Topics I don't want to see on Step 1

[Jaded Soul]

There was a post like this last year, but I can't find it...

Anyways, for whatever reason, these things just won't stick in my head; so in honour of this stress-inducing test, a little list. (Yeah, yeah...of course these things will be on the exam, but that doesn't mean I have to like it!)

- enzyme pathways and deficiencies

- jobs of specific cytokines or interleukins

- HLA disease associations

- osteoporosis vs. osteopetrosis vs. osteomalacia vs. Pagets

- specific courses of arteries and nerves (i.e. which muscles they run between)

- triangles of the neck and the structures they contain

- epidemiology / specific percent prevelence of a diseases

- diseases of the skin

- "Mr. Smith has condition X, Y, and Z and is suffering from [insert random infection here]. Which of the drugs below is the first choice for therapy?" -- and all the answer choices belong to the same class of antibiotic...

There's many more, but these are just some that get to me the most because I keep missing practice questions about them.

Please add to the list, and good luck knocking them off before test day!

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[toofache32]

Those vague associations that always end up in a question like "A bridge-painter from Milwaukee gets a rash. What is the diagnosis?"

 

[hj2005]

the list is endless but let me add:

autonomics added in sequence, what are drugs X Y and Z given the following changes in SBP, DBP, MAP, HR...

 

[deleted4401]

JS,

I started making a list (a lot like yours - w/the HLAs and ILs and the bone dz), with the premise of filling in the gaps and making a high yield sheet for the two days before the test to just jam all of it into my head. Unfortunately, the list is getting a bit long, and time is getting short?

Do y'all want to help me by taking a section?

I can try to gather up all the dz markers, hlas, and cancer ass'd antigen/markers ...

Anyone else want to take a section?

Later,
Simul

 

[Scanner]

Which of the following will confirm Pemphigus vulgaris over bullous pemphigoid? Who knows they sound too much alike!!

 

[hj2005]

with bullous pemphigoid you get tense bullae because the epidermis is thicker-- the defect is in the basement membrane attachment-- while in PV the defect is desmosomes between epidermal keratinocytes.

so basically, bullous pemphigoid has bullae because the epidermis above the BM is intact. that's the way i remember it.

so, then to differentiate by immunoflourescence, you'll see linear staining around the individual epidermal keratinocytes in PV (antigen being desmoglein, iirc) while in BP you'll get linear staining along the BM (specifically bullous pemphigous antigen 1 or 2, i think)...

 

[tega]

all of behavioral science.

 

[DrQuinn]

Anything about biochem, histology, neuroanatomy, micro...

shoot, anything from first year.

Q, DO

 

[kcrd]

I hate all those nit-picky molecular questions that I see on Q bank. I hope to god I don't see to many of those on the real thing. Oh, and physio calculations - ugh.

 

[hj2005]

thought of another-- karyotype analysis. something we were never taught.

 

[tega]

Mycology
Parasitology (well except for malaria)

 

[jayhawk]

all of those "combo" disorders...

like von hippel landau, sturge-weber, MEN I & II, blah blah blah

they each have like a gazillion diseases that are in each of them and there is no easy way to memorize, unless someone has a great mnemonic (hint hint hint)

phys calculations, biochemical pathways and enzymes, urrrghh!
i guess i'll see soon, my test is a week from today!

 

[Jaded Soul]

Did anyone get taught about sphingomyelin and the lysosomal storage diseases by their school? I never even heard of sphingomyelin before getting First Aid, and that's after 2 years of med school preceded by 4 years getting a biochemistry degree.

More...

- neurofibromatosis, hemangiomas, tuberous sclerosis and other bizarre neoplams

- ATP / kcals of energy from fats vs. carbs vs. protein

- specific inhibitors of specific enzymes in any of the biochem pathways

- independent t-test vs. paired t-test vs. ANOVA vs. chi-squared

- germ cell tumors

 

[ajl102]

Pharmacology.

 

[ajl102]

Kidding. But just think how nice that would be....

 

[cookypuss3]

I second the motion that nothing from first year be on it.

As for lysosomal storage diseases, damned things, we learned them in both biochem and path... but do you think I know them now? They're all the same, it all sounds alike, and I don't care!!!

 

[Kosmo]

Originally posted by Jaded Soul
Did anyone get taught about sphingomyelin and the lysosomal storage diseases by their school? I never even heard of sphingomyelin before getting First Aid, and that's after 2 years of med school preceded by 4 years getting a biochemistry degree.

Yup, we learned about'em in biochem (1st year) and again in pathobio (2nd year.) They (along with the glycogen storage diseases) make for good step 1 questions because they are well defined genetic diseases, and there are variety of each to choose from.
Right now, I think the only thing I remember about these diseases is that Tay-Sachs has a relatively high incidence in Ashkenazic Jews.

PS: And Hunter 'aims for the X.' Thanks First Aid .

 

[cookypuss3]

Damn them.... took that sumbitch USMLE today... am trying to recover from that ran-over-by-a-truck feeling... I wish HLA disease associations were as nit picky as it got... biochem up the wazoo... just praying for passage!

 

[Jaded Soul]

Bringin' it back...

- porphyrias
- drugs for psychiatric disorders
- helminths
- physio "arrow" questions
- "A patient presents with every important classic symptom of a given disease. Which of the following completely obscure findings is most likely in this patient?"

 

[rubyness]

What's in the pharyngeal arches.

 

[tega]

Originally posted by rubyness
What's in the pharyngeal arches.

i m thinking thats the origin of some facial structures...and can be used to deduce thier innervations also......dagg embryo seem so long ago

 

[tega]

lab diagnosis...for bacteria, or virus.heck lab diagnosis for all microbiology......i mean....am i really going to be plating strep A.

 

[kcrd]

Well, if I don't pass this stupid thing, I may be plating strep A

Anyway, I don't want to see a clinical description of a viral illness followed by answer choices like, "this virus is a) positive ssRNA b) negative ssRNA.... etc." My brain will simply not accept this kind of information.

 

[doc05]

it seems like everyone wants to get through medical school without learning a damn thing.

p.s. how could your school have skipped lysosomal storage diseases?

 

[tega]

Originally posted by kcrd
Well, if I don't pass this stupid thing, I may be plating strep A

Anyway, I don't want to see a clinical description of a viral illness followed by answer choices like, "this virus is a) positive ssRNA b) negative ssRNA.... etc." My brain will simply not accept this kind of information.

\


heehe i just took the miniboards for micro....alot of the questions were like that...the most hilarious was when..they give how the patient presents..ad u r thinking..great i know this..but then they tell u the viru/bacteria......and ask, how would u culture it
i just wished there was an extra option saying

f) send it to the lab technician

 

[Jaded Soul]

Originally posted by doc05
it seems like everyone wants to get through medical school without learning a damn thing.

p.s. how could your school have skipped lysosomal storage diseases?

Obviously because my school is completely inferior to yours. Or it could be because we were in the first year of a curriculum overhaul.

This is the single most stressful event many of us have faced and it helps to blow off a little steam by posting things like this. Be happy if you're done with it and r-e-l-a-x. You don't need to condemn people and make them feel bad in the process.

 

[cowboy_x]

i hate the ones that describe a situation in which a doctor needs to say something, often something simple, to a patient, and you have to pick the best way to say it...it's like:

hello mr. smith, i'm dr. X, how are you?
hello mr. smith, i
m dr. X, how's it going?
etc.

i mean what the f*ck!?

X