Tuesday, September 28, 2010

School update

Life's mysteries explained.

These last few weeks I have been filled most days to the brim with new information. Most of this information would have been very useful the last few years in my last job. It makes it so much more fascinating to learn about the hows? and whys? of body systems in anatomy, biochem and physiology. I can immediately fill in the blanks of my wikipedia based prior anatomy lessons. Every time I learn one of these things... I think, why didn't somebody just explain it that way before?

I am enjoying school. I am consistently amazed at the amount of time and energy it takes to go to class, do the reading, and keep up in lab. I often am so engrossed in the material that I loose track of time -- and hours pass by very quickly. I often feel that there is not enough time in each day to do everything that I used to do. The things that have been sidelined are: house projects, many cleaning activities, social activities, and laundry (especially folding and putting away clothes). I am lucky to have wonderful classmates that I enjoy learning from and with.

On that note, my scrubs (which I wear to anatomy lab) are finished washing. Now to transfer them to the dryer, so that I have clean scrubs to wear again to anatomy tomorrow.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

One Week In... Many to go

I have now completed my first week of medical school.

The material is fascinating. The speed at which it comes is intense.

During orientation it was likened to two analogies, both of which I believe to be true:
Medical school is like, trying to take a drink out of a fire hydrant.
Medical school is like, trying to eat an elephant. You have to eat it one bite at a time.

So far, we have went through about 75-100 pages of course pack material (i.e. lecture notes) in each class. This does not count the many pages of reading required outside of class, just to keep up in class. Additionally, for each of my three main science courses (currently), there have been at least 1 (if not more) additional lecture supplements that need to be watched online.

Med School is not like undergrad. The instructors do not get behind in the course material. If they are not able to cover 1o min. course material in lecture, it becomes an online lecture supplement. It is not covered at the start of the next class period, before moving onto the next planned lesson.

I have my first quiz on Tuesday. Wish me luck! :)