Friday, June 13, 2008

Block results are in

Overall, I'd say this block went alright, although it should have been much better. The path exam was actually very fair, but I just made a couple of stupid mistakes. I still did well, but I should have easily honored this exam, which I did not. Everyone complained about the med micro exam (some people tend to complain about most of the exams, actually), but it really wasn't too terrible. It actually was pretty difficult, but after having Dr S for immuno already, people should have known to expect what we got. In my opinion, her questions weren't any worse than last semester. That's not to say that her questions were good, or that they didn't cover picky little details that probably don't matter, but they were at least what people should have been expecting from her. Physio was also a somewhat difficult exam, but I wound up doing very well and honoring it with room to spare. Fortunately, I've now got a nice buffer in that class and hopefully will be able to keep the honor for the rest of the class, especially since we don't have any quizzes this semester to bring my grade down. Path will be possible to honor, but I'll have to pick it up for the next block. Honoring med micro is most likely not in the cards, but stranger things have happened.

Edit: Apparently, some people are even more sensitive than I thought. So, I'll take this part down. But, the point remains: although some people may think medical school is easy, particularly during 1st semester, it will catch up to you very quickly if you let your guard down. I think that many of the second semester students have just witnessed that. But, semester is early, so hopefully those that were a little surprised will still be able to get it together.

P.S. - for those that were not aware (although they should be), med school is not graded on a bell curve.

1 comment:

Trixie the Pixie said...

I felt like Dr S' exams were tough, but helped a lot with the material on the USMLE. The class in general, actually, helped me. I didn't need to spend too much time reviewing it for the real thing (because I'm convinced the class burned the info into my brain, the way it was taught), and it ended up being one of my best sections on the Step. The course itself was also my best at AUC, but then again, I absolutely loved it. A suggestion, if you don't already do it: it may seem tedious, but record the lectures, and go back and listen to them after class, and take notes on top of your notes. You'll find you catch a lot more, and it'll be easier to review when you are studying for the next block. Keep up the good work, 3rd semester is tough, but it goes by fast! Good luck :)