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 whatsoever, and I guess most, if any of the stress, I’ve had previously was due to school. Even if not stress, just things like worries or concerns. In high school I would have untouched homework over the break and feel guilty afterwards. In university, although I almost never had homework, there were concerns about courses, marks, etc. being geared towards medical school.

Now it’s a bit different since everything in medical school is pass/fail. You could argue that there are still thoughts/concerns over things like working towards desired residency programs, but since the beginning of university, my priorities/values have changed and I’ve slowly began to care less and less about things like this. Not saying that I haven’t thought strategically at all about things like residency (because I obviously have), but what I can do now is pretty limited, and I’m more concerned with doing what I want and finding a residency that fits me than trying to mould myself to fit a residency program.

Group Studying

I have to say that I felt more comfortable with this anatomy exam than the first one. This exam focused on the head, neck, back, and limbs. Before I go into how the exam went, I wanted to talk a bit about group studying because of something I experienced and came to realize.

About a week before my exam, I went into the anatomy lab with four friends to go over some anatomy with the dissected cadavers and prosections. As expected, I was the least prepared person there. However, that doesn’t mean that I would not be able to learn anything or contribute to the learning experience of the others – the problems were that there were too many people and we were not all at the same level of preparedness .

Unless everyone in a group study period (assuming this is an active, discussion based study period and not a quiet one) is near the same level of preparedness, this experience will not be useful/fruitful for everyone. The whole group is not going to completely slow down just for you (okay yah this could happen, but it’s not going to happen in a high stress environment, for example).

I think it might help to explain this with an example. Imagine I went to the anatomy lab with just one other person, and that person was much more knowledgeable than I am. I can’t teach her anything, but she can teach me a lot. Nevertheless, we both gain from the studying. I gain because I learn new things, and she gains by solidifying hew knowledge through explaining it to me.

But imagine then a third person comes along who is more knowledgeable than both of us. The second most knowledgeable person is going to focus her attention on learning from the new person, since that is more beneficial for her. The rest of the roles remain the same. The point being that unless everyone is on the same page, the group studying/discussion is not going to be beneficial for absolutely everyone. Just to clarify, when I say that it would not be beneficial for everyone, I mean optimally beneficial – that is, while it’s true that I am learning something while there in such an environment, there are better group situations where I would learn more.

So the following week, I decided to go to the anatomy lab with just one other person, and found the experience much more beneficial (though I must add i was more prepared). For the things he didn’t know, I was able to teach him, and vice versa. It’s also much easier to look over specimens and test yourself with fewer people around. It’s harder to test your knowledge when many other people are also going over the same specimen as you in front of you. There’s also the thought of not wanting to slow other people down, which is something that definitely impacted me before.

My Last Exam: Gross Anatomy 2

So anyways, back to the exam itself. There were 61 stations in total (with I think 5 or 6 rest stations somewhere in there). During my last exam, countless times I found myself in a situation where I would have to use my entire minute and a half to decide what to put down – I rarely had situations where I knew the answer right away and could relax for an entire minute.

This time, I started somewhere in the middle of the head and neck stations, and was happy to finally experience what I didn’t before. I guess I knew head and neck pretty well because I had an answer for everything and got most of them pretty quickly.

Unfortunately I wish I could say the same for the back and limbs. Well, I think back I was probably okay with, and I don’t remember too many questions about that. My confidence was sky high from head and neck, but started to die a bit when I ran into some trouble with limbs – that was some hard stuff, and I found myself again wishing I spent even more time studying in the anatomy lab. It did boost my spirits to finish my exam back in head and neck where I felt most comfortable.

A Plug, and My Break

I just have to make a plug for the best movie experience I’ve had in a while. You probably all know about it, but it’s so good, I’m going to plug it anyways:

If you haven’t seen Avatar yet, go see it. And if you see it, see it in 3D. The plot/acting/etc. isn’t amazing, but the visuals are stunning, especially in 3D. This movie is all about the experience, and it’s best experienced in 3D. My friends and I are considering going back to see it again in an IMAX theatre – it’s that good.

Christmas break has been great so far, and I’ve gotten to see a lot of people I don’t normally get to see. I’m not even counting down the days until school starts, it’s really not worth it – gotta just enjoy the moment.

Hope everyone has a great break – Merry Christmas! 🙂