Knowing Chromosome numbers for genes

[HTxFrog]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Has anyone seen questions where you had to know what chromosome a particular tumor suppressor gene is on (FA p.223). That seems like kind of an arbitrary and pointless thing to remember. I mean I'm not going to tell a patient, Oh I'm sorry you have Li-Fraumeni syndrome, and in case you were wondering the p53 gene is located on chromosome 17p.

 

[username456789]

I mean I'm not going to tell a patient, Oh I'm sorry you have Li-Fraumeni syndrome, and in case you were wondering the p53 gene is located on chromosome 17p.

I am, but I'm a dick.

Just kidding.

I'll just say "I'm sorry, but your p53 gene went haywire" and let them go home and webmd it.

Seriously though, I was just doing that page like an hour ago and it's stupid. I spent a while trying to memorize them, then started thinking "is this really a good use of my time? What are the odds I'll remember these all in a few weeks anyway?" So maybe they'll be something I cram last minute again.

 

[Captain Fantastic]

If you are given the same form I took, spending time learning chromosomes would be low yield. Of course, the form you get is random so YMMV.

 

[PokerDoc]

information such as this.. HLA associations, etc... i made flashcards on my iphone and i flip through them at the gym.. thats the extent of my time spent on these kinds of facts..

It actually works.. make those stupid annoying associations into flashcards and flip through them once every 2-3 days while watching tv or doing a workout.. it works, I actually did this for the enzymes of lysosomal storage diseases because they were my kryptonite but now I will not be getting any lysosomal storage disease question wrong on test day, and all I did was flashcards in between sets at the gym.

 

[HTxFrog]

Yeah I've been meaning to make flash cards for all that stuff. That definitely is the best way to do arbitrary stuff like that. By the way I reallllly hate lysosomal storage diseases. I have definitely wasted a lot of time looking at that damn page.

 

[PokerDoc]

Yeah I've been meaning to make flash cards for all that stuff. That definitely is the best way to do arbitrary stuff like that. By the way I reallllly hate lysosomal storage diseases. I have definitely wasted a lot of time looking at that damn page.

i flash carded every one of them separating their enzyme deficiencies, symptoms, substrate built up and every possible variable into its own card.. i own these now. They used to be impossible for me.

 

[turkeyjerky]

I either saw it on an nbme or the free 150, where the answer choices were a list of the gene names, with chromosome numbers in parentheses, (ex: "p53 gene (chromosome 17p)").

 

[runx]

I made a page listing the chromosomes and then the genes associated with each of them. I memorized the moderate to major disease gene-chromosome associations and also had some lower yield ones on the page just so that I would glance at them occasionally and be able to make a stab at them if I had to guess.

I also put some time into memorizing the lesser yield HLA associations (eg the ones other than B27) like Graves, Rheumatoid arthritis, MS, celiac disease etc...

This was all a waste of time, at least for my test. Needing to know the chromosome # for a gene did not come up on a single question, not even indirectly. The only HLA-disease association that came up had to do with reactive arthritis.

There are many topics that are easy for a specific test taker to look back and advise everyone not to study simply because it didn't show up in their test- but their test is just that. Yours is more likely to be different than it is to be very similar. That said, of the 5,000 prac questions I did and the actual, I really feel that chromosome-disease memorization is low low-yield. I would memorize the major ones just to be safe (BRCAs, p53, NF1/2, and maybe a couple others). I could be wrong.