Histology

[Publius]

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I am registered for a Histology class this fall and wanted to see if I could get an idea from others that may have taken the course on their experiences with the class.
I'm currently taking the general Bio series this summer (two 4.5wk accelerated courses.) The only other science courses that I have to compare against are gen Chem I and II.
I work full time (and have a wife and two kids.) This is why the workload is of concern to me. I will be taking Orgo I and two other non-science courses along w/ Histology.
Any input would be appreciated.

 

[retroMD]

I'm currently taking Histology right now and its definitely alot of work. The difficult part is not really the Lecture part of the class. In the beginning it will be pretty straight forward: you will cover parts of the cell just like Bio (Ex: this is mitochondria, this is nucleus etc (just in more detail.) Then you will cover all sorts of tissues of the body like connective, epithelial, etc. But remember, that's the easy part. The hard part is the Lab section, where you have to look at microscopic slides and tell what the structures are and what kind of tissue it is. It's hard because its very time consuming to study and the slides look all the same! Be prepared to dedicate major hours to train your eyes to visualize everything you need to see on a slide.

 

[phospho]

I am registered for a Histology class this fall and wanted to see if I could get an idea from others that may have taken the course on their experiences with the class.
I'm currently taking the general Bio series this summer (two 4.5wk accelerated courses.) The only other science courses that I have to compare against are gen Chem I and II.
I work full time (and have a wife and two kids.) This is why the workload is of concern to me. I will be taking Orgo I and two other non-science courses along w/ Histology.
Any input would be appreciated.

hi there,

I took the accelerated courses, and honestly, if you were to compare them with the chems, I would say you need a lot less brain power, i.e. understanding, and a lot more time to just sit down and memorize pure facts. They were very different courses, and they both required very different methods for studying. However, this is my personal $0.02, and I'm sure others might disagree or at least have other forms of studying; I did get A's in both sequences, so I guess my method did work for me.

As for the accelerated portion, no need to worry too much. If it were the O-chem sequence in 8 weeks, that's a different story; however, with the bio series, you shouldn't, in my opinion at least, worry too much as long as you can organize your time and focus on your priorities. You have a wife and kids, so I am sure you have some type of discipline in your studying. I've never taken histo before, but I can almost promise you that if you organize your time wisely, you shouldn't have any problems fitting anything in with the bio's.

I wish you the very best of luck...

 

[retroMD]

hi there,

I took the accelerated courses, and honestly, if you were to compare them with the chems, I would say you need a lot less brain power, i.e. understanding, and a lot more time to just sit down and memorize pure facts. They were very different courses, and they both required very different methods for studying...

exactly what I was trying to say. 👍

 

[riceman04]

Yeah...histo is nothing but straight memorization. And like retro said...the hard part is recognizing structures under the microscope.

It is a great class to have though...just be prepared to spend a good chunk of your time studying it

 

[Law2Doc]

It is a great class to have though...

I don't think this particular course gives you any real advantage in med school. Histo is not one of the killer classes. Perhaps it will inspire an interest in pathology. But don't bother with it if your goal is to "get ahead".

 

[riceman04]

I don't think this particular course gives you any real advantage in med school. Histo is not one of the killer classes. Perhaps it will inspire an interest in pathology. But don't bother with it if your goal is to "get ahead".

just means less time that you have to spend on it

 

[JRJ26]

my human bio I and II classes included some minor histology in them. Our lab exams were basically like what people have said: we'd look into the microscope and have to say what kind of tissue it was, or what the arrow was pointing to. It's really all about memorizing. start early, memorize those pictures in the text. it's not that bad if you start early.

 

[Publius]

Really appreciate all of the responses!

We have already went through the basic plant/animal tissues in Bio I and I really enjoyed it. I am not expecting this to be a class that is of great relevance in med school, or a precursor for the MCAT, but it seems like an upper/mid level elective that is interesting.

Is it all straight memorization or should I expect it to cell/tissue function, etc.?

Again, preciate all the replies.

 

[roca88]

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