Neuroscience

Neuroscience can be a challenging course for most people who have minimal background in the subject, especially since it's very fast-paced. The class consists of lectures that will be followed by small groups. Lectures will be recorded and posted to Brightspace, and small group sessions are case-based and intended to reinforce lecture material.

You will also have online modules through Brightspace, as well as practice self-assessments that follow the modules which are graded for completion. There are also two lab sessions that require you to be in person to visualize cadaver brains, but note that labs are based on your attendance and effort to learn rather than formative grading.

There are online quizzes at the end of each week which you can do on your own time from Friday to Sunday. In the last week of the block, you will have three final assessments. The first is an NBME exam which makes up a small portion of your grade, then an OSCE patient exam with a write-up (this is based on effort and participation), and the Brightspace final exam which makes up the biggest portion of your grade and is representative of the weekly quizzes.

Classes on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday are scheduled from 8am to 5pm with an hour-long break for lunch. Classes on Wednesday and Friday are scheduled from 8am to 12pm. Typically class will end earlier and will not take up the full time. The schedule above reflects the amount of time that you can expect to be in class, but this will vary from day to day. At the end of the week, you are assigned a weekly quiz that you can take online on your own time anytime from Friday to Sunday (roughly 80 questions in 2 hours). Unlike other courses, these weekly quizzes are at the difficulty of the final and are widely considered more difficult than the NBME exam.

• Lecture - You can review lecture slides before class which can be helpful to preview material before class. Keep in mind that if you have minimal background knowledge in neuroscience that lectures may seem too advanced and it is recommended that you seek external resources to get the basic knowledge beforehand.

• Small Groups - Try to participate and be vocal because this is how they judge your participation grade. It is totally okay to be wrong, the professors do not expect you to know everything and this is a safe space to learn. The cases in small groups are where the majority of learning will happen.

• Online modules - Do the modules by the assigned due date and do the associated self-assessment. Most quizzes pull questions from the self-assessments.

• Labs - Preview the word lists and look up any structures you may not have learned in anatomy or may have forgotten. It is important to know the function of neuroanatomy in this class. The labs focus on participation, effort, and learning rather than any form of graded assessment.

• Self Assessments - You will have access to a variety of practice self-assessments on Brightspace. Do as many as you can and understand what you got wrong and why. They are graded solely for completion and not for accuracy, but a lot of the questions that go into quizzes and final exams come from these self-assessments.

• Quizzes - Prior to quizzes, review lecture/small group concepts, self-assessments, and relevant material.

• Final Exams - Prior to the final exams, review the past graded quizzes and other self-assessments.

• Neurological Physical Exam - You will do a neuro-focused physical exam with a simulated patient in the last week of class. Don’t stress over this! You can bring in notes and follow them. Just put in the effort for the exam, you are being graded for participation.

*Most important resources are in red

• First Aid & Anki - First Aid has an excellent condensed review of the major topics of this course. 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. There is also a class Anki deck that has tags for topics and the weekly schedule. It includes questions from the self-assessments. Use Anki if it works for you, but do not consider it a necessity.

• Student Made Resources - There are multiple study guides made by students. The following resources (Kerri) were the main things you might need to prepare for the final exam.

  • • MCASOM Student Made Study Guides

    • Joocer's 3rd Party Schedule

  • Other Websites - The University of British Columbia has an outstanding website with modules that teach you the basics of neuroanatomy and function. Highly recommend doing the relevant modules prior to learning them in class.

    • http://www.neuroanatomy.ca/index.html

  • Boards & Beyond - Watch the relevant videos the night before for the topic that will be presented in lecture or small group the next day. Some people felt like Boards and Beyond didn’t align with lecture material, but it can be helpful for understanding concepts. 

  • Bootcamp - Bootcamp has excellent videos and bite-style questions to check understanding along with NBME style questions. There is a separate section for neuroanatomy if you need extra practice. 

  • Sketchy Pharm - There are several drugs that need to be memorized for this block, so you can watch the relevant videos on drugs that you learn during this block. The anti-epilepsy medications, headache medications, and Parkinson’s Disease drugs are most emphasized for this course, but the entire chapter is useful for Step 1 and third year. You can unsuspend the Sketchy Anki decks as you watch the videos.

  • YouTube Channels - If you struggle with basic concepts or need visualization and explanation then these are the good places for supplementing neuroscience content.

    • Armando Hasudungan

    • Ninja Nerd

    • Noted Anatomy

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

• Amboss & USMLE Rx - If you have a question bank you can do 10-20 questions per day as practice. This is good practice for STEP 1, but not necessary to pass the course.