Boards Micro what are you using to study with?

[mcfaddens]

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I know Koneman's is great (im looking at it right now) but its about the size of Henery's and the pages are just as thin. Ill will use the color plates in the back, but to be honest I suck at micro and was wondering if anyone has found a smaller book that covers the basics and might be helpfull for the boards. Kind of like the McCullough book is for transfusion. Any thoughts?

 

[Nilf]

I know Koneman's is great (im looking at it right now) but its about the size of Henery's and the pages are just as thin. Ill will use the color plates in the back, but to be honest I suck at micro and was wondering if anyone has found a smaller book that covers the basics and might be helpfull for the boards. Kind of like the McCullough book is for transfusion. Any thoughts?

Compendium, Koneman, Osler notes, Henry. Separate book/atlas for fungi and parasites if you want good pictures. CDC parasite website. doctorfungus.com

But what do I know.

 

[martindoc]

I used Koneman colour plates, Henry's question and answer book, Compendium, Osler notes, ASCP review course slides (from someone who took course)

 

[sohsie]

I used Koneman colour plates, Henry's question and answer book, Compendium, Osler notes, ASCP review course slides (from someone who took course)

Ditto. Don't try to read Koneman unless you like torture, but do know the pictures in the back (dont bother with the 15 million pictures of API strips though). Compendium plus Osler plus ASCP is a good way to attack it.

I was scared to death of micro but I think I ended up getting most of the micro questions right (and I definitely got the ones they snuck in on the AP part 🙂

 

[deschutes]

Haven't started Micro yet, but from leafing through the highly-recommended Osler material and the ASCP PDF of full-screen images (a thousand slides! jeebus!) I think that will be quite enough to keep me busy.

 

[mcfaddens]

Awesome guys thanks! I have the ASCP and osler stuff and thanks nilf ill check out drfungus. Today someone showed me a book called color atlas of Medical Microbiology (i had seen it before) it looks pretty good by thumbing thru it, tons of images and plates with some nice charts if any one is interested Its written by Tony Hart and Paul Shears. Good luck everyone and thanks again

 

[yaah]

I used Koneman colour plates, Henry's question and answer book, Compendium, Osler notes, ASCP review course slides (from someone who took course)

+1 on all of this except maybe for the Henry Q&A book. Mildly helpful but not as much as the other sources. The main Henry text, however, does have color plates also.

I would also find some book where you can see images of parasites in tissue (and gross images of parasites). Parasites are overrepresented on boards.

There is also an atlas of fungus by Davise Larone (spelling might be wrong) which is helpful.

 

[mcfaddens]

I also just realized that im terrible at forensic path(ie terrible from RISE scores), what are you guys using to study for FP? Is there some kind of cheap high yield atlas that I am unaware of? Do they ask any FP on the boards? If its just images what is the cheapest and best source for FP.

 

[yaah]

It's not just images, although there are some. Neuropath-related forensics questions were overrepresented on my boards. I think the Dimaio book is probably the most effective review.

 

[mcfaddens]

Alright one more book question, whats everyone using for molecular? Ive got ascp lectures, compendium, osler lectures, and some minor study guides. What else is out there?

 

[sohsie]

Alright one more book question, whats everyone using for molecular? Ive got ascp lectures, compendium, osler lectures, and some minor study guides. What else is out there?

You can try the ASCP quick compendium molecular book they have (Wasnt out when I took it). I felt unprepared for the molecular but I think I did OK anyway. There were a lot of questions dealing with wacky molecular results and asking what went wrong or how to interpret them, which to me, no text prepares you for. You either know it or, if your are lucky, you can figure it out with common sense.

 

[mcfaddens]

Awesome thanks sohsie! I will look in to it. I was wondering if anyone has looked at the Foundations in Diagnostic Pathology Series book on Cell and Tissue Based Molecular Pathology, it says there are a ton of pics and up to date info? Has anyone checked this book out and is it worth it?

 

[deschutes]

I bought it, but more for a reference text than for boards study. There are quite a lot of pictures/diagrams, but not to the same density as the rest of the series so far. Not so much of the tables either (I guess molecular doesn't really lend itself to that). Grads from our program have told me that that nothing really helps for molecular except paying attention during signout (the "what went wrong/how to interpret" that sohsie is talking about).

 

[SLUsagar]

I bought it, but more for a reference text than for boards study. There are quite a lot of pictures/diagrams, but not to the same density as the rest of the series so far. Not so much of the tables either (I guess molecular doesn't really lend itself to that). Grads from our program have told me that that nothing really helps for molecular except paying attention during signout (the "what went wrong/how to interpret" that sohsie is talking about).

in prepping for upcoming boards, i've heard the same re: molecular. one of our previous molecular fellows who took the CP portion of boards last year reiterated the above notion, commenting that he thought the molecular ?s were even hard for HIM (having completed nearly 10 months of the fellowship). Most questions were case/application based, obviating the need to memorize minutia (unlike the rest of CP topics..)

 

[GeoLeoX]

A very common theme in the molecular questions is for you to figure out that the assay didn't work (bad controls, etc.) For this reason you have to be able to interpret a number of different kinds of assays, such as agarose gel/PCR or other gel-based assays, as well as real-time PCR amplification curves, or capillary electrophoretic sequence gels. There's really not much nitty-gritty details, just quick pattern recognition.

 

[mcfaddens]

Thank you GeoLeoX and others! I was getting overwhelmed by going a little too deep into the theory and nitty gritty details of Molecular (and thus putting off other subjects). I appreciate the input

 

[deschutes]

Here are the most memorable images from my micro study experience so far - I tried to make this post funny, but I'll settle for good old plain disgusting:

Rapidly fatal primary amebic meningoencephalitis caused by Naegleri fowleri, from getting water up your nose doing somersaults in a warm lake:
http://www.dpd.cdc.gov/dpdx/HTML/ImageLibrary/FreeLivingAmebic_il.htm

Botfly infestation of boob!!!
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2482/4/5/figure/F1

 

[dodobird13]

Here are the most memorable images from my micro study experience so far - I tried to make this post funny, but I'll settle for good old plain disgusting:

Rapidly fatal primary amebic meningoencephalitis caused by Naegleri fowleri, from getting water up your nose doing somersaults in a warm lake:
http://www.dpd.cdc.gov/dpdx/HTML/ImageLibrary/FreeLivingAmebic_il.htm

Botfly infestation of boob!!!
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2482/4/5/figure/F1

awww deschutes..... that boob was so uncalled for.

 

[Cloaca]

I thought after 3 years of path residency i was immune to being grossed out. I guess I was wrong - almost puked up my pizza over the boob.

 

[Adrian Cocot]

I should probably put this in the website sticky, but if you've got the time, this'll teach you some micro:

http://pathmicro.med.sc.edu/book/welcome.htm

 

[EUA]

I just took my department's Koneman to Kinko's and made color copies of all the color plates. About $30 maybe? Better than $100 for a big heavy book.

 

[Nilf]

I should probably put this in the website sticky, but if you've got the time, this'll teach you some micro:

http://pathmicro.med.sc.edu/book/welcome.htm

NICE!!! Thank you for posting this!

 

[mcfaddens]

Does anyone know a decent online resource for EM pics? I know its low yield but I can't seem to find a pic of Platelet storage pool defects and a couple of other things (Im putting together computer based slide shows to help me memorize images as I study) thanks in advance

 

[yaah]

I wouldn't spend a ton of time on EM - I had a grand total of one EM image on my boards, and it was on the CP boards and was an image of a virus. I would familiarize yourself with the greatest hits (amyloid, schwannomas, ASPS, minimal change disease, melanocytic granules, a couple of others) but not too extensively.

 

[mcfaddens]

I wouldn't spend a ton of time on EM - I had a grand total of one EM image on my boards, and it was on the CP boards and was an image of a virus. I would familiarize yourself with the greatest hits (amyloid, schwannomas, ASPS, minimal change disease, melanocytic granules, a couple of others) but not too extensively.

Thanks Yaah! I guess im kind of going in to the overkill study mode, mostly CP im worried about, I just dont want to take any chances. I appreciate the input from everyone on this thread! I get nervous going into a test that im unsure of the format and question type. I hope all goes well.