by Muhammad Hazreen Ismail
When you heard a senior’s comment on pathology, the topic revolves
around passing and failing. There are no more first class honors, second class
honors that they are striving for. They just wanted to pass, thus this makes
you wondering, is it that bad? Is it that hard to get flying colors in the
pathology exam in second med? Sincerely, it is. But, there are ways that you
can try to get good marks. Only those
who are steadfast on this road will eventually get those results. So, here are
few tips on how to survive the 2nd med pathology.
What is pathology?
Of course, the first thing is you must know about what you are
learning in pathology. Basically, pathology will relate to your previous topics
of physiology and biochemistry, but in the other way around. You have to know
that pathology is the learning of diseases, how it
happens and also what are the signs and symptoms. For the second year,
you’ll be learning basic stuffs such as inflammatory
disease, malignancies, and also a little bit about microbiology. The
main point here is be motivated on learning this abnormalities as you’ll will
see them mostly in patients when you visit the hospital. A step forward to
become a doctor!
One does not simply survive pathology
Well, for me everything is hard unless you try to overcome
it. Like I said before, if you are passionate to learn about all the medical
stuff, it is not that hard. Understanding pathology is vital as it is what
basically the doctors want to know from patient and trying to cure it. In
second year, some people say that microbiology
is the hardest of all the topics that you’ll face. Undeniably, it is to some
extent. You need to memorize the bacteria, parasites, virus and all their
characteristics. To memorize all the names, I used a mind map. Besides, I also
search back in Youtube or Wikipedia about the organism. A little bit of
imagination might help you to keep all the information in your brain. How? Mind
mapping, coloured notes, videos, or even your own sketch might help.
One book to rule them all
I don’t really how other people use their books as reference.
As for me, the only book that I used as my reference is the RED BOOK that provided by the pathology department
(with small amount of money). Some people said that the book not helpful at
all. Here how I make it useful: I go through the lecture notes on my laptop while
I open the book during my revision. Any additional items from the lecture notes
I will add to the book. If I still have difficulty to understand the topics, I will
try to look up in Youtube or Wikipedia. Or to be
more easily understood, I used a book called Rapid
Review Pathology by Edward F.Goljan. You don’t really need to buy it.
Theirs is plenty for you in the Brookfield’s library, however to have one will
also be quite handy for you. Other longer version book is Robbin Basic Pathology, a longer version that will
help for those who wants to be enlightened by the world of pathology. I guess
that is all for the book that I used. Mostly I used the red book with few
additional notes that I searched myself.
Hope remains when the company is true
Studying alone for certain people will be helpful. But for me, I choose to do
it with my friends, especially for pathology. It
helps me to understand better in certain topics as some of it I don’t really
get the information during the lecture. We will go through the topics and at
the end of the semester, we will make all the questions.
We even made a list and covered all the topics before the exam or test. The key
to do this is you must start it very early and always motivated when studying
together. I always spend after class for a one or two hours studying pathology
with my friends in Brookfield before I go back home. Discussion
is important especially when you are nearer to the test or final exam. Some
clues or points from the questions that you discussed might not be noticed by
you if you study on by yourself. Besides, it is good to have a company while
studying as they will cheer you up when you almost want to give up.
Practice makes perfect
You will not score in pathology even if you understand and memorized all the
topics in the lectures. You must know how to deal with the questions! This is
something new for you. Pathology questions are basically short clinical case
questions . They can be vague and confusing but that’s how most of the patients
are; vague and confusing. Learn to prioritize diagnosis based on signs,
symptoms and epidemiology (age, race ,risk factors) matters! Figure them out
starting from the systems;Is it in
Cardiovascular?Pulmonary?GIT? Then,after you are (fairly) sure of the system involved,then
figure out what it is based on the signs and symptoms; Inflammation?
Infarction,Ischaemia? Tumour? Choose COMMON diagnosis
first that most CORRELATES to the symptoms and
signs! Again, anything that they mention in the clinical case; AGE, race,
medical history will help you to figure out what the diagnosis is.
You
are almost there to the wonderful years of clinical practice. All the best in
second year and like my father always said,’Remember that there is nothing
GREAT that comes easy!’ and that is including mastering Pathology. It would be
a weapon
Muhammad Hazreen is a Third Med in UCC.
