I have been told that quite a few people in MDII are starting to get worried about the Pathology paper. But they shouldn't.
The MDII Pathology paper consists of 60 MCQs, all of which come from a question bank. That question bank is a bit on the small side, so all that you have to do is get your hands on as many past papers as you can, and you will practically have the entire question bank at your disposal. To make things even easier, the faculty always organises a 30 MCQ pre-test in May, and most of the questions in that one come up in the exam. Clearly, they want as many people as possible to get into the clinical years (so they can fail half of them in MDIII :-P ).
I have scanned a pre-test, which I am sharing with you. In the future, I will also share a couple more pre-tests, plus a normal past paper. Studying all of those will be enough not only to pass the paper but also to get a very decent grade.
So spend your weekend studying Anatomy and Physiology... There will be loads of time for you to study Pathology in your clinical years !
12 comments:
I wish some of the people in our year were half as kind as you are.
Thanks. This is what I was looking for. Keep it up!
Dear foreigner,
i'm an MDI student and i was hoping u could give us some advice regarding biochemistry.
Unfortunately the lectures are a total waste of time since we get almost nothing out of them except for a decent 1 hour nap... the notes provided on the web are even worse..
i was thinking on studying from Horton's (Principles of Bio..) but the book is too detailed and takes a lot of time to read..
maybe you could help us out?
Thanks
Dear MDI colleague,
I agree that the material covered by Prof.G.Hunter's lectures is too complicated for people that have no previous knowledge of biochemistry.
Sadly, the only proper way out is to attend the lectures and then spend time going through the lecture notes and using the textbook to look up everything that doesn't make sense.
But you technically don't have to do that.
You see, only 1 or 2 out of 8 questions of the MDI biochemistry paper are related to the material covered by Prof.Hunter's lectures.
And since you only need to answer five of the questions, I would advise you to select the four questions set by Prof.J.V.Bannister (if you go through past papers you will notice that there is a repetitive pattern in those) plus one of the ones set by Dr.T.Hunter (Prof.Hunter's wife). Reading a few chapters off Lippincott's would be enough for those.
But beware ! I've heard that the department is discussing the possibility of changing the exam format over to MCQs this year !
If this happens, excluding stuff from your study will become a bit more risky. So ask the department about the exam format, when there's still time !!!
I agree that Hunter's lectures are a waste of time. Why dont we do something about it? Could we ask MMSA to set up a meeting with Bannister? I understand he is head of dept. Maybe he can knock some sense into him.
Thanks again for your help.
I don't mean to disappoint you guys (and girls), but the possibility of any change happening in the syllabus and teaching methods of the Physiology and Biochemistry department is slim, to say the least.
Some of the things they will teach you are essential for your clinical careers. Others are just useless crap. And you will have no way of finding out what is what, until you have actually learnt the whole lot, passed the respective papers, and been promoted to the clinical years.
So get studying...
A couple of years back, MMSA used to run surveys of what people thought of the different lectures, lecturers and lecturing style, and surprise surprise: Prof. Hunter's lectures would always turn out at the bottom. We used to take that data to the relevant people and discuss it with them, and quite a few changes have come about because of those sessions. Alas, Hunter wasn't one of them :(
The point I'm making here is that you need to make the most of what's given to you, as this foreigner is telling us, and while a good number of the lecturers are approachable and will listen and act on student feedback, some won't.
Hunter's lectures can get a bit boring, but it's really quite simple stuff if you sit in front and try to pay attention. Take the lecture notes off his site with you to the lecture, and jot down notes - it'll be much more handy than studying from the books.
Re: talking to bannister, that's about seven different blogposts on their own... stronger-willed students than the lot of us have tried and 'found resistance', to put it nicely. New blood is what that department needs.
Thanks Pawlu for that advice. I still think that MMSA should make an appointment with Bannister and tell him AGAIN what is happening in his department, especially if this has been going on for quite a while. Your comments should be in writing and you should send a copy to the Dean.
I am grateful to MMSA for the changes that have come about from your hard work. Could we please try again, for our sakes?
you will come to realise that hunter is not the worst, he's not a bad guy even though his lectures are admittedly boring, 1st semester biochem is not one your your major worries. you are going to want to 'make an appointment with bannister' many more times in your two years, pick and choose your battles :p
Let's not fool ourselves. Lecturers are permanent and nobody can move them from their positions. Not MMSA, not heads of departmens and probably not even the dean.
So instead of asking for a change of lecturer, ask for a change in the exam format and syllabus. This is probably the most realistic way to get rid of all those ridiculous minor-detail-oriented questions that the pre-clinical course is full of.
Oh, and I agree with the last comment that Hunter isn't a bad guy at all. He's actually pretty cool, and I would highly recommend that you do your long essays with him !
But he's there to teach pure biochemistry, and this is what he does. If this was replaced by essential medical biochemistry, things might have been a bit better...
I am a second year student and I realise that Hunter et al cannot be replaced until they retire, but there is no reason why we cant have physiology AND biochemistry teaching that's oriented to medicine. This is a medical course after all.
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