Other than theoretical knowledge, what exactly are the technical stuff or skills you need to master to pass histology-pathology labs? How different or difficult are they compared to the typical biology and chemistry labs in non-medical programs? I'm still working on applying to medical school by the way...
Histology-Pathology lab
- Thread starter Edwise
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Moving to pre-med forums.
Are you asking about histology and pathology courses in medical school? They require almost zero technical ability. Many places don't even require you to use a microscope these days; they just give you computer files of the slides. The most important thing for pre-clinical path exams is learning and remembering key words that go with certain path findings (which are often pretty obscure and not obviously linked to the diseases they characterize) like "Orphan Annie" eyes, foot process effacement, Psammoma bodies, fried-egg cells, etc. and being able to recognize them and match them to their associated pathologies.
They are very different from labs in undergrad chemistry or biology courses because (at least in my experience) you don't actually do anything in the "labs." There are no experiments and you don't have to fix tissue or do any staining or anything.
They are very different from labs in undergrad chemistry or biology courses because (at least in my experience) you don't actually do anything in the "labs." There are no experiments and you don't have to fix tissue or do any staining or anything.
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You'll figure it out when you get there. Don't sweat it.
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It's all pattern recognition.
Seriously, this is totally out of my expectation! I was the worst student in those bio and chem labs that this part of medical school really worries me almost every day. Are you sure we don't have to learn to handle the microscope and all those highly technical stuff? Are you referring mostly to US schools or also in Canada??
Ideally you should enter med school knowing how to use a light microscope (which is definitely not "highly technical") but in all likelihood you won't ever need to unless you go into pathology or your school still uses glass slides.
Undergraduate labs bear no resemblance to med school path "labs." At my med school they didn't take place in a laboratory and weren't even required sessions. As the above poster said, don't worry about it—if you can get into med school, you will do fine in pathology. I'm pretty sure that over 90% of people who enter med school graduate.
Undergraduate labs bear no resemblance to med school path "labs." At my med school they didn't take place in a laboratory and weren't even required sessions. As the above poster said, don't worry about it—if you can get into med school, you will do fine in pathology. I'm pretty sure that over 90% of people who enter med school graduate.
Thanks, it is really reassuring to hear this...
