Can you get away with just not studying for histology and embryo?

[Ramoray]

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ok guys, from what i have heard nobody even mentioned histo questions and the average seemed to be 1 or 2 embryo questions.. do you guys think one could get away with just not studying histo or embryo for the boards, other than what is in FA? I really hated embryo and i think it would take me alot of extra time to learn it as i never learned a thing 1st year. I figure histo is semireviewable if you do it along with path second year. but overall can you skip these two? thanks!

 

[xeroorex]

Hey Ramoray,
I took the step 1 on 22 June, and i'll have to agree with those that say that one can get away with just cramming histo and embryo from FA (or step up if you use it) in the days before the exam. That said, if you are the kind of student that prefers to understand things or to remember facts in a somewhat logical fashion, you should try and do this during the earlier parts of your exam. I did that by using a book which had every page of text accompanied by a page of illustrations, relative to all the high power stuff, it was a "for dummies" book, but it refreshed my knowledge of embryo. In the end, i didn't encounter any questions that were too picky on minutiae.

 

[bigfrank]

Hey Ramoray,
I took the step 1 on 22 June, and i'll have to agree with those that say that one can get away with just cramming histo and embryo from FA (or step up if you use it) in the days before the exam. That said, if you are the kind of student that prefers to understand things or to remember facts in a somewhat logical fashion, you should try and do this during the earlier parts of your exam. I did that by using a book which had every page of text accompanied by a page of illustrations, relative to all the high power stuff, it was a "for dummies" book, but it refreshed my knowledge of embryo. In the end, i didn't encounter any questions that were too picky on minutiae.

I had several easy embryology questions that weren't in FA; they were in HY Embryology, however.

 

[azzarah]

Ramoray, it seems like you and I had the exact same experience with first year courses. I absolutely hated anatomy and embryology. 😀 I think I am going to do HY because I really want to learn this stuff just to prove to myself that I can do it. Ya know what I mean? 🙂 We have plenty of time, so that helps too.

 

[Discobolus]

I plan on reviewing both because my very worse class of the first year (and I did very poorly in there) was our microanatomy class which consists of histology and embryology. I never learned most of it in the first place and most of what I did learn I've forgotten.

 

[path2be]

according to the usmle gods i kicked booty on anatomy and emryology. that amazed me because, like you, these subject (class) were hellish to my first year constitutional. i did study these with a netter and langeman's embryology because i like the subject matter. first aid first, aided by aforementioned books was all it took to place this area first on my usmle. 🙂

 

[tomplatz]

i had 2 histo questions and 5 embryo questions that weren't exactly easy. i think i got them right, but I knew the embryo stuff in first aid cold. for what it's worth.

also, know the brachial plexus inside and out. guaranteed you'll get at least one question on it. I had 3.

lots of experimental data interpretation too. southern and western blots. this was a year ago, but probably holds true this year too.

 

[daisygirl]

ok guys, from what i have heard nobody even mentioned histo questions and the average seemed to be 1 or 2 embryo questions.. do you guys think one could get away with just not studying histo or embryo for the boards, other than what is in FA? I really hated embryo and i think it would take me alot of extra time to learn it as i never learned a thing 1st year. I figure histo is semireviewable if you do it along with path second year. but overall can you skip these two? thanks!

I'm not studying anything pertaining histo or embryo if it is not in first aid. I'm not even studying everything in first aid regarding embryo. I refuse to memorize every stupid thing that arises from such obscure things like branchial archs 👎 . I might have a bad attitude, but I feel that I'm more likely to screw myself by trying to remember info from a book like HY when I can spend my time in brs path.

Hopefully my plan won't backfire. 😳

 

[analu]

As far as histology, I thought FA, Webpath, and Goljan's new path book with the CD of questions was plenty.

For embryology, FA was enough for my test...I did read HY Embryo last year, but I did not have time to re-review it prior to the test.

Overall, I only had ~5 histo questions and 2 straight-forward embryo questions...so I guess I got lucky on my version.

 

[azzarah]

http://www.med.upenn.edu/meded/old/berp/

http://www.med.unc.edu/embryo_images/

These were two webpages recommended by one of our embryology professors...they might be helpful for quick review if you are not going to buy HY. 🙂

I hope this helps.

 

[Ramoray]

damnit now im scared to not study it. I mean 10 questions is a pretty big chunk and it sounds like you could easily get 10 or so on the two. Just seems a person does not have time to master everything if you do not do those but i haaaate embryo. man the though of memorizing that crap again.. well have to see

 

[sherpagyrl]

There is a lot of good information in HY embryology. Of course spending a lot more time in BRS Path is the ideal, but I really felt that HY Embryo with little blurbs about pathologies helped reinforce all the heart deformities, etc. that are also part of path.

 

[azzarah]

damnit now im scared to not study it....man the though of memorizing that crap again..

Hehe, I don't think i ever learned any embryology, so it will be all new to me. Don't be scared! WE CAN DO THIS!

 

[scootad.]

guyz i felt the same way about embryo. didnt learn it well the first time. but believe it or not, it all came together when i studied for Step 1. HY embryo is terrific, i wish i had known it existed during my courses, b/c its extremely easy to understand and concise. If u know HY embryo and FA well youre in good shape, and its very manageable. when you study by systems dedicate a quarter of a day to embryo of that system (CV, resp, gi, etc.)

 

[azzarah]

Thanks for the advice Scootad. 🙂

 

[Ramoray]

damn azz you WILL make me now study embryo! ya it sounds like we had the same expereince. Honestly i have learned anatomy this summer and it seems like it was for the first time. I spent alot of time on it first go ut there is just so much i realized i had no grasp on the subject! And embryo.. well literally i know nothing! my tests on embyro just used recycled questions that i ended up memorizing. Oh well we WILL do this! thanks for the advice scoot as well! ok off to buy HY embryo soon!

 

[Idiopathic]

I missed the only straight embryo question i got, and studying histology was worthless (you learn the important stuff in pathology).

 

[Deuce 007 MD]

When you guys say study HY embryo which edition is better to study from? The first edition is only about 50 pages as the second edition is about 150. I've used the first edition during my course work, so would memorizing the second edition be overkill?

 

[azzarah]

When you guys say study HY embryo which edition is better to study from? The first edition is only about 50 pages as the second edition is about 150. I've used the first edition during my course work, so would memorizing the second edition be overkill?

I looked at HY Embryology in the store today and it seemed really dense. I would really like to know if first edition is okay too!

 

[scootad.]

the version i used was very thin & concise -- couldnt have been longer than 50 pages.