EXAM EXPERIENCE

[Anonymous]

Hi everybody!
I took my exam yesterday,for the second time (first time was in October last year).My first exam was very difficult.I had a lot of long Q with detailed bioch.,cell and molecular biology,the format of the Q was with experimens on mouse and other animals...Anyway this time my exam was totally different! I was prepared for difficult Q with a lot of immuno,cell and molecular bio...and surprise! I had a lot of patho Q this time,immuno (pretty hard Q),easy anato q (and am ashamed to recognise but...I didn't know the answer for all because I was prepared for hard Q and I didn't pay attention for easy staff in my studying!!!)
I am trying now to be more specific.My exam was doable.Of course it wasn't easy and many times I was stucked between 2 answers!!!I had a lot of Q from Goljan HY (the 36 pages).Read them very,very carefull!Anato...not much neuro,a few MRI,more gross anato then neuroan.
Immuno...a lot of Q about HS..type 1,2,3 and delayed HS.Know Th 1,2 very,very well and all the IL and their actions!!! I had many Q from Th and delayed type of HSens.
Pharma...antivir. and anticanc. drugs,floroq,sulfa.Know MOA for them,adverse effects!Arachidonic ac. products...know to point where each drug act,and know each Prostagl,tromboxan...
Know purine and pirimid pathway.
Micro...a lot of Q,more Staph,Strep.,fungi,opport.in AIDS,know treat.straight Q.
Phisio...very,very important! A lot of graph,a lot of cardio,pulm.and HORMONES.Know very well all the lab in all diseases! Know them cold because you will have 7-8 answers with all the possible answers!!!I find this very difficult in my exam.
Behav.science...not many Q.Doc-patient Q and a few statist.with calc.Sensit,Spec,Posit.pred.value,know them well and case-control,cohort...know them all.
Genetic...,not difficult Q.(Down,sex link.,pedigree,penetrance in AD disease,know well wich disease is AD,Ar,x-link_)
Biochem. not in detailed.A few,about gluconeo,glicolys,ureea cycle,electr. transp,...know all the important enzimes,COFACT,SECOND MESSENG!!!Picture with receptors!Transcript,translat.in experiments form.
I had a lot of pictures with and without case history.Some of them I didn't recognise.
Leuk. a lot.ALL (with CALLA,tdt),AML ,CML (bcl-abr),Hodgkin...
Know very well fetal alch syndr,fetal circ.,all the diseases transm.to the baby (TORCH)
I hope I didn't break the rule of the exam because I didn't tell you any of my Q.I told you what is very important to know,and...read Tommyk's Q.Are importand.And Goljan HY.Very,very important.
I don't know if I will pass the exam but I know this time I was happy when I finished my exam.Last time I was crying.I didn't do very well,I know that,I hope only I will pass.I was happy because I knew what they wanted from me,even if I knew the answer or not.In my first exam I had many,many Q I didn't know what they are asking!!!
If you have Q,I will be happy to answer!

[Anonymous]

Hi

Thanks for posting your experience! It must feel very good to be done with the exam.

You mentioned Goljan HY notes, did you also do his 44pages notes or just 36pages. They are quite detailed aren't they? What else did you use for Path and did you see a lot of questions from First Aid? Also, Did you see a lot of new stuff that you that weren't in the review books?

I would really appreciate your response. And Please feel free to provide me with any additional suggestions as my exam is exactly two weeks away! Thanks.

[Anonymous]

I've read both HY from Goljan.Yes,they are detailed.I also used Audio lectures,5 days from Goljan.They are very good.FA is not good for Path,Kaplan is not enough..I hope I responded to all your Q.Good luck with your exam!

[kris2c]

Thanks a lot Monica
Best of luck for you!!!

Kris.

[Anonymous]

:P

[Cadusma]

This ties in nicely with the poll I posted earlier ...

How well would you say that Goljan's audio lectures helped you? How well did you know the material he presented in those audio lectures? Could you estimate about what percentage of your exam came from Goljan's audio lectures and Goljan's high yield notes?

Also, please expand on a few things for us.

You said that First Aid was not good enough for pathology. Was Goljan enough for pathology then? You also said that Kaplan was not good enough. What was Kaplan not good enough for, which subjects? Which Kaplan were you referring to ... Kaplan Qbank, Kaplan Webprep? Did you use Webpath to supplement your studies of pathology?

Also, in what areas did First Aid help you the most/least?

[tgfall]

I just wanted to say thanks for sharing your experience. it definitely helps in being positive about the whole exam.

[FARN]

Thank you so much for posting your experience. What about Micro? Did you get any difficult Qs?
Again, thanks alot for your posting. I'm gonna look at Goljan notes more carefully now.

[Anonymous]

I am sorry if I didn't explain better about Patho.I wanted to tell you all so much ...I tried to write as much as I remembered from my exam!
I said FA is not good for patho if you are using it alone.It's not enough,not even for a review.Kaplan books (from live lectures) are not enough because they are made to go together with the live lectures! I went to live lectures and I made notes in my patho book but...it wasn't enough because the books are too schematic and you need more to understand and to make corelations between patho and other material,like physio ...So I realized Goljan audio tapes (5 days with 8 hours a day) are the best for patho.I am talking about my experience.
I don't think I can estimate how much in my exam was patho,because I had enough Q from all the other...maybe 40%?? The second one was physio and the third immuno.

[Anonymous]

I had a lot of Micro Q but not very difficult.Know very well Pathogenesis for each and tratament.