Endocrinology

Endocrinology has a lot of material which can make it challenging, so staying on top of the lecture material and different pathways will be extremely helpful. It can be difficult as this course runs alongside the Reproductive and Genitourinary Health course, but you can do it! The teaching team for endocrinology consists of a wide variety of specialists, and each one of them will give a lecture focused on topics in their specialty. The class is hybrid in person/Zoom lectures followed by online small groups on most days. The small groups are required and review clinical cases that cover topics from the day before. There are also quizzes every other day for this block (6 quizzes total, less than 10 questions each), but they’re worth 3.3% each for a total of 20% of your grade. The final NBME exam is worth a huge chunk of your grade (a whopping 70%), so make sure to keep up with the material every week. 

Endocrinology has a final exam on the Monday morning of Week 4 and 6 quizzes throughout the course. The final exam is a huge portion of your grade (a supersized 70%) so make sure to keep up with the course material via spaced repetition. Because the final exam is an NBME exam, it is especially important to review content from Boards & Beyond, Pathoma, Sketchy, and First Aid along with the main topics from class lectures and small groups. The style of questions on the final exam are similar to UWorld and clinical case style of questioning, so review how different diseases would present, what would happen if a certain part of the endocrine pathway was knocked out, the indication for different drugs and treatments, and how to diagnose and screen for different pathologies with labs/physical exam/imaging. 

The 6 quizzes are written by the professor and include a mix of clinical cases and first-order questions to check your understanding of different pathways and diseases. Some of the questions have confusing wording, but try not to second guess yourself and overthink the questions. You can study for these by reviewing the handy dandy Boards & Beyond videos, lecture material (supplemented by Anki, First Aid, and B&B), Sketchy Pharm, and Pathoma. 

• Lecture - a lot of information is presented in lectures, but since the final exam is NBME, attending lectures is not necessary to learn the material. However, a lot of lecture material does correlate with the Boards & Beyond and Pathoma material, so it is personal preference for attending lectures. 

• Small Groups - small groups are mandatory attendance and they cover clinical cases that test your understanding of the endocrinology material. Some small groups are better than others depending on your group leader for the day, but a huge upside is that the small group answers are posted at the end of each small group! Amazing!

• Quizzes - the 6 quizzes are challenging, but a great way to force you to keep up with the class material. You’re given 30 minutes for each quiz, and the quizzes are 6-10 questions each. To study for the quizzes, you can review lecture material (optional), Boards & Beyond (very recommended), Sketchy (recommended for the drugs only), and/or Pathoma (optional). The quizzes are only worth 20% in total so this is not a huge chunk of your grade (i.e. don't worry if you miss a few questions), but they're still important nonetheless. Definitely go to lecture (or log in virtually) after a quiz because Dr. Thompson will review the answers. 

• Final Exams - most students found the final exam to be harder than expected. You can generally prepare for the final using the Boards & Beyond material, Uworld questions, First Aid, Pathoma, Sketchy, and student study guides. 

• Boards & Beyond - watch all the endocrinology videos by the end of the block. These videos are extremely important to understand all the material in the endocrinology block so try to watch the videos at a reasonable pace and do anki/flashcards/review questions for these topics. 

• First Aid & Anki - First Aid has an excellent condensed review of the major topics of this course. Especially as a quick reference for things like pathways and different diseases. It can be helpful to review material throughout the course or to review key concepts for the final exam. Anki cards can be unsuspended based on either the First Aid tags or the Boards & Beyond tags (if you use Boards & Beyond). Use Anki if it works for you, but do not consider it a necessity, understanding the pathways is the most important for this course.

• Sketchy Pharm or Pixorize - a lot of drugs are covered in the endocrinology block (especially for diabetes, bone health, lipids/cholesterol levels, and thyroid function) and most students find Sketchy Pharm or Pixorize to be a better learning tools than the pharmacology lectures. The highest yield drugs are diabetes and lipids (since the lectures on these drugs can sometimes be overwhelming, confusing, and overly-detailed).

• Student Made Resources - There is a study guide made by past students. This guide for endocrinology is especially helpful - it's a good idea to review it a few days before the final exam so you can pinpoint topics to focus your studying.

  1. 1. Jay's video guide https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vjXzW-BWTVF_yw7hyXjDErx3tW_m2vJAna0MM0-0g3Y/edit#gid=297782777

• Pathoma - you can watch the relevant endocrinology pathology videos. This will be helpful for STEP 1 but is not necessary to pass the course. 

• UWorld Questions or Amboss or USMLE Rx - if you have a question bank you can do 10-20 questions per day as practice. This is essential to passing the final exam, as the final is an NBME exam, and your first exposure in NBME style questions in the course. You can re-do questions near the exam to really cement the topics down.