Also, please don't hesitate to contact me if you have more questions or are in need of any books or help.
The 2 poles of opinion on this semester:
1. This semester gave me a brain-gasm!
2. I don't think I could hate medicine more than I do now.
No gray area in the Neuroscience Unit. What team you are depends on how you're studying. I am not going to sugar coat this one for you.
Pros of semester:
1. It's all about neuroscience. Not a billion units in one semester. Advantage? Your study is focused.
Disadvantage? Delving into minute details.
2. Pathology here is the most fun and easiest of all units. But this is mainly because you will understand neuropathology like no other pathology you have taken before. It will still be imprinted in your brain a year later.
3. A lot of pharmacology will be repeated over the weeks.
Cons of semester
1. Pharmacology is not very logical (few exceptions) and includes many classes and each class contains many drugs (but then again, I hate pharmacology. For a reason might I add. Not blind hate.).
2. The final 2 weeks are in the wrong place. That is to say they shouldn't be the final 2 weeks. What smart organizer places the introduction of TWO new systems (hearing and vision) in the final 2 weeks before the exam? Incompetent fools is who. But there is no changing that. Or is there? (Do I hear the Student Academic Council anyone?)
General Tips:
- Study the Sight and Hearing unit lectures before the teachers give you the material and after they give you. Then when you study for the exam make sure you start with these two weeks first and work your way backward. Why? I found this helped me a lot. How? Well the neuroscience unit is connected each week with the next. So by the time you reach the final few weeks you would have gone over the material of the first few weeks a bunch of times. But not too much for the last few weeks. So starting from the last weeks helps consolidate the material better. But if you feel near the exam times that you still do not have a good grab on material, then start chronologically. Each to his own after all.
- Every student knows the key to this semester. That is why a lot of our class scored somewhere in the lower 90s spectrum. Repetition. This will come indirectly with the weeks. But you must also spend considerable effort and time on your own. Do not rely solely on lectures. Library books are free. Rummage the library for books you feel suit you best. Read material from different sources. This way, you may chance upon facts missed by one source or you may find clearer explanations in another. But do not confuse yourself with TOO much sources. Find one or two to your taste and stick to them in a particular subject.
How to Study:
Pathology
- ATTEND ALL THE PATHOLOGY SESSIONS. Do not just solve the TBL and leave the class discussion and teacher explanation.
- Attend all practical labs. You may get one-on-one teacher explanations of histopathological pictures if you ask. Important for getting information stuck in your synapses till the OSPE.
- There are 2 main domains:
- Head and Neck
- Neuroanatomy
- They go hand in hand. Study them in chronological order if you can because they are connected. Do not study them as separate sections because one is related to the other. If you miss out on a few lectures, you may be lost later on because of the inter-connectedness of the subject.
- Try to integrate the studying of anatomy. At the end of the semester by the time of the exams, study everything all over because everything will fall in line and you will feel satisfaction as you everything goes single file through your neurons (you understand everything thoroughly in other words).
- Make the most of your anatomy lab timings this semester. Then, go to the anatomy labs after class hours. Bring your anatomy atlas along (you may be quite lost without it). Go at least 3 times before the exam (before written, OSPE and OSCE) because this is the time you will have finished all the theoretical knowledge and can finally put everything together in your imagination using models.
- If you feel you may not manage alone, bring a study partner along. (Make sure it is someone who is willing to learn, optimistic and fast-paced. Be sure it is someone encouraging, and not someone envious and greedy for self-knowledge only.)
- You may find it helpful to do as I did if studying alone is what gets information in your mind but you need a partner to consolidate information and make sure you are not learning wrong information: alternate visiting the lab alone and with a partner. I used to think studying alone was more efficient. But while revising with a partner, we joked and that helped the information stick till now.
- In the first week, focus on scrupulously understanding the motor and sensory spinal tracts. Why? They are of utmost importance in nearly all the upcoming cases. (At least this is how I felt when I studied them in the first week. The PBL cases and mini PBL problems during the rest of the semester were a breeze to diagnose based on the signs and symptoms that relate to motor and spinal tracts.)
- Books specifically for neuroanatomy - in addition to your traditional anatomy books:
- BRS Neuroanatomy: great for reviewing things just before each lecture of neuroanatomy or the exam
- Clinical Neuroanatomy Made Ridiculously Simple
- High Yield Series - Neuroanatomy
- Snell's Clinical Neuroanatomy
Physiology
- In summary: studying the lectures is enough for exams if you are lazy.
- If you are genuinely interested in neuroscience physiology (because the brain physiology is truly breathtaking and grand to behold), I suggest not only reading books but also websites with animations and explanations (not that I need to recommend that to a 21st century student).
- Books:
- Guyton's Physiology: many students don't like it because it goes into details. If you are like me and would like to understand things to minute levels, then you will like this book for neuroscience.
- Costanza: I personally haven't read it, but I have heard many compliment this book for not only the neuroscience unit.
- Study each week as you pass it. Do not leave lectures to accumulate till the end of the semester. Neurogenic drugs are many.
- If you don't know some neuroanatomy and physiology, you may not understand the mechanisms involved in neurological drugs. Therefore, if you miss out on lectures, it is most important to read neurophysiology and anatomy before proceeding to the pharmacology.
The written exam (Paper 2) was filled with microbiology. I managed to breeze through it because I had studied the microbiology lectures thoroughly (up to the minute boring details). Others were not so fortunate because they thought microbiology was a joke - wasn't so funny in the finals though.
Refer to the microbiology post for the books I used:
http://taleoftwoidentities.blogspot.ae/2014/06/best-medical-microbiology-books-for-med.html
Neuroscience is all about understanding. If you memorize, you are doomed to find it difficult to answer the exam. It is also the most enjoyable of units. So enjoy it. Do not wait for day by day to pass so you can "get over with it" and enjoy the holidays. Enjoy each day as it comes.
Life is passing too as your medical years pass. Young years of life. Keep in mind that you are studying to try to cure others and thus bring back hope and happiness into their lives so don't forget to bring the optimism and pleasure to your life as well.
Next post will be about how to spend summer as a medical student.
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