As it turned out, the Powers That Be were not trying to be tricky. Everything on the Immunology test was straight from First Aid – so the many hours I spent this weekend learning molecular cascades and memorizing the more obscure interleukins – just in case – weren’t exactly time-efficient.
(But who knows? Maybe I’ll be on a game show someday and they’ll ask me to explain the 2nd messenger cascade behind CTLA-4 inhibition of T-cells, and damn it, I will know the hell out of that answer.)
Also, looking back, I was incredibly vague in my last post. For the title, I should’ve written “Cramming” for a test that doesn’t count is shady business”, instead of studying. (Full disclosure: I actually started studying for Immunology during winter break and got a fair share of “wow, over-study much?” remarks about my over-highlighted and well-worn review book notes. On the bright side, I think I hit a happy medium somewhere.)
Basically, balancing 4 medical classes at once is unbelievably tricky, I don’t know how everybody else manages it, but thank all that is holy that we’re at least now down to 3.
Random link spam: There’s a fascinating and telling post by squid314 about a modern hospital charade that’s like a fairy tale myth come to life. He’s a great medical writer, but he writes about other things as well (he’s internet-famous for a hilarious post he did on history/lazy writing cliches).
Action Potential 
Immunology is KILLING me right now. It’s so hard to visualize the big picture. Also doesn’t help that prof states her intense dislike of the subject, admits complete lack of microbiology background and covers the whole thing in 3 hours.
I hear you. If you’re looking for a better resource, there’s a really thin book called “How The Immune System Works” by Lauren Sompayrac, which lays the whole thing out for you like the author is chatting with you across a coffee table.
You probably don’t need the help, but it’s really conversational and was honestly the only thing that made everything come together for me. Good luck!