Term 4 Daily Schedule

During my first two terms at SGU, I was lucky to have some amazing upper-term roommates. When I was working my way through term 1, they were meandering their way through term 3/4. Before the term started, my roommates made a tentative schedule of how they were going to manage the material. So, I thought I would be pro-active and do the same before term 4 started. Although their schedule worked for them, the study schedule I made went straight into the trash as soon as the term started. I had planned weeks in advance and I soon realized that it was simply unrealistic.

So, during term 4, I made schedules one week at a time. For each day of the week, I wrote down what I wanted to accomplish. If there were 100 microbiology slides to get through. I would split it up into 3 days to make it more manageable. If there were large units in pathology to review, I would split it up into 2-3 days. During my nightly review of the material, I would try to condense the material to one page of notes. The following is a sample of how scheduled my studying: 

7 am -  wake up! (ok, it was almost never 7 am, but I would try to wake up at 7am. I had the hardest time waking up in the morning)

8 am - 12 pm - lecture - usually 2 hours of micro followed by 2 hours of path

12 pm - 1 pm  - lunch and review pathology lab slide and/or watch CPD video to get a general idea of what to expect in lab. 

1-3 pm  - pathology lab about 3-4 times a week OR micro lab (on Fridays post-midterm)

3-5 pm - CPD lab only 2 days a week

5-5:30 pm  - possible nap, snack, shower, facebook, catching up with news, etc

5:30-8:30 pm - try my very best to finish reviewing micro that was taught in lecture

8:30 pm-9:00 pm - dinner and talk to my family. On many nights, my family would eat dinner at the same time as me and we would all facetime during this time. Meal prep was so important this term. Feel free to read more about my meal prep ideas here.
9:00pm-12:30 am - finish as much path as possible.
12:30 am-1:30am - finish pathology slide for next day and finish an initial pre-view of pathology for the following day. (I almost never did any pre-view of the material for microbiology)
~1:45am - sleep!! :)

Of course there were days that I was up much later than 1:30am to prepare for the next day. Irrespective of what happened during the week, I made sure that I finished reviewing the material over the following weekend. For this reason, I organized schedules one week at a time. This is a schedule that worked for me. However, there were many that woke up extremely early and studied and those that slept periodically during the day.

There is no correct or wrong method of handling the material in term 4. I found this pattern to work for me and I stuck with it. As I mentioned here, the only big study schedule change that I made during term 4 was when and how I used pathoma.

Feel free to let me know if you have any questions/comments.
Hope everyone has a great weekend! :)

~N

Term 4: Pathology Lab

Presentations, presentations, presentations! It becomes second nature by the end of the term. Pathology lab is a team-based learning experience that consists of presentations on multiple diseases. Pathology labs are usually held 3 or 4 days of the week and follows the material that is taught in lecture. The pathology department releases lab slides the Friday before each lab week. It is the responsibility of the group to divide up the lab slides. Then, during each lab session which is about 2 hours, each student will present on their designated slide/topic. A clinical tutor will be present during the session to answer questions and clarify material.

Pathology groups: Students are allowed to pick their own groups of about 7-8 people for pathology. For my term, we were only allowed to have 7 people per group. This will probably change for future terms. The department recommends gender and ethnic diversity within the group. I was fortunate to be part of an awesome group. I learned so much from my group members and although we complained about the work in term 4, we all worked well together as a group. :)

Slide distribution: The pathology department will assign the number of slides per lab session. Usually it will be about 7 or 8 slides per session/day. Each slide usually correlates to a specific disease/concept. For my group, there was 1 person who was designated as the slide distributer. By Saturday afternoon of each week, all group members were aware of the slides that they would be presenting on for the following week. We tried to divide up the slides up evenly based on the amount of work required. Groups have different methods of dividing up the slides. For us, we used a google excel document to keep everything clear.

Pathology slide: The pathology department will provide images/slides of a disease process or concept. The student responsible for the slide presentation is required to include the following into a slide presentation: identification, morphology/structural changes, disease name, etiology, pathogenesis, signs and symptoms, investigations for diagnosis, course complications, differentials, highlights, and a possible vignette pertaining to the material. I would highly recommend a template. It will save a lot of time in completing the pathology slides. The benefit of making the pathology slide is that I will never forget the slides that I present on to my team.

How much time do you spend on completing your own pathology slide? 
Usually, each member of the group will have at least 1 if not 2 lab slides to present per day. At the beginning of the term, students in the term ahead of me said that we should spend a maximum of 20 minutes completing the pathology slide. At the beginning of the term, I spent at least an hour if not more per slide. I found that some diseases are much easier to talk about compared to others. As the term progressed, I was able to cut that time to about 30-45 minutes. Completing my slide for the next day would be the last thing I did before I went to bed every night and I would always make time to review my slide during my lunch break right before the lab session. In term 1, instructors would tell us to try to complete our labs over the weekends. I did not find it possible to do this in term 4. I was never ahead on pathology slides. I tried my best to avoid falling behind. I just had to make sure I was right on schedule.

Although tedious, I have to say that I learned a whole lot more than expected from lab sessions. So, I am thankful for a great group! :)

~N

Term 4: The one and only Pathology

16 weeks, 13 credits, 3 exams = 1 important class. Before starting term 4, this 13 credit class seemed daunting. The class is structured to incorporate 2 hours of lectures on a daily basis and 2 hours of lab about 3-4 days of the week. I know, it sounds like it takes up a lot of time. I thought the same on the first day of class. However, the nice thing about this class is that there is repetition. A concept that is taught in lecture will probably be taught by group members in lab. That being said, it is still a lot of material to digest in a short about of time. This is not to scare any future students. It is just to help future students prepare for what is to come. Honestly, the trick to this class, in my opinion, is repetition and finding a method to efficiently learn/remember all the material.

The pathology grade is made up of 1 midterm, 1 final exam, 1 unified quiz, concepts maps that are usually submitted once a week, CPC (these are cases encompassing the material that was just taught. Usually, students have to come up with differentials and have to explain the pathophysiology of the differential. There are 5 CPC for the entire term), and professionalism points. The class begins with general pathology concepts for the first few weeks. Once this is complete, it transitions to a systems based class. We covered 2 systems: Cardiovascular and respiratory systems pre-midterm. Gastrointestinal, hematology, female reproductive, male reproductive, renal, endocrine, bone, and forensics were all covered post-midterm.

There are multiple ways to pass this class. I will provide 2 methods that I used during the term that worked for me. There are 2 methods because I made a slight alteration in my studying after midterm exam. Details on my pathology study schedule can be found below.
1) Pathoma: I love pathoma! I think it is a must-have for term 4. Some may argue that lectures have plenty of information already, why should we add another resource? Believe me, I thought the same. However, I found Pathoma to provide remarkable explanations.

2) Maham's notes. Most SGU students are aware of maham's notes. They are well organized and detailed. So, I would recommend using them.

3) Do not ignore lab images. The unified, midterm, and final will have images from the lab. So, be familiar with lab images.

4) Do not ignore lecture slides. I found that some lecture slides have many abbreviations, but there will be questions directly from the lecture slides.

Pathology has many resources. I tried to consolidate information as much as possible. The following is a brief overview of how I studied pathology for the week. Both methods worked for me. However, there are multiple other methods to learn the material.
          
Pre-midterm strategy:                                                        

Sunday: finish reviewing previous week material - this included lecture slides and Maham's notes. Possibly start pathoma for the upcoming week.

Monday-Thursday: review respective day lab slides and lecture slides

Friday and Saturday: Review the week's material.

Post-midterm strategy: This is when I realized I had to consolidate information more effectively. So, the following is the strategy I used: 

Weekend: In addition to my weekend review of the previous week's material, I tried my best to watch the material pertaining to the following week. If I was not able to complete the pathoma chapter by Sunday night, it meant that I would be up late every single night that week. No matter what, I watched the pathoma chapter before I walked into lecture. In addition, I wrote out or reviewed Maham's notes at least once before walking into lab. This strategy helped me immensely. By the time I walked into lecture, I had already exposed myself to the material twice. 

Weekday: I did not go to bed at night without reviewing the material for the day. As mentioned above, I consolidated everything into one area. My primary resources were lecture notes, pathoma, and Mahams. I took notes in different colors based on the resource it was coming from. For example, we learned about a GI disease called Tropical Sprue. All information about Tropical Sprue from Maham's was in black, pathoma in light blue, and lecture notes in green in one area of my notebook. Although my notes consisted of a crazy mess of colors, it saved so much time at the end of the term and helped me understand the material. Keep in mind that this strategy worked for me, but there are multiple ways to handle and organize the material. 

A huge component of pathology is lab. So, my next post, which can be found here will clearly discuss tips about handling the lab portion of this class.

Thank you for reading! Feel free to comment below or email me at meyouandsgu@gmail.com if you have any questions. Have a great day! :)

~N

Summer Cooking!

I know that the focus of this blog is medical school. However, I try to incorporate meal prep ideas as well. I am currently on summer break between 4th and 5th term. So, I have been doing some light cooking at home with my family. I thought that I would share some ideas of my recent dishes that my family and I made! Enjoy! :)

This rice dish got me through finals week. It is filled with spices which made my kitchen smell amazing! I had this dish in combination with a vegetable dish (not pictured). 

We have been making some healthy salads and of course some great desserts. Pictures are below:

             

Right: LOVE this salad! It is made of pomegranate, cucumber, mango, corn, and a homemade dressing

Left: Delicious!! This salad has pomegranate, lettuce, mango, and bell pepper with a homemade dressing.

LOVE chocolate covered strawberries!!

Red Mango is always a great treat!!

    

Hope everyone is having a great summer! Thank you for reading!

~N

PS: I'm so sorry the photos were not showing up earlier! 
Pictures have also been updated for the term 3 post which 
can be found here.Thank you for your understanding. 

Love, Hate, and a Whole Lot of Microorganisms

As promised, I am trying to write a general overview of all the term 4 classes that I took over the last 6 months. My previous post on CPD can be found here. This post will focus on my experience in the microbiology.

I have a love-hate relationship with microbiology. I think the public health aspect of microbiology is very interesting and I loved learning about it in class. My favorite lectures were pre-midterm that focused on the emergence/ re-emergence of disease and the transmission/ prevention of disease.
However, as important as it is, the process of memorizing all sorts of information about tiny parasites or worms or viruses simply did not appeal to me. I think this is an indication that specializing in infectious disease is not for me.

That being said, I had to get through microbiology and pass the exams. The microbiology class starts off with few weeks of general microbiology. This forms the core foundation and sets the stage for the rest of the term. Once the fundamentals of microbiology is complete, the class transitions into a systems based class. We covered the respiratory and about half of the gastrointestinal units pre-midterm. Post-midterm units consisted of the second half of the gastrointestinal unit, urinary and STD unit, HIV, skin, muscle, and tissue, zoonoses, parasitology etc. 

The grade in microbiology is based on 1 midterm, 1 final, 3 journal quizzes, and attendance to small group discussion that is periodically placed over the course of the term. The journal quizzes work as follows: The professor puts up an article relating microbiology to the clinical world. Students must read the article thoroughly and come prepared to take a quiz regarding the article of interest during lecture time. Over the course of the term, there are 3 lecture hours that are dedicated to journal quizzes. Each journal quiz has 5 questions forming a total of 15 possible points. Each small group discussion consists of the discussion of 2 cases. To prep for these session, we had to read the assigned cases and come up with differentials. During the session, the discussion group talks about the organism and disease of interest thoroughly. Usually, each lab lasts about 1-1.5 hours.  

Here are a few tips for microbiology:

1) At the beginning of the term, our pathology professor told us that when we begin our nightly review of the material, make sure to start with microbiology and then review pathology. I completely agree with this recommendation. Pathology tends to take more time to process, so it is better to start with microbiology to avoid falling behind in this class.

2) I made many charts in multiple colors especially for the respiratory and GI systems. I put these charts up on my wall, but still had to review them at least 4-5 times to find methods to differentiate the microorganisms. For each chart, I made the columns as follows: method of transmission, associated disease name, symptoms, organism, characteristics, reproductive cycle highlights, epidemiology, and other. If there were differentiating characteristics for a specific organism, it would be written in big bold letters to help me remember!

3) Many of my friends used Sketchy as a primary study tool. Sketchy consists of clever videos that are not long in length and students are easily able to recollect important characteristics about each microorganism based on the video. I, however, used the lecture notes as a primary study tool and relied on Sketchy as a review or when a lecture was poorly taught.

4) Do not miss a small group discussion. There are not many soft points in the course and attending small group discussions are simple points that can help the microbiology grade.

5) It is important to know the key differences between organisms. This greatly helped me diagnose and select answer on exams.

6) Parasitology: Be able to identify the parasites based on the pictures provided in the lecture slides.

7) Read all journal articles because some of the questions on the quiz are quite detailed.

8) Another idea to keep up with the material: Some of my friends decided to split their week in the following manner: dedicate 2 whole days to study micro and then 2 whole days to study path during the week. They did not mind if they were a day behind in one class. I tried this method early in the term and quickly realized that it would not work for me. I wanted to be on pace with lecture. So, I tried my best to review just the lectures on a nightly basis.

9) Usually, there are about 6 lectures or less of micro per week. So, I tried to divide up the lectures into 2 or 3 lectures per day to review on the weekends. This was my third exposure to the material (1st is in lecture and 2nd was my nightly review assuming I did pre-read the lectures). I found that if I did too much micro on one day, I would not remember anything the following day. So, dividing my weekend reviews was beneficial for me.

10) Take one day at a time during term 4. I don't think I ever was ahead of schedule. There were a couple times I fell behind, but worked my way back up.

There is no recipe for success in micro. These were just a few tactics that helped me make term 4 manageable and I hope it helps future term 4 students.

Thank you for reading! :)

~N

Writing vs. Typing

Let's take a break from all the posts about term 4! As a medical student, I have contemplated the benefits of writing notes vs. typing notes. When trying to figure out what method worked best for me, I asked myself, how much am I retaining if I write notes vs. type notes? I completely understand that many students are able to learn from electronic devices and typed notes. As technology progresses, classrooms are filled with apple devices and various apps to organize notes.

If you have read any of my previous posts, you can clearly tell that I write majority of my notes, make multiple charts to understand material, and "decorate" the walls of my bedroom with notes that I have organized. Since my master's program, I have learned that even though I type much faster than I write, I learn material much better if I write.

I found this interesting article published by NPR about writing vs. typing. So, I thought I would share. Below is the link to the article. Hope you enjoy!

http://www.npr.org/2016/04/17/474525392/attention-students-put-your-laptops-away

Have a wonderful day! :)

~N

Doubek, J. (2016, April 17). Attention, Students: Put Your Laptops Away. National Public Radio. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2016/04/17/474525392/attention-students-put-your-laptops-away.