Micro ridiculously simple: main focus or EVERYTRHING?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

toothless rufus

Full Member
10+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
Joined
Dec 18, 2004
Messages
1,495
Reaction score
3
Yeah, is this one of those "memorize everything" books or just get some main points?

Members don't see this ad.
 
Yeah, is this one of those "memorize everything" books or just get some main points?
I didn't think MMRS was that great, personally. Its mostly fun to read.

I got more out of micro flashcards.
51n7Q7Uu%2BOL._SL500_AA240_.jpg


Rosenthal also wrote Rapid Review Micro, which I thought was pretty good.
13921595.JPG
 
Members don't see this ad :)
If you are reading during the year, read the whole thing. If you are reading during step 1 prep you can skip the worm section and some other stuff. It's actually a pretty quick read if you don't try to memorize all the charts.
 
I didn't think MMRS was that great, personally. Its mostly fun to read.

I got more out of micro flashcards.
51n7Q7Uu%2BOL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

I have these cards also, I feel like they are too general? Not enough small details and correlations but I just started using them. anyone else?

I tried MMMRS read half the book. Helpful but takes alot of time. Explains antibiotics really well.

Is the consensus to use mutiple sources?
 
If you are reading during the year, read the whole thing. If you are reading during step 1 prep you can skip the worm section and some other stuff. It's actually a pretty quick read if you don't try to memorize all the charts.
Definitely. So far I've only done the bacterial chapters (taking micro now), but the chapters seem to have been about half text & pics, half charts. I didn't even look at the charts, I like the book for the other stuff in there.

I also used Microcards for my bacteria test, and I thought they helped a lot. They're more detailed than just flashcards, but it was nice having the major info for each bug on one card.
 
I have these cards also, I feel like they are too general? Not enough small details and correlations but I just started using them. anyone else?

I tried MMMRS read half the book. Helpful but takes alot of time. Explains antibiotics really well.

Is the consensus to use mutiple sources?

The micro on USMLE is very straight forward. I remember pretty much all the micro on my exam could be found somewhere in First Aid.

Do whatever you need to do to get it down.
 
i thought CMMRS was pretty good. hell, i still can recall the ridiculous pictures (rocky mountain spotted fever, coxiella burnetti, etc) and even though a strong grounding in micro + FA could possibly suffice for the student looking for a good (perhaps not spectacular) score, i would suggest CMMRS. For me at least, a good vs spectacular score comes down to my ability to make differentials very quickly as I read the question stem - if i can do this, >95% of the time I can get the question right. Doing CMMRS (though dense) helped me put things together in a way that I could easily recall. It was much easier for me to recall some fact or picture in CMMRS than the blurb in FA, but that is just me. I didnt read all of CMMRS either though. I stopped like halfway through the parasites section i think and im sure that didnt hurt me in anyway. definitely go with what works for you - CMMRS helped things stick with me so I stuck with it. If this is not the case for you, look for some other sources, and there are definitely a lot of them out there.
 
Top