Jefferson Medical College Alpha Omega Alpha Guide to the First Year

The Systems - Physiology / Microanatomy

These two courses run simultaneously but independently. You will get a grade for each one and a combined grade, but you have to pass both. Both come with syllabi that are very thorough.

Most students will see the Systems as a nice break after MCBM, but that doesn't mean it's easy (nothing is easy). Things will start to seem more clinically relevant at this point too. Like in other classes, make sure you don't fall behind. After Anatomy and MCBM, two very intense courses, many students don't take this class seriously enough.

The information from the Systems will be relevant for the boards and for clinical rotations. This is a class where learning the fundamentals well will come a long way towards helping you in your classes during the second year. When you study, ask yourself if you can really explain how a particular organ works. While the minutiae may be on the exams, an understanding of the general concepts will help you clinically.

You will also have labs for microanatomy but you won't actually learn how to use a microscope. The 'virtual' slide box is online and this is what you'll be going over during lab time. Make sure you can identify what is in the virtual slide box when you are given an appropriate context. If it helps you to learn it while there are doctors around to ask questions of, then lab will be very helpful. A lot of people just learn it on their own time, so going to the lab can be nice since it's usually not packed full of students. The teachers there are very helpful. It can also be very helpful to use some of the student generated study tools that are passed down from upper year students or made by your classmates.

Revised: 7/12