CMMRS Tables

[kaleerkalut]

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So I am reading CMMRS right now and I have been skipping through the tables at the end (because I figured that they were just rehashes of chapter), BUT THEY ARE NOT!!!

I've come to realize that the tables at the end include information not found in the chapter (i.e. information about metabolism or motility). Is this true for the whole book?

How did you guys use the tables (if at all)? Some comments would be great because I've read about 10 chapters so far and I have skipped all of the tables so I am kind of freaking out about it (but there is still time). Thanks in advance.

 

[indsha008]

So I am reading CMMRS right now and I have been skipping through the tables at the end (because I figured that they were just rehashes of chapter), BUT THEY ARE NOT!!!

I've come to realize that the tables at the end include information not found in the chapter (i.e. information about metabolism or motility). Is this true for the whole book?

How did you guys use the tables (if at all)? Some comments would be great because I've read about 10 chapters so far and I have skipped all of the tables so I am kind of freaking out about it (but there is still time). Thanks in advance.

I am using CMMRS for micro. Blank areas on my tables pages are all filled up with extra information read in the chapter/somewhere else. What I would suggest is that if u can't read the whole chapter, then use only tables and skim through figures of the chapters (they are gold in remembering some information for eg. For S. Aureus A "staph" picture with gold medals (golden colonies) standing very near to each other (coagulase +ve) with a cat overlooking (catalase +ve). And if you are reading chapters, then I would suggest to add info to the tables because as you said tables has, in many areas, more info than in chapter (ESP which are for pure rote memorization - for which a good funny pic is not possible). Don't skip figures - they will flash in your mind while giving exam !!!! 🙂 good luck.

 

[tco]

For what it's worth, I only used CMMRS for micro and FA for immuno and scored a 99th percentile on the shelf. I also didn't get to the protozoa or helminth chapters, but those are pretty low yield. I don't know how it will translate to Step 1...It seems like I'm seeing a lot of info in FA for micro for the first time.

Oh, I forgot to say that I got through all of that in about 3 days, so it's a really quick read with a lot of really good information.

 

[kaleerkalut]

For what it's worth, I only used CMMRS for micro and FA for immuno and scored a 99th percentile on the shelf. I also didn't get to the protozoa or helminth chapters, but those are pretty low yield. I don't know how it will translate to Step 1...It seems like I'm seeing a lot of info in FA for micro for the first time.

Oh, I forgot to say that I got through all of that in about 3 days, so it's a really quick read with a lot of really good information.

Thanks for the input. By the way, I keep hearing people say on the shelf but I have no idea what that means. I thought shelf exams are what 3rd and 4th years take, am I right? But then sometimes I hear people saying that they took a Physiology shelf etc. What does all that mean?

 

[tco]

Thanks for the input. By the way, I keep hearing people say on the shelf but I have no idea what that means. I thought shelf exams are what 3rd and 4th years take, am I right? But then sometimes I hear people saying that they took a Physiology shelf etc. What does all that mean?

Some schools do "shelf exams" at the end of their 1st and 2nd year courses to see if they've taught sufficiently for the students to do well on the boards. They're subject exams that the NBME sells to schools, and are basically old board exam questions that have been "shelved." If I'm not mistaken, most schools don't do them, but ours does. Also, most schools that do shelf exams don't have a minimal "passing score," so that skews the statistics because students just mark down "C" for every answer and leave in 15 minutes.

I think they're greatly beneficial to learn the timing of the exam. Many people do lots of practice exams/questions to get the right feeling for 1.5 minutes per question, but if you've taken multiple shelf exams, you already know what that feels like.

 

[hyrule]

Since someone brought up helminths, I wouldn't even bother spending much time on those pages in FA (I didn't look at them at all). There has maybe been 1 question on helminths in thousands of Qs I've done... and none on the real deal.