Long time no blog. Actually, that's kind of a ridiculous statement, considering that when I first began my blog years ago, I never wrote a second post. Instead, I deleted the whole thing to start this puppy. So what if it's been around two weeks since my last post? I'm doing great here! Stop complaining!
Monday, February 9th, I took my first test in medical school, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to give some insight into the testing that takes place at Ross University.
I'm taking the following courses this semester: Gross Anatomy I; Biochemistry I; Physiology I; Developmental and Microscopic Anatomy I (really, it's Histology); and Doctor, Patient, and Society I. All of the courses are lecture-based, but there is a minor lab component to Histology, and a big lab component to Gross Anatomy. When we take exams for all of these courses, we take big block exams with questions from each class. So the test I took on Monday featured 14 questions from DPS, 22 from Anatomy, 36 from Histology, and 44 from Biochem. Actually, that only adds up to 116, whereas there were 117 multiple choice questions on the exam. Oh, well, you get the idea. The exam began at 1 pm and we had about 2.5 hours to finish. All of this is designed to mimic the licensing exams that we'll have to take after we finish our coursework at different points in medical school (I'll leave off explaining all of that until I get there). We'll have 3 of these "Minis" as they're known here, and then a cumulative comprehensive Final Exam in the last week of the semester. Additionally, we will have at least two lab practical exams for each of the lab components, the first of which is on Friday the 13th, in Histology.
I was pretty nervous about the exam as it approached. I had been studying every day this semester, and as this weekend came and went, my motivation declined a little. I just didn't feel like I could learn any more than I already had. I went through a lot of practice questions to identify any trouble areas, but mostly I just tried to get my mental state right for the test. I finished the test early after answering everything and checking my answers, and I feel pretty good about how I performed. We'll get our grades for the exam sometime this week. If you see me back in Panama City in two weeks, you'll know that it did not go well. Actually, if you never hear from me again, you'll know that it went really badly.
After the exam, the SGA here threw a party down on the beach, and there was a party at a local club. I went out and woke up feeling ragged today. I don't think I'll repeat THAT part of the post-exam performance in the future (and my tortured brain thanks me).
Send me any questions you might have. I want to do a quick post on where I'm actually living and student residences later this week, with pictures for my me.com web gallery. Until then, take care!
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