skull foramina - high or low yield?

[automaton]

are the skull foramina with all those things going in and out of them worth studying?

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[Pox in a box]

are the skull foramina with all those things going in and out of them worth studying?

If you're looking for high yield, just paint your entire Netter Atlas of Anatomy yellow.

 

[b&ierstiefel]

anatomy is pretty low-yield for step 1.

i would say that skull foramina is zero yield.

 

[automaton]

hey andy, a lot of people i talk to say that anatomy is really basic on step1. how basic is it? can you give me some examples? i literally know like... well, let's not mince words... i don't know any anatomy whatsoever. am i going to get questions like qbank? because those questions seem awfully difficult to me. i barely got above 50% after reading and committing FA to memory... what the hell?

 

[b&ierstiefel]

hey andy, a lot of people i talk to say that anatomy is really basic on step1. how basic is it? can you give me some examples? i literally know like... well, let's not mince words... i don't know any anatomy whatsoever. am i going to get questions like qbank? because those questions seem awfully difficult to me. i barely got above 50% after reading and committing FA to memory... what the hell?

hey automaton,

I would focus on anatomy with respect to clinical correlations. You're not gonna have to know random tidbits such as which prominence on which stupid bone where the pronator teres attaches (no clue here...i'm just talking outta my ass). For instance, know stuff like which artery would be involved in a perforated duodenal ulcer. Most of the anatomy on my step 1 (granted it was 5 years ago) dealt with neuroanatomy...and those were like 3 questions. One of the questions involved looking at an arteriogram where the answer involved the middle cerebral artery. But this question was in a clinical context...stuff you learn during your neuroscience course in 2nd year.

To study anatomy, I used two books: High-Yield anatomy (short book which even I didn't have the patience to finish reading) and the Underground Clinical Vignettes for anatomy (I thought this was useful).

BTW Qbank questions were very nitpicky compared to the exams I encountered on the real step 1. I scored like 50-60% on the Qbank and got a 252/99. So don't fret if you don't get like all the Qbank questions right. Just relax and learn from the mistakes you made...that will make you that much more knowledgable for step 1.

 

[Espion]

The skull has foramina? ~the 3rd year

Answer: low yield

Don't waste your time on anatomy unless it is neuroanatomy (brainstem and spinal cord cross-sections especially) or in relation to embryology (get a HY embryology book and know what vessels supply the hindgut, rotation, etc. ... *very* general stuff).

 

[automaton]

thank you, good gentlemen. i literally started from scratch yesterday with anatomy because i didn't remember a damn thing. was just kind of anxious because i don't even know the basics - the major arm vessels, leg vessels, nerves of hand or whatever. hell i didn't even know what happened to the abdominal aorta. i thought qbank was ******ed but felt terrible because i had spent a whole day on anatomy and neuroanatomy and still got a crappy score. i started out reading HY anatomy but realized that would quickly make me suicidal so i stopped at about page 5 and devoted my time to FA.

 

[Espion]

thank you, good gentlemen. i literally started from scratch yesterday with anatomy because i didn't remember a damn thing. was just kind of anxious because i don't even know the basics - the major arm vessels, leg vessels, nerves of hand or whatever. hell i didn't even know what happened to the abdominal aorta. i thought qbank was ******ed but felt terrible because i had spent a whole day on anatomy and neuroanatomy and still got a crappy score. i started out reading HY anatomy but realized that would quickly make me suicidal so i stopped at about page 5 and devoted my time to FA.

Heh, I hope you aren't calling me a gentleman...

I amend my post to also include brachial plexus injuries, but those are easy anyway.

Studying pure anatomy is a giant waste of time.

Stick with neuroanatomy (as in, Bob sustains major trauma to his spine. Bob now has ipsilateral spastic paralysis and contralateral loss of pain and temperature sensation...where is the lesion? Picture: crossection. Commence the nightmare of arrows and letters...), the HY embryology book (which is a skinny read and it is necessary) and you'll be golden.

Spend most of your time on what counts: Path and Phys.


Edit: Might help: Look what I found!

 

[Koko]

Lower than a flea on the underbelly of a legless hound dog.

Like someone said, anatomy only as it is clinically significant.

You definitely get points for the most random question of the day.

 

[GiJoe]

that shiznit is low yield...just know what FA tells you and ur fine

 

[automaton]

that shiznit is in first aid. i guess it could be clinically significant if the jugular vein got too big and compressed CN 9 10 11 or something. or maybe bone growth cutting off CN 7 8. oh well, it was a pretty dumb question since i ended up memorizing it without too much effort. but the rest of the discussion was helpful so thanks to everyone.

 

[joshua_msu]

Heh, I hope you aren't calling me a gentleman...

Stick with neuroanatomy (as in, Bob sustains major trauma to his spine. Bob now has ipsilateral spastic paralysis and contralateral loss of pain and temperature sensation...where is the lesion? Picture: crossection. Commence the nightmare of arrows and letters...), the HY embryology book (which is a skinny read and it is necessary) and you'll be golden.


Edit: Might help: Look what I found!

Somewhere abouve the decussation in the medulla?

Shows how much I remember.

 

[bigfrank]

high yield imho

 

[Idiopathic]

Way too HY on COMLEX. No questions on my USMLE.

 

[Ruban]

People often say HY embryo is very good. I was looking thru it last nite, and while lots of it seems good, there seems to be lots of extraneous info as well. I don't have the book handy, but there would be stuff like "Syndrome A is caused by various mutations, including Hz5l, G2LL, and M4ds..."
And the gene names would be bolded. Is that REALLY high yield? 'Cause there's no way I can remember that. I can certainly remember stuff like "Edwards syndrome is chromosome 18 trisomy." But some of the other stuff is just wacky...

 

[automaton]

i'm no expert but the only signalling molecules i'm ever going to bother learning are SHH, BMP, Wnt... those kinds of really major ones. i'm just going to associate a few molecules to major organ systems and hope for the best. as for hz5l g2ll and m4ds, i read hy embryo just a few days ago and don't recognize those things at all, and i haven't the faintest idea what syndrome A is...

 

[Espion]

Somewhere above the decussation in the medulla?

Shows how much I remember.

Its a description of Brown-Sequard syndrome. Its a hemi-section of the cord. I won't ever forget it because I've seen it. Drunk driver rear-ended a couple on the freeway.

 

[NurseyK]

IMHO.....if you are taking COMLEX, I had a handfull of skull bone/foramena questions on both Steps 1 and 2.

Kat