Friday 17 June 2011

Year 2 Results: 2/5th of a doctor ^^

Have to admit, this was a scary scary wait!

I wasn't sure if i had passed the spotter and i was just constantly biting my nails the whole week! I even woke up at 4am this morning (unintentionally) and decided to check my results!! (..as if any admin staff will be up at that time updating our results..but i had to try!).

I just randomly refreshed the browser every so often until 9am when the random page refreshing turned into an every other minute spam... and finally.. around 10 something ish.. the results were out!!

Paper A - 86%
Paper Bi - 78%
Paper Bii - 75%
Paper C - 70%
Paper D - 74%

Outcome: Pass with Merit
[Edit: Got an email in December, and it turned into a distinction ^^]

The results aren't as great as last year, but i'm not complaining!!
(particularly since i'm now free for the summer and not having to worry about that nasty spotter ever again! ^^)

2/5th of the way there - YAYeeeee ROLL ON CLINICAL YEARS!

Monday 13 June 2011

Paper C: Spotter

This exam Sucked.

(tempting as it is to end this post here, i think i should probably ramble on a bit more...)


That was perhaps my biggest nightmare... my revision tactics had obviously failed.. as not only were the questions difficult.. they were all completely new images..!!!! DAMN IT!!


i just sat there, half-falling asleep.. thinking:



"oh crap!!!!! oh crap oh crap... what the hell is this blob... why does it look just like the freaking blob right next to it... wait.. am i suppose to be looking at this blob or the weird stringy thing right next to it?" - i hate histology..!



So yes... that didn't go well at all.
Im sad to say.. of all exams ive ever sat.. i've never felt this crap at the end of it..!


Results out --> Friday 17th

*all phalanges crossed*

Thursday 9 June 2011

Paper D: OSCEs

Writing this in a bit of a rush, as i have my spotter tomorrow, and have only 13 hours left to start cramming lots of photos!


(That sounds odd.. but that is literally what a spotter exam involves: sitting up all night and trying to remember what different photos are showing.. and then praying the same photos come up tomorrow on the computer, so i can conveniently scroll down and click the correct answer and scroll on... )


BUT thats enough about my plans for tonight, today... i sat my 2nd OSCE exam.. and i have to say.. i'm no where as excited as i was when i wrote about it last year. Sure it was fun, and it was a little different from having to pick up a pen.. but i guess i'm just too tired to be excited about anything. i've never been this tired ...ever...


i really dont know what it is, but im really exhausted now, i've worked so hard throughout the year, and in a way i feel like i may have let myself down with the exams this summer. Sort of feels like i've worked hard and sort of just not performed as well as i could have when it came to the exams that actually did matter....


hmmmpphhhh... all the whining and feeling annoyed about it can come after, and back onto this osce exams today:



The exam was sat in the same pathology museum at Barts Hospital, as it was last year, and i was in the exact same circuit, but this time they chucked in a whole range of different stations.. this year the circuits involved:


-Thyroid examination
- Cardio. examination
- Resp. examination
- Abdo. examination
- Shoulder examination
- Hip examination
- Cranial nerves examination
- Vision examination
- Upper & Lower limb sensory examination
- Taking patient history


Don't really know what to write about, just really annoyed with myself at the moment, and just going to do some cramming for the last exam tomorrow.

im so tired now. Can't wait to have my first night of proper sleep tomorrow.

Tuesday 7 June 2011

Paper Bi: EMQ

HA! Skin and i have had a poor relationship... and it could have got ugly today but luckily C came to my rescue! ^^


She gave me a quick cram session on skin just before i went in, and as soon as the EMQ paper started, i frantically flipped through the booklet to locate those skin questions and unleashed my short term memory.. pure luck! - those questions came up!! Take that liver spots and hemangiomas!


The questions were quite fair, and my pbl write up from HSPH came up as a 5 marker: ethical arguments for Liver transplant.. which was again a bit of good luck, as i was struggling to keep myself motivated to revise HSPH ... ><


So that was EMQs...

OSCEs on Thursday, and the spotter on Friday... ^^

I WANT MY SUMMER HOLIDAY NOW!!

Monday 6 June 2011

Paper Bii: SAQs

That was it, my last ever SAQ paper at medical school! =)
(let's not jinx it.. but hopefully this will be the last, and not the re-sit in August >.<)

It started with a few predicatable questions on bronchiolitis and miscarriage, and then the SLE ones were sort of okay.. until i got asked to draw a hair follicle..... WHAT?!


- i ignored skin for the last ICA and that haunted me for a good day or two.. and now this for my end of years! ARGHHHhhhh.. dermatology is definately not for me!! I have no idea why i thought i liked it (as i clearly can't spend more than an hour looking at it...). To top the whole poor relationship i have with skin.. i don't know what came over me, but i randomly organised some shadowing with the dermatologists at Barts this summer.. this sounds like torture now!!


It then got worse with the unseen PBL... (according to D, it was on malignant hypertension..i did a google, and he's right! i didn't even know that term)

...thankfully it got better from then!
(but..that was already over half the paper worth of marks!!)


B&B - Migraine
CR - Heart Failure
Met - Steroids
Loco - De Quervain's Tenosynovitis
HSPH - Relative risk calculations and questions on studies

EMQs tomorrow!!
- time to cram all the drugs, infections and random obscure conditions!!