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==Non-emergent pathology==
Also largely a directory of external guidelines and databases.
'''Non-emergent pathology questions'''
FINDING GUIDELINES
Which of the following situations does not have comprehensive guidelines available online?
INFECTIOUS DISEASES
Ask what are the main locations to look for infection in a specific autopsy case.
Provide algorithm of gram stain etc. and table of main bacteria by various locations.
'''Where to find information'''
INFORMATICS QUESTION
Provide genetic variant in long format.
- Which database is the best to use to look up the pathogenicity of this variant?
- ClinVar (correct)
- gnomAD (population frequencies)
- PolyPhen (likelihood of protein damaging)
- PharmGKP (associated treatments)
- In ClinVar, what would you enter
- A1708V (then BRCA1)
===Dealing with Internet denialists and their exams===
An Internet denialist probably knows about the existence of the Internet, but keeps acting and teaching as if being oblivious of it. An Internet denialist generally takes '''pride''' in for example memorizing the chromosome locations of even rare mutations, but when being called in for a frozen section of even relatively common specimens such as brain, lung or skin tissues, they may not know how to differentiate even the most common 90% of diagnoses.
An Internet denialist who has memorized something may '''assume''' that pathology trainees should memorize it as well, and entire lectures may largely consist of rants of such items. In reality, when something is encountered and looked up something enough times, it will generally get memorized, and it is generally more efficient to let time tell which situations will be common versus uncommon, rather than trying to memorize knowledge that may never be needed.
Also, while you should initially focus on learning the most common conditions, specialists and subspecialists may already have learned the common conditions, at least in their subspecialty, and they will often distract you from your pursuit by presenting rare conditions to you, because that is interesting to ''them'', but do not spend excessive time or mental effort on such rare conditions during at least your first years.
An Internet denialist '''exam''' is basically any exam wherein the examiner does not have access to the Internet, and typically is not allowed to ask colleagues either, even for non-emergent topics that can conveniently and timely be handled by such resources. Since the Internet and teamwork are fundamental parts of everyday practice, such exams are thereby of a different dimension.
====Exam studying====
Since exams and everyday practice are generally very different (as per previous section), you should generally study specifically for an exam or study specifically for solving each case you encounter everyday, rather than trying to study any material with the intention of covering both purposes. After all, for a multiple choice exam like the American boards, you don't actually need to '''know''' the answer, but just have a feeling of what is the '''most likely''' answer among the choices. Also, you will become proficient at what you do: If you read textbooks you will be more proficient at reading textbooks, if you study to solve everyday cases on your table then you will become good at that, whereas the best way of becoming more proficient at multiple choice exams like the American boards is to practice qbanks with a similar multiple choice format. There are multiple ones for the American boards (PathPrimer, PathDojo, BoardVitals, ASCP Resident Q bank), and you should exhaust them and repeat at least the ones you failed the first time, before continuing with other study materials. For highest yield, don't read every explanation for every answer, but just the answers that contradicted your belief, just enough to learn why it wasn't what you initially thought. Also, you don't have to memorize every clue to the right answer, but rather get an idea of what makes the right choice most likely, because that's basically all you need to choose that right answer if it would appear in the actual exam. To check if you have remembered a question sufficiently, you may for example review the correct answers for a test until you almost immediately find them to be reasonable rather than unfamiliar, and repeat the question later if you have the time. If the Qbank shows the average percentage of test takers who got a question right, put somewhat less effort on questions with very low percentage, since you generally have less of an expectation of knowing those.
Efficient exam studying will allow you more time, effort and brain space to memorize what you actually need, as well as to perform for example studying for solving your actual everyday pathology cases (as per the ''Using this handbook'' section above).
→Non-emergent pathology: Moved
Although these are generally given on schedules of the operating room, any pathologist may end up suddenly covering for another one, and subsequently be presented with the frozen section case without having had the time to look it up beforehand.
=Fixation=
