How to study Medical School Pathology, Psychopathology, and Neuroscience
Pathology, Psychopathology, and Neuroscience are your standard medical school classes. There's really no tricks or gimmicks to learn the material—this is a core part of that "fire hydrant" onslaught that you hear far too often about. Pathology composes about 50% of USMLE Step 1 which should give you a sense of how important it is in the overall scheme of medical education.
Overview and goals of studying Pathology, Psychopathology, and Neuroscience
Pathology, Psychopathology, and Neuroscience lectures will go over the material but depending on the lecturer and the person writing the questions for the exam, there may be different emphases for each lecture. However, a good rule of thumb is to go through some questions banks, either written or online, before exams to have a better idea on what is tested. This applies, of course, to other courses as well, but is especially true in pathology, psychopathology, and neuroscience, where the large amount of material given makes it hard to digest and memorize everything. Studying smart is the name of the game here.
Steps to studying Pathology, Psychopathology, and Neuroscience (in order)
Read through the lecture notes/skim through the relevant section in your review book/required textbook of choice. Highlight and make marks as needed.
Make an outline of the lecture, looking how each lecture is organized.
Likely, lectures will be spotted with disease and disease processes; write these out and compare and contrast the differences between each disease. This can also be done with tables so that you can easily see and differentiate, for example, that PCOS has an LH/FSH ratio of >2.5 vs other reasons for hirsutism (ovarian tumors, adrenal tumors, and adrenal hyperplasia), which have ratios < 2. Essentially, the point is to make a graphic or reference so that you can quickly reinforce facts and concepts when you have a question regarding, as opposed to digging through a reference text. Neuroscience takes this a step further and asks you to know the disease that occurs with a lesion in a certain location in the brain.
Make flashcards
Use Anki to make flashcards that quiz you on one-to-one associations. Per 1 hour lecture, you really shouldn't be making more than 20 flashcards. Flashcards are only to solidify quick question and answer type of questions such as, for example, small cell lung carcinoma secrete ACTH and ADH and squamous cell lung carcinoma cause hypercalcemia (due to PTH like substances). Quick. Fast. One to one associations.
Do questions
There are so many question banks and resources for pathology which you can use to quiz yourself and reinforce what you have learned.