So you're in fourth year, just two more professional exam seasons to go and you will successfully make it to the finish line of your undergraduate medical academic years!
Four subjects.
Like there was Pharmacology in third year, there is a lethal subject in this year as well and it's called Special Pathology.
There are different ways to study, but the most important one is which you choose.
There is a valuable advice, one which will work out for every exam and that is never change books before the exams.
It does not matter if you have studied from Pathoma, Robbins (big, medium or mini) or from Goljan, I even know people who just did the past papers. But what matters is that you did study.
Now, the next bit is equally important, you're at an undergraduate level. Sure, there is that one SEQ which will give you a tough time, yes there will be 5-7 MCQs which you will just have to tukka-fy but that's how exams are. You won't be operating complicated surgeries at HO level, with time and experience you learn things. Special Pathology is tiring, there are so many systems and yes, it becomes a headache sometimes. Good thing is you're reading this post so yes, you'll be more focused once you finish reading this post.
Get the Past papers and Rank order file, go through them and you'll know what to focus on. Not everything in the syllabus is important at undergraduate level. Now how to focus, I'll share what I did, I got pathoma and listened to the lectures, along with that I annotated the morphology on my pathoma book. For morphology I used medium robbins, it's sufficient but there are some topics which you'll find in big robbins. The trick with pathology is that you need ample revision, one read is not good enough. and always mark the topics according to TOS so you know which unit requires more attention, for example you can't even think of avoiding Barrett's esophagus but you can safely skip the details of Psoriasis and Bullous pemphigoid. A lot of people studied from Big Robbins, if you can manage your time, this is the gold standard but the approach of Pathoma(text plus lectures) with Morphology from Robbins is good enough; review well and you can score really high.
Next off, Community medicine. A lot of people find it boring, but there's a catch to it. This subject is so vast that you just cannot contain it in textbooks, you need your creativity. For example, if there's a question about work safety for workers in a quarry and a different question stem has work safety for oil rig workers, you can add the follow points in both the answers, Application of Ergonomics, Education about work hazards, Availability of first aid kits and a trained medical staff, annual medical examinations, personal protective equipment and work force friendly policies. This subject is more focused on your application of general knowledge but it does not mean that you don't need the books, oh you do need books. The popular choice is excel, it is controversial. Faculty people don't like it a bit but the other books in market (Ilyas Ansari and Park) are too extensive and designed for mostly post grads. You don't have to follow excel word by word, just know what's written so you have a general idea of what to write but improve your answers by incorporating common sense and your own creativity. For some topics, you will need to consult Park, it's best to do definitions from Park since there were mistakes in Excel. For epidemiology and research consult Prof Ashraf's notes and as a practice material, get the mcq book as well. Again, use the rank order file!
Ah now Ophthalmology. First, I'll tell you what not to do.
There are two books, one of them is Kanski and the other one is Parsons, steer clear of them. You don't need them! I studied from Kanski and Parson but let me tell you, no one is interested in the difference between Soft and Hard drusen, but they are really interested in the definition of Glaucoma. There are two books which you need to select from, the two Js. Jatoi and Jogi. jatoi has some mistakes but it's preferred by the majority of the students; Jogi is good as well. The advantage Jogi has that there are practice MCQ questions, which are really good. Study well but study the common things, no one will ask you about the prophylactic antioxidant supplementation in AMD. Remember, undergrad level. They'll ask you the common things, like chalazion, ectropion, strabismus and things which are taught in the lectures. Be fluent in the examinations, get the jhijak out of you. No one will spoon feed you, and this is the best time to get your jhijak out of the system. They don't expect you to diagnose everything but you should be well aware of the steps in examinations and your examination should be smooth. Don't go on a zig zag path, remember your patient is a human too; they get frustrated too. Practice, practice and practice.
Finally, Otorhinolaryngology or ENT.
One book for this subject and that's called Dhingra! Nothing else. Divide your book into three sections, Ear, Nose and throat and get them binded. Now, just remember the same concept of common diseases carries to this subject as well. No on will ask you the steps of treating bat ears but they will sure ask you name the congenital anomalies of ears. They will ask you about the indications of tonsillectomy, the complications(intra operative and post operative) and contraindications. Learn the steps and practice them a lot.
To sum things up, its an enjoyable journey. Make life easy, enjoy it and learn whatever comes your way. Apart from your hard work, need two things to make your efforts more streamlined, and they are Rank order and past papers; they will help you with the topics to focus on. Not everything in the syllabus is important, there are fillers in the syllabus too :P
Attend wards, you learn a lot; not just academically but as a human being too there's a lot to learn.
Dropbox link https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qit6r6p6u1qc15p/AAC8iykjpzP_b1h_KLw2kjfha?dl=0
(the dropbox stuff has been collected by my colleague Dr. Zunaira Mohsin,thank you Zunaira!)
Dr. Sermad Mangat
Batch of '18
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