Coccobacilli, or something...

I have been studying so much lately, but I have begun to ask myself.. What am I really learning?

We are in Micro/Immuno right now, and the masses of information are being thrown faster than we can grasp. To remember things, we have adopted the age-old med student method of... (drumroll please).... MNEMONICS! (Or random-ass long stories to help me memorize heaps of information I don't truly understand-- whichever explanation you'd like to go with.)

For example:

Pseudimonas aeuruginosa:
Hageman and his gang originated a fire in the Quad.
(Hageman factor is involved, originated=aeuruginosa, causes ecthyma gangrenosum, involved in burn infections, uses Quorum sensing.)
He burnt his eye and jumped into the hot tub, still wearing his Burka, to cool it off.
(Causes keratitis, hot tub dermatitis, and is related to Burk-something-or-other)
He got Swimmer's ear from the hot tub.
(Causes swimmer's ear-- otitis externa)

And another:

Haemophilus influenza:
Hib is bleeding.
(Haemophilus influenza B= Hib, Hib also stands for Hib Is Bleeding; haemophilus=bleeding).
We give him CPR.
(CPR=PRP, the protein that makes up Hib's capsule? and is in the vaccine, Conjugated PRp)
He has a cut, so he squirts blood all over the people nearby.
(Causes community acquired pneumonia)
We need to put on latex gloves to protect ourselves.
(Latex agglutination positive)
A child sees and starts screaming.
(Hurts throat and ears-- causes epiglottitis and otitis media)
HIb's dog starts barking when he sees Hib on the ground.
(Epiglottitis causes a barking cough.)

I won't even begin to share the stories we made up to remember STDs.

So the question is this: at the end of the day, is all this studying amounting to an education? Or am I just remembering a bunch of junk long enough to pass a test? If it's the latter, I don't think this is how I'd like to spend my days.

Here's to remembering.