Path--how to approach it?

[HiddenTruth]

---

Members don't see this ad.

I have path this semester and that is all we are taking other than a clinical skills class and actual clinic....it is abt 20 credit hours but we're hardly in class for more than 15. I just had my first test, and mann it broke me in half. Granted, there was a lot of genetics which I dislike but I jus don't know how to approach the class. I've done really well in the past classes, but I don't know where I went wrong. I spend a lot of time reading individual chapters In the big and baby robiins book (since that is what the instructors use) but i noticed this time that i ran out fo time to sufficiently go through everything multiple times. I mean you can do the material, but if you dont look at it for two weeks then u might as well be at starting pt A...know what I mean. I don't know whether I should try to read quicker and just read the bloody chapters 3-4 x each...cuz the way I work is that I don't get through stuff more than twice and that is because I put a lot of time into it the first time (sometimes 6-7 hours just for ONE chapter). And waht screwed me this time was that I ran out of time and didnt have enough time to review everything. Any suggestions, perhaps from people who did well, becuse I do wanna learn the material and DO WELL! Please let me know, thanks.

 

[nuclearrabbit77]

Originally posted by HiddenTruth
I spend a lot of time reading individual chapters In the big and baby robiins book (since that is what the instructors use) but i noticed this time that i ran out fo time to sufficiently go through everything multiple times.

this is the problem. repetition and streamlining is useful. i would not recommend reading all of baby robbins + big robbins.

 

[zedpol]

This might sound stupid but go through big robbins and be able to explain all the pictures....a good portion of the path concepts come from those pictures, learning those pictures is a lot easier for me than going through all the text that tries to explain the pic. Also, don't get lost in the miniscule details, although sometimes it is hard to know what is a worthless detail.

Good luck,

Zedpol

 

[Bevo]

having the same issue.

I'll be sticking to the big robbin pictures and baby robbins for overall reading I think.

or big robbin pictures and path secrets
or big robbin pictures and stars
or .....brs?

bleh

had the same issue thus far. I lost a lot of time early on trying to read the big robbins and because of that Ive fallen behind in immunology and behavioral (I think...feels kinda worthless at the moment) and pharm is just beating it into my head, which hurts

 

[kcrd]

My advice is to read the big robbins, but focus on your lecture notes. Keep big robbins open when you are studying the notes so that you can refer to the images, and read a section if the notes are not clear.

 

[lindyloohoo]

Reading baby robbins multiple times is pretty easy...look at big robbins pictures while you're reading if possible. Then I usually correlate it to BRS and to top it all off......questions from robbins question book. I swear to you almost everything important in that book is either bolded or "keyed" in BRS. The question book is money.

 

[coldsteel]

I had good luck with reading the big robbins, then looking at the BRS to review and (more importantly) get a better idea of what is important. I also used the Robbins review book and did all the questions in there. If you can get 75-80% of those questions right the first time through you have nothing to worry about.
I also found it helpful to make an outline of each robbins chapter as I read it. That way I would only have to read the whole chapter once, and could then use my outlines for the mindless memorization.

 

[yaah]

I suggest going to the webpath site at The U of Utah (can put "webpath" in google, it should pop up), they have numerous tests that one can take, both on basic and organ-system based pathology. Like question books, it explains why your answer was right or wrong after you guess.

I should say, this is obviously more helpful after you have studied a bit, so you are familiar with things.

Best way to study path: Don't cram. Study every day, go over what that day's lectures were, review previous days.Cramming path doesn't work very well. Go to lectures, but don't show up late.

p.s. I like that suggestion of looking at the pictures in Robbins - hepful suggestion in general for many textbooks.

 

[kirk002]

What's been working for me is reading big Robbins usually just once through, but doing questions along the way from the Robbins Q book and from Webpath (this helps put the concepts together). I would also use BRS path to narrow in on the main topics before a test.

kirk

 

[Stinger86]

Both coldsteel and yaah brought up some good points.

Take gastrointestinal pathology for example: the first thing I would do is read the whole chapter in baby robbin's and pay close attention to any pictures shown. I then fly through the GI path section of BRS Pathology to review important board concepts (and sometimes to help tie different diseases and presenting symptoms/lab values together). I then go through the Robbin's Review of Pathology book and work all the questions associated with the GI unit. Whether I answer questions correctly or miss them completely, I always read the explanations for each question. Sometimes after Robbin's review, I browse WebPath, which is a great place to get some added semi board-quality questions and histology. Lastly, I go through all the lecture slides on that unit from the lecturer at my school. All this takes about 5-8 hours, which I usually don't do in one sitting.

I also don't attend class at my school (which frees up time). While I don't necessarily recommend this for you, my experience in pathophysiology this semester has been horrid, what with every broken-english speaker in the free world teaching our units. I usually just print out all the slides for a given exam and look over them once I've finished doing all the stuff I've already written about. That way, I can learn the additional picky details that my professors want us to know for our med school exams, but are probably not going to be important to us for the boards and wards.

One final thing I almost forgot: No matter what kind of pathology you're studying (renal, cv, GI, etc), always try your best to relate what you're learning now to what you've already studied. A LOT of disease presents with multi-systemic involvement, and I think it really helps to take what you've already learned about a disease and add to it as you go (sorta like writing a short story about each disease and its manifestations). For instance, you'll touch on Wegener's granulomatosis in respiratory, vascular, upper GI, and renal path. Try your best to relate everything together and understand why it is how it is instead of just memorizing isolated lines of facts.

Anyway, this is my usual method. It's worked out really well for me, and hopefully you can find some utility in it. Good luck!