Onward

Fourth term is history. Feels great.

Since I had some questions asked of me about the cluster #%@$ that is pathology, I will try to answer them here.

Is it as bad as they say?
Yes. One-thousand times yes. It's tricky too. There are times where I felt confident I knew the material and then I took a practice quiz and scored a 60%. It would be great to study from the beginning like there is a test the following week, though, that is very difficult to do. For just path, there are 4 hours a day of class and lab. We had to prepare and present slides almost every day, do concept maps weekly, and 5 clinicopathological correlate write-ups as well as 3 quizzes and 3 exams. Time management really became critical.

How are the exams?
There are three exams centered on different areas of concentration:
1. General pathology: Inflammation, Infectious Diseases, Fluid and Hemodynamic Disorders, Neoplasia, Molecular, Environmental, Immunology
2. Systemic path I: Pulmonary, Hemopoietic, Cardiovascular, Gastrointestinal, Pediatric
3. Systemic path II: Female (breast, ovary, genital), Male (genitourinary), Endocrine, Forensics, Renal, Bone, Joints, Neuropath

Also, keep in mind, microbiology, physical diagnosis, and nutrition are concurrent classes during the term. While it is nice to study other topics besides path, it becomes more of a distraction.

The first exam is by far the easiest (relatively). It focuses on general concepts which are the foundations for the Systemic Path concepts. For instance, neoplasia focuses on the cellular and molecular changes that occur in different stages of cancer development. Subsequently, in Systemic Path, the emphasis is on the outcome and clinical picture of retinoblastoma, for example. Learning the basics in General will help in Systemic. On the first exam only, we were presented with a gift. The disease names were given in the question stem. This does not happen again. Take full advantage of it.

The second exam is legendary. Many path students consider it the hardest exam in medical school. One of the most difficult parts about it, I found, is that the disease names are not given in the question stem. Not only did we have to figure out the pathological condition, we had to answer a difficult conceptual, histological, clinical, or cellular question about it. If I was on the wrong path figuring out the disease, then I was really lost on the question. Our class average on this exam was the lowest of all three.

The third exam, for the last 2 terms, has been reported as hard as the second. I agree with that sentiment but I did much better on the 3rd exam. After experiencing the second exam, it hit me like a ton of bricks the enormity of what I needed to do to perform better. I decided to change my focus of study. What worked for the first exam, which I did the best in, did not work for the second exam, which I did the worst in. For the third exam, I concentrated more on the lab slides and then briefly went over the notes for subjects not in the lab slides (thought don't wait till the 3rd exam like I did). Lab slides are key for Systemic. Know them instantly.

The amount of knowledge gained in path is enormous and it really started to solidify all that I learned in anatomy, physiology, immuno, biochem, neuro, and especially histology. In all, I loved path. In no other class yet, have I really felt like I was learning diseases, pathologies, disorders......medicine.

It kicked my butt, but it was so worth it.