A well-deserved break

Well, my exams have finished, so I'm back. And what a better way to welcome me back to Blogger than the announcement that I have 4 spam comments to be moderated! Such a comforting thought, to know that these people are bothering to attempt to spam this blog with advertisements for chinese webcam sites and whatnot. But anyway...
My mid-year semester examinations were comprised of four papers; a MEQ (Multiple-Mini Essay paper), SAQ (Short-answer), MCQ (Multiple-choice) and an Anatomy Spot Test (the second one so far, we had one in semester two, last year). Suffice to say, I believe that this time around, my marks compared to last years will be lower, despite putting more effort into studying; the role with the student union has actually made me more inspired to study harder, paradoxically. The exams were quite a mixed bag in my opinion; the MEQ and Spot Test were filled with things I managed to only gloss over in my study (although entirely my fault, an example of this was not covering Chronic Renal Failure enough whilst covering every other pathology of renal disease possible; and knowing in great detail the structure of bones for the spot test which was never utilised), but to balance things out, the SAQ and MCQ had quite familiar questions which were answerable. The MCQ was a special test to note, since we had two sessions that were essentially filled with practice MCQs that could come up; once again, the number of MCQs repeated from previous years was a significant number; to the extent that I would confident in saying I would expect no more than single-digit numbers of people failing that exam. Essentially, if you were to memorise all the practice MCQs given out, and guessed the remainder, then assuming you have a 1 in 4 chance of getting those guessed questions right, you would be very, very, very close to passing.

I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing; in fact, I don't think failing future doctors on whether they can recall every detail of a cellular mechanism so they can find the answer that is INCORRECT, is essential, in this stage. Yes, doctors are responsible for people's lives, but at this stage, we're still medical students in pre-clinical years, and performances in OSCEs and the results of clinical years are more important. Regardless, it is one exam and shouldn't make much of a difference in the overall scheme of things.

Post-exam period mood: Nonchalant. Once again, the post-exam feeling of "I feel like I should be studying but I don't have to" has settled, and I'm inclined to start studying for next semester, although I feel like I may want to wrap up last semester with a nice concise book of notes. These holidays are going to be a bit different from the last ones though - now that there aren't any exams, it's full throttle to student union and general university affairs, as well as more personal ones like preparing to take my P's test (provisional driving license - i.e. license to drive unsupervised, for all those non-Australian/non-NSWers reading) and finishing Big Bang Theory. Also on the agenda is sleeping more, eating more, and exercising more; very important things that I didn't get as much of as I would've liked to during the exam period... speaking of which, a siesta sounds mighty alluring right now. Time to nod off..

SQUUEEEEEE

And so begins my long-awaited holiday for the year :) Exams overall were fairly solid; we had four written exams and one anatomy spot test; the four writtens included an MEQ (mini-essay question 10-20 marks/question), SAQ (short-answer question anywhere from 2-10 marks) and 2x MCQs (multiple choice question, 1 mark each) tests; they were pretty difficult compared to first semester, and I'd say a fair bit more difficult than HSC exams (speaking of which, everyone finishing up secondary education in NSW this year should be done with exams - hoorah!). There was a significantly increased clinical/diagnostic focus in the written exams this semester, which may or may not have caught people off guard, but I was happy with the general gist of them. What was disappointing was the reuse of questions from multiple choice - leakage of questions to some students and not others by means of connections meant that some were aware of a few questions (and answers) that were in the exam, and some were not. I doubt it can be avoided, since it's only natural for upper years to leak exams to lower years, but nonetheless.
The anatomy spot test was, in my opinion, fairly difficult - not particularly because of the level of detail required, but more because of the rather... disfigured cadavers/specimens being used in the exam. I struggled to identify a pancreas that looked like it was cut in half and strewn across the tray; only by looking at the only organ attached next to it (a spleen) and the texture of the organ was I able to realise what it was. Ambiguity regarding the level of detail was another hallmark of the test, although not entirely foreign to us thanks to a formative anatomy test prior; a label would indicate a heart valve, but may be closer to a particular cusp of a valve; what to write down was an internal debate in itself. Despite this, the use of models did help those who had little experience looking at cadavers (i.e. most of the cohort) and more experience looking at diagrams and illustrative atlases - and apparently the pass mark for the spot test is going to be below 50%. Hmmm.
A post-exam party/bash at either the city or the beach concluded the final day of exams; and goodbyes were said as we looked back at our first year of medicine; and look forward (hopefully) to our second. And by look forward, I don't mean, 'be eager to undertake' - thanks to warnings from a notable third year, half our grade is now planning to study in our holidays, including myself. *sigh*
Farewell, first year. May I never be associated with you again.