Sunday, May 5, 2013

Why It's Impossible to Memorize Anything Ever

So I'm studying the skin chapter in Step Up to Medicine, and I get to the disorder called lichen planus.  No big deal, the book tells me just to remember the 4 P's: pruritic, polygonal, purple, flat-topped papules.  I can forgive them for the last one (I can call it papule (comma) flat-topped, like a last name (comma) first name sort of thing). 

But now fast-forward two pages later (aka three facebook breaks and two youtube videos later), and I get to basal cell carcinoma.  OK, no biggy, the book says it's classic appearance can easily be remembered by the 3 P's: pearly, pink, papule.

. . . .

I'm sorry but that is too many P's in too short a time!  How am I supposed to remember which are the 4 P's and which are the 3 P's, and which one goes with which?  Where is the mnemonic for that??

2 comments:

  1. Yea you defn have to find an additional way to memorize the P's. Ugh!

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    1. I can offer help with keeping these straight. Go to my site at medicalnomics.com and look under the posts labeled Basal Cell Carcinoma and Lichen Planus. If you like, feel free to subscribe and share the word. My blog is brand new and many more posts to follow. Thanks!

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