Today's Offering to the Gods of Procrastination

I'm in the midst of reviewing 107 physiology lectures for our cumulative final Monday morning but I needed a break to give a shout out to my amazing classmates.

I really lucked out with my decision to go to BCMS.  I've friends at other schools who talk about the competition and the frustration of the ubiquitous gunners.  Here, we have a contest for 'resource of the week'.  It's such a collaborative environment. There is competition but it's mostly as a class trying to beat the performance that other years had on exams. (we rocked the immuno midterm- our average was 7 points higher that the '15 class).

Pre-exam weekends always show a flurry of activity on our facebook page with post after post of practice exams, summaries, review material from upperclassmen or other schools, people posting info garnered from office hours. It's pretty amazing how so many of my classmates are so generous with their discoveries.

For anyone applying to medical school, a non-curved grade structure really makes a HUGE difference in the learning environment. I remember when I was looking at schools, it fell lower on the totem pole of priorities.  Now I wouldn't trade it for a full scholarship to JH.

Sucky Happiness

It's been some time since I've been here!

I stumbled and tripped and eventually failed anatomy by 3 (three!!!!) points.  Out of 550.  That SUCKED. SUCKED. SUCKED. It still sucks.  I'll need to remediate over the summer.  Sucky.

I've spoken with a dean of student affairs and have contacted our learning center peeps for advice but haven't told anyone else (like family).  I'm too embarrassed. 

It was so frustrating; I honored every other course and even scored perfectly on the radiology final. I'm not stupid. I'm not. I swear. Three points!

I'm so happy to be in physiology. It's amazing how much easier it is for me to study. It's like a never-ending fountain of really cool, useful information. I can seriously lose hours chasing down information...

This semester is also bunches less isolating than last. I've finally found a small group of like-minded dedicated, irreverent and curious study partners.  One of our assignments for the 'doctoring' course was to take a personality test. It turns out everyone in my study group is an INTJ.  We're basically rational curious and pedantic people who don't do feelings.  It's an awesome experience to meet up after lecture to argue with people about the role, if any, that plasma skimming has in the delineation of pulmonary zones. (you know... zones 1-3 and their ventilation efficiency).  It reminds me of my high school physics class and the arguments of black hole gravitational forces that I'd have with my friends while playing Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (I was always a tree-climbing elf- FYI)... completely irrelevant to the required class material but so interesting...

So.. despite my sucky sucky nightmare of having to repeat anatomy... life is pretty awesome. And I'm happy.

Cheers. :D

Exams, Here and Gone

There are a couple of folks in my small group section who 'know everything and are always right'. Ahem. Cough. Cough.

It drives me crazy when they come to a conclusion and then stop without considering another idea.  Several times now, an alternative answer has been dismissed or an inconsistency has been pointed out and then ignored. It's not that big of a deal; we're all pretty respectful of each other and, most of the time, we listen to the others' contributions. It's just that, maybe because we're being overwhelmed with new information, there lies a thread of intellectual laziness, an 'I don't understand why- I just memorize the correct answer' attitude.

It's just that I tend to want to look really deeply and make things more complicated. It's a study habit I've had since high school. Wondering "what if?" helps me to really incorporate the material, see it from all angles and prepare for scenarios that may be presented on exams.  I know that it's probably annoying when I seem to make mountains out of anthills but there have been several occasions when I've been completely on the mark of what the profs are looking for. (sometimes I'm totally off-base- but we'll disregard that as it doesn't support my point :) )

Anyway, it happened again on 3 of the problems today. Huzzah! I feel so smugly validated at being right.  (I'm sure my classmates never noticed, in hindsight, that I gave the correct answer, but I sure did!)

I also honored my first exam!

Classmates

Today was a day of firsts. I finally met a classmate that I just cannot like.  Normally, I try to look beyond the irritating (god knows- I'm sure I can be really annoying too) but just sitting near this person, hearing the vitriol (s)he spewed about other classmates and the inane, superficial chatter that interspersed the venom, was absolutely torturous. I so profoundly hope that I never have to work directly with this person. Ever.

Another first; I met a classmate who just doesn't like me, one of my small-group members. We meet once a week and, under the guidance of a physican-proctor, discuss suggested readings, ethical issues and learn the practical side of medicine. Every gathering, one person, assigned alphabetically, is responsible for writing up a summary of the readings to guide the discussion.

Well, the largest (by orders of magnitude) reading chunk was the week that my turn fell on.  We found out today though, that the group doesn't meet the week prior to that.

I sent out an email suggesting that this other classmate and I exchange assignments as I had already started the reading and the summary for the massive task. I thought that I was being nice, volunteering to keep the big assignment. Oops. I was wrong.

My classmate immediately shot back a response. It was polite but angry, telling me that the original order should be kept and it didn't matter if I had started the reading because "everyone should read everything" anyway. Then after lecture, my classmate brushed right by me without a word but with a very articulate glare.

I'm pretty bothered by the exchange. I like everyone in my small group and really felt that the environment was encouraging. I guess I'll just wait and see what next week brings.

We had the sexuality lecture in Human Development. It was awesome. The professor taught the men all about proper foreplay (laugh) and peppered the entire 2 hours with anecdotes from his tenure working in the Emergency department. The things people insert into their bodies! Ew.