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