Author Archive
So I think I know why my marks have dropped…
So I’m happy to say that I passed my Brain and Behaviour midterm – barely, with a 70.96 (a 70 is a clear pass). It was a pretty difficult midterm, with a bell ringer for neuroanatomy in the morning and then a written exam in the afternoon. It’s funny how easily I went from not [...]
… And then there were two
Along with the revival of MedHopeful, there’s going to be some fresh blood posting here. I’d like you to give a nice warm welcome to a good friend of mine from class, Shelly Luu. Having skipped two grades growing up, Shelly studied biochemistry for three years at the University of Ottawa before being accepted into [...]
Hidden Luck
Luck, variance, randomness – whatever you want to call it, it has an undeniable influence on the course of events. Taking a simple case, you get lucky when your medical school interview is conducted by a physician who turns out to be life long buddies with one of your referees, or perhaps you get unlucky [...]
I’m Back
After discussions with a friend and some personal reflection, I’ve decided to sort of revive MedHopeful, and at the very least, cross-post my entries between here and MedChatter.com. The main reason being that I don’t think the target audiences for both websites necessarily completely overlap, and this is a nice personal space for me to [...]
The Fear of Failure and Why You Need to Stop Being Afraid to Lose
I think far too often in too many things we focus on just one side of the coin. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it can be counter productive if you’re looking at the side that prevents you from succeeding, and succeeding big. While I don’t have any specific role models that I [...]
Why GPA Should Matter and Learning the Way You Learn Best
This past Monday I took my Metabolism and Nutrition mid-term (I think I passed…) As usual (and as expected) the weekend was a major cram session, and I finally turned into bed at 4 am (where I proceeded to roll around in bed with my mind constructing random thoughts about hypokalemia which made no sense [...]
Lunch with Alex
On Monday I had lunch with Alex Shipillo, a good friend of mine who is very smart, driven, and talented, and whom I always have good discussions with and learn a lot from. The funny thing about my friendship with Alex is that I had talked with him and formed a friendship before we had [...]
What’s up with premed altruism and nobility?
As I have mentioned many times before, I feel like our education system was developed with altruism and nobility at its core. I have seen it all the way from elementary school to undergraduate university (though obviously much less so at higher levels at education). While I think it’s nice that we’re taught to do [...]
End of the 1st Semester of Medical School
I sit here typing this relaxed and in a pretty darn good mood. Although my first semester of medical school actually finished last Thursday, I’ve been too busy/lazy to actually sit down and write anything. I think this is the first Christmas break in a while where I haven’t really felt any stress or guilt [...]
So I had my clinical skills exam today…
As I mentioned previously, one of the courses I take in medical school is the Arts and Science of Clinical Medicine (ASCM I) where we learn basic clinical skills. So far this year we learned to take patient history, vital signs (heart/respiratory rate and blood pressure), and some physical exams (precordial, peripheral vascular). Next semester [...]
MedHopeful @ Premed101