Hello Future Doctors!

Heres my personal advice to you for your upcoming courses take it

with a grain of salt, for everyone learns very differently. Im a huge book person. I study by
myself a lot, use books and youtube a lot, but also love studying in groups. Ill recommend all
resources that I found to be super helpful. These courses were some of my favorite of all time,
so if you need any help or have any other questions dont hesitate to ask.

The structure for your term is different than for how I took these classes. The material will be
presented much more integrated to you guys, as we had them all as entirely separate courses.
All I can give you is how I tackled each of the subjects, and you can mold it into however its
going to fit into your new curriculum.

Ive had a lot of people ask how to better prepare for the upcoming term and the honest answer
is REST REST REST. You have no idea how tired youre going to get, its a marathon. Rest your
face off until you go back. Seriously.

Immunology
Favorite Book: Basic Immunology: Functions and Disorders of the Immune system : Abbas
-Totally not required, but it REALLY helped me. I actually purchased this one on student consult.
A lot of the pictures from class notes come from this book as well.

I studied A LOT from the lecture slides.

Boudakovs lectures are very dense and they didnt teach immuno to us in any sort of order,
which makes it more difficult. I used the book to keep tract of where we were in the whole
grand scheme of the process. Its important in immuno to understand the big picture, as well as
all the little details. So dont ever lose sight of the where are we in this process while learning
all the fine details.

Dr. Najeeb saved me a couple times during this class. Yes, his videos are long, but the way he
described T cell development and complement (which I promise will all make sense soon) really
spoke to me. The Kaplan immuno videos also helped a lot of people out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IyufZf6QOM

Of course everything on the slides is important, but anything bolded or in a pink box in a
Boudakov lecture, know it. Please.

Immuno is challenging, but for me it was easier once I made it into a story. A pathogen enters
your body and then shit goes down very systematically. Its actually really cool.

Microbiology
This is a very very challenging class. It was also my favorite Ive taken here. What helped me was
learning the characteristics of the organisms well as we went though them. Paying attention to
whats catalase positive, oxidase positive, motile, intracellular, ferments lactose, what their
growing requirements are, stainingthat kind of stuff answers A TON of questions on the exam,
even if you have no idea what the question is asking.

Early in the term you have a little time because a lot of the stuff is introductory. This is
challenging in itself because you are memorizing a ton of shit without really knowing why you
need to, until it comes back super hard later in the course. I would advise that you use this time
to get your feet wet, learn as much as you can, because the basics are extremely important.

One of the first things I did was watch the virus video https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=Df_qAFF58Ec
That was a savior in learning how to categorize the viruses, and its something that you have to
know how to do and be able to recall the entire term.

Second thing I did was watch the sketchy for ALL the viruses. I loved sketchy, I watched all of
them. It really helped me with some of the little things and it gave me a story to associate which
each of the pathogens, but IT IS NOT ENOUGH TO DO WELL IN THIS CLASS. You must must must
study the lecture notes hard core to see what Rayner wants you to know, because sometimes it
may be different/extra to whats in sketchy.

In addition to sketchy, I LOVED firecracker for reading up on a lot of the microorganisms. They
made it short and sweet and to the point on what each one was about, and it was a nice review
a lot of times. If you have it, I highly recommend using it as you go through the class.

I did the objectives hard core when we got into the systems for micro. It really helped me focus
on certain topics. It ended up looking something like this, where I incorporated sketchy and
class notes/pictures and was able to use it as a final study guide

This class was difficult to prep for exams due to lack of practice questions. I personally started
doing Kaplans Q bank for micro during this term and I felt like it really got me ready for the
exam. The micro department will post questions on sakaii, but I found them to be much easier
than the actual exam.

Ethics
Beethical? Idkyou guys got this one.

Pathology
Ohhhhhh path. The big one.

Between it being a bagillion credits, doing CPCs, concept maps, having lab every day, itll be
great when you find a minute to go find something to eat. But for real tho, its great. I was so
exhausted throughout the term, and I PERSONALLY find mandatory class time pointless, so I
used it to get all my busywork for path done. I either did my lab slides, concept map, or CPC
during class time to optimize when I was tired but still had to be awake. When I finished those,
that became my time to either sonic microbio lectures or listen to pathoma. For me, I never had
to listen to path lectures, so I just found other stuff to do. It was important to read through
them at least once, because they do hold you accountable for whats in them on the exams.

There is so much to know with path thats its easy to get lost in the depths of knowledge. Stick
to the diseases that are taught in lecture/lab and focus on the big stuff. You probably dont need
to know the genes involved for EVERY disease, but there are some that its really important for.
Lab usually helps narrow down what are the important things to know for every disease.

I pathomad so hard, and I lived by Goljan Rapid review for path and Stefans powerpoints.
Those 3 resources were my mains.

Osmosis (online-youtube) is super cool, and I actually found it to be better than pathoma for the
cardiac and renal sections of pathoma. Check it out
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNI0qOojpkhsUtaQ4_2NUhQ
Theres like 40 or so videos for each, but they go quick and the visuals are amazing.

My man Armando does GREAT drawings and explanations, and I love him for certain topics. I
think endocrine was one of his shining areas, but hes good at just about anything
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCesNt4_Z-Pm41RzpAClfVcg

Books:
Theres a spectrum of in depth that each of the famous path books goes into. Pathoma is very
minimal, but it usually gets you to where you need to be. If you want a more in depth
explanation that helps you understand that why, Goljan is a happy medium between being
straight to the point and having explanations. The MOST in depth is Robbins. So if you wanna
know exactly what gene deletion at what location of what chromosome causes some bullshit
problem, go for it.
Practice questions
DO NOT go into the exam without having done some practice questions (again, personal
advice). I did the Robbins practice questions, which will be much harder than the ones on the
test, but the explanations are gold and will really help you. Webpath is also great for additional
practice questions.
Lab
Heres a sample of one of my lab slides. Shoutout to my fantastic group from which I learned a
shit ton of stuff. Youll have lab every day, make the most of it. Learn, ask questions, get to know
your tutors, rack their brains. Have fun.

CPD
Show up, smile and wave, wash your hands, and may the odds be ever in your favor.

Extra advise
This term was the most mentally, physically, and emotionally challenging one that Ive had yet.
You have the smallest amount of time to study for your classes, and the most amount of
material to learn out of any term youve had yet. I would not be anywhere if it werent for the
support of my friends on the island keeping me sane. There might be a point when everyone
needs help next term, and dont be afraid to reach out and ask for it if you find yourself needing
any kind of support; whether it be academic, emotional, spiritual, etc. Everyone struggles, but
you all can get through it together. Its hard to find time, but really work to schedule time to do
something that you love every once in a while. Go to the gym, watch an episode or two on
Netflix, cook, do SOMETHING that makes you happy. It really helps. Hugs from friends and
basketball got me through some of the harder parts of term 4.

Good luck, and let me know if you guys need anything

-Mac