Saturday, September 26, 2009

Defcon 3

It's been a while, it's been tough to "find time" to update the blog. This week is going to be a rough one - midterm exam time. Anatomy (written multiple choice and practical "pinable structures" in the lab) on monday, Biochem on wednesday, and CTS on friday. Plus, U2 is coming to town Thursday night. Good thing almost all of the CTS exam comes straight from the practice quizzes (but there are tons and tons of questions per lecture - one had over 70!!!).

My birthday was last Wednesday - didn't get too crazy with all the work I had to do but I was able to go out and have a little bit of fun. Each year I am so surprised at the people who come out of the woodwork to write on my wall to wish me a happy birthday. It really makes you appreciate all the different people you've met along the way - and it's been awesome to get to know such a wide variety with all of the things I've done. Definitely pretty special!

Despite my best efforts to stay ahead of the material, I still can't believe how much we need to know for these exams. Many people are especially concerned about the anatomy practical - we have to go into the lab with a sheet of paper (NO multiple choice here!) and they pin a structure on the cadaver and say for example ("identify" or "what nerve innervates this" or "gives 2 actions of this muscle"). It gets especially tricky with joints (and bones of the hand/foot - yikes.....), you have to be pretty specific. "Flexion of the arm" gets me nowhere - I have to specify between the "elbow" and the "glenohumeral" joint (shoulder). The many similar names also get a bit confusing (see supraspinatus muscle and suprascapular nerve, and thoracoacromial artery/thoracodorsal nerve). On the positive side, they only pin structures where it can reasonably be identified by nearby landmarks. I'll be going in to the lab tomorrow at 9 AM (no sleeping in for this guy!) to do a full review - I hope it goes well!!!

Interspersing my other classes while studying for anatomy has been tough... I might not get a ton of sleep tonight :( But then again, it's the rest 2 nights before the main event that matters most, so I probably won't be up too late!! I'll check in again after this Anatomy exam! Good thing it's all just straight pass/fail!!

No comments:

Post a Comment