Is Clinical Micro Made Ridiculously Simple worthwhile for Step prep?

[BeastInfection]

Or would just memorizing FA Micro be enough, making it a waste of time?

Any general recs for micro welcome. TIA

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[jackets5]

FA for Micro was very good when i took the test 2 years ago. I had read CMMRS with my micro class so i had it all highlighted and annotated already. Its very quirky but i thought an outstanding book. If you are strong in Micro FA should be more than enough, maybe look through the charts in the back of CMMRS. If your weak, CMMRS is a pretty quick read and the charts are phenomenal.

 

[Phloston]

Microcards (by Sanjiv) + FA + practice questions = that's all you need.

Some MS1 at my school was reading MMRS a few days ago and I talked him out of it.

Get your Microcards. Done deal.

 

[Pruthvi]

Phloston , how did u use the micro cards ? I mean there is a picture or a tree diagram with the clinical scenario on the front of the card..on the back , there is a lot of info about that particular bug , its diagnosis etc..

did u actually memorize both the front and back or how did u go about doing it ? sorry if this is a silly question..
thanks 🙂

 

[tiedyeddog]

I am using it. I used it in my classes and I loved it. Some people hate the pictures but they really help me.

I just went through it over the last couple days. I am about to start the FA section. I probably won't use it much during deciated study time, maybe one quick look to refresh my memory.

 

[Daodejing]

Phloston , how did u use the micro cards ? I mean there is a picture or a tree diagram with the clinical scenario on the front of the card..on the back , there is a lot of info about that particular bug , its diagnosis etc..

did u actually memorize both the front and back or how did u go about doing it ? sorry if this is a silly question..
thanks 🙂

+1. I'm interested in this as well.

 

[Checcles]

phloston , how did u use the micro cards ? I mean there is a picture or a tree diagram with the clinical scenario on the front of the card..on the back , there is a lot of info about that particular bug , its diagnosis etc..

Did u actually memorize both the front and back or how did u go about doing it ? Sorry if this is a silly question..
Thanks 🙂

+2

 

[oceanillusion42]

+2

+3, but I have benefited from these cards already just in terms of repetition, especially as it pertains to virus genomes... which i despise.

Also as an aside, Checcles I love your pic lol

 

[Rock13]

+3, but I have benefited from these cards already just in terms of repetition, especially as it pertains to virus genomes... which i despise.

Also as an aside, Checcles I love your pic lol

I know the question was directed at Phloston, and not me, but I also used MicroCards in my prep (based on his recommendation). I memorised both sides - the tree diagrams I copied onto A4 sheets which I had on my walls, and the back of the cards I transcribed into Anki flashcards so that I could take advantage of spaced repetition.

Ultimately, for my exam, they were massive overkill. I only had one question related to virus classification, and it was an easy one (Herpes). Given that the characteristics of herpes virus come up so often in practice questions, the day I spent memorising the trees was a bit of a waste. All of the other questions on micro in my exam were easily answerable based on UWorld and First Aid micro.

If you have the time, do them. But it's a lot of memorisation for what I imagine would be a couple of points on the exam for many people. Naturally, my experience of Step 1 is based on a sample size of 1. Individual results may vary.

 

[Pruthvi]

I know the question was directed at Phloston, and not me, but I also used MicroCards in my prep (based on his recommendation). I memorised both sides - the tree diagrams I copied onto A4 sheets which I had on my walls, and the back of the cards I transcribed into Anki flashcards so that I could take advantage of spaced repetition.

Ultimately, for my exam, they were massive overkill. I only had one question related to virus classification, and it was an easy one (Herpes). Given that the characteristics of herpes virus come up so often in practice questions, the day I spent memorising the trees was a bit of a waste. All of the other questions on micro in my exam were easily answerable based on UWorld and First Aid micro.

If you have the time, do them. But it's a lot of memorisation for what I imagine would be a couple of points on the exam for many people. Naturally, my experience of Step 1 is based on a sample size of 1. Individual results may vary.

Was micro ur strong subject even before u touched these cards ?? how long did it take to get these cards memorized ?? Thanks for the reply 🙂

 

[Rock13]

Was micro ur strong subject even before u touched these cards ?? how long did it take to get these cards memorized ?? Thanks for the reply 🙂

No, it wasn't - I knew (basically) no micro prior to starting the cards. Took me about ?9 days to memorise them*. They definitely made doing UWorld questions easier, but as I said, they didn't offer any advantage over FA for the micro that appeared on my exam.

*This will probably be faster for most people - I spent at least 2 of those days transcribing them into Anki.

 

[Phloston]

Phloston , how did u use the micro cards ? I mean there is a picture or a tree diagram with the clinical scenario on the front of the card..on the back , there is a lot of info about that particular bug , its diagnosis etc..

did u actually memorize both the front and back or how did u go about doing it ? sorry if this is a silly question..
thanks 🙂

Memorized the images of all the tree algorithms. That's mandatory.

The info on the vignette cards, by the time you reach the real deal, you'll find is actually covered via most of the QBanks. So know that stuff also. But the tree diagrams are the most critical.

I just did a lecture on viruses for the MS2s at my school, and I had one Powerpoint slide with three points: "1) talk about RNA viruses; talk about DNA viruses; 3) talk about anti-virals." Because I had had the tree diagrams in my head, I was able to talk about all of the viruses without referencing any notes because I remembered their images/classifications.

 

[Pruthvi]

Thank u Rock 13 🙂
Thank u Pholston as usual for ur wonderful & passionate advice..god bless you 🙂

 

[tco]

Studied this book ONLY in the week leading up to the shelf. 99th percentile. I was comfortable enough with micro that I only studied the minutiae from UWorld for the Step exam. Not the best score on SDN, by far, but good enough to get me into any specialty I want (255).

I'm pretty average when it comes to intelligence, btw.

Memorizing the virus tables in Clinical Micro is pretty low yield for a few reasons - 1. I had one question on my Step exam that I got right because I memorized the table 5 minutes before I went in, wrote it down, and just looked at it. 2. It's outdated. 3. No one cares, clinically. I would memorize it the morning of the exam and forget about it until Step 1. Other than that, if you know everything in the book (which is an easy book to read), you'll be golden for micro.

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

One thing I would not recommend is using both microcards and CMMRS as references. The way CMMRS structures its virus section is way different than microcards so it's just confusing if you try to read CMMRS and then memorize with microcards. Use one or the other.

 

[tiedyeddog]

One thing I would not recommend is using both microcards and CMMRS as references. The way CMMRS structures its virus section is way different than microcards so it's just confusing if you try to read CMMRS and then memorize with microcards. Use one or the other.

Agreed. Both are great resources but pick one, two is overkill.