Immuno I Exam... 42% of Students Fail!!

[McGillGrad]

What is wrong with this picture? Why would 42% of the class fail this exam?

At some point, you have to examine why this exam has such a low pass rate and only an average of 70%.

There are people who usually honor exams who are in the 70s, so this is more than the usual story of lazy mediocre students bringing down the average.

Dr. B will definitely not have another supplemental and Dr. S will refuse to drop any questions.

Looks like it's time to ask why so many people are failing and what will be done to try to correct this.

[kemper6036]

every class has their share of brutal classes/exams.......dr s and dr b are both great profs so i'd tread with caution. you guys are going to have to deal with them next semester as well (which is a good thing)

probably the most important place to look is at yourself individually.......immuno is tough, its like learning a different language kind of. you need to find out what works for you......its unlikely that as 2nd semester students you have it "all figured out"....adjustment is the name of the game

good luck

[FOID]

dr. s material is straight on for the step. all the 'ph.d' material is exactly what you'll need for the step.

[McGillGrad]

I would agree with you guys if we had the same Immuno that you guys had when you were in 2nd semester. I looked at scribes up until two semesters ago and Bacteria and Viruses were not as heavy a focus, as they are now.

I would not mind Immuno if it were Immuno, but this is Med Micro (light). Out of the 60 questions on our exam, a good 40 were on Bacteria and Viruses, their genetics and their characteristics. Only 20 were on TCR, T-Cells and other true Immuno.

There is little emphasis on Bacteria and Virus characteristics in the lectures and then half of the exam asks those questions. That is the real disconnect, here.

[c13]

Looks like it's time to ask why so many people are failing and what will be done to try to correct this.


Ahem.. Study more, perhaps? If you think there is a problem with the Dr's B and S exams, look up either the current USMLEWorld questions or the older ones on reserve in the library. You will see that there is very little difference.

[CaptainInsaneO]

.....

I wonder what they'll do this time since there is no curve here.

[stateofequilibrium]

Were the answers to all the questions from lecture/lab/reading assignments? If the answers could all be found there, then they are all fair game. No one says the distribution of questions has to be based on emphasis. 42% does seem high though.

[rocketinpocket]

our immuno exam last semester had a lot of bacteria and virus stuff too. There is probably slightly more because many people in med micro are forgetting stuff or not knowing stuff that we were "supposed to know from immuno" (according to Dr. S.) And trust me, that was not a micro test u just took.

[pianoman]

As Kemper has said, every subject has its challenges. It always seem that your course or your examination is exceptionally difficult; that is because you are going through it. Please do not try to compare with the other semesters, it will only make your time here to be more unbearable. Since no two semester will have the exact same questions for their exam.

Well...... Dr S and B are excellent lecturers. Talk to them and asked them how you should approach the subject or even how to answer the question. They give excellent advise. Alternatively, approach your peers, who are doing well in the class, for advise.

[brob311]

McGill you took so long to finally decide to go to a school. You spent so much time on here, I would have thought you would have picked up this med school thing pretty easily :)

[hypotenuse]

You think a 70 percent average on a test is bad?? When I took Physio 1, half our our exam averages were below a 70. Same thing happened with Physio 2. Same thing happened with the genetics Biochem exam. Our class average was a 62! Immuno I recall all our averages were between 70-73 so this experience is not out of the ordinary. Just do what you have to do to get by in there. At least Dr. W isn't teaching immuno here anymore.

[tenfoldvengeance]

I think the second semesters need to stop complaining and just step up their studying habits. Dr. S is indeed a very, very tough question maker, as current 3rd semesters are seeing now, but she taught us all the bacteria, virus, and fungi stuff (or at least the majority of it) from what I remember. Plus Dr. B didn't let us retake a portion of the first exam. If you guys are having trouble with Dr. S now...just wait till Micro since she teaches it solo. :)

[BiologyBY]

Immuno and micro are both becoming more important as far as Step is concerned. And yes, immuno requires quite a bit of time to study for. Everything from the slides and spoken lectures is a fair game.

[McGillGrad]

Ahem.. Study more, perhaps? If you think there is a problem with the Dr's B and S exams, look up either the current USMLEWorld questions or the older ones on reserve in the library. You will see that there is very little difference.

I do USMLEworld questions every day. They are not as hard, even if I have no seen the material yet (i.e. med micro)

Obviously, studying more would help. There are people who honored (4 out of 81 peoplw), so it is possible.

The point is the point of making a 60 question exam at the end of the day more difficult than it has to be to learn the material.

The point of these courses is to prepare us for the boards, not to prove that the PhD teaching the course knows more than us about Immuno.

[McGillGrad]

McGill you took so long to finally decide to go to a school. You spent so much time on here, I would have thought you would have picked up this med school thing pretty easily :)

You are assuming that I am part of the 42% who failed. I passed, but for the amount of work I put in to the course over a 5 week period was not reflected in the result.

This is about fairness and honesty.

When the Immuno review presents 20 sample questions in the medium to relatively hard category (focused on concepts and pertinent details) and then the exam is full of tertiary questions that were not explicitly mentioned in the notes, but could be inferred with an educated guess, that is unfair and mean spirited.

if you are going to ask challenging questions, fine. Just be honest with the students so we can prepare accordingly.


Don't make it seems like it is easy during lecture and review and then sideswipe us.

[FOID]

I do USMLEworld questions every day. They are not as hard, even if I have no seen the material yet (i.e. med micro)

Obviously, studying more would help. There are people who honored (4 out of 81 peoplw), so it is possible.

The point is the point of making a 60 question exam at the end of the day more difficult than it has to be to learn the material.

The point of these courses is to prepare us for the boards, not to prove that the PhD teaching the course knows more than us about Immuno.

the more prepared, the better off you'll be. you would rather over study and learn the phd materials for the step rather than under study.

[kemper6036]

everyone complains about the so called PhD material.......if you do usmle world then you know the level of knowledge you need. sorry to say this, but sack up and learn the material.....its all there for ya. tertiary questions require you to THINK, not just regurgitate

[BiologyBY]

Wow, you find medmicro questions easy on UW without taking medmicro, that's quite something. Also, I have serious doubts that questions vary greatly from semester to semester

[spreebee]

You are assuming that I am part of the 42% who failed. I passed, but for the amount of work I put in to the course over a 5 week period was not reflected in the result.

This is about fairness and honesty.

When the Immuno review presents 20 sample questions in the medium to relatively hard category (focused on concepts and pertinent details) and then the exam is full of tertiary questions that were not explicitly mentioned in the notes, but could be inferred with an educated guess, that is unfair and mean spirited.

if you are going to ask challenging questions, fine. Just be honest with the students so we can prepare accordingly.


Don't make it seems like it is easy during lecture and review and then sideswipe us.

I heard rumors every exam at AUC now is suppose to be extremely difficult based on rumor mill going around...

[Macgyver1]

Dr S and B were RIGHT ON in regards to step 1 material. Not every exam will be on the material that is emphasized, bolded, etc. Like was quoted above if its in notes, labs, lecture its fair game.

It really is frustrating and I agree sometimes NOT FAIRLY done. The reality is that you have 20 months to learn a dump load of material and only so much lecture time. Do step questions everyday (at least 10) and you will see material on there you remember from the class and future material they haven't covered yet.

I got quite a few questions right on exams just because I did so many Step 1 questions, even when It was not emphasized in lecture.

Do a search for "unfair" on the board and see how many people have vented about exams being unfair, etc. There are quite a few :)

[ds_in_tx]

Immuno and micro are both becoming more important as far as Step is concerned. And yes, immuno requires quite a bit of time to study for.

The big thing I've noticed as I do USMLEworld for Step 2, is that while questions directly about immuno are infrequent (they are very infrequent), they require a fairly deep knowledge of the subject to reason out... This held true for Step 1 as well.

The AUC lectures and lab for Bacteria/Viruses/Fungi are very good. Micro remains one of my better subjects.

Too bad you guys didn't have Dr. W. She would've whipped you all into shape. :twisted:

[DrFraud]

The big thing I've noticed as I do USMLEworld for Step 2, is that while questions directly about immuno are infrequent (they are very infrequent), they require a fairly deep knowledge of the subject to reason out... This held true for Step 1 as well.

The AUC lectures and lab for Bacteria/Viruses/Fungi are very good. Micro remains one of my better subjects.

Too bad you guys didn't have Dr. W. She would've whipped you all into shape. :twisted:

Yeah, as good as Dr. S and Dr. B are, I think everyone is missing out....She's the immuno varient of a drill sargent.

[hypotenuse]

Dr. W is a love her or hate her kinda teacher. I personally think she was Satan reincarnated.

[Nelphus]

The big thing I've noticed as I do USMLEworld for Step 2, is that while questions directly about immuno are infrequent (they are very infrequent), they require a fairly deep knowledge of the subject to reason out... This held true for Step 1 as well.

The AUC lectures and lab for Bacteria/Viruses/Fungi are very good. Micro remains one of my better subjects.

Too bad you guys didn't have Dr. W. She would've whipped you all into shape. :twisted:

Which question bank would you guys recommend for basic science use? Should we save UW for 5th semester/Step studying and use something else now? Specifically, I want to use questions to prepare for the anatomy shelf in the immediate future

[stateofequilibrium]

Dr. S's questions were spot-on for Step 1. The "PhD" stuff you're complaining about it exactly what was on my step. So learn everything you can

[kemper6036]

usmleworld has about 2200 questions.....if you do them all 5th semester then you are a machine. i would start now.....i imagine doing them twice would be even more advantageous

[kryptik]

usmleworld has about 2200 questions.....if you do them all 5th semester then you are a machine. i would start now.....i imagine doing them twice would be even more advantageous
how can one do them without taking majority of the courses? can you do them course wise?

[kemper6036]

yes.....it will allow you to sort them by subject. of course it makes no sense to do path or pharm questions when you're just starting

[kryptik]

yes.....it will allow you to sort them by subject. of course it makes no sense to do path or pharm questions when you're just starting
cool... will try and do them from semester one then

[Nelphus]

usmleworld has about 2200 questions.....if you do them all 5th semester then you are a machine. i would start now.....i imagine doing them twice would be even more advantageous

you would say do one online question bank twice vs. doing 2 different q-banks once? It's probably cheaper for me to do the 1 year subscription and renew when needed than wait until later...

[kemper6036]

i dont know since i havent taken the step......although some people will say some questions come right from usmle world

[ds_in_tx]

I would not do Kaplan QBank for Step 1 expecting that you are getting a good warmup for the style and format of Step 1 (unless they totally rewrote the questions). I mean, the information is good, it covers all the bases, but the actual exam seemed much more difficult...

[rocketinpocket]

this is off topic. I will not stand for this. Please talk about what someone else told you to talk about. I'm going to get SOE in here..

[Lemacfar]

I'm scared now... Immuno is my weakest subject

[tenordoc]

When the exam is full of tertiary questions that were not explicitly mentioned in the notes, but could be inferred with an educated guess, that is unfair and mean spirited.

Well, when you're seeing a patient, they won't come with a sheaf of notes for you to memorize. Clinical medicine does require you to make educated guesses. Isn't great that you're being required to think this way now, instead of having to learn how to make educated guesses when you're first thrown onto the wards?

[kemper6036]

this is off topic. I will not stand for this. Please talk about what someone else told you to talk about. I'm going to get SOE in here..

ha i hope you're kidding

[DrFraud]

you would say do one online question bank twice vs. doing 2 different q-banks once? It's probably cheaper for me to do the 1 year subscription and renew when needed than wait until later...

I used only one question bank, UW in combination with the NBME forms, and I found this to be more than adequate.

During my first year, I also used the rapid review program, but not so much in my run to take step 1. If you have extra time, use first aid and Goljan, and then do the UW questions over again. Also make sure you practice reading images like ct scans. Kaplan has an 'image of the day' that you can try when you are in 5th semester bbcm.

[Lemacfar]

right next to Biochem, but I can drill that into my head

[kemper6036]

I used only one question bank, UW in combination with the NBME forms, and I found this to be more than adequate.

During my first year, I also used the rapid review program, but not so much in my run to take step 1. If you have extra time, use first aid and Goljan, and then do the UW questions over again. Also make sure you practice reading images like ct scans. Kaplan has an 'image of the day' that you can try when you are in 5th semester bbcm.

i am starting to liek the rapid review books more now beyond just goljan

[kauquah]

I heard rumors every exam at AUC now is suppose to be extremely difficult based on rumor mill going around...

What would be the point of that?

[kemper6036]

they are constantly raising the standards here.....based on the stats of incoming students and for example raising the passing score on the comp from 60 to 62

[DrShikima]

The more things change, the more they stay the same.