Tag: pre-med

Immunology Block

Oy Vey!

I tell myself I’m going to do better every single time, and that I’m going to change into better study habits, go to class more, stay on top of things, and live my best possibly healthy self while here.

Courtesy of giphy.com

Yea that’s a joke. Maybe I should look into hiring a personal life coach/motivator, because my self techniques are definitely NOT working right now.  I’m halfway through my first semester of medical school and I still have a lot of work to do. Not sure if I’ll ever get on top of things, but just like always, I’m at the crossroads of just finishing a block and about to start another. So of course I think I’ll miraculously change my current set-in-stone habits when in reality they will probably just get worse.

But let’s get into what you are all really here for. How does immunology in medical school go and how did I approach it?

COB Immunology vs COM Immunology

For those of you new here, I did a one year master’s program at KCU, which happens to be the current medical school I attend. The master’s program I attended is affectionately called “COB” for college of biosciences, while the medical school is designated as “COM” for college of medicine. If you are interested in going into the COM program like most of the students who partake in the COB program, then here are some things you should know:

Books

The authors of the book(s) that you use in COB and COM for this course wrote 2 versions: A large, very detailed more molecular based version of things and a smaller, more condensed version of things. As you can see, the blue book is larger and thicker, and it has a TON more text in it. The purple one is smaller and thinner, and honestly even though the chapters are about 20-25 pages each, the figures take up a lot of space/pages. In reality there really isn’t that much text.

The figures are the same. The content is the same, with the exception that one is paired down. And of course the authors are the same, so literally it’s the same book, just one is more detailed and one isn’t.

Why? Well in COB, it is a program designed to yes, help you get into medical school because it’s all hard sciences, BUT it is also geared towards those that are interested in becoming scientists and researchers. The whole time you are in COB quite honestly you learn SO.MUCH.MORE.DETAIL about a lot of these core classes, because they are assuming you may decide to research. You need this background and minute detail in this case.

Whereas in COM, you really only learn a very general overview of things and then at the end they hit you with a lot of clinical stuff which honestly, I did terrible in.

Detail:

Again, you learn more detail in COB than COM as noted above. Say for example, the molecular pathways of activating T and B cells, we had to learn every single step in COB. Every step! And then only ended up getting like 2 questions on it. Ugh I was so mad that I spent all that time on it. But, we needed to know those pathways in molecular for the next test block, so it just made me lazier in studying for molecular at that point in time.

In COM, you kinda learn the activation pathways for T cells, but it’s really general. There aren’t really any specific names for the enzymes involved (there are a few key ones to know/go over) and then it’s like here’s the pathway but you just need to know what happens in the end. For B cells, the book didn’t even really discuss it much. We had a few practice questions on it but NONE on the exam.

What I’m saying is the focus is very different between COB and COM, even though it is taught by the same people.

Questions:

Dr. Shnyra teaches the COB immunology course AND the COM course at the Kansas City campus. Dr. Bowden teaches the immunology course for the COM students here in Joplin. They teach slightly differently, but overall it’s the same stuff as they go off the books. Both teachers ask questions very similarly on exams. Just like in COB, in COM Dr. Shnyra sends out practice questions. And just like in COB, you need to pick the most correct answer out of the bunch. Dr. Shnyra has a ton of questions by the way in a bank, so if you go from COB to COM, you will get new questions when he sends out the practice sets. Most COBer’s used both the old questions from COB and the new ones sent to us during our COM course.

Breakdown of the Exam:

The midterm consisted of 65 questions:

Histo: 15 questions

Immunology: 50 questions

This first test heavily tested if you understood the difference between innate and adaptive immune systems, and if you could tell the difference between MHC class 1 versus class 2. It is very similar in COB, as this course tends to be taught more broadly at first then narrows in to more detail as you progress.

Final: 85 questions from immunology only.

The final was cumulative, minus the histology information.  Unfortunately because the midterm was easier for me I didn’t try to hard on the second test. Which was a massive mistake for me (I seem to making a lot of those here). Either way, in both COB and COM they really like to test hypersensitivity, because that is very relevant to your future patients that you will be treating. In COM there are more diseases you are tested on, but are more rare when treating patients in real life (but still need to be aware of).

How I studied:

#notsponsored

I completely filled up my sketchbook between biochemistry and musculoskeletal, so I had to get a new one. They are by this company called Denik, which you can find at Michael’s craft stores.  I like that the covers have more strength and girth to them than the hardcover sketchbooks, but are still soft and mold-able enough that I can move them fairly easily. They are a bit more expensive, but the money you pay goes towards schools in less privileged countries. Which really means I feel less awful about spending the money. Totally wish this was sponsored but long story short, I like their sketchbooks.

So much so I ended up buying 3.

I didn’t attend class very much although I heard great things about the Joplin professor for this campus. I found myself not able to focus very much sitting in class over the past few weeks, and felt it was better to try to self-study. There are pros and cons with that though.

Immuno notes

Pros include that I could sleep in and go at my own pace. Especially since I had a hard time paying attention in class, it was better that I didn’t feel I was wasting valuable study time and using it for something else instead.

Cons include that I am a terrible self motivator. And really didn’t stay on top of things very well.

But because I self studied, I actually ended up reading the book from cover to cover. Each lecture was correlated with one lecture, so instead of reading the powerpoint slides and just trying to piece things together from there, I read the book. There was some great background and explanations with doing it this way, but also a lot of additional information that wasn’t super necessary/on the lecture slides.

The extend of signaling, which my version was more detailed than the class version.

I also didn’t really feel the need to look at both campus’ lectures this time. Because each lecture has to correlate with the learning objectives posted, each of those learning objectives came from the book. If I felt I needed more explanation and couldn’t get it from the book or my campus’ lecture slides, I would hop on over to the other campus’ slides to see if there was a better explanation there!

I also did a lot of concept maps and drawings for immunology to help organize my thoughts in my book. My first pass was reading the chapter, the second pass was making notes on that chapter, and the third pass was reviewing the notes and/or looking at lecture slides. I would have done slightly better if I spent more time on the last 2 lectures as there were many questions about diseases and disease pathology that I just couldn’t answer on this year’s test.

If you have never taken immunology before, I still stand by using “How the Immune System Works” by Lauren Sompayrac (which was mentioned in one of my COB posts). It doesn’t matter which edition you get, in fact you could still get the 2nd or 3rd as it is much cheaper than the newer one. They don’t really change. I currently have the 4th and I believe E has the 5th version. Literally the same book except a different color cover.

This breaks things down really easily and helps explain some basic concepts in immunology. There are also some great figures in this book regarding pathways that sometimes Dr. Shnyra uses (not sure about Dr. Bowden) but in general can help make things understandable. I recommended this book to several other first years and they got great mileage out of it.

Scheduling:

This was a 3 week course. Our midterm was on the second Monday of the course, and our final was on the last Friday of the 3 weeks. As medical school is progressing, we increasing have other testing and competencies thrown at us that aren’t just involved in the core course we are in.  During this block, we had our first experience with 2 tests in one week on top of an SP encounter (or our practice sessions on how to interact with patients using actors). If you head on over to my Testing Schedule in Medical School post, this will give you a broader view of the amount of testing/competencies I’ve had so far.

Thankfully we didn’t have anatomy lab this time around on top of learning how to deal with juggling multiple testing situations this time.

As always, comment down below for things you found helpful or would like to hear about next! 

Pre-Med Courses: What to Take Before Medical School

Okay, so you are thinking about going into medicine and want to know what kind of major to pick and/or what courses you should be taking. Truthfully, most schools vary with the specific types of classes they want you to take for their medical schools. I will give the overall general list that I have found to be common among several schools from my years of applying, but if you know the specific schools you are considering applying to, I suggest you check their websites for details.

Why is it important to take the courses specified by the school you are applying to Joyce? Well funny you should ask there… basically if you don’t have the required courses they look for, when they put you through their generator to see if they want to give you a secondary application or possibly an interview, you’re application will go in the discard pile. They do the same thing if your MCAT score isn’t in the right range for that school (say if they are a school known to have a high average score), etc. So it’s important that you take a look to make sure you are taking courses for the schools you are interested in.

An easier way to do this than check every single school website is you can start an application on AMCAS (MD) or AACOMAS (DO) and choose the schools you are interested in possibly applying at. This way, you can find all of the requirements for classes in one area, and you don’t have to hunt! Plus you are going to have to do an application at some point, so you might as well look to see what you’ll need to fill out when the time comes.

Most medical school programs mention the classes that you need to take in credit hours. Each school is slightly different with how many hours their courses may equate to. My university had each science lecture down as 4 credit hours, and each science lab I took was 1 credit hour. A couple of courses I took (such as inorganic chemistry) where a combination of lecture and lab, which would be a total of 5 credit hours.

courtesy of wifflegif.com

General Outline of Required Courses:

  • Usually 8-12 hours of general biology with a lab. So a basic biology course I & II with their associated labs.

Example:

Basic Biology I :   4 credit hours

Basic Biology II:  4 credit hours

2 Biology labs:  2 credit hours

= a total of 10 hours.

  • 8-12 hours of chemistry with lab. *Some schools combine inorganic chemistry and organic chemistry. Most schools have them separate.

Example:

Inorganic Chemistry I (with combined lab) : 5 hours

Inorganic Chemistry II (with combined lab): 5 hours

Organic Chemistry I: 4 hours

Organic Chemistry II: 4 hours

Organic Chemistry lab: 1-2 hours. (Some schools have 2 required labs for this course, mine only had 1 required lab).

  • 8 hours of basic physics with a lab. This is usually your general physics course I & II with their required lab (again my school only had 1 required lab for the two courses together). There is also usually an option at most undergrad institutions for calculus-based physics versus non-calculus based.
  • 6-8 hours of English/ Writing. This is usually required anyways as a general education requirement for most majors at most schools.
  • 3 hours of biochemistry: this used to be optional, but this is becoming required at more schools. Usually one class is enough, but if you choose to do a science major, you will likely have 1-2 biochemistry courses that you need to take to get your degree. * I suggest taking it anyways because biochemistry is a beast in and of itself, especially if you have never seen it before. You’ll want the exposure later when you learn it in say 3 weeks like I will as an MS1.
  • Usually 2-4 credits of a statistics class or other math course. *This one looks like it is becoming more recommended/optional. But most undergrad institutions make you take a certain number of math credits as well for your degree.

*Recommended (i.e. highly encouraged) but not mandatory: Human anatomy, physiology, genetics, microbiology, humanities, behavioral sciences (usually like one class of psychology or sociology). Some schools may also recommend molecular biology or immunology.

Each school has a varied list of what they have for recommended, so check the school’s site that you are interested in. Some only have 1-2 of these courses as recommended, others have part of these as mandatory courses to take and other courses as recommended. Should you choose biology or biochemistry as a major, you will likely have some or most of these courses already required in order to graduate.

My Route:

I took care of this by choosing to be a biology major. Some schools have set “pre-med” majors/course directions as well that can make this easier as they require all of these courses for you to graduate anyways. However, you don’t need to be a bio major like me to get all of this done. There have been plenty of people I know who did a completely different major, and still got into medical school. They did however check to see what classes where needed for the schools they were interested in, so they could make sure to take them along with their other courses during their time in undergrad.

Another option of getting all of these courses done is to do a post-bacc program to fill in their missing courses/classes that they need to apply to certain schools.

 

I hope this was helpful in helping you determine what courses you may need for medical school! Let me know in the comments of what you would like to see next.