Missionary Orthopod in the Making

For those of you that are still in college….do you remember when finals week would come up and you would really start studying..probably about 5 good hours a day for the hard classes like Biochem? Well that is what medical school is like, except you are studying like that everyday, and sometimes you wish you could study more. The “drinking from a fire house” analogy that is often used to describe medical school is certainly appropriate, but surprisingly, you find that you can chug down more fluid that you thought possible. My first test is next week Monday, and we’ll be tested on Anatomy and Evidence Based Medicine. I feel that I’m prepared, but you really can always study more…just one more clinical correlate, just one more cohort trial example, just one more whatever. Thank the Lord for this upcoming Sabbath; I have 24 hours of no studying…guilt free too.

So how have I been studying? The greatest thing that happened me (besides marriage) was someone on SDN telling me about this CueCard software. As I’m reading a book or the lecture notices, when I see something that I would normally highlight, instead I turn it into a question and write the answer for it in this software. Then I can go back and the program will actually shuffle the cards so I can truly study. You can even print the cards out and use them like normal note cards. Personally I really think that this method is working for me, as well as not attending class. I may attend class this next quarter simply for the reason that I miss my classmates, and I feel like I’m being too much of a loner, but at least for this test, it is really more beneficial to just stay home.

In my last entry I posted the list of specialties that best fit my personality according the that UVirginia survey. I was really quite surprised about OB-GYN. Its a speciality that I never even thought about because of the plethora of vagina that you had to deal with, but when I really thought about it: 1) I love surgery 2) I really love people 3) I like kids. OB-GYN really has a great combination of all three; I’m not saying that I’m selling out on general surgery, but I”m going to definitely keep my options open when I do my OBGYN rotation.

Am I scared about my first test week in medical school? Slightly, but I know that other people have made it through, and regardless of MCAT, GPA, or genetics, they all can’t be 2000% smarter than me, so it has to be possible to pass these tests. That is one thing that I am thinking quite differently about. In undergrad, passing was failing for me. I had to get a 90% or higher to have done well on a test. In medical school, I AM JUST PRAYING TO PASS :). Maybe once I get more confident about the course I’ll try to strive for better, but for this first section, a pass is all I want to see. One thing about test week and the days preceeding it is that you really just want to studying non-stop, but I’ve truly realized that that is low yield. I go as long as I can (which is usually about 5 hours) and then I stop, and I go to bed by 10 p.m., wake up at 5 a.m., having devotion and go at it again. I’m truly embracing that I just can’t know everything.

I truly appreciate that I at LLU. Its a wonderful school and you can definitely tell that most of the people here are Christian. Of course we have a few obvious gunners, but at least Christian gunners try to act slightly better. I’m pretty tired right now, so I’m going to turn in, but I’ll post again after next week is over to tell you how it went.