This block is notoriously the most difficult block, mostly because of the amount of material and introduction of pathology! This block covers the fundamentals of pathology, neoplasia, and infection, and continues immunology from block 4.
Resources
For PBL
- Basic Knowledge
- Pathoma: This was the most used resource by our class! The first four chapters cover all the basic pathological principles that you need for the block. We also covered chapter five in the PBL faculty objectives.
- Sketchy Micro: continuing from block 4, some fungal and viral infections are introduced in this block. This block is not as micro heavy as block 8, but sketchy is definitely helpful. Try to get through the bugs and antimicrobials that were covered in the lectures.
- Sketchy Pharm: helpful for the antineoplastic drugs and antiretrovirals – these showed up a lot on our test, but be sure to study the corresponding lectures too!
- Robbins: this is the primary textbook for second year! Most people don’t read a ton of it, but it can be helpful for objectives and clarifying concepts. There are also review questions that are really helpful! If textbook reading is not your thing, don’t feel obligated to read it. It can be time-consuming, but it can help to connect things together!
- Boards and Beyond and First Aid are especially helpful for genetics concepts!!
- Lectures: our KBE was extremely lecture-heavy. If Dr. Cannon is the block director still, do not punt the lectures!
- Practice Questions
- AMBOSS: now is a great time to start doing practice questions. I would recommend picking qbank subjects pertinent to what you’re learning in PBL, and completing as many as you can
- UWorld: some people did begin UWorld during this block. Although this is possible, most people in our class recommend saving UWorld for later, and starting around the beginning of block 7.
For IPC:
- Make sure you understand all of the questions and cases from the small group sessions. I would recommend that you go through a blank version of the cases after you have gone to small group to study for the exam.
- Study the lectures! Most of our questions were straight from lecture slides
- For ECGs:
- For imaging:
- Some people used Herring’s Learning Radiology: Recognizing the Basics. This is a really helpful reference, but goes too in-depth for what you’re expected to know.
- Some used the self-quizzes and learning material on Radiology Masterclass.
- For the most part, you won’t be expected to know much more than really obvious imaging findings. Study the small group sessions and lectures and you should be fine!
General Advice
- If Dr. Cannon is still the block director, be sure to study the lectures closely! A lot of our exam came straight from lectures. He tends to focus on genetics a lot, so be sure you’ve reviewed the concepts in lecture and from PBL cases. Basically, memorize the lectures.
- Robbins can be a great reference, but don’t be bent on reading through all of the relevant chapters as it is very dense and time-consuming.
- Make sure you study the pathology labs. Those are easy points that you don’t want to miss! Don’t just know the images, make sure you understand the disease processes and other details that she presents for each case! The exam expects you to not only pick out what a case is but to know other details about the disease as well!
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Make sure you balance your time so you can take care of yourself!!! You will be more productive if you take breaks and have a reasonable schedule.