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:
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
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
Where can I find Maham's notes?
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