The lectures will took place in the Dentistry Building, Collegium Anatomicum, or Przybyszewskiego Hospital in 2017-2018. The location will likely vary again.

The seminars and labs take place at the Parasitology Department: 10 Fredry. Dr. Nowosad, the course coordinator, referred to the place as the building with the flying horse on top–that is, look for the building with a statue of a winged horse at the very top. When you enter the building, climb the first set of stairs (we’ll call this Starting Point) and proceed to the left hallway on the opposite side of the foyer. Follow the signs to Szatnia (coat check). Then, return to the Starting Point (i.e. the point after climbing the first set of stairs) and this time walk down the hallway that is to your right. The hallway turns left at the end; when it does so there will be a staircase. Mount the staircase to the first floor. Turn left on the first floor and there should be a set of locked doors (if you turn right after arriving on the first floor, it will take you to the balcony overlooking the foyer. Ring the buzzer to enter the seminar/lab rooms.

http://www.parasit.ump.edu.pl

Dr. Piotr Nowosad, PhD.
pnowosad@ump.edu.pl

Workbook

• The professors have created a student workbook. It contains everything for the course you will need to know and blank tables for you to fill in during seminars. You can buy it from the Medical Bookstore or the University Library, which will be cheaper.

For studying for the microbiology NBME, which occurs later–after the microbiology course, check out these resources:

• SketchyMicro
• Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple
• Microbiology (Lippincott’s)
• Lippincott’s MicroCards (these are like flashcards)
• Kaplan videos

Lectures

• Each lecture, a different instructor will teach about topics such as immunology, epidemics, etc. Within these topics, you will be introduced to parasites.

Seminars

• The seminars are about specific parasites. They are grouped into the organ systems that are affected. This is when you will be asked to pull out the Student Guide and fill in the blank tables.

Labs

• Bring your lab coats!!! Labs follow a break after the seminar. You will be examining parasites (most are dead; a few samples are living) under the microscope. You will also be completing drawings in the Student Guide of some of the parasites. In the sixth seminar + lab, the instructors present some clinical cases in the form of a game. You get into teams and points are given based on the performance ranking of the teams. These are bonus points that will be added to the seminar/lab exam.

Internal Tests

• There are two final exams that you need to pass separately to get a credit for the course: one exam is based on the lecture material and the other exam is based on the seminar and lab material. Both have 30 multiple choice questions. You need to get a minimum of 70% to pass each of them.

NBME

• There is no separate NBME for this course. Rather, this material will be covered in the microbiology NBME.

Because this course does not have its own NBME after the course ends, it’s easy to fall into a bad habit of not taking the course seriously. But bacteria, fungi, and viruses, which will be the subjects of the microbiology course, make up a lot of content on their own. So, not only will you be busy studying a lot of material from the microbiology course (i.e. bacteria, fungi, and viruses) for the microbiology NBME, it would be a gigantic waste of time to have to re-make study notes for parasitology when you could have done it during the parasitology course. Consequently, while the parasitology course is ongoing, it is highly recommended to use a resource for the USMLE (e.g. Sketchy Micro, Lippincott’s Microbiology textbook, Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple, Kaplan) to make good study notes and practice some USMLE-style questions. That way when you’re studying for the microbiology NBME, you can simply review your parasitology notes, practise more questions, and be more relaxed knowing you already did a portion of the hard work!