My Microbiology 1 experience

I had Micro 1 yesterday. Since it’s a written exam will this post be different from the previous ones.

Preparation

I used the “Clinical microbiology made ridiculously easy” book for basic theory on bacteria, antibiotics and viruses. I also used Sketchy micro for details on viruses. I didn’t use sketchy for antibiotics, although I’ve heard that they’re good too. Don’t waste time watching sketchy for bacteria, as that’s curriculum for Micro 2 and not 1. I did not read any immunology, however after the exam did I wish that I did. I think people usually read micro-related immunology on lectures or in the BRS book.

Sketchy micro for virus is amazing. They talk about basically everything you must know and make it really easy to remember stuff. Please pay for it to support them if you can.

You should know which antibiotics work and don’t work against gram positives and gram negatives, like how penicillin G and nafcillin works only on gram positives. You should know those antibiotics works against gram-negative cocci and those that work against gram-negative bacilli. You should definitely know which antibiotics work against MRSA, clostridium difficile and pseudomonas. I like this chart for this.

You should know which antibiotics you can’t give to children and pregnant women, and which that are nephrotoxic. You should know the mechanism of action for each antibiotic. You should know which types you can give orally. I wouldn’t waste time learning the names of too many drugs, just the major types and their most used examples. Don’t bother learning the names of the first three generation cephalosporins for example, but you should learn the names of generation 4 and 5, since there’s only one in each generation.

They do use the latin name for diseases instead of the common names, like they used condyloma acuminatum instead of “genital warts”, and they used erythema infectiosum instead of “fifth disease”.

Our group teacher gave us many sample tests and I looked through them all before the exam. We only got a couple of questions that were exactly the same as the sample test, but it was still very good to go through because the questions are similar.

The exam

The exam started at 12 in the lecture rooms. You have one and a half hour to do the exam, which is more than enough. Many were done before one hour had passed. There are 60 questions divided into four blocks. You need at least 9 correct answers out of 15 in each block to pass. I don’t know exactly what the four blocks are (they never tell you what they actually are!), but I think they are:

1. Bacteria (basic theory)
2. Virus
3. Antibiotics and disinfection
4. Immunology

There is some mix of vaccines and seminar questions (like agar stuff and staining and shit) in the different blocks. All 60 questions are single choice questions with just 4 alternatives.

They definitely did ask some questions I had no idea about (you can never be prepared for all possible questions), but overall was it fairly straightforward.

We got our grade on neptun before 14:00(!). I got a 4 after 6-7 days of effective reading.

I did make some flashcards for Micro 1. I don’t really think they’re greek.doctor-standard© but I’ll link to them here, here and here

Some questions I (kind of) remember

“A kid, 8 years old, has MRSA. He’s allergic to penicillin. Which antibiotic can you give?”

“A student has gram-negative cocci infection. Which antibiotic should you NOT give?”

“Which immunoglobulin is most abundant in the blood?”

“Which cells can present antigens?”

“Which cells can recognize antigens through MHC?”

“Which cells can recognize soluble antigens directly?”

“What causes erythema infectiosum?”

“Which of the following do not have nucleic acid? A: bacteria B: virus C: viroid D: prion”