Really need some help on where to go (MS1)

[mountainplayer987]

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Hi everyone. I am currently in my first year and I go to a school where it is all PBL based. There is no real guidance on what we are supposed to study or what we will even be tested on, all we have been told is respiratory since the curriculum is systems based. With that said, I spoke with upperclassmen and they told me to use FA as my guideline to sort of come up with a curriculum so I know what I should be studying. However after looking at FA it is more of review book rather than an actual learning book. I have heard so much info on using Boards and Beyond, Pathoma, FA, etc. Is there any advice you can give me so that I can still pass the school exams but also make sure I am on track for doing well on Step I. Would boards and beyond be good enough to learn the materials and then supplement with Pathoma or sketchy? I am very lost thanks guys!

 

[7331poas]

The keyword is use FA as a "guideline". You are right, it is a review book. Thats why you studying the topics in it further. Absolutely use BnB and pathoma.

 

[mountainplayer987]

The keyword is use FA as a "guideline". You are right, it is a review book. Thats why you studying the topics in it further. Absolutely use BnB and pathoma.

Do you think BnB + pathoma would be enough to learn the material in FA while also passing school tests? Our exams are pass/fail

 

[Ho0v-man]

Aren’t there assigned textbooks/reading?

 

[Roverreign]

This is just my opinion. All of those resources are review material. I'm a firm believer that just using review material to learn physiology and pathology is not the best way to get a deep understanding and only gives you a surface level of understanding. I personally use textbooks, like Robbins and school-assigned readings, and find it very helpful.

 

[Newyawk]

This is just my opinion. All of those resources are review material. I'm a firm believer that just using review material to learn physiology and pathology is not the best way to get a deep understanding and only gives you a surface level of understanding. I personally use textbooks, like Robbins and school-assigned readings, and find it very helpful.

Theres definitely merit to this. Instead of using robbins, my suggestion would be to supplement the review sources with your class readings (skim) and with topic specific questions (pretest, etc).

 

[Iz_FtB]

The right way to use first aid is as an abbreviated list of topics to master for a given subject. Obviously just knowing the small blurb on autoimmune hemolytic anemia in first aid won't be enough. Following up with reading some of the suggested text books or videos will round out your knowledge. If you can look at the little first aid blurb and recognize all the material that is missing, you know you're on the right track.

 

[Goro]

Hi everyone. I am currently in my first year and I go to a school where it is all PBL based. There is no real guidance on what we are supposed to study or what we will even be tested on, all we have been told is respiratory since the curriculum is systems based. With that said, I spoke with upperclassmen and they told me to use FA as my guideline to sort of come up with a curriculum so I know what I should be studying. However after looking at FA it is more of review book rather than an actual learning book. I have heard so much info on using Boards and Beyond, Pathoma, FA, etc. Is there any advice you can give me so that I can still pass the school exams but also make sure I am on track for doing well on Step I. Would boards and beyond be good enough to learn the materials and then supplement with Pathoma or sketchy? I am very lost thanks guys!

Please, please please go talk to your Faculty, especially the course coordinator.

The look over the course's learning objectives. If they don't give you those, shame on them!!!

You're 100% spot on about FA.

Ask for practice questions which should give you a thrust of what level of knowledge is to be expected.

And read this (update coming real soon!):
Goro's Guide to Success in Medical School (2017 edition)

 

[thegreengreatdragon]

My curriculum is also essentially PBL-based (not exactly traditional PBL, but similar enough). I've been using Harrison's a lot, as well as Boards and Beyond. If you like videos, Osmosis, CRASH!, and Armando Hasudungan's videos are super duper helpful.

 

[ed*26]

I also go to a PBL-based school. To supplement what the above posters said, for learning physiology I really like Costanzo -- it's concise, straightforward, and will get you conversational on the topic pretty quickly. Several of my classmates used Osmosis.

 

[thegreengreatdragon]

And I agree with Goro that you need to look at the learning objectives--since you're worried about exams, those LO's should be guiding you, since they should be what you'll be tested on.

 

[Taddy Mason]

Ask for practice questions which should give you a thrust of what level of knowledge is to be expected.

This. Guyton and Hall and Robbins both have solid question books. You can also get old NBME preclinical exams. Also, I know this goes against standard SDN advice, but I would recommend using a Step 1 qbank while studying and taking notes from the explanations if your school is truly systems based and covers phys and path at the same time. You won't remember questions/answers as much as people claim, and even for ones you do thinking about logic behind why the correct answer is correct, why the wrong choices are wrong, and reading or at least skimming the explanation just provides more reinforcement of concepts.

 

[Newyawk]

This. Guyton and Hall and Robbins both have solid question books. You can also get old NBME preclinical exams. Also, I know this goes against standard SDN advice, but I would recommend using a Step 1 qbank while studying and taking notes from the explanations if your school is truly systems based and covers phys and path at the same time. You won't remember questions/answers as much as people claim, and even for ones you do thinking about logic behind why the correct answer is correct, why the wrong choices are wrong, and reading or at least skimming the explanation just provides more reinforcement of concepts.

Second guyton and robbins. Used those with great results. Also def use a step 1 qbank

 

[softball2344]

I got to a half lecture/ half PBL curriculum and found a couple systems books that were GREAT! (Lilly’s for cardio, principles of pulmonary medicine by weinberger for plum) and the rest I used Robbins or Harrison’s. I preferred these over review books since I need more depth but others have done well with review sources.

Your school should at least be telling you what diseases to cover, etc but if not First Aid is a good guide.

Edit: also recommend using q-bank or starting Zanki once you’ve done a couple systems, I really regret not starting these sooner

 

[7331poas]

Dont waste your time with your school's LOs since they are probably god awful unless they are directly following FA. I would fish out exactly how much you need to study the school's content in order to pass. Your goal should be to stay as board focused as possible and still pass.

 

[aldol16]

Costanzo is a great source for physio and Goljan Rapid Review is a good source for path, although it's in the form of bullet points. Pathoma is a good resource to use when studying path for an exam.

 

[thegreengreatdragon]

Dont waste your time with your school's LOs since they are probably god awful unless they are directly following FA. I would fish out exactly how much you need to study the school's content in order to pass. Your goal should be to stay as board focused as possible and still pass.

I highly disagree with this statement. LOs can be really important. In undergraduate, maybe your professors didn't use LOs properly, but in a PBL curriculum, you really should be. We spend about two hours crafting LOs every week with our professors so that we can figure out exactly what we need to learn. If your school's LOs are not good, then I'd recommend talking to faculty about it.

 

[thegreengreatdragon]

Also, in general in a PBL curriculum, at least from my experience, a lot of it feels like scrambling. There's a certain amount of trust you have to place in long term benefits of the curriculum. Short term, PBL seems awful and pointless. However, my school has a PBL campus and a traditional campus, and our PBL students have done better than the trad students on the 1st year basic science exams given at the end of the year. You have to be willing to suspend disbelief, attempt to learn what you're supposed to learn (keeping boards in mind, of course, I'm not saying you should ignore them), and trust the longitudinal learning that is inherent in PBL-based curriculum.

 

[7331poas]

Also, in general in a PBL curriculum, at least from my experience, a lot of it feels like scrambling. There's a certain amount of trust you have to place in long term benefits of the curriculum. Short term, PBL seems awful and pointless. However, my school has a PBL campus and a traditional campus, and our PBL students have done better than the trad students on the 1st year basic science exams given at the end of the year. You have to be willing to suspend disbelief, attempt to learn what you're supposed to learn (keeping boards in mind, of course, I'm not saying you should ignore them), and trust the longitudinal learning that is inherent in PBL-based curriculum.

Because those basic science examd are written by faculty. I would be more surprised if they significantly outpreformed on step 1. The issue is not being strictly board relevant in PBL (which many schools aren't).

 

[thegreengreatdragon]

Because those basic science examd are written by faculty. I would be more surprised if they significantly outpreformed on step 1. The issue is not being strictly board relevant in PBL (which many schools aren't).

You certainly make a fair point there; I said that more to allay OP's fears than any out-size sense of superiority.
I am definitely very curious to see step 1 scores at this campus (it's a new campus, and the first batch haven't taken the boards yet). If outperforming does occur (frankly, I think it won't--I think the scores will probably be on par with the traditional campus), I think it would be less because of the curriculum itself and more because the students who choose this program tend to be highly motivated and therefore willing to do the extra studying for the boards that traditional students don't need.