I'm from a Canadian medical school that has incorporated a new curriculum that is based on what they call a "spiral." There are no discrete blocks for topics (i.e. cardiology block, GI block etc); instead, each week is a "theme" (e.g. osteoarthritis) and the week will cover a variety of physiological, pathophysiological, epidemiological etc topics via lectures, small groups and labs. These themes are interspersed and have no "real" flow to them; one week we'll be studying immunology, and then the next week will be a specific subsection of GI etc etc. While the idea behind it is that students will hopefully be able to "spiral" and "connect the weeks" so that we won't forget blocks, the huge downside is that it makes studying for the USMLE exams very difficult because we've covered specific subsections of blocks in a haphazard manner, have no way of doing a thorough review because our notes are just every where. Canadian students don't need to study for the USMLE exams for obvious reasons but I'm looking at residencies in the states and want to do well in them.
I've read through the threads and guides. I've taken out a subscription to pathoma, plan to get a subscription to UWorld once I enter my dedicated study period. I've downloaded the Zanki deck. I've bought First Aid 2018. However, as I'm going through First Aid, I'm realising that I don't have a good amount of the requisite knowledge to fully understand and memorize the material because of the aforementioned issue above and the fact that our curriculum is very soft on the hard sciences; so far we have had very little training in biochemistry, immunology, microbiology, and pharm, but focus more on population health and the social side of medicine. I was hoping to:
1) Take out a subscription for Boards and Beyond and go through the videos so that I could have a more didactic delivery of the material that I'm not 100% familiar with, and would help me establish a proper foundation of the material.
2) Take out a subscription for Sketchy Micro and Pharm to brush up on the microbiology and pharm that I'm sorely lacking in.
I plan to focus more on the boards material than our class during this semester; I have had no issues passing and have consistently scored in the top 5-10% range in our class this year while balancing my graduate studies also.
I was hoping that others would have feedback for this plan or recommend any other resources perhaps? Any input would be appreciated.
I've read through the threads and guides. I've taken out a subscription to pathoma, plan to get a subscription to UWorld once I enter my dedicated study period. I've downloaded the Zanki deck. I've bought First Aid 2018. However, as I'm going through First Aid, I'm realising that I don't have a good amount of the requisite knowledge to fully understand and memorize the material because of the aforementioned issue above and the fact that our curriculum is very soft on the hard sciences; so far we have had very little training in biochemistry, immunology, microbiology, and pharm, but focus more on population health and the social side of medicine. I was hoping to:
1) Take out a subscription for Boards and Beyond and go through the videos so that I could have a more didactic delivery of the material that I'm not 100% familiar with, and would help me establish a proper foundation of the material.
2) Take out a subscription for Sketchy Micro and Pharm to brush up on the microbiology and pharm that I'm sorely lacking in.
I plan to focus more on the boards material than our class during this semester; I have had no issues passing and have consistently scored in the top 5-10% range in our class this year while balancing my graduate studies also.
I was hoping that others would have feedback for this plan or recommend any other resources perhaps? Any input would be appreciated.
