PA-CAT study plan

Map all major body systems onto one annotated sheet, naming three signature organs and one clinical correlate per system.

Label the bones and landmarks of the axial and appendicular skeleton from memory on a blank outline within 15 minutes.

Trace blood flow through both cardiac circuits in order, naming every chamber, valve, and great vessel.

Build a 60-card spaced-repetition deck for anatomical position, planes, directional terms, and body cavities, and review it daily.

Sketch the brachial plexus and the major cranial nerves with their primary motor and sensory targets.

Explain how each organ system preserves homeostasis using one named negative-feedback loop with sensor, integrator, and effector identified.

Compare cardiac, skeletal, and smooth muscle contraction, listing the ions, filaments, and regulatory proteins that differ.

Predict the direction blood pH, osmolarity, and glucose will shift when a named physiological variable is experimentally perturbed.

Diagram the nephron and the alveolar-capillary interface, labeling partial pressures and transport mechanisms at each step.

Re-test last week's 50 anatomical structures and re-learn every item missed twice.

Draw glycolysis, the TCA cycle, and oxidative phosphorylation from memory, labeling enzymes, cofactors, and allosteric regulators.

Compute net ATP yield per glucose under aerobic and anaerobic conditions and justify every difference you calculate.

Classify the 20 amino acids by side-chain chemistry and predict where each would sit in a folded globular protein.

Apply Michaelis-Menten kinetics to predict how competitive, uncompetitive, and noncompetitive inhibitors shift Km and Vmax.

Explain how insulin and glucagon signaling oppose each other in fed and fasted states.

Compare bacteria, archaea, viruses, fungi, and helminths on replication strategy, cell envelope, and druggable targets in a single table.

Rank the major antibiotic classes by mechanism of action and predict which resistance mechanism defeats each one.

Explain the phases of the bacterial growth curve and calculate generation time from a provided doubling dataset.

Describe innate versus adaptive immunity, naming the cell types, receptors, and signals that bridge the two.

Summarize viral replication cycles and identify where each major antiviral class interrupts them.

Solve monohybrid, dihybrid, and sex-linked crosses and compute expected phenotypic ratios without consulting notes.

Interpret pedigrees to assign the mode of inheritance and identify obligate carriers.

Predict the protein-level consequence of missense, nonsense, frameshift, and splice-site mutations.

Calculate allele and genotype frequencies from population data and state which Hardy-Weinberg assumptions the data violate.

Describe cell-cycle checkpoints and explain how loss of each checkpoint contributes to oncogenesis.

Solve stoichiometry, limiting-reagent, and titration problems to a stated accuracy standard without a formula sheet.

Calculate pH and pKa values and explain quantitatively how bicarbonate buffering holds blood pH within its narrow range.

Apply gas laws and Gibbs free energy relationships to predict spontaneity, equilibrium position, and temperature dependence.

Balance redox equations and identify the oxidizing agent, reducing agent, and electron count transferred.

Re-derive the three rate-limiting enzymes of glycolysis and explain how each is regulated allosterically and hormonally.

Identify functional groups and predict their reactivity toward nucleophiles, electrophiles, acids, and bases.

Draw arrow-pushing mechanisms for substitution, elimination, addition, and carbonyl addition-elimination reactions.

Distinguish SN1, SN2, E1, and E2 outcomes by substrate, solvent, base strength, and temperature, and assign R/S and E/Z stereochemistry.

Interpret IR and proton NMR spectra to propose a structure for an unknown compound.

Explain how resonance and inductive effects control acidity and reaction regioselectivity.

Apply classical and operant conditioning, observational learning, and memory models to short clinical vignettes.

Explain health-behavior and adherence frameworks, including the role of provider-patient communication and health literacy.

Distinguish defense mechanisms, personality styles, and common psychiatric presentations and match each to a management principle.

Complete two full-length mixed practice exams under timed conditions and convert every error into a tagged review card.

Consolidate the 20 weakest facts across all domains onto a single final review sheet and recite them from memory.