I'm exhausted!

I've had a really busy day again today. i didn't go to sleep until after midnight on the last two nights which is probably catching up with me for a start. On Tuesday night I sat up studying and reading a book I got out of the library called "Mnemonics for medical students" and last night I was ploughing through a book called Talk of the Town by Jacob Polley which is the book of the month at the book club I'm joining on Saturday. I've got about another 100 pages to read tonight and tomorrow! I'm joining the book club to read more (1 book a month for a year is 12 books!) and also because my boyfriend always jokes that I never finish books so I'm going to give this ago. It's not something I'd usually pick up and it's written phonetically in Cumbrian dialect but I'm enjoying it.

This morning we had a lecture from a community paediatrician on milestones in child development which was interesting. I then made lunch and went to my community placement for my induction with two other girls from my course. After that I bought a couple of birthday cards in town (and a cake!) and went to tutor my new GCSE science tutee. I've got a girl for A-level biology next week too.

Now I'm back in my flat and about to to write up today's notes. my dad gave em a big A4 diary and I'm trying to write up the key things I've been taught each day and then look back at them 1 day, 1 week and 1 month later as this is apparently the most effective way to get things into your long term memory. I certainly need a more effective study method than I had last term due to the shear volume of material that we cover. Our lectures are longer (time wise) than my last degree and we also have more lectures per week than during my previous degree so I shouldn't be surprised there is so much to learn.

I'm in hospital tomorrow. I'm going to see either a cardiovascular patient or a respiratory patient and take a medical history from them. Today we've also been told that we can sign-up to shadow an anaethnatist during surgery sometime in the future. It's at the big university hospital and it should be really interesting as I've never been in an operating theatre before.

Back to lectures

Exams were okay, but only okay. I found the DIPSE the best which is contrary to what everybody else thought which isn't usually a good sign. Additionally i failed to identify a nipple on the cadaver (it was a man!) in the anatomy exam so I'm not feeling too clever.

However, they're only the first ones, don't count for very much but proved the shear volume of material which you need to know in medicine and hence how much revision you need to do in the term and not just the five weeks before exams.

This morning got off to a slow start. We were in 9-11am to identify our learning outcomes for the kidney lectures but got done just before 10am. so i went back to my flat, had a brew and read a couple of pages of the physiology textbook. returned to lecture theatre at 11am but lecturer didn't show up so after sitting around for 20 minutes we left. I'm in again 12-1pm for history taking and then 2-5pm for communication skills.

Revising

First exam tomorrow and I'm pretty nervous. I think my anxiety is being compounded by the other medical students I live with talking in great detail about alveolar compliance and other topics I haven't revised. i just haven't been able to get through everything. Medics are known for being competitive and countless people have said don't believe the people who appear to know everything. When my boyfriend was at uni he said his mates were at the opposite end of the spectrum- bragging about how little work they had done for the exams.

It's different living with people doing the same course and pretty intense. When I did my last degree and lived at home I hardly saw anybody else during the run up to exams so it was only during the half an hour of hanging around outside the exam venue that I could get freaked out.

I'm just re-revising the stuff I've done at the moment- no point trying to learn anything new now. My exam is at 2.30pm tomorrow afternoon.

On a happier note i made my first Spanish Omelet for tea this evening and it was delicious so I'm quite pleased with myself. Shame it's not a cookery exam tomorrow...

Happy New Year

Hello again!

I've been really bad and I haven't posted for ages but I will try harder this year. I'm currently revising for exams which commence on 18th January.

I've got three exams-

1. a DIPSE (not the telly-tubby- it stands for something like data interpretation and short answer questions although I know that doesn't spell DIPSE. It's a bit like a GCSE science paper where you write odd words or short paragraphs actually on the exam paper. You also have to write your candidate number on every page because they break the paper up and the different subjects are marked by different people)
2. a MCQ/EMI (multiple choice and extended matching items whihc is multiple choice but with about 10 or 12 options)
3. anatomy spotter (the specimens have various pins stuck in them and you have to precicely identify which stucture the pin is pointing to)

It's going okay, certainly more enjoyable than revising for any of the stuff I did in my previous degree. I've also gotta keep a blog as part of my course called a Learning Portfolio where I learn be reflecting on expereinces that I have had both inside and out of the classroom.

I watched Julie and Julia again the other night which is probably the reason I'm blogging again. It was definately my favourite film of 2009- I loved it. The 1940's Parisian glamour, the food, the clothes, New York...

I've been dreaming about food and drink ever since. Last night it was Pina Coladas with my friend Mim. It's was great night out and no headache this morning!

Exams

So I had my exams yesterday which weren't as bad as I was expecting. In the morning we had a multiple choice paper and a DIPSE paper which stands for something about data interpretation and short answer questions- not quite sure how they came up with the acronym DIPSE though. In the afternoon we had an anatomy spotter which was okay although I wrote 'arch of aorta' for several answers. We were reminded several times about remembering to identify if something was a left or a right- to the point I nearly wrote 'right heart' when obviously we only have one- and it's on the left of the body. Get results in about three weeks which is as long as I had to wait for the results of my finals!

Last night there was a big MedSoc night out,which I declined. Instead I watched "Sex and the City" and drank hot chocolate. It was great! Consequently I woke up this morning much more bight eyed and bushy tailed than some of my colleagues for another day of 9-5 lectures.

Study, study, study...

I'm studying hard for my formative exam tomorrow. Formative exams don't count for your final mark for the year (as opposed to summative) so it's a good opportunity to start revising for my summative exams in January. I've got a 4 hour multiple choice and short answer question exam in the morning- although I really hope it's not going to take four hours! In the afternoon I've got a Timed Practical Circuit (also known as an anatomy spotter) where there will be various specimens with a pin stuck in each one and we have to identify what the pin is pointing to. I'll let you know how I get on!

Weekly update

I took to my bed on Thursday as I felt awful but now I have made a full recovery!

Having a really busy week so far. On Monday morning we were introduced to our next 'case'- a man who had been stabbed in the neck. We then had group discussions of the things we would need to know to treat him such as the anatomy of blood vessels in the neck, how to stop the bleeding, how to treat somebody who has lost lots of blood and how to interpret various test results. In the afternoon we had a lecture on the embryology (the study of how the foetus develops) of the heart.

Yesterday morning I was in the dissecting room, looking at the interior of the heart and the upstairs drawing the outline of the heart on each other with eyeliner and listening to the various valves in different places. In the afternoon we had our first hospital visit to A&E where we met various staff members and observed a consultation. It was a Tuesday afternoon and not much was happening.

This morning we had lectures on how the nervous system controls the heart. This afternoon we met our pregnant lady for our family study project. We went to her house and chatted to her for about 1hour and 15mins. She was lovely and talked lots about her pregnancy and her previous pregnancy and birth. Lot's of information for my 3,000 word report. We're going for our second visit next week.