AOA Guide to the Second Year

Jefferson Medical College Alpha Omega Alpha Guide to the Second Year

Immunity, Infection and Disease

BOOKS
There is a simple book that is recommended for summer reading entitled, "How the Immune System Works." Some people bought this and read it because it is simple and easy to use. It is a bit basic, but a nice intro.

The book that is 'required' or 'heavily recommended' is "Basic Immunology" by Abbas and Lichtman. It is relatively well-written and can clear up some confusing topics from class. In addition, there are some very good graphics that summarize main topics. For microbiology, "Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple" is a must! It provides easy ways of remembering all the bugs and the corresponding pharmacology. Many reread this book for the boards!

SYLLABUS
Very comprehensive. The syllabus will be broken up into three major sections each with an associated exam: Exam 1: Immunology and Virology (First Aid has some great tables for this!), Exam 2: Bacteriology, and Exam 3: Mycology and Parasites. Dr. Jungkind's notes are very long, but go to his lectures or get a copy of his PowerPoint because he puts a star on the slides that contain the exam information.

Use "Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple" to supplement the antibiotics lectures. It gives useful ways to memorize the drugs and their applications. The Microbiology Section of First Aid is also extremely useful!

A good way to approach the material is to create your own charts/table, listing the organism, defining characteristics, treatments, etc. - you will learn a lot making this and it condenses the material for ease of studying later .

LAB
In most of the labs, you are required to identify an unknown (i.e. determine the sample bacteria given different culturing procedures, etc.). It's usually quick, and there are a lot of lab assistants to help.

For some of the labs, if necessary, the instructors will supply protective coats that are intended to be reused for multiple labs. They should collect them after each use, so make sure that you don't throw them out.

The flow sheets in the lab manual are useful for the exams. This is the easiest lab course ever and should prompt no anxiety. Hand in all of the lab assignments (which are mostly fill-in-the-blank) and you will do fine.

MEDICAL LETTER ONLINE QUIZZES (MANDATORY)
These assignments are short online quizzes testing your knowledge on the pharmacological interventions described in the various short (less than 5 page) Medical Letter articles. They factor into a small percentage of your grade (traditionally, less than 5%). They are nothing to stress about. Simply read the article(s) beforehand and answer approximately ten straightforward questions related to the material. Keep an eye on which quizzes it says you completed (usually on a website within the Microbiology pulse site).

EXAMS
There are three exams. The third exam is not cumulative, but does review some material from the first two exams. This is good because there is not a lot of new information and it is a good review. If you know your syllabus, you should do well. Also, there is an NBME Subject Exam on Immunology and Microbiology.

Last updated: 7/12