February 2007
The Archives
-
02.27.07Errors and Problems in High Yield Cell and Molecular BiologyThese last two days have been exhilirating and frustrating. Exhilirating because I’m exposing myself to incredible concepts in Cell Biology that make me want to live in a lab for the rest of my life to discover more; frustrating because of the vessel. Dr. Dudek’s High Yield Cell and Molecular Biology (2nd Ed. 2007) is riddled with errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. As an English marm, I find this incredibly distracting. Further, there are a number of times where the book is not internally consitent (i.e. page 10 contradicts page 20), presents concepts in obfuscating ways (this may just ...
-
02.27.07How to Prepare for the USMLE: Which QBank is the Best?I’m just going to assume that I feel the way most people do about the unknown: I don’t like it. Even though I’ve known about this test for two years, it still feels like it’s springing up on me and I’m frantically trying to prepare. What’s on it? Where there a lot of Biochem questions or was Neuro more stressed? Were the Path questions hard? And on, and on. For most of us, it’s also the first time we’ve ever taken a test like this on a computer. Like most, I have my habits of underlining key words in a question stem, ...
-
02.27.07Errors in First Aid for the USMLE (2007): NeurologyNeurology P.345, Basal ganglia I think this image is confusing and could benefit from a few additions. Specifically, I think it should be made clear that neurons from the SNc are synapsing on neurons in the Striatum. The Striatal neurons are currently labeled as “Putamen” which would lead to confusion if a test stem referenced the “striatal neurons” that are the sites of Huntington’s lesions. I think it is appropriate in this section to repeat that Dopamine is inhibitory through its D2 receptor (currently unmentioned) and stimulatory through its D1 receptor. The light and dark shading of the pathways is not very intuitive, and ...
-
02.27.07Errors in First Aid for the USMLE (2007): Gastrointestinal SystemGastrointestinal P.280, Abdominal layers Not necessary, but I’m just begging you to change this image. In contrast to a typical cross-section on CT, this image is flipped over its axis. This means that with left body on right page, we are looking from head-to-toe and not toe-to-head (as in a CT) and the anterior abdominal wall is placed below the spine on the page instead of above (as in a CT). The simplest solution is to remove all the labels, flip the image across its horizontal axis (as opposed to rotation which would place the IVC and Aorta incorrectly), and then reapply ...
