Week 9 Over!

Wow, the first quarter is almost over. Lots still left to do, but I can almost touch that two week break over Thanksgiving.

I got my Biochem grade back and it was better than I expected, several points over the class average. Anyway, I hope to do better going forward and feel like studying in the student conference room vs. home during the week is helping. I got 4-5 good hours in on Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday I stayed on campus and studied until 1am. Wednesday I had an OMM mock practical review and ICM review (bp, ears and throat) then again studied until 1am. Last night I stayed after for an immunization workshop (gave my first shot!) and then intended to study a bit at home after spending a little time with the family. I was out by 9pm and slept 10 hours! (I probably needed it.)

Anyway, tonight we had a Halloween function on campus, so I picked the kids up early and took them for some games and treats. It was fun, but now it's time to read to them and get started studying. Tomorrow I have traffic school from 7:30am until 3:30pm, then a wine tasting party with Becky, so I probably won't get anything done tomorrow. And Sunday will have to be preparation for the OMM written final on Monday.

Not sure if I mentioned it, but the ticket was for almost running over a police officer as he crossed a crosswalk! I was so pre-occupied with school, fighting kids and my grandfather's condition that I had tunnel vision. The officer was angry at first but cooled off and was giving me tips on traffic school. Anyway, I'm paying for the mistake with a long day tomorrow (hopefully I can study flashcards thru some of it) and Papa is doing better. His aortic aneurism bled out and only quick action by his wife, nearby paramedics and his cardiologist who happened to be on at the Hospital saved him. He's recovering slowing now, getting off the ventilator for a few minutes at a time. But at 84 and after being opened stem to stern, he's lucky to make it this far.

I guess he's pretty agitated and after attending an intubations workshop at lunch today I can understand. Looks like no fun and a lot of discomfort. I hope he is well enough to see him over the Xmas Holidays with my brother and maybe my boys. It may be their last time to see their Great-Grandfather.

Feeling much better

The biochem test today wasn't as bad as it could have been. I haven't gotten my score back, but I know I passed and hope to get the class average or better. There was a ton of information in this unit and I felt very stressed out over it.

Last week I skipped class and got through all 16 lectures and 2 workshops by early Saturday morning. I then studied with two pretty smart guys on in the Library, but we got bogged down on minutiae and only worked through 4 of the lectures! I got a little down in the evening, but not much.

Becky was supposed to have all day Sunday to study while I watched the kids. I was so far behind though that I hired a neighbor to babysit for 4 hours while I hit it at the student lounge (my office now). Then it was a social dinner with my brother and his girlfriend. I managed to beg my way out at 8pm and studied another 5 hours at the lounge. During this time I ran through the full range of emotions:

I don't belong here
I can't take this torture any more
This isn't so bad
I may pass after all
Who give a crap about one stinking test?

Finally, an early this morning I put in another 1.5 hours at the lounge. I felt like I had the basics down on 2/3 of the lectures but I was really weak on 1/4. Luckily they asked questions that weren't too deep. I felt much better about the unit afterwards and my surprise myself with a score in the 80's.

Week 9 is already here. Time to get to bed so I can catch up on anatomy.

Man this is going fast

Well I've settled into Med School a bit more. Last week I was pretty stressed about the 83% in Biochem. I scored so high in those first few tests that I set a high bar for myself. I still think I should be above the average regardless of the fact that I have a family and career wife. But I'm not as confident that I can keep up with these high IQ gunners.

In other words, I'm not gunning for the top 10%. I'm just going to do my best. And hopefully I won't get as stressed out about life, school and tests that way.

We got back scores today from Monday's Anatomy test. Normally I would be happy with 94.4% in both Histo/Embryo and Anatomy, but the class average was very high. I don't have the numbers yet, but I might be under the average(!), especially the average of just the med students (taking out the 30+ podiatry students that I assume have a lower average).

Oh well, at least I'm in A territory - and enjoying studying more this week.

I haven't been to Biochem all week. I've spent a lot of time in the student lounge trying to catch up on lectures from the last two weeks. Talking about not feeling overly smart, I'm taking two hours to go through each one hour lecture the first time! Others are saying similar things, but not enough to make me feel like I have any IQ points over my classmates. Anyway, I'm on lecture 12 of 16 for Monday's test. That leaves four more to go and two workshops. Best case they'll be done tomorrow night, worst Saturday before noon.

That gives me most of the weekend to memorize the enzymes, cofactors, products, pathways, regulators, etc., etc.

This definitely turning out to be tougher than I expected and I'm more convinced than ever that I want to go into something procedural. But I'm in the right place and won't be too disappointed even if I end up in primary care. Especially since Osteopathy gives the option of specializing in OMM if I continue working on developing those skills.

We had a Peds Doc speak to us at lunch on Tuesday. I got some good information on pay, practice lifestyles and such. Surgery is still very tempting regardless of my age. In fact, I ordered some out-of-date sutures and needle holders on Ebay this week. A couple of us are going to get a little practice over the break on the cadavers which should be very interesting.

Frustrated...

We had a Boards & Wards evening that I helped arrange earlier this week. It helped to hear some upper classmen (esp. the MSIVs) talk about rotations, board test, grades, etc.

That made my mid-80's score in Biochem easier to take. I barely beat the average which is far less than I expect of myself. But I went to the review today to see what I did wrong.

First, I missed most of my points on one profs lectures (the dept heads) that I knew I hated. I failed his questions on the practice test and thought I had it down. Oops. Anyway, I don't think I'm going to Biochem lectures anymore. Definitely not the meidocre lecturers. Tomorrow, Dr. Yueh lectures and she's probably the best they have. So, even though I'd like to study Anatomy for Monday's test, I may go.

Speaking of Monday's test, we had two hours of heart embryology today, two days before the test! A hundred new terms and some pretty detailed 3-D development this late in the game sucks. I only got through a third of it tonight. At least I had both my Netter embryology atlas and the class text. It helped a bunch.

Time for a long weekend of studying. I'm determined to get back into the nineties and A territory. Oh, I got my PDA working on the school WiFi network today. Pretty cool. Time to learn how to synch up and load some medical software.

One more test down...

I knew I didn't do as well on the Anatomy and Histo/Embryo test last week before I received the grades. They were pretty close to what I expected, 85% in Histo and 88% in Anatomy. But I was surprised that the class averages weren't lower. I just met the average in Histo and beat it by 8 pts in Anatomy. In other words the tests weren't as hard as I thought they were, I just didn't study well for them.

Found out this morning that most of my mistakes were stuff I knew and just answered bad. I think I was imtimidated on the Histo written where the first 5-10 embro questions were from the last couple of lectures I wasn't familiar with. I got most of those problems right but I think it threw me off kilter.

Anyway, I changed study strategies this weekend. I studied in the library with a couple guys that aced the anatomy test (#1 and #2 top scores). We spent all of Saturday in a room drawing out metaboism flowcharts and going over lectures notes. It was a new level of studying for me. These guys are sharp and I was just barely able to keep up. But it really cemented the big picture for me. Then I spent most of Sunday at home reviewing lecture notes and filling in the details (like memorizing the emzymes).

I think it worked. I'm dog tired today, but the test felt great this morning. Problem #1 scared me a bit, but I skipped it and flew through most of the remaing 50 or so questions and 3 short answer. I went back to the three that stumped me including #1 and made decent guesses. I know I got one wrong, but what a difference this test felt like!

So, I need to study with smart folks, but leave plenty of time for me to focus on memorizing the new information - even if that means sacrificing time with the family and irritating the wife.

One classmate said that in the remaining 4 weeks of the quarter (plus finals) we have 8 tests. Yikes. But I'm starting to see the light at the end of this quarter's tunnel. Now though, it's time for sleep. I'm wiped out after a couple of 5 hour nights of sleep. For a down night tonight I read a couple chapters of Mosby's on lungs and heart that should help for ICM and anatomy. So it's enough for tonight given the state I'm in.

One more addition

Just remembered that I won a PDA on Ebay last week. Becky wants hers back and I wanted one with more memory, faster, a SD card slot (for MP3s as well as medical ref stuff) and WiFi for checking e-mail.

I was hoping for a smartphone to fill those requirements and be a cell phone to, but nothing like that is out yet. The Treo 600 has too small a screen, is pretty small and doesn't have WiFi. The Motorola MPX looks great, but it's been delayed until Feb 2005. This Toshiba model should arrive tomorrow, so we'll see if it's just a short-term solution or will carry me through pathology next year.

Whew, that was ugly!

I survived. Yeah, one of those tests. I was pretty stressed all week knowing that a) I wasn't as prepared for this test as the first two and b) there was a lot more material on this one.

I had a group study session on Saturday with a couple classmates that went really well. I felt bad that I was the furthest behind. But they got me up to speed pretty fast. I even copied some embryo notes because the class notes were so disorganized I was procrastinating. Sunday I was able to dive into all the lecture notes and memorize a lot of embryology. I also spent a fair amount of time going over histo slides. I had spent a lot of time up to Friday evening on the upper extremity (arm) anatomy in the lab, drawing structures and outlines muscles and vessel groups so I felt fine on that part. This morning I spent four hours of last minute cramming. Going into it I felt stressed but hopeful that the questions would be reasonable.

Those hopes seemed to come true in the practical test. The upper extremity anatomy test was fair. I'm sure I missed a couple, but there were about 40 questions, so I should do ok. Likewise on the histology/embryology practical. Unless I fooled myself I think I did well on it too. The written tests (anatomy and histo/embryo) however were very different.

I started with histo and the first 10 questions were esoteric embryo questions that we barely covered in the last lecture. They never really tested the basics that we covered in the first five (of six) embryo lectures. Anatomy wasn't any better. Very few freebies like what terminal branch of the brachial plexus innervates the extensor pollicis longus. Many more were asking relationships that you just don't cover in lecture or lab like which muscles the median nerve lies between in the antebrachial region or whether it lies sup/inf/med/lat to the brachial artery in the cubital fossa. Yikes!

At least I had company. Walking out everyone had the same "opossum caught in the headlights" look which was a little comforting. There were enough guesses on it that I could get anywere from a 70% to 90%, maybe lower. One classmate had the best line of the 4-hour ordeal; "Don't worry, I'm sure it will be easier when we take it again next year".

The main thing is that it's over. Now on to metabolism for next Monday's exam. Friday's Human Behavior exam should be a 2-hour cram session the night before. Biochem will be harder. And I can't get behind. The test will be up to last Friday's lecture. So if I focus on it exclusively I'll be a week behind in Biochem and Anatomy! Learning to be a professional soft tissue computer is such fun.

To end this overlong post I should include a silver lining. I am learning how to organize class information better. That is where the group studying is really paying off. I waste time on disorganized studying. But show me how to organize the data in a timeline, flowchart or color-coded picture and I'm a 90%er - at least with this crowd. I like that this school is a little less competitive. If I did end up going to OHSU or another allopathic school, I think the hyper-competitiveness would be a demotivator for me.

So if any Pre-Meds get this into reading this post, my impression is that ostepathic schools are every bit as hard academically as allopathic and more expensive, but you get more attention from profs and have a more mature, less high-strung class.