smallfry Posted February 14, 2013 Report Share Posted February 14, 2013 this is my advice to the western premed community. consider this a good deed. i know that by telling you guys this information, its going to hurt myself because my comppetition will get a better gpa, but im gonna tell u anyway because it would be immoral for me not to. if you are thinking of taking pathology 3245b next year: DONT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i cannot stress this enough. path 3240a is a ****ty course, but its a joke. thats the only reason why people take it. in path 3245b on the other hand, it is a ****ty course, and is incredibly hard. the exams are unfair and the professors are out to get you. in path 3240a, 95% of the questions on the tests come from the notes. in 3245b, about 1/3 of the questions cannot be answered without having read the textbook. the textbook is incredibly detailed and would take you a year to memorize it all properly. the professors are unclear about their expectations. 2 of the professors this year said there would be no questions on the exam from their textbook readings. this was a lie - there were MANY questions on the exam from their readings. the professor always stresses to "focus on the pathology, not the clinical stuff," yet there are clinical questions on the exam concerning medical treatments. the exams have cheap questions. for example, you might memorize a certain disease as "Immature teratoma" from the notes/textbook, yet on the exam the name of the disease is called "cystic teratoma" and you get screwed up. or, they might ask u what a complication of a disease is, and none of them are complications, and the right answer is a complication of a complication. often the questions can only be answered by remembering details from path 3240a, which is unfair. think of a course like cell biology. remove all understanding and concepts, it's pure memorization of lists. multiply the work load by 3. that's path 3245b. the entire course can be summarized in a gigantic list that you will need to memorize. no understanding. not interesting at all. you will spend 100's of hours memorizing the notes by writting them out over and over and over and over and over in the library, just to get a 80. DONT TAKE THIS COURSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NaiNoremac Posted February 15, 2013 Report Share Posted February 15, 2013 Sorry you felt this way. I know a lot of people who took these courses and were still able to get 90+.. many of them are now in med school... a lot of the material covered in the path courses are stuff you will need to know in med school anyway.. and everyone in med school still suggests you read Robbins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyleh Posted February 15, 2013 Report Share Posted February 15, 2013 Pathology is a very detail oriented course but getting a 90 is definitely do able. Just don't take the course thinking it's going to be a bird course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted February 15, 2013 Report Share Posted February 15, 2013 well - sounds like you are having a very unpleasant experience! Has something changed in this course lately? Didn't go to uwo but have heard that course is not easy. It is never fun when the follow up course is simply not on the same playing field in terms of difficulty compared to the first one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obi Posted February 16, 2013 Report Share Posted February 16, 2013 prep yourself homie, med school is coming! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pagan Posted February 17, 2013 Report Share Posted February 17, 2013 Or Pharmacology 3620 for that matter. The exams are a nightmare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrenchToast Posted February 17, 2013 Report Share Posted February 17, 2013 Or Pharmacology 3620 for that matter. The exams are a nightmare. So I'm not the only one who thinks so?! Like I've been doing fine enough, but I study really hard and think I understand everything, find the exams really hard and with STRANGE questions, and then my friends say they were really easy. But ya thank the lord I'm not the only one who feels this way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pagan Posted February 17, 2013 Report Share Posted February 17, 2013 So I'm not the only one who thinks so?! Like I've been doing fine enough, but I study really hard and think I understand everything, find the exams really hard and with STRANGE questions, and then my friends say they were really easy. But ya thank the lord I'm not the only one who feels this way. I was at the exam review last week, and I felt there was some general discontentment amongst students. Maybe it was because they went questions really fast and didn't give us enough time to think about or challenge the answers. :/ Upper years told me it was "doable", but my advice to others is to avoid it unless you are in Pharmacology because it is neither well-organized nor interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markov79 Posted February 17, 2013 Report Share Posted February 17, 2013 this thread makes me sad LOL. i liked both 3245 and 3620. being in 3620 was the reason i took 2.0 pharm courses this year LOL. but i understand it's not for everyone. did they change either course since last year? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrenchToast Posted February 17, 2013 Report Share Posted February 17, 2013 I was at the exam review last week, and I felt there was some general discontentment amongst students. Maybe it was because they went questions really fast and didn't give us enough time to think about or challenge the answers. :/ Upper years told me it was "doable", but my advice to others is to avoid it unless you are in Pharmacology because it is neither well-organized nor interesting. ... There was an exam review?! How did you know? I find some of the content interesting, but I agree that it is very poorly organized. this thread makes me sad LOL. i liked both 3245 and 3620. being in 3620 was the reason i took 2.0 pharm courses this year LOL. but i understand it's not for everyone. did they change either course since last year? Haha . I do really like some sections of pharm, but then for the profs I don't like, I've haaaated it. I liked pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, neuro, autonomic, and respiratory, but despised cancer and cardio (largely because of the profs). As far as I know, they didn't change pharm since last year. I didn't take either of the path courses though, so I can't comment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pagan Posted February 17, 2013 Report Share Posted February 17, 2013 FrenchToast, I emailed the course coordinator about reviewing my exam. He replied telling me the room and date. I do find some of the content interesting, but I'm also looking at the clock every 10 minutes in that class. *cough* Some profs sucked! *cough* markov79, I don't know if there were any changes since last year. But I take it you did pretty well. Any advice how I can ace the final? I felt like I prepared enough but when it comes down to it, I just suck at answering weird/ambiguous questions. I'd take a Haffie exam over this any day! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MedSci-PhysMajor Posted March 12, 2013 Report Share Posted March 12, 2013 So I'm not the only one who thinks so?! Like I've been doing fine enough, but I study really hard and think I understand everything, find the exams really hard and with STRANGE questions, and then my friends say they were really easy. But ya thank the lord I'm not the only one who feels this way. OMG I feel the same! I got 90% on the first one and then 64% on the second. Clearly something is wrong here considering I studied equally for both... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MedSci-PhysMajor Posted March 12, 2013 Report Share Posted March 12, 2013 this thread makes me sad LOL. i liked both 3245 and 3620. being in 3620 was the reason i took 2.0 pharm courses this year LOL. but i understand it's not for everyone. did they change either course since last year? I heard that last year it was 2 half courses and that they were debating going back to that style again next year because the cumulative final has just proved to be too much...*sigh* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tb123 Posted March 12, 2013 Report Share Posted March 12, 2013 That wouldn't make sense to me, the general consensus among my friends was that the final was the easiest exam, and I personally did the best on it. The 3rd semester has better profs and the questions on the old material was very conceptual. The 2nd exam is harder for everyone, mainly as the profs actually expect you to think and apply concepts, something us medsci kids are not great at Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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