What are you studying during the break?

[DOCTORSAIB]

Let's get a show of hands of what everyone's studying over the break (assuming you're doing any boards studying). If you could include what source(s) you're using, it'll be helpful to everyone, especially newbie M2's on SDN.

Subject: Immunology
Book: Medical Microbiology and Immunology by Levinson (just doing the immuno section).

Plan is to finish reading the 80+ page immuno section by the end of break.

(Note: This thread is NOT intended to freak people out. It's still very early for boards prep and we have plenty of time to study.)

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[(nicedream)]

Biochem, Kaplan. Maybe some anatomy too.

 

[Tiki]

I'm studying some Neuro because my school did a horrible job in teaching it to us. It is stressing me out, so I figured I'd get it done over break.

Books: Road Map Neuro, HY Neuro

 

[DOCTORSAIB]

I'm studying some Neuro because my school did a horrible job in teaching it to us. It is stressing me out, so I figured I'd get it done over break.

Books: Road Map Neuro, HY Neuro

Yeah, we're in the middle of neuro right now. It's definitely lived up to it's reputation.

Glad to see other members of the team getting an early start on boards. Keep rocking!

 

[DOctorJay]

Books: running through FA only (30pp/day). Not trying to really memorize anything, just want to be familiar and see it all once. If I get real ambitious I may read HY Embryo.

other than that relaxing, putting all the boards prep material together, and starting to think about a schedule for when finals are over.

 

[FLmed08]

anatomy (BRS, HY) & biochem (lippincott). getting a start on it, at least.

 

[DOCTORSAIB]

anatomy (BRS, HY) & biochem (lippincott). getting a start on it, at least.

You know what's a good book for anatomy, "USMLE Roadmap to Anatomy." They just came out with a new 2nd edition last week. Check it out next time you're in the bookstore. See what you think.

I have the 1st edition and plan on running through that badboy in a few weeks. If it wasn't for the emphasis on anatomy/OMM (relatively speaking) on the COMLEX, I'd just review peripheral anatomy, brachial plexus, and cervical plexus for USMLE purposes and call it a day.

 

[JBlue]

USMLE Secrets: I hope to read through the systems that we have covered to date. For those who don't have this book I would highly recommend it. It is a nice alternative to the other review books and it ties things together and helps with the big picture.

General Path and Pharm: we covered these last year and I feel like I need a review before I hit the subject boards in April.

Of course I will probably get nothing done but right now with 2 weeks of break left I am feeling ambitious.

 

[funkless]

Biochem: Kaplan (major) and FA (minor). Printed a ton of flash cards.
Anatomy: FA (major) and BRS (minor). Printed a few flash cards.

Path: Start tomorrow. FA, Goljan, Robbins Review.

 

[Arnold Chiari]

I took step I this past summer and may have some advice to offer. I would recommend starting something that is very memory intensive with a lot of disjointed details, such as: biochem, or micro. Pharm falls under that category too, but likely by this time in the year you have not had enough pharm to review yet.

People will tell you that studying biochem or micro now will only result in you forgeting it by a month from now, which is true, but I can promise you that by the time you study it a second time over spring break it will come back much faster and stay much longer, and by the time it is the summer and you are studying like its your job you will be able to review all of a subject such as biochem or micro in 2 days with excellent comprehension and retention, giving you more time for trying to integrate and understand pathology and physiology.

Also use this time to pick out which books you will be using this upcoming semester and in the summer for your boards prep. I recommend many of the HY series, BRS, micro made ridiculously simple, pathophys for the boards and wards, and ofcourse FA. Also think about purchasing Q-bank. Most important, you don't want to be opening a boards review book for the first time come the summer now and this semester is the time to get well acquainted with all of them; it makes all the difference.

 

[OSUdoc08]

Let's get a show of hands of what everyone's studying over the break

1. NBA Basketball
2. NHL Hockey
3. NFL Football
4. NCAA Football
5. The art of beer drinking

I'll start studying in March or April. I have Goljan's path course to prepare me for the boards.

 

[DOCTORSAIB]

I took step I this past summer and may have some advice to offer. I would recommend starting something that is very memory intensive with a lot of disjointed details, such as: biochem, or micro. Pharm falls under that category too, but likely by this time in the year you have not had enough pharm to review yet.

People will tell you that studying biochem or micro now will only result in you forgeting it by a month from now, which is true, but I can promise you that by the time you study it a second time over spring break it will come back much faster and stay much longer, and by the time it is the summer and you are studying like its your job you will be able to review all of a subject such as biochem or micro in 2 days with excellent comprehension and retention, giving you more time for trying to integrate and understand pathology and physiology.

Also use this time to pick out which books you will be using this upcoming semester and in the summer for your boards prep. I recommend many of the HY series, BRS, micro made ridiculously simple, pathophys for the boards and wards, and ofcourse FA. Also think about purchasing Q-bank. Most important, you don't want to be opening a boards review book for the first time come the summer now and this semester is the time to get well acquainted with all of them; it makes all the difference.

Great advice! My plan is to go through immuno/micro first, and then jump into path since these two subjects are so integrated into path. (general path, cardio, etc).

1. NBA Basketball
2. NHL Hockey
3. NFL Football
4. NCAA Football
5. The art of beer drinking

I'll start studying in March or April. I have Goljan's path course to prepare me for the boards.

Not everyone is as lucky, punk! Haha. Hop on the Step 1 train whenever you're ready. G'luck.

 

[Long Dong]

I took step I this past summer and may have some advice to offer. I would recommend starting something that is very memory intensive with a lot of disjointed details, such as: biochem, or micro. Pharm falls under that category too, but likely by this time in the year you have not had enough pharm to review yet.

People will tell you that studying biochem or micro now will only result in you forgeting it by a month from now, which is true, but I can promise you that by the time you study it a second time over spring break it will come back much faster and stay much longer, and by the time it is the summer and you are studying like its your job you will be able to review all of a subject such as biochem or micro in 2 days with excellent comprehension and retention, giving you more time for trying to integrate and understand pathology and physiology.

Also use this time to pick out which books you will be using this upcoming semester and in the summer for your boards prep. I recommend many of the HY series, BRS, micro made ridiculously simple, pathophys for the boards and wards, and ofcourse FA. Also think about purchasing Q-bank. Most important, you don't want to be opening a boards review book for the first time come the summer now and this semester is the time to get well acquainted with all of them; it makes all the difference.

 

[YouDontKnowJack]

I'm gonna try to mark up my review books.

i still have lots of katzung/trevors to read.
and of course, i have yet to touch Levinson immuno.
i'm gonna try to go through brs path for the 3rd time. Hopefully I'll get through it 15x by june

 

[GuP]

im taking the boards in march..

so over the "break" im gonna do kaplan biochem

 

[chillypalmer]

Biochem-Kaplan
Anatomy-Kaplan
Histo-Kaplan
Embryo-Kaplan
Physio-Kaplan
path-just bootleg goljan audio
turn over FA pages for the above topics.....

I will just be reading through the sections, with one goal, to just finish reading ,no intention to either understand or memorise.Familiarity,familiarity,familiarity with the knowledge base is all I intend now.So there goes my break!

 

[surrender903]

i ve been reviewing neuro a little each day, with putting neuro anatomy and pathways last.


i ve also been busy with some other stuff this past weekend so i was away for the past week..

blah

 

[care bear]

so far just BRS path. . .and just got my qBank activated today!! but i think i'm not going to touch it for a while. it got me excited, though.

and now i'm going to go join my fam for the weekend and not think about the boards

 

[porland]

My plan is to finish Goljan audio and answer all questions from Robbins.

 

[quideam]

I'm reviewing cardiac, pulmonary, and neuro pharm and doing a bunch of reading for the kidney unit (we're on that right now). As for micro and biochem, my plan is to review about 5-6 pages per week of that stuff starting right after the break and until the end of the semester. I figure that as I study more material, i'm going to be able to add more and more topics to the randomized Kaplan questions. Goal --> get through most of those questions by early april (when we end the semester and get time off for boards prep).

 

[missbonnie]

Well, I dont think I'll be "reviewing" anything, but will be reading cardiology physiology in prep for cardio pathophys which starts next week.

I registered for the test (gulp) and am in the process of buying books for the test and generally just organizing resources and figuring out what I need to review before the 4 week review come May. I can already see that it's so easy to buy a TON of books! I probably have way too many but I figure whatever I don't use and mark the hell up, I can always sell to next year's class...

Bonnie

 

[Paws]

I am working through Goljan's tapes and marking up my FA and BRS path/phys. Seems like a good place to start. I find it hard to use FA or brs during the semester, but now with time off I feel more relaxed and can focus and think ahead for the next few organ systems. At first it felt weird to be studying on such a good break, but now I don't care. It's raining outside and I would rather get a move on with this stuff so I don't flip as June comes closer. Some peeps at my school have been studying since last June, which I don't think I could handle at all.

During each organ system, I try and have one excellent book for that system and then just learn the material as well as I can. Review books I find too thin. But I hope to know the material from class, and then use the review books to memorize the real basic factoids.

 

[paramenace]

I am working through Goljan's tapes and marking up my FA and BRS path/phys. Seems like a good place to start. I find it hard to use FA or brs during the semester, but now with time off I feel more relaxed and can focus and think ahead for the next few organ systems. At first it felt weird to be studying on such a good break, but now I don't care. It's raining outside and I would rather get a move on with this stuff so I don't flip as June comes closer. Some peeps at my school have been studying since last June, which I don't think I could handle at all.

During each organ system, I try and have one excellent book for that system and then just learn the material as well as I can. Review books I find too thin. But I hope to know the material from class, and then use the review books to memorize the real basic factoids.

Hitting up some Goljan Audio--my first love--together with FA and some steup-up . Goljan gives an awesome overview of generalized specific concepts (yip, that one somehow made sense, right?). This makes me wet my pants with excitement of actually understanding path and biochem for the first time in a year and a half.
Thanks for the inputs everyone
cheers

 

[surrender903]

*looks at his neuro book*

*looks at his pillow*

*is looking at the same thing*

 

[DOCTORSAIB]

*looks at his neuro book*

*looks at his pillow*

*is looking at the same thing*

Yeah, tell me about it.

 

[Kashue]

Trying to memorize BRS Pathology while doing Robbins Path Q. Trying to integrate the information while annotating my BRS Path. Just missing Golgian audio which I'm thinking of just listening in the car to school during the semester.

The best way to learn path imho!

 

[JulianCrane]

I'll be studying NOTHING! It's vacation time, let's enjoy it. Btw, why even study if, like me, you know you're gonna fail.

 

[care bear]

Trying to memorize BRS Pathology while doing Robbins Path Q. Trying to integrate the information while annotating my BRS Path. Just missing Golgian audio which I'm thinking of just listening in the car to school during the semester.

The best way to learn path imho!

what are the Robbins path questions? thanks-

 

[Taus]

care bear: the robbins review book isn't really your normal review book...it is made up entirely of questions and answers that are cited from big robbins..it has been very helpful for studying for path exams so far and will likely be helpful for the boards

 

[DOCTORSAIB]

care bear: the robbins review book isn't really your normal review book...it is made up entirely of questions and answers that are cited from big robbins..it has been very helpful for studying for path exams so far and will likely be helpful for the boards

 

[Tiki]

The Robbins review book is wonderful. I used that before my first Path exam and it helped soooo much! My exam questions were easy compared to the Robbins questions. I love the Robbins question book.

 

[DOCTORSAIB]

The Robbins review book is wonderful. I used that before my first Path exam and it helped soooo much! My exam questions were easy compared to the Robbins questions. I love the Robbins question book.

Yeah, the questions in the Robbins question book are pretty hard. You have to really know your **** to consistently get 80-90%+. I usually learn the scribe notes really well for class, read/memorize BRS path, annotate the respective Path section in FA, and then quickly read through B&W (great book!).

After I take exams, instead of wasting the next few days being unproductive, I drag my butt to the library and listen to the relevant Goljan audio lectures and make my own notes as I go along. Only then do I do the questions in Robbins question book to test my knowledge and to fill in any gaps. After all that, I still find the questions difficult. Word on the street is that it makes the path questions on Step 1 look relatively easy. Ok, enough rambling...

 

[Taus]

damn thats some dedication right there Saib....I can barely drag my hungover a$$ off the couch in the days following exams.....

I agree that the Robbins q's are awesome for tests....I would be shocked if I got one question wrong on my previous path test after really drilling and learning from the Robbins q's.

 

[Pox in a box]

1. NBA Basketball
2. NHL Hockey
3. NFL Football
4. NCAA Football
5. The art of beer drinking

I'll start studying in March or April. I have Goljan's path course to prepare me for the boards.

Good luck. You hold a lot of stock in Goljan.

 

[OSUdoc08]

Good luck. You hold a lot of stock in Goljan.

No, I'm just not a loser that studies during the holidays.

 

[DOCTORSAIB]

No, I'm just not a loser that studies during the holidays.

Be nice now. There are some people who wanted to get the ball rolling early, including myself. To each their own...

 

[OSUdoc08]

Be nice now. There are some people who wanted to get the ball rolling early, including myself. To each their own...

Although true, it isn't necessary to criticize me for not studying. (See Pox)

 

[DOCTORSAIB]

Although true, it isn't necessary to criticize me for not studying. (See Pox)

True, Pox attacked you, but you attacked some of your fellow teammates by your comment. Don't you agree?

 

[OSUdoc08]

True, Pox attacked you, but you attacked some of your fellow teammates by your comment. Don't you agree?

It's okay to take a break for Christmas. If you don't take a break, you just won't make it.

 

[DOCTORSAIB]

It's okay to take a break for Christmas. If you don't take a break, you just won't make it.

Like I said OSU, to each their own. That, and the fact that not everyone celebrates Christmas, including myself. Ok, I'm out...

 

[Pox in a box]

Although true, it isn't necessary to criticize me for not studying. (See Pox)

I'm saying you hold a lot of stock in Goljan. When's the last time he took Step 1? Just saying this because your comments might be taken literally (as in "If I only study Goljan, I'm going to rock path on Step 1") by someone who does not realize you are a student of Goljan's.

 

[OSUdoc08]

I'm saying you hold a lot of stock in Goljan. When's the last time he took Step 1? Just saying this because your comments might be taken literally (as in "If I only study Goljan, I'm going to rock path on Step 1") by someone who does not realize you are a student of Goljan's.

He writes questions for it.

 

[Pox in a box]

He writes questions for it.

He used to write (supposedly) and that does not mean anyone should think he's "the man." If you think he's as smart as all the test writers that have ever written you're blind. You are going to amazed at how much he misses when you take Step 1. I suggest you go study some other sources because Goljan is not going to nail everything, not even close.

 

[OSUdoc08]

He used to write (supposedly) and that does not mean anyone should think he's "the man." If you think he's as smart as all the test writers that have ever written you're blind. You are going to amazed at how much he misses when you take Step 1. I suggest you go study some other sources because Goljan is not going to nail everything, not even close.

He provides us with review materials for all areas of the boards, and gives us a review course in May in addition to our pathology course.

I'd suggest that you lay off, since you have no idea what you are talking about.

 

[FowlersGap]

i studied renaissance art and architecture in italy this winter

will get around to starting board review in a couple weeks...maybe

 

[Pox in a box]

He provides us with review materials for all areas of the boards, and gives us a review course in May in addition to our pathology course.

I'd suggest that you lay off, since you have no idea what you are talking about.

Woah, easy...like I said earlier, he doesn't write questions now. He's not going to get you a top score. You have to do more yourself.

 

[OSUdoc08]

Woah, easy...like I said earlier, he doesn't write questions now. He's not going to get you a top score. You have to do more yourself.

I agree. That doesn't mean studying on Christmas or New Year's, however. That will not change the end result.

 

[Paws]

People, people, let's not argue. I know it's the holidays but maybe we don't need any more family disagreements.

So, we're all different. That is great! Let's get back to how we are studying for the exam over the break. I am getting my stuff together and really trying to focus on what and how to study. For me, sometimes that's half the battle.

I just ordered the Robbins review book and that is exciting for me. Ok, I know, I have a small, sheltered life. I really like path and so far that has been my best class. I hope that the review book helps me even more in class and especially for the this big honking exam, which is scaring me big time.