm in a sh*tty mood today. I feel like drop-kicking a few puppies or stickin a f*ckin bunny in the garbage disposal.

On a lighter note, living at the university village, I get to see lots of the "who's f*cking who"...
eg...toga party last night, today I see a guy from my mod and another classmate leaving his apartment around 10am walking her to her car, doing the "ok b*tch it's time for you to go" shuffle....her hair all messed up and him dressed in the usual morning-after-dont-give-a-****-what-she-thinks outfit since I already tagged it.

So I walk outside and catch him on his way back to his apt and say "Hey! Found a friend huh? :)" He was kinda "umm...ahhh..ummm....yea"....I say "isn't that so-and so?"

oh well :)
Ya gotta love those "just add booze" chicks :thumbup:
 
That's funny... and yes I just stopped lurking to say that.
 
JohnnyOU said:
God I'm in a sh*tty mood today. I feel like drop-kicking a few puppies or stickin a f*ckin bunny in the garbage disposal.

On a lighter note, living at the university village, I get to see lots of the "who's f*cking who"...
eg...toga party last night, today I see a guy from my mod and another classmate leaving his apartment around 10am walking her to her car, doing the "ok b*tch it's time for you to go" shuffle....her hair all messed up and him dressed in the usual morning-after-dont-give-a-****-what-she-thinks outfit since I already tagged it.

So I walk outside and catch him on his way back to his apt and say "Hey! Found a friend huh? :)" He was kinda "umm...ahhh..ummm....yea"....I say "isn't that so-and so?"

oh well :)
Ya gotta love those "just add booze" chicks :thumbup:
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Ooh, so maybe I can get hooked up with some good gossip through you. ;) That'd be great if I knew some people. :oops:
 
JohnnyOU said:
Ya gotta love those "just add booze" chicks :thumbup:
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Hey, Johnny, good to see you. Apparently the toga party was a drunken bash as usual. I didn't go - I had something like 40 people in my house last night for the "welcome back" mod BBQ. It was a great time and nothing got broken! After everyone left, I had to get to the vet's by midnight, however, to pick Jesse up from "day care." Boy, was she having a great time smelling 40 new people all over the house. Not such a great time, however, that she didn't make a beeline for the kitchen to counter-surf leftovers while I made a pit stop in the bathroom.
 
Doctor Bagel said:
Ooh, so maybe I can get hooked up with some good gossip through you. ;) That'd be great if I knew some people. :oops:
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Just walk around with me between classes and I'll point em all for ya :thumbup:
 
Well, I went to my first toga party. It probably wasn't as boisterous as I would have seen in undergrad, but I got to meet a lot of people... and subsequently forget their names. I did, however, discover that it is rather difficult to tie a toga with one hand. Luckily, I had a modmate there to help me out with that.

I am really only posting right now in order to test my new voice recognition software, Dragon NaturallySpeaking. So far, it seems to be working pretty well. I am hopeful that it will be useful for transcribing my biochemistry lecture notes because my handwriting is not very legible.

I think it may be a bad sign that I am already procrastinating about studying. I had intended to study for most of the day, but instead I've been talking to friends and family and wasting time with this new software. I am sure I will get some anatomy knocked out before I go to bed tonight. Strangely, anatomy seems both manageable and intimidating, but since we will not have a mini exam, I am really not sure what we will be accountable for. There is a lot of very specific information available, but the amount from lecture is not overwhelming. Dr. O'Don said that Moore's will be our Bible for this semester. Chung's was not even listed under the optional texts. Does anyone know what the story is with that?

I agree with Soonereng, anatomy lab was pretty fun. I much look forward to hating this class later in the semester.

It looks like I definitely need to move to Oklahoma City. The commute is starting to get old, and I think I want to be a class goer. However, before I can move, I will wait until I'm in a better state of repair. I was skipping human behavior but it sounds like that may be a bad idea. Thanks again for all pre-semester advice!
 
O'Don never really liked us using a review text to study from. You are in uncharted waters as far as that is concerned. I would still use Chung's to study because I can't imagine O'Don rewriting the whole test bank in a year.
 
want2beadoc said:
O'Don never really liked us using a review text to study from. You are in uncharted waters as far as that is concerned. I would still use Chung's to study because I can't imagine O'Don rewriting the whole test bank in a year.
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That's true. O'Don seems pretty energetic, but I don't think he's quite up to redoing all the questions. Also, doing the questions in Chung is a relatively pain free way to study. So yeah, still useful but just not the golden ticket that it was last year.

As for going to HB, I don't think you have to go if you really don't want to. I generally went in the fall. Going to class plus cramming the night before the exam (never looked at the syllabus before then) was enough for me to get high As on the exams. In the spring, I largely stopped going and again just crammed the night before the tests. With that method, my grades dropped to low As. So yeah, there's some value in either going or listening to the audio, but HB is still not a class you should worry about. Pretty much everybody makes an A or a B, and actually more people make As than Bs. Just be sure to get updated on the free point opportunities and don't miss those.
 
SoonerGeek said:
Dr. O'Don said that Moore's will be our Bible for this semester. Chung's was not even listed under the optional texts. Does anyone know what the story is with that?
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Getting all gossipy here, but I don't think Chung and O'Don had the best working relationship. One speculation is that Chung didn't list anybody from OUHSC in the acknowledgments part of his BRS book, and some think that rubbed O'Don, etc. the wrong way. Also, O'Don's been teaching and carrying a big part of the anatomy load for several years, but Chung's always been the boss guy. When you get in that situation, you start thinking about all the things you'll do better or differently once you're in charge, so the radical change in books isn't too unexpected.
 
Doctor Bagel said:
That's true. O'Don seems pretty energetic, but I don't think he's quite up to redoing all the questions. Also, doing the questions in Chung is a relatively pain free way to study. So yeah, still useful but just not the golden ticket that it was last year.
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I finally learn all the answers and they change all the questions! :mad:
 
I was planning on procrastinating today...
but I think I'll put it off til tomorrow. :thumbup:
 
JohnnyOU said:
I finally learn all the answers and they change all the questions! :mad:
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Seeing what is on O'Don's first test will be very interesting. I personally am in the school of thought that he's going to have to use the question bank, which has a whole lot of Chung questions. If he tries to re-write from scratch and/or use some prepared Moore's questions, he would end-up having to curve, since none of the questions would be tested - and I don't know how the associate deans would feel about a curve (I have no idea how those politics work, but I guess the associate deans have a lot of influence - e.g., the third block minis vanishing when neither Chung nor Leon wanted to change things).

To study for O'Don, though - I've said this before, I know - I would play his lectures at home on a slower speed and take copious notes on his PowerPoint slides. I think I usually did better than most people on O'Don's questions, even in neuro - because his questions, even if they're hard, are always straight out of his lecture at some obscure point. I just never had the ability to concentrate long enough to memorize whole chapters of Chung's the way some people could. I always did well on the writtens - it was the practicals that endangered my grade - and I notice that O'Don is weighing the practical more than 50%, bless his heart.

The ability to memorize does go up during the semester - the new MS-I's will struggle to master the back chapter - and, later on, just doing the back will seem like such a joke compared to the later stuff - but it's all relative, based on experience.
 
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