looking for advice on pathology

[icantlactate]

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hi, i'm a first year med student at case western and am looking for some advice on studying pathology. the problem is that i have a hard time retaining what i read from the robbins pathological basis of disease book. so i've been experimenting reading goljan's rapid review and attempting questions in the robbins review of pathology workbook. i was a little frustrated when i only got 2 out of the 10 questions i attempted correct. i can follow the explanations, and can study them, but i'm wondering if this is an appropriate way to use this resource.

i'm wondering if i should go back and try to read robbins after having studied the goljan's rapid review before attempting the questions. but this seems inefficient and if it is possible to get through medical school without having to read/study the robbins textbook i would do so in a heartbeat.

is there anyone who successfully prepared for boards using a pathology review book as a substitute for robbins?
sincerely,
alex

 

[Gut Shot]

Is this for class or are you just cold reading pathology texts?

 

[crazy_cavalier]

Check out www.pathguy.com

Good stuff

 

[DarlynVMD]

If your medical school is like most, you're going to need more than Goljan's Rapid Review for your pathology class. Remember that the amount of detail required for you to know for your path exams are pretty much left out by board review books (i.e., BRS Path and RR Path). If you're having trouble retaining the massive amounts of information in path, start studying more productively and more actively. Instead of just reading the material, 1) read it to understand; and 2) make notes on each chapter. If your professor provides you with lecture notes or PPTs, then 9 out of 10 says that's all you'll pretty much need to do well on your exams. Most professors do this, they'll provide the lecture notes or PPTs, and may recommend that you refer to Big Robbins as a supplement or for clarification of any concepts you might not be understanding. Don't try to memorize every word in Robbins, it's humanly impossible. Leave your RR Path for a couple of days before an exam, but for now, focus on core notes. Also, don't attempt to do any q's until you've read Robbins. It makes no sense to turn to a review book if you haven't fully learned and understand the core material.

 

[bbggw]

pay close attention to the highlighted parts in robbins most of the questions come from there and they seem to be the "meat" you need

 

[Trindelinberg]

Why are you studying path in your first year? That seems weird, maybe your schools got a new approach. Study your lecture materials well, review with BRS and the Robbins review book, forget about the actual Robbins text, it's a waste of time (prob. a good path book though, I don't know, I don't read it). You should be good for an A/honors/whatever at any med school with that.

 

[Med01]

I also found the same problem when I read Robbins. I found it to be very dense and difficult to retain, but we do get asked detailed questions on our exams from it.

I spoke to a study skills person, and they suggested writing down the main points as you go along - the process of transferring the information to your brain and then to your hand helps you retain the information and is more active.

So far, this has worked. I used to highlight the passages, and promptly forget them. So I'd read Robbins again, and again. Very inefficient. Now I type out the main point and maybe a line or two summarizing the passage/paragraph. It has made a big difference.

I read it pretty slowly - like 5-7 pages/hr. But our school tests on some pretty small details in Robbins sometimes.
After that, I listen to the school lectures on MP3 speeded up, because I've already got the basic vocab down.

 

[chaser08]

1) If you are just reading Robbins for kicks , stop. You'll get to it soon enough. If you can at all avoid reading Robbins altogether that's even better . My school provided very good summaries that focused my studies. Use Robbins for the pictures and for what you otherwise don't understand.

2) I agree with the poster above - write down the highlights. In addition to that, I would summarize what I'd read after every few paragraphs. The way I see it, if I can summarize what I read, then that means that I understood it. The bonus was when it came time to study for the test, I would just read my summaries. The first time through took forever, but the review was a breeze.

For diseases that are similar to each other - for me, the kidney (nephritic? nephrotic? both?) and neoplasms were particularly difficult - write down the what makes them different and focus on that when trying to study.

3) I found Robbins Review helpful after I'd done all of this. The questions are hard, but I think the explanations are good.

4) Try Webpath. It's great for pictures, questions, and explanations. It was a godsend for me.

HTH.

 

[Terpskins99]

Over at our program, most of pathology dealt with identifying abnormal anatomy along with pathohistology. Path slides were available in the library to look at on a projector. So most students took a group approach to studying path. We'd all read up on a particular lecture first, and then would get together to review the slides and pop questions to one another on any particular disease we were looking at.

Maybe not the most efficient method, but it was a lot more enjoyable to do it that way than merely burying your head in a book all day.

 

[SeventhSon]

well i havent taken path yet but as a general rule, reading textbooks cover to cover without the appropriate conceptual framework to incorporate new facts is a recipe for little retention and wasted time.

If you attend class, focus on areas you feel weak on or find confusing, and then use class notes/wikipedia/little robbins/big robbins/whatever you can to try to address areas of confusion.

Alternately, you can start with a practice problem, and then use whatever resource you like until you understand every dimension of that problem cold.

After awhile, you will start to have the background to read a textbook in a meaningful way. At the beginning, before that conceptual framework is in place, it doesnt make sense to read cover to cover.

Finally, different textbooks have different styles. Some will present information to you in exactly the way that it is logical for you to learn it, but this doesn't always happen since that order is different for everyone.