Unbelievably Frustrated

[xanthomondo]

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I just need to rant, maybe I'm wrong and being short-sighted, maybe I'm not, give me your perspective.

I'm starting to get the point where I don't want to study anymore. Not because I'm tired of it, but because I know it won't lead to a good grade.

We had a pharm test, and I studied so damn much and knew every drug, its class, its mechanism of action, its use, major side effects, major contraindications, etc. If there were major drug interactions (ie some diuertics and digoxin, etc) I had those memorized too.

We had a lecture on statins, 50-some slides for an hour lecture. One slide mentions "statin-associated myopathy" and sixteen drug interactions/other causes that can produce it. So what kind of questions show up on the exam? Nothing about uses, mechanisms, etc of statins. No, the question comes up "which of the following with a statin produces myopathy." Are we really expected to memorize a list of 16 drugs? The entire test was like this, there was barely anything about main uses or big picture concepts.

Is this the kind of crap that they test on the boards? Or do they more test the general knowledge? We have more exams coming up and I think I should study symptoms and side effects from the least common to the most common because thats how the test questions are weighted: knowing the rare obscure facts will get you 70% of the questions right, and knowing the big picture/main concepts is the last 30%; I feel it should be the other way around.

I don't know, I absolutely knew these drugs inside and out and I was less than a point from failing the exam. I'm just frurstrated.

 

[MilkmanAl]

We just had a very similar exam over cancer drugs where we were extensively drilled on the uses and toxicities of various drugs but had only a couple questions on that topic. Instead, the question would go something like "blah blah, vignette crap, patient develops respiratory issues," so you think "oh, that's bleomycin." The question continues to say "you gave this patient bleomycin. What's the best course of treatment for these side effects?" Now what in the hell is that all about? We learned NOTHING on that front. Seriously, nothing at all. What's even more depressing is that UAMS is notoroious for poor performance on the pharm and path NBME's, and tests that make me think I don't know what I'm doing or am studying incorrectly despite knowing the material we're given aren't exactly boosting my confidence.

Anyway, the moral of the story is that sometimes you just have to eat a test. No matter how well you prepared, it wasn't going to boost your grade too much. I'm a conceptual learner, too, so I feel your pain on the minutiae front. Just know that it'll serve you well later. Right now, it's not so good for the grades, but when you can integrate the important things you've learned and put them to use instead of just knowing little details about things, you'll be doing fine.

Oh, by the way, you are expected to memorize that list of 16 drugs, unfortunately.

 

[shreypete]

I'm having a similar problem in Pathology, Pathophysiology and Microbiology....but I feel burned out (funny thing is that classes have just started here and I haven't even been doing serious study ever since they started.) But I guess it's because I had a very short summer break. That and the transition to this year is a bit hard (coz these subjects are just so bloody vast.)

 

[physics junkie]

Study for the step and for your knowledge.

By the way, that example you gave is a side effect-drug relation...

 

[KSDeacon]

milkman...this sounds way too similar what i'm going to have this coming wednesday. We're in our genetics and neoplasia module, and they dropped 31 chemo drugs on us (class, administration, effects, mechanism etc), and i'm pretty sure that's exactly how our questions are going to be written...

 

[nogolfinsnow]

I just need to rant, maybe I'm wrong and being short-sighted, maybe I'm not, give me your perspective.

I'm starting to get the point where I don't want to study anymore. Not because I'm tired of it, but because I know it won't lead to a good grade.

We had a pharm test, and I studied so damn much and knew every drug, its class, its mechanism of action, its use, major side effects, major contraindications, etc. If there were major drug interactions (ie some diuertics and digoxin, etc) I had those memorized too.

We had a lecture on statins, 50-some slides for an hour lecture. One slide mentions "statin-associated myopathy" and sixteen drug interactions/other causes that can produce it. So what kind of questions show up on the exam? Nothing about uses, mechanisms, etc of statins. No, the question comes up "which of the following with a statin produces myopathy." Are we really expected to memorize a list of 16 drugs? The entire test was like this, there was barely anything about main uses or big picture concepts.

Is this the kind of crap that they test on the boards? Or do they more test the general knowledge? We have more exams coming up and I think I should study symptoms and side effects from the least common to the most common because thats how the test questions are weighted: knowing the rare obscure facts will get you 70% of the questions right, and knowing the big picture/main concepts is the last 30%; I feel it should be the other way around.

I don't know, I absolutely knew these drugs inside and out and I was less than a point from failing the exam. I'm just frurstrated.

Sounds like our pharm prof switched schools; those are the type of questions we got during pharm too, and they're not representative of Step 1. The type of preparation you did will serve you well for Step 1. Try and learn all the drug info in first aid and do lots of practice questions. Despite not having the best pharm teaching during 2nd year, I felt very confident with pharm going into Step 1 because I basically ignored how it was taught at our school and instead focused on class, mechanism of action, major side effects, and major interactions. And a lot of it will still stick in your head when you start clinical rotations next year.

 

[RySerr21]

I just need to rant, maybe I'm wrong and being short-sighted, maybe I'm not, give me your perspective.

I'm starting to get the point where I don't want to study anymore. Not because I'm tired of it, but because I know it won't lead to a good grade.

We had a pharm test, and I studied so damn much and knew every drug, its class, its mechanism of action, its use, major side effects, major contraindications, etc. If there were major drug interactions (ie some diuertics and digoxin, etc) I had those memorized too.

We had a lecture on statins, 50-some slides for an hour lecture. One slide mentions "statin-associated myopathy" and sixteen drug interactions/other causes that can produce it. So what kind of questions show up on the exam? Nothing about uses, mechanisms, etc of statins. No, the question comes up "which of the following with a statin produces myopathy." Are we really expected to memorize a list of 16 drugs? The entire test was like this, there was barely anything about main uses or big picture concepts.

Is this the kind of crap that they test on the boards? Or do they more test the general knowledge? We have more exams coming up and I think I should study symptoms and side effects from the least common to the most common because thats how the test questions are weighted: knowing the rare obscure facts will get you 70% of the questions right, and knowing the big picture/main concepts is the last 30%; I feel it should be the other way around.

I don't know, I absolutely knew these drugs inside and out and I was less than a point from failing the exam. I'm just frurstrated.

im not trying to be a douche here.......but if you studied and knew every drug, class, mechanism, side effect, contraindications, etc etc then why is that question so difficult? It was a multiple choice right? If you knew everything about the drugs then i dont see why that question is difficult....what am i missing?