Importance of Histology?

[medstylee]

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hey guys,

because i took histology as part of my special masters program, i have the option to opt out of it at my medical school for this upcoming semester. i was wondering, how important will this class be for me in the future (e.g. for path and for the boards, etc)? i did well in this class in grad school, but it's not exactly fresh in my mind (i took it in late 2004). i've had people tell me to skip it and i've had people tell me i might as well retake it.

if i place out of it, it will open up a good chunk of my time (and it's our earliest class too 👍 ). i do still have all my old syllabus/notes/text from smp and i'm sure i could get a hold of a copy of my school's syllabus if i ever need to refresh. so, yeah, i'm stuck on what i should actually do. any advice will be greatly appreciated. thanks a lot, everyone.

 

[piu]

hey guys,

because i took histology as part of my special masters program, i have the option to opt out of it at my medical school for this upcoming semester. i was wondering, how important will this class be for me in the future (e.g. for path and for the boards, etc)? i did well in this class in grad school, but it's not exactly fresh in my mind (i took it in late 2004). i've had people tell me to skip it and i've had people tell me i might as well retake it.

if i place out of it, it will open up a good chunk of my time (and it's our earliest class too 👍 ). i do still have all my old syllabus/notes/text from smp and i'm sure i could get a hold of a copy of my school's syllabus if i ever need to refresh. so, yeah, i'm stuck on what i should actually do. any advice will be greatly appreciated. thanks a lot, everyone.

IMO histo is a total waste of time. Probably the last time u'll ever use a microscope unless u're going to be a patho.

 

[pratik7]

hey guys,

because i took histology as part of my special masters program, i have the option to opt out of it at my medical school for this upcoming semester. i was wondering, how important will this class be for me in the future (e.g. for path and for the boards, etc)? i did well in this class in grad school, but it's not exactly fresh in my mind (i took it in late 2004). i've had people tell me to skip it and i've had people tell me i might as well retake it.

if i place out of it, it will open up a good chunk of my time (and it's our earliest class too 👍 ). i do still have all my old syllabus/notes/text from smp and i'm sure i could get a hold of a copy of my school's syllabus if i ever need to refresh. so, yeah, i'm stuck on what i should actually do. any advice will be greatly appreciated. thanks a lot, everyone.

I think as long as you are familar with the basic cells types and/or layers of tissue in an organ you should be fine. Even if you dont, you can read HY Histo and prob get by just fine

 

[vwhan]

As long as you can tell what is normal (histology) versus abnormal (pathology) when looking at a picture, then you should be fine for boards and such. Most of the time you can answer board questions without looking at the pictures. You might be able to TA this course and make a little bit of money. That way you will stay up with the material as far as what things look like, but you won't have to spend time studying for the tests. 👍

 

[ddmo]

Histo is one of the lowest yield subjects in med school for the boards and wards. I would skip it.

 

[outofhere]

histo is only useful in knowing the 'normal', so that when you see the abnormal slides in path, (the majority of second year), you will recognize why a certain slide is abnl. I think the boards only use abnl slides as clues, if I remember correctly.

 

[mikedc813]

I agree that histo isn't so important, unless you want to go into a field that requires that you be a pro in it. Other than your histo class you probably won't see a lot of it in school. I might have had 1 histo question on my Step 1....

 

[ANCAdoc]

Skip it! You've seen it once, and that is enough.

Depending on what kind of doc you want to be, you probably will never (regularly) look through a microscope again. The only doc that i shadowed that used histo was a urologist who looked at his patients urine samples.

 

[Brown429]

histology is a good class for dermatology correct? obviously dermpath...but i am just asking about derm itself

 

[Zweihander]

hey guys,

because i took histology as part of my special masters program, i have the option to opt out of it at my medical school for this upcoming semester. i was wondering, how important will this class be for me in the future (e.g. for path and for the boards, etc)? i did well in this class in grad school, but it's not exactly fresh in my mind (i took it in late 2004). i've had people tell me to skip it and i've had people tell me i might as well retake it.

if i place out of it, it will open up a good chunk of my time (and it's our earliest class too 👍 ). i do still have all my old syllabus/notes/text from smp and i'm sure i could get a hold of a copy of my school's syllabus if i ever need to refresh. so, yeah, i'm stuck on what i should actually do. any advice will be greatly appreciated. thanks a lot, everyone.

Skip it. What you need to get out of histo is a basic understanding of what the "normals" for different organ systems look like, so you can understand the abnormals in path and recognize and understand the terminology when you refer to it later in your medical career.

Taking the course once is overkill -- taking it twice for anything other than personal enjoyment is a total waste of time.


cheers

 

[medstylee]

thanks, everyone, for the responses. sounds like the overwhelming consensus is that i skip the class. that's what i was hoping to hear! 👍