Wednesday 26 May 2010

Year 1 Results: 1/5th of a doctor ^^

The student office decided to release the results a day earlier than stated, and it came as a bit of a shock! (but kudos to them for releasing them so soon - exams finished on Friday, so thats less than a week) I felt so unprepaired to see the results, and as overly dramatic as it may sound, my hands were actually a tad shaky when i had to click the button and load the results page...

But... YAY! It finally feels like all the coffee, and sleep deprivation during the cram has been worth it - though it probably knocked a good half, if not a whole year off my life expectancy >.<

Paper A - 79%
Paper Bi - 80%
Paper Bii - 71%
Paper C - 79%
Paper D - 78%

Outcome: Pass with Merit

1/5th of the way there - Roll on year 2! ^^

Saturday 22 May 2010

Paper C: Spotter

The lack of sleep, caffeine over-use and general tiredness all crept up to me last night, and all i wanted to do was sleep!

In fact i managed to sneak in a good 6 hours worth before waking up at midnight to start the 8 hour cram, and going in to uni to sit 2 hours worth of identifying gross and microanatomy images... this was scary, partically since it was 8 hours to cram the entire year's worth of it!

I took the "just keep doing the past papers" approach, and that definately paid off, i recognised a few of the images as soon as they came up, and as per usual as soon as i left the place i realised some of the silly mistakes i made. Meh... at least first year exams are all over now ^^!

Just "the wait" now!

Thursday 20 May 2010

Paper D: OSCEs

This was why i wanted to come to medical school!
Odd as it may sound, but i don't think i've ever had so much fun in an end of year exam before ^^ (i can't wait to get to clinical years!)

I was among the lucky half of the year group, who got placed in the archives room at Barts (not sure on the official name for the room) - it was a grand room, with tall ceilings and specimens preserved in bottles placed around the room! In fact i couldn't help but stare at the spots on the face of a sagitally dissected head in one of the jars, as i shaded in the boxes of my emq sheet.

The room was beautiful, almost on par to the Gordon Museum at GKT (ok, im not going to be bias the Gordon museum does have the edge!)

We rotated around the room, going to various stations and performed various tasks, and although i know i missed quite a few marks here and there, it was genuinly a lot of fun! (Gargh thinking back, i have no idea how i managed to get Varum and Valgum the wrong way round!).

Glad it didn't turn into the nightmare i thought it would have been!
Now just the Spotter left for tomorrow....!

- edit:
How am i going to learn all these images tonight?!!?!?!?!??!?!!

Tuesday 18 May 2010

Paper Bi: EMQs

EMQs were nice today!

I left the exam early, and by then half of my pbl group and the majority of people from the exam hall had already left too, with almost everyone wearing a smile ^^. (a big contrast to what happened after the SAQs yesterday!)

Compared to the past ICAs, they were actually pretty 1st year friendly, apart from the questions on the brain nuclei, and.. well i can only blame myself for getting the antibiotics and antifungal drugs wrong! - had a feeling they were going to come up, but last night i just wanted to sleep, and i did... a good 12 hours!! (the most i've had the night before an exam)

As it's 50% of Paper B, im hoping its going to pull up my abysmal mark from yesterday! - then again... we still need to pass all Papers to progress to next year hmm... will just have to wait and see if i'll be resitting that one next week.

OSCEs to tackle on thursday and Spotter on Friday!
Bring on the cram!

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The new London hosp, had to take a photo of it! It's so modern looking, and such a big contrast to the current hospital!

Monday 17 May 2010

Paper Bii : SAQs

OK, todays paper was HARD!
- not impossible, but definately not a nice one!

I had some how hoped it would be pretty similar to ICA standards... but nope, it was so hard that after the exam i felt that all my revision and last minute cramming has been in vain, as i wasn't going to get the answers even if i had an extra day to revise for it.

A few questions felt rather ambigous, and i only have my poor vocabulary pool to blame for not knowing what "Corroborating" meant (i came home and did a google..), and so probably babbled along the wrong lines!

EMQs tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Saturday 15 May 2010

Exam on monday

Exams start on monday....
....... i've never been so annoyed with myself for not having started revision earlier! GARGhhhhhhhhhhh~! (and yet i come on here to waste even more time!!)

PBL cramming now, and still not had a look at CR since.. er.. since the last ICA... will i be able to cram a whole module tomorrow....?! errrr...things are not looking good at the moment!

Back to revision cramming!

Sunday 9 May 2010

SSC update

OK, i take back what i said in the last post - the accelerated learning SSC did actually turn out to be a huge daily revision session, with 2 power naps! Fair enough it's not exactly the most exciting of SSCs, but 3 weeks before the exams.... it turned out pretty useful afterall.
(So... am i still jealous of those who got dissection or surgical sscs? .... er....... YES! Ah the grass is always greener on the other side =P )

And.. Finally, just a week left until the end of the year exams, typically the internet at home has to go down! So im currently sitting on the floor in the corner of my cousin's room, typing in semi-darkness whilst he snores away (very loudly!), and i scramble to put together some information on the 3 seen pbls for paper Bii!

Not sure why, but i felt like taking a photo of the scene, so meh:



.... 7 days left to go!