Is First Aid Micro + Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple Enough?

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Lemont

Lemont

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About micro...

Is the micro section in FA and Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple enough to cover micro? Or would it be better to replace Micro Made Ridiculously Simple with the Kaplan Notes for micro?
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Lemont said:
About micro...

Is the micro section in FA and Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple enough to cover micro? Or would it be better to replace Micro Made Ridiculously Simple with the Kaplan Notes for micro?
Click to expand...

First Aid + Qbank + MMRS are pretty thorough review for you to excel in micro. I did very well on this section and I used these resources. I thought the questions were very straightforward in micro. Focus on bacteria, parasites, fungi, etc. that might show up in an immunocompromised patient.
 
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That should be more than enough for micro. Just make sure you know your HIV inside and out....and understand the pharmacotherapy very well.
 
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Boris Badenov said:
That should be more than enough for micro. Just make sure you know your HIV inside and out....and understand the pharmacotherapy very well.
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Ditto.
 
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Actually, I'd be willing to say FA alone is enough for micro. MMMRS just makes it easier to study (i.e. more pictures, less buzzwords). But if you do read MMMRS, be sure to read the chapters describing the bacterial and virus repreduction mechanisms. 50% of my micro questions were on those, and being able to recall the MMMRS pictures made them pretty easy.
 
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Thanks for the input. So I guess that means doing micro from the Kaplan Notes (including the accompanying audio lectures) is not as effective?
 
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Those sources are pretty much all you need. Forget Kaplan for the microbio.
Here is a good way to do it - read through micro MRS quickly - it will take about 1 day. Dont' take notes, etc. just get the info in your head. Then next day sit down with FA and start memorizing and annotate from MRS at that point for what you need. Memorize and try to understand all the stuff in FA. There is some stuff in FA that is not in MRS and vice versa, so concentrate on memorizing that stuff in FA - I wouldn't worry about the little stuff in MRS though. This is the most effective way to study micro in my opinion.

Lastly the other two real good sources for micro are - Microbiology recall, and the Lippincott micro cards (there are two sets out - i mean the one that is NOT BRS Flashcards).
 
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Lemont said:
About micro...

Is the micro section in FA and Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple enough to cover micro? Or would it be better to replace Micro Made Ridiculously Simple with the Kaplan Notes for micro?
Click to expand...


First Pass --> Read MMRS to get big picture
Second Pass ------> Go through tables at end of each chapter (very complete!) and go back into the corresponding chapter if you don't remember some detail.
Third Pass to Last Pass ----> Memorize every single word in First Aid Micro

I found getting the big picture is vital before attempting to memorize every single word in First Aid. Once you have First Aid down I recommend doing Qbank Micro and/or UCV Micro to apply the knowledge (classic presentations) from First Aid. For example, you could know every single scientific minutiae about Staph Aureus, however if you don't know the clinical presentation of "honey crusted lesion" you will be screwed because you won't even know if the question was about Staph Aureus.

P.S. Kaplan Micro is pure crap.
 
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p53 said:
First Pass --> Read MMRS to get big picture
Second Pass ------> Go through tables at end of each chapter (very complete!) and go back into the corresponding chapter if you don't remember some detail.
Third Pass to Last Pass ----> Memorize every single word in First Aid Micro

I found getting the big picture is vital before attempting to memorize every single word in First Aid. Once you have First Aid down I recommend doing Qbank Micro and/or UCV Micro to apply the knowledge (classic presentations) from First Aid. For example, you could know every single scientific minutiae about Staph Aureus, however if you don't know the clinical presentation of "honey crusted lesion" you will be screwed because you won't even know if the question was about Staph Aureus.

P.S. Kaplan Micro is pure crap.
Click to expand...

Hawleys HY does an excellent job of covering the science part and the clinical presentation part at the same time. Also the last few chapters are organ-based micro, which helps compartmentalize i find. MMRS and FA are excellent also. The book takes about a day to get through cover to cover. I have only done it once thus far and have been doing very well on qbook micro. In any event reports from individuals who have taken the exam recently underscore the importance of this topic ( ie. if you know cryptococcus, blastomyces, HIV, etc. you should be fine).
 
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Yeah for micro MMRS first then FA should be more then enough. Don't forget about immuno, this was big on my test, more like immuno and molecular cell bio.
 
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Howcome everybody likes MMRS? I think its lame, those pictures are ******ed and leave stuff out adn they make some crappy obscure visual reference that barely makes sense as it is.
 
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absoloutely. after reading through made ridiculously simple once or twice, focus on the tables at the end of each chapter- specifically virulence factors, presentation, what you get it from, etc. don't worry so much about Rx.
 
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Arsenic810 said:
wow, thanks guys! I had the same question as the OP.

i'll just stick with FA and micro made ridiculously simple for micro. is kaplan any good for immunology?
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I don't know about the kaplan immuno but I used this book for immuno:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...002-5019166-4341608?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

This book is the bomb for immuno, I just read the last 80 pages of the book just for the immuno section. I didn't read the micro part but have heard that it is really good in that as well, so if you don't like the MMRS style then this is the book to get.
 
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