So, a couple of days ago, I finished with exams, hoorah! The actual exams were a kind of mixed bag...once again, an SAQ (Short answer questions - marks ranging anywhere from 1 through to 5), MEQ (Mini Essay Questions - generally short questions based on a scenario, in total worth 10-20 marks per scenario, 7 questions), and two MCQs (Multiple Choice Questions - yeah, I'm sure you're all more than familiar with them). Found the SAQ and the last MCQ difficult, MEQ and the first MCQ bearable but only slightly - which hardly raises my confidence levels, but what the heck - its OVER! Celebrate! *party poppers!* *streams of paper cover the room* *smiles all around*
Shame we had such a party pooper for our main supervisor in our last exam. Was really rather strict about no talking after the exam... I know, that's what is meant to happen, but it is nice to smile around, mouth "how did you go?", mouth back "omg that was so hard" and grin without being scolded for it.
At any rate, with the holidays now here, endless opportunity abounds. I could continue to learn guitar, start learning mandarin, maybe read some medical journals or finish summarising Boron... or continue dreaming, continuing procrastination methods, starting new games. Hmm. Endless opportunity... I would like to be optimistic these holidays, and believe I will at least moderate the two extremes and meet somewhere in the middle, like the good negotiator I am now supposed to be after intense training in student politics. I guess one can only simply start doing it rather than think about it, since thinking about it rarely leads to anything productive (for me, it leads to a game of minesweeper - reaching the 100 second mark on expert btw). Speaking of student politics stuff, these holidays will most likely represent my only significant chunk of time I can dedicate to it for this and next year; I'm getting the feeling that things like extracurricula are going to have to take second priority and be slotted in amongst the clinical attachments, which is probably a feeling amongst almost every full-time worker in the workforce; that everything seems to take second priority after work. Mulling on this, things like a family and religion may become difficult to maintain, and time management is really a rather critical thing to learn when young; when you hear statements like "your most precious asset is time", you think "hey, that makes sense, I agree!" but in real life I think that I, personally, forget about that, especially when procrastinating. Value your time, for it only comes around once...
On a more interesting note, I've just got wind recently of an exciting new project happening at UWS! A person that I'm working together with as part of the Campbelltown Campus Life Committee (mostly UWS Staff, and the sole student rep, me) is heading a new inter-professional project, whereby students of different professional pathways (Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Nursing, and of course Medicine - with a few more maybe added in together) are mentored by professionals of their own chosen pathways, as well as of others. The goal of this project is to foster holistic, integrated and thus (hopefully) a better standard of healthcare in our future professionals. I'm not entirely sure as to how much I can reveal, but essentially, the sessions of the project would occur in an integrated clinic that already exists, whereby clinicians take up students and guide them to facilitate the treatment of real patients, rather than be a wallflower and observe passively. This is the most exciting thing of this development - more clinical exposure, to better prepare us for the future! A friend of mine commented on how this would have been great if it were introduced earlier, seeing as my cohort will be in full-time clinicals next year anyway; but nonetheless, it will most likely be a wonderful opportunity for the future students at UWS. Hopefully it goes to plan and produces some positive results!
Anyway, I hope you have an awesome break, especially those of you who've just completed the wonderful journey that is secondary school, and I'll see you around!
Showing posts with label time management. Show all posts
Showing posts with label time management. Show all posts
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Friday, July 9, 2010
So, what did I learn...
Results for Semester 1 exams came out today, amid much anticipation, following the non-graded Y (which stands for 'Yes') grade I received previously, which meant that I would be continuing to next semester. This anticipation quickly turned into a more sombre emotion as I scrolled through my results and found that I failed half my exams - two out of four; one by less than half a percent, but a fail nonetheless. In UWS, you can only fail three exams in the entire year, even if your average score is over 50%, which I admit sounds fairly reasonable. But right now I think I'll need all of this leeway to get myself through this year and start clinicals.
I came into Year 2, Semester 1 with optimism; although previous years warned that this semester was difficult, I was, or so I thought, prepared for this difficulty; I saw it as simply a slightly larger obstacle to overcome. So naturally, I am sure I spent more time studying this semester than last year, and so expected a slightly better result than what faced me today. Thinking about this in a more rational manner, it is obvious that I must have underestimated the difficulty of the exams, overestimated my effort, and should have done a few things differently.
First, I can hardly blame the school for marking too hard, as the cohort statistics were published and, although, as an entire cohort, we slipped (a fair bit), my personal results slipped significantly further. This indicates that my result was personal and so must have reflected personal achievement.
Second, I didn't attend as many lectures as I did last year, and also paid less attention in labs and in PBLs. Anecdotes are given of hero students who cram in two weeks before exams and pull off Credits, but I'm of the opinion that these hero students could have been right at the top of their grade, had they bothered to put in the effort. And for a more average student like myself, not attending all the lectures really does make a difference. Something to correct for this semester. As an observation, overall attendance rates for lectures seemed to dip quite a bit this semester as well.
Third, I must find a more efficient way to study. I doubt this will come easily, but I think going back to handwriting may prove more effective, to reduce any distractions and to help retain memory.
Fourth, exam technique still applies in Medicine. I chalked my relative success in anatomy last year to online quizzes with photographic images and familiarisation with cavaders; yet for some reason, this semester I went back to learning straight off anatomy textbooks, which covers basics but isn't a good way to prepare for exams such as anatomy spot-tests; rapid-fire tests that you only succeed in when you are an expert in real-life anatomy. This probably traces back to studying earlier and more consistently, since I found myself still learning a couple of days before exams, which caused loss of quick recall of the anatomy learnt months ago, as well as inability to quickly recall the newly-crammed material due to a sense of overwhelming doom accompanying the names of hundreds of different structures.
This year, I'm still aiming for an overall Credit; which means I will most probably need to hit a Distinction average next semester. This nearly happened last year, but on reflection, I think I can do better without trying to suddenly become a hermit. Second semester starts in three days, and I'm actually quite excited to get back into it. Nothing beats crappy results better than a dose of optimism, a sprinkle of hindsight, a tablespoon of objectivity and a generous helping of get-back-into-it.
I came into Year 2, Semester 1 with optimism; although previous years warned that this semester was difficult, I was, or so I thought, prepared for this difficulty; I saw it as simply a slightly larger obstacle to overcome. So naturally, I am sure I spent more time studying this semester than last year, and so expected a slightly better result than what faced me today. Thinking about this in a more rational manner, it is obvious that I must have underestimated the difficulty of the exams, overestimated my effort, and should have done a few things differently.
First, I can hardly blame the school for marking too hard, as the cohort statistics were published and, although, as an entire cohort, we slipped (a fair bit), my personal results slipped significantly further. This indicates that my result was personal and so must have reflected personal achievement.
Second, I didn't attend as many lectures as I did last year, and also paid less attention in labs and in PBLs. Anecdotes are given of hero students who cram in two weeks before exams and pull off Credits, but I'm of the opinion that these hero students could have been right at the top of their grade, had they bothered to put in the effort. And for a more average student like myself, not attending all the lectures really does make a difference. Something to correct for this semester. As an observation, overall attendance rates for lectures seemed to dip quite a bit this semester as well.
Third, I must find a more efficient way to study. I doubt this will come easily, but I think going back to handwriting may prove more effective, to reduce any distractions and to help retain memory.
Fourth, exam technique still applies in Medicine. I chalked my relative success in anatomy last year to online quizzes with photographic images and familiarisation with cavaders; yet for some reason, this semester I went back to learning straight off anatomy textbooks, which covers basics but isn't a good way to prepare for exams such as anatomy spot-tests; rapid-fire tests that you only succeed in when you are an expert in real-life anatomy. This probably traces back to studying earlier and more consistently, since I found myself still learning a couple of days before exams, which caused loss of quick recall of the anatomy learnt months ago, as well as inability to quickly recall the newly-crammed material due to a sense of overwhelming doom accompanying the names of hundreds of different structures.
This year, I'm still aiming for an overall Credit; which means I will most probably need to hit a Distinction average next semester. This nearly happened last year, but on reflection, I think I can do better without trying to suddenly become a hermit. Second semester starts in three days, and I'm actually quite excited to get back into it. Nothing beats crappy results better than a dose of optimism, a sprinkle of hindsight, a tablespoon of objectivity and a generous helping of get-back-into-it.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
This is shaping up to be an interesting year.
As an update on the UWS student union elections, I was voted in as the Campbelltown Chair for the 2010-11 period. I think this year will be very interesting; both on campus and personally, as I figure out how to balance studying for medicine and aiming for at least a Credit (I want to do Honours, not for the additional letters on the end of my degree, but rather the experience; I don't really mind not being awarded an Honours afterward if I don't meet the 5.5 GPA requirement), whilst doing my best involving myself with student life and organising activities on campus. I often wonder at how students like Ross Roberts-Thomson (AMSA president) manage to balance their own learning process and such a huge responsibility like that position; in a sense, I hope this chair position for me will teach me time management skills, as well as prioritisation and drifting away from procrastination.
Speaking of which, I've found recently that my interest in computer games has dropped, compared to last year. It's something about the countless hours essentially wasted on a game that really got to me, as I realise the importance of other activities. In my view, even movies seem more of a worthwhile time-waster than games, with an opportunity to discover something new, something hopefully thought-provoking. Issues like religion and politics are starting to take huge chunks of my dedicated 'wind back and relax' time (no, I'm not insane, for me these are genuinely relaxing topics), and I'm finding that it's helping me mould my views on the world, hopefully for the better.
I'm toying with the idea of moving on campus next year and going to Campbelltown Hospital; the idea of moving away for a while and learning essential life skills (I know the basics of ironing, but it still takes me 10 minutes to iron a shirt well) is attractive to me; unfortunately, the cost of obtaining said lessons is not so. Moving onto residence may help me continue to be involved in campus life next year as well, even if not as a chair. Oh, so many thoughts, so little time.
In the meantime, whilst my mind is rattling off somewhere in the great beyond of next year (my mind tends to do this at most inopportune times; I have an amusing navigating story that I shall unravel later), exams are only 3 weeks and 5 days away. This has been the busiest semester so far, and once again, it will be interesting for me to see how much I can learn, re-learn and summarise in this relatively short time. Since there are still PBLs going on, my study would most probably be hopping around between renal and neuro, in addition to completing my part of a group EBM (Evidence-Based Medicine) assignment and finishing my week's PBL notes for my group to use as study material.
Should get off Blogger and start studying, shouldn't I?
Speaking of which, I've found recently that my interest in computer games has dropped, compared to last year. It's something about the countless hours essentially wasted on a game that really got to me, as I realise the importance of other activities. In my view, even movies seem more of a worthwhile time-waster than games, with an opportunity to discover something new, something hopefully thought-provoking. Issues like religion and politics are starting to take huge chunks of my dedicated 'wind back and relax' time (no, I'm not insane, for me these are genuinely relaxing topics), and I'm finding that it's helping me mould my views on the world, hopefully for the better.
I'm toying with the idea of moving on campus next year and going to Campbelltown Hospital; the idea of moving away for a while and learning essential life skills (I know the basics of ironing, but it still takes me 10 minutes to iron a shirt well) is attractive to me; unfortunately, the cost of obtaining said lessons is not so. Moving onto residence may help me continue to be involved in campus life next year as well, even if not as a chair. Oh, so many thoughts, so little time.
In the meantime, whilst my mind is rattling off somewhere in the great beyond of next year (my mind tends to do this at most inopportune times; I have an amusing navigating story that I shall unravel later), exams are only 3 weeks and 5 days away. This has been the busiest semester so far, and once again, it will be interesting for me to see how much I can learn, re-learn and summarise in this relatively short time. Since there are still PBLs going on, my study would most probably be hopping around between renal and neuro, in addition to completing my part of a group EBM (Evidence-Based Medicine) assignment and finishing my week's PBL notes for my group to use as study material.
Should get off Blogger and start studying, shouldn't I?
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