Thread: term 2: advice/tips,etc

heading into term 2. I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice/tips/common pit falls that students fall into. Overall how is it compared to term 1 in terms of difficulty, etc. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

For me neuro and immuno were the toughest.

was term 2 more difficult than term 1?

just talked to the dean last week when he visited the hospital. said something about combining genetics and immuno..... then moving parts of micro into 3rd term and expanding the length of basic sciences by a couple of weeks. if you guys are the test subjects then we can't tell you how to study other than "it's all in the notes" for term 2

with immuno you either like it or hate it. i thought immuno was the easiest. the best thing to do is to go over the objectives and highlight them in the notes. the alternative is immuno gold/platnum or gsp immuno notes.

Crickey I was the last term directly before they started this fad of changing 1st year over and over.

Don't worry life will become simpler in 5th. I felt in terms of complexity of material term 2 was harder than 1.

Hey Fatalis,

I'm in my second year at SGU and have been writing some tips on how to do well in my wife's blog.

Go to google and type in "hello grenada"
The website is grenadaguide dot blogspot dot com

Scroll down a little and you will see on the right side under Categories, "2nd Term School of Medicine Information and Advice SGU"

All the best!

Originally Posted by Fatalis

heading into term 2. I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice/tips/common pit falls that students fall into.

The best advice I can give you is it isn't Term 1. I know that they keep changing the schedule but the pacing is different and there are more exams that come more frequently. For some, especially those who fall behind, this presents additional challenges over first term.

Some of the material continue to lends itself to brute force memorization (first half of immuno, some parts of neuro and physio). Some parts of the material, more so than Term 1, requires real understanding that (in my experience) takes a longer period of calendar time but not necessarily more overall time. Meaning that it may take you trying to understand cardiac physiology several times over several week to really get a solid understanding of the material and that kind of work can't really be stuffed into the weekend before the exam.

Don't blow off the end of physio. I know a few people who didn't pay much attention to the last few packets in physio (endocrine) figuring they'd just cram them right before the exam and instead focused on neuro. Then they figured out there was too much to just quickly cram, failed the final, failed the course and fell behind.

Since the material is more conceptual some people fall into the trap of thinking it is easier than it really is. Yes, the concept may seem simple and obvious when there's someone very well versed in the material (complete with Ph.D.) with quality slides explaining it. When you're doing a question and struggling to figure out exactly how the change in right atrial pressure alters preload and afterload you'll realize that understanding what someone is saying about a concept isn't the same as understanding the concept.

Unsurprisingly the advice of staying up with the material, don't fall behind, get help sooner rather than later continues to be rok [sic] solid. There are fewer quality question banks so it is more difficult to assess your progress and understanding. Also I've seen some people get mid term grades, did poorly in physio, devoted all their studying into physio and then ended up bombing the neuro final and failing neuro. It's about balance, just like in first term.

Originally Posted by Fatalis

Overall how is it compared to term 1 in terms of difficulty, etc. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

It's a bit like asking which is harder, organic chemistry or calculus. I think it all depends on the person.

Historically more people struggle with term 1 than term 2 but it isn't clear if that's due to the difficulty of the material, adjusting to Grenada, or some combination.

Treat it with the respect it deserves and you should be okay.

The biggest hook up with term 2 has been the schedule ever since they changed Genetics to 2 credits (and thus made it a longer class.) I don't know what the schedule is now since I thought I had heard it was going back to a more uniform exam schedule. (Maybe someone could tell us?)

I thought 1 was way harder than 2, but I would also say term 1 was worse than 4 so call me crazy. Term 2 is ALL IN THE NOTES. And do questions!!!

The key is to stay on top of the lectures and read everyday. Don't fall behind. If you don't understand something, ask a friend or prof about it. That's the key to every class.
If I had to pick two classes to concentrate on, it'd be neuro and physio.
Immuno is a close 3rd.
Make sure you're not cramming.
Make notes on each subject and reread them the day before the exam.
In fact, the day before the exam, make sure you skim over everything you learned up until the exam...this technique will help you answer plenty of questions on exams.
The only reason I got an "A" in micro is because I crammed certain cold hard facts before the exam. Delineate the cold hard facts from "concepts." Cold hard facts should be reread within 24 hours of exam time (ex: second messenger pathways and the hormones involved; which hormones are peptides, which are amino acids; Wallenberg Syndrome; etc.)
Cramming is an art...perfect it.

thanks for all the advice guys!