Second Year

Here are some study guides collected over the years for Second Year.  If you have ones that you'd like to share, just email Abhineet!

 

 

Hematology
Lisa's Review,  Notecards 1, 2, 3

Overview,  Anemia Flowchart (Steve Thacker), Coags Made Easy

Review Session, Key Points (Steve Thacker), Quiz

Oncology

Tumors, Tumors, Pediatric Tumors, Pediatric Notes

Pulm Neoplasms 1, 2, 3

Chemo 1, 2, 3

Cardiology

Chapter Review, Class Overview

Wigger Diagram, Carotid Waveforms

Pulmonary

Normal Lab Values,

Overview 1, 2, Review, Quiz

Path, Pharm 1, 2

GI

Overview, Review,

Pharm

Renal

Overview, Review, Path

HEENT / Neuro

Eye Review, ENT Review, Path

Pharm 1, 2, 3

Endocrine

  

Genetics / Repro

 Review 1, 2, 3

MSK

 Coming soon...

USMLE

 Pharm Review

 

 

 

General Study Advice

 1. Go to small group. Yeah, they're early in the morning, but go.  It'll make those giant lists of diseases more relevant and interesting!

2. Review the lectures in afternoons. That way you won't have to freak out before tests.  Study with people who have different strengths from you, so you get a full picture.

3. Try not to freak out about tests, regardless.  You're going to have one almost every week and eventually get used to them.

4. Lots of people find Rubin's Pathology useful.  Most blocks cover a lot of pathology in detail, and Rubin's has good explanations and organization.

5. Blocks are shorter 2nd year. This means less opportunities to make up for poor performance on an early test, but also gives you a lot of fresh starts!

6. Look up terms you don't know.  A lot of times the professors use terms that are daily life for them, but may be new to us. 

7. Come to enjoy mnemonics. The concepts are usually not hard, but there is a lot of material. Mnemonics are silly, but that's how you remember it!

8. Don't procrastinate on pharmacology. It is pure memorization and cramming the night before is rough.  There will be a surprise antibiotics crash course during Pulmonology, so be prepared! You have to get at 60% of the pharm questions correct per block, independent of your total score.  Also, during Community Weeks, you can show your hard-won knowledge!

9. Try to figure out ways to organize disease families.  See what commonalities diseases have and then focus on differences to tell them apart.

10. Don't try to memorize statistics, unless specified. They change and are often pretty vague.  They are hardly ever tested.

 

Block-Specific Advice

 

 

Tools

Exams are open-book, but learn the concepts or you'll get bogged down.  The information is useful in clinical years so pay attention to concepts.
Heme/Onc

Your first exposure to the deluge of diseases. Try to figure a way to organize them early on.  The Oncology part is very pharm-heavy!
Cardiovascular

You will be expected to learn EKGs mostly on your own, but the book is entertaining.  The textbook on diseases is well organized and sticks to relevant clinical information.  If you recall your physiology, things will go much smoother.  Use the book to learn the drugs, as there are a lot and details are important! Midterms are take-home but the final is not.  No small groups this block, so get together with friends to figure diseases out.
Pulmonary

Lots of antibiotics during the first part! The diseases' symptoms are basically the same, so pathology is essential.
GI

Small groups were a hoot and lectures well-taught!  A lot of diseases to learn, so start organizing!  Again, symptoms are similar so pathology is essential.   Not as pharm-heavy as previous blocks.
Urinary

For the first part, you are going to have to learn the details of kidney chemistry and why the resulting systemic effects occur.  The second part is very path-intense.  Get a bunch of people, draw diagrams and reason things out. 
Neurosciences

This is the longest block of the year.  The first part has a lot of head anatomy you'll need to recall.  Second part has a lot of pathology since symptoms are very similar.  Third part is psychiatry and the diseases can blur together if you don't start organizing them early.  Pharmacology is pretty intense in latter parts of the block.
Endocrine

This block starts off with hormones, and try to organize how the affect various organs early. This will make remembering the effects of diseases much easier, rather than brute-force memorizing.  There are lots of crazy nutritional deficiencies whose symptoms you will need to memorize.  There are a couple of drugs to learn, but not bad.
Genetics/Repro

Genetics is concepts-heavy but light on diseases and pharm. Reproduction has many symptoms that are similar so pathology and demographics needs to be understood well.
MSK

Coming soon...