So here I am, i have survived 1st year of medicine, considered by most to be the easiest year for a medical student, yet I do think it is a very important (if not the most important) year since it will test you and make you realize or understand what it is that you are (forcing?) facing for three or four more years that will actually progress or continue as we graduate and be clinicians. (remember, learning doesn't stop in the next five years of med school, it goes on. learning doesn't stop. period.)
Anyways, I did survive SLCM 1st year! yahoo! unfortunately for our batch, 13 was cut from our family and good-byes are really difficult. Sadly, 1 out of 13 included a close friend and it was really, really sad experience. I'm gonna stop there cause talking about it will probably bring tears to my eyes again (*sniffle) but let me say that med school can and will mend(tama ba?) strong bonds because the terror(ah wow) and stress it puts students into is significant.
So, you survived first year eh? Well prepare yourself to a new kind of hell that is 2nd year.
A lot of doctors would say that 2nd year is a true test for a med student. It will define your capability to be a doctor, whether you have the talent or real effort to survive this year practically defines your chances of surviving 2 or 3 more years.
First impressions.
Well the previous batch before us gave us a pep talk (sortof warnings actually) about the year we are about to experience. They even made us a cute little guide about subjects, profs and 2nd year life in general you know?
My first impression, more like the stand-out impression about what they said and wrote was the fact that 2nd year is a bitch. Factors to its bitchiness include the number of subjects, the paper that will pile up week by week, not to mention their deadlines will not be considerate at all, the professors are clinicians mostly, so they practically treat you like residents, the subject matter is clinical now! applications of what little (or a lot, if you're like, really smart?) that was retained from your 1st year anatomy, physiology and biochemistry and lastly, time. It seems like time is never your ally in second year, a lot of things to do, too little time. (unless you fore go sleeping, eating, socializing, sports, *even bathing? ewwww...... to accomplish your goals)
Based on experience for the first block (I'll make a separate academic entry) those are true and accurate warnings (except the bathing part, I did bathe). Sortof, since the papers aren't really pilinig up yet because they're really considerate because we are babies, we don't know how to walk, talk or move around a clinical setting yet (unless you were a nursing student, then f*ck you cause you know a lot! haha...bitter me)
so they don't require papers yet (depending on the preceptor) and they don't grade the first papers you do and submit to them. The topics are toxic though, especially the clinical subjects of medicine, neurology and pediatrics. they.are.a.bitch.among.bitches. in my experience, these subjects ate me alive (though results are not out yet...) Coolest subjects are med ethics and microbiology (weird enough, i had a higher grade in patho than in micro--> which is considered easier) not to mention that patho and micro has the best teachers for the year (there, i said it, no turning back now).
I don't hate medicine, neuro and pediatrics though. On the contrary, my favorite subjects, based on topics are medicine and pediatrics. What i hate about them are the exams. They are seriously difficult. A lot comments that the exam level is that of a resident. Especially in Medicine, they ask very very clinical questions like diagnostic tools. (thank the gods for they will ask management and treatment next year!) which is confuing for a lot of us because we want to concentrate in the technical aspects of the diseases they thought us first, like signs and symptoms right? It was truly confusing for me because i did not expect diagnostics at all (like CXR, CT-Scan, Bronchoscopy etc) for very specific diseases. Plan or guideline for diagnosis depending on the history and presenting S&S (sign&symptom) of the patient was specifically asked. (like if the patient is susceptible to this or that, presenting with this S&S will have a specific diagnostic tool, if not presenting with an S&S then another tool could be used, etc) which was really ahem, difficult for my level. *cough, practically breaking my disclaimer of no academic entry here. BUt that is practically what's hard for medicine, they expect ALOT from us, which so not surprising if you think about it actually. We are in SLCM afterall, to be the best is our destiny (i typed that while the pokemon theme song is playing inside my head, weird...) Neuro is practically the same, but my real problem with this subject is the curriculum. The second topic was Lesion Localization (which includes extensive knowledge of Neuroanatomy including Sensory and Motor Systems) which are then discussed after the localization lecture. (imagine, Motor system is only being discussed now, it is the 2nd block dude, a little too late don't you think???
Anyway, for Pediatric, because it is one of my Big 3, it deserves its own paragraph. We only had 4 lectures for pediatrics. yet those topics are very thick if you look at the book sources. In my honest opinion, the Pediatric department has one of the best sets of educators in the college. It is expected right? they handle kids and it is very difficult to impart knowledge to these little tykes and handling them requires a certain patience, light attitude and enough knowledge to a successful time with them. So what's the problem then? None at all, the exam questions were truly shocking though. A lot of the quesitons weren't mentioned in class at all. It was understandable though, Dr. Rivera did advised us to read the reference material. (though for the life of me i till didn't see some of the questions he asked there, maybe i was reading the wrong book?) It was painful to take the exam of a specialty you are considering to pursue only to find out that you might not have the raw talent for it? depressing....... anyways, the results will say it all. though a text message from the class president tells us otherwise, in the History of SLCM, lowest grades of a class in pedia was obtained by us. GO 2016! record holder!
Other subjects (Psych and Med Ethics) was considered the easiest subjects for 2nd year was surprisingly hard for me. not totally hard actually (87 transmuted score for the exam? not bad right? though my goal was 90 actually....) Psych was totally different though. results are not yet out but I'm seriously dreading that exam. It was a slap in the face. A subject people considered easy last year is kicking my ass, and it's winning..... The exam was difficult, the cases confused me and i was totally caught off guard for about 2 parts of the exam. Preparation is the key for psych i guess because my preparation of 4 hours prior to exam review didn't cut it. it needs more time apparently.....
So, more impressions! I was really thrown off guard in the other subjects, especially the clinical ones, (medicine, neuro, pedia, even psych) where in one topic is taught by a different professor. Also the fact that there's only 4 topics for psych, neuro and peds included in the exam was shocking since you'd think it be an easier read right? but think again, it means more reading work for us! In psych, it messed me up because I didn't put enough effort to differentiate the mechanisms deeper, probably due to my fear of flunking neuro terribly (which i think i did anyway?) which caused me disregarding psych more.... huhuhu.. An upper year advised me before that don't take psyvh for granted, yet i still did that. how could i forget her advice! damnit! I forgot to mention pharma, it is one of the difficult subjects because of memorization it requires. But in the first block, understanding is more important though. Drug names didn't come out yet, more of their activity though. The exam was relatively easy, nobody failed :) I wonder next block though...? It wasn't surprising though, the ladies of Pharma dept are really good lecturers. Doc Almoro teaches in a jolly experienced based way while Doc Tajan teaches in an intimidating, memorable manner (sobrang effective ng approach niya promise!) which practically guarantees that the topics are engraved inside your head. That's why i regret missing a class from her, most of my mistakes came from that missed lecture! damn....
Yup, that's practically it for my impressions, i think I actually failed in my goal of making a better impression since my mind is practically pointing to post-exam jitters but I'll try to make a better entry next time :)
