Monday 30 May 2011

Revision belly + 3rd year firms allocations (oh, and 1week till exams!)

Revision belly... =(

Copious amounts of inactivity sitting at my desk, sugary snacks, energy drinks and altogether laziness has caused my belly to grow... Damn it! I wish I could be more healthy, but apparently the occasional Orange or bit of cucumber doesn't balance it out. (sad times)

3rd year placement allocations are finally out!

2 out firms (one is literally in the middle of nowhere ... I hear the closest supermarket is 30minutes walk away .. I should have done my research beforehand ><), and 1 in firm ... its all getting so real now, I really can't wait to hit the wards! but until then... time to mention the exams.. eeks!

This time next week I will be sitting my first exam... the dreaded SAQ (but to also be 4 days from freedom)! Revision has been slow, and "the fear" is here! This was not helped when my friend called me to initially ask me an obscure BB question I couldn't really answer.. and then tells me he has practically finished revising, and is doing random questions... how?!?!

Left to revise: HSPH, Loco, and met..  ><

Thursday 26 May 2011

11 days till Y2 exams!

Yay the last ICA results came back, and its been my best ICA to date, 86% average! ^^... but then again the entire year average was pretty high this time round with a few indivuduals getting 100% in the HSPH component.. crazy(!!) So really it's not that special BUT on a good note, i calculated my Paper A mark (ICAs, Medsoc, Epc, Essays) and i've comfortably passed the threshold to sit the MBBS Y2 exams =)
Despite that, i think most of us got into a little panic when we received mail from uni subjected "Entry to MBBS Part 2 Exams" eeks! *PANIC OVER* - it was more of a good luck sort of email!
11 days left till finals.. and i've only covered B&B and HD properly.. i now have 11 days to destroy CR, MET, LOCO, HSPH.... and the 2 seen PBLS...this doesn't look good!
BACK TO CRAM!
Ooh... and placement results should be out tomorrow! Can't wait to find out where i'll be placed next year! ^^

Friday 20 May 2011

Last week of Y2 and Random things stopping me from revision

All the stuff from uni is finally out of the way now, and its just 2 weeks of revision until exam week, and HOLIDAYS!

Manual Handling session:
- This was basically a flash back to my HCA gap year days, learning how to move a patient from one bed to the other.. and being the girl in the corner randomly sipping away at my ice latte i didnt think i would be picked as a "willing" volunteer to demonstrate.. but i somehow was. (This wasn't so bad, im not too shy, and i enjoy getting involved, even though its just a make-belief scenario.) This was all fine, until we had to move the patient, i had somehow forgotten how easy it is to move a person once you have the sliding sheet tucked under them, and forgetting this, after shouting "1,2,3 GO!" i tugged the sheet as hard as i could.. and had the other 3 students involved having to balance it out and not let the guy in the middle slip off my corner. .. this was met with my friend in the corner saying to my bf "Wow, shes macho! you don't want to mess with her"... haha .. oops!

Basic Life Support session:
- This was just basically a CPR session, and to be fair, i wasn't too keen on going, as we've already done it the year before and i didn't think i would gain much from it. BUT okay, in hindsight im really glad i went.. i learnt a lot of random facts, and actually really enjoyed it... it was a good break from revision anyways.

New Printer:

I destroyed my printer during year 1.. i still remember the incident very well.. i came home from uni and made myself a giant mug of citreon tea, a seriously HUGE mug of it... and the size, and more so the quantity of the tea was what went on to kill my printer.

Being a clumsy idiot, i chucked my folder onto the desk, knocked over my mug, and the contents then ran down my desk and into my printer..and yep.. goodbye. After not having a printer for an entire year.. i finally went and got a new printer today! YAY.... and this time i bought insurance for it. I usually don't.. but for £17 this included accidental damage to the printer.. i doubled checked with the store assistant.. tea spillage is covered!

So now armed with a new printer, and a starbucks mocha latte, its time to get started with some revision....

Edit: so i thought... i was about to start my revision, but D came over and demanded i vacummed my staircase (!!).. to be fair he had a point.. it was rather dirty.. but not to justify his point: "You're probably going to get TB if you don't!!".

OKAY... so now finally.. with a new printer, a coffee AND a freshly vacuumed stair case.. its time to crack on!

Monday 16 May 2011

3 Weeks left till Y2 Finals!

Wishful thinking, but i hope the summer exams go a little like this:





Just 3 more week till i'm faced with this:

- 06/06 - Paper Bii (SAQ)

- 07/06 - Paper Bi (EMQ + SBA)

- 09/06 - Paper D (OSCEs)

- 10/06 - Paper C (Spotter)


Time for 3 weeks of revision CRAM !

But before i can get on with it, we've been annoyingly assigned to have basic life support, manual handling.. and worse of all... progress testing this week!

Progress testing - this was painful, very very painful, over 2 hours worth of 120 questions set at the USMLE level, and not being able to answer any of them.. that sort of painful.


We weren't expected to pass this exam, and its purely formative to monitor our progression through medical school (we sit this exam at the end of every year from Y2). I sound a bit of a geek here, and despite hating every bit of the 2 hours, im intrigued to see how i would do next year sitting the same exam with one year of clinical experience. (YAY... can't wait to start clinical years!)


Just manual handling and basic life support left this week... then thats finals and bye bye year 2!

Wednesday 11 May 2011

HSPH ICA CRAM, a likely fail

Why are we meant to remember the name of different theorists?!?!

Argggghhhhhhhhh~ i will eat a PFC chicken wing off the floor of whitechapel the day a patient stops me mid interview and asks me who invented the trait theory!!

I didn't hate the module as much as others, and i thought i could probably blab myself through the exam (most the lectures have been things like "ethnicity and health", "old age and health" etc etc...)

I then took the practice test available to us on the blackboard system last night.. and got a grand score of 3/11....... DAMN IT!


HSPH/LOCO ICA on friday........... I'm simply going to fail.. there is no way i can possibly fit all this extra stuff with just 2 more days to go!

Sunday 8 May 2011

Suturing Chicken Thighs

This was possibly the best practical session to date..!!

To be fair, i say that a lot about practicals, particulary those where i get really involved.. but i can't imagine doing anything more fun with a chicken thigh, than to make an incision and to suture it back up again.. (okay, eating a roasted one could top that).

Here's a shot of my first few sutures:




We all gathered in the MDL @ mile end, and each sat around a placemat with a thigh on it. It sort of resembled a cookery class, with knives (scapel) and other equipment at the ready, all laid out for you. Each table was led by a dermatologist who gave us the low-down on how to get it right.. and we were then given 30 minutes to get as many sutures into that chicken thigh as time would allow..


...before we got kicked out, and the thigh recycled and re-used by the next set of students. (Lucky i squeezed myself into the first session, and got to destroy the chicken thigh first).

All in all.. a nice bit of fun for a friday afternoon, before the last ICA of the year next friday -

Bring on HSPH/LOCO ICA! (eeeeeks~!)