I just finished midterms in one whole piece though and I feel like this rainbow as a result:
Midterms being over is just a pretty awesome feeling. Really. It's been a tough couple of weeks leading up to them. I thought last term was hard. It doesn't hold a candle to this term. Granted, things have been 'easier' but that's more of a reflection of me learning to study better than the actual material which is way more comprehensive and much larger in volume. And term 2 is supposed to be one of the lighter terms (supposedly). Term 4 (aka, path) is where things are really going to get going.Anyways. I've been thinking too much about term 4 these days. I should focus.
Here's a run down of my impressions of the midterms (probably will be the most useful for those reading this blog in the future).
Physio: One word:TRICKY! I was expecting this test to be fairly straight forward. In fact, it wasn't. *_* All I can say is make sure you not only know every single little detail but understand everything very well. For example, we went over several different valvular issues (aortic stenosis, mitral incompetence, etc) and what they would sound like/look like on a pressure/volume diagram. But the question on the test was over a mummer that we hadn't been taught. So you'd have to apply your knowledge of what an ascending crescendo during systole with an increased atrial pressure or whatever could possibly indicate. As I said, tricky. That, and GI was just out of left field. I don't believe it's a difficult subject per se but having it crammed in as the last seven lectures right before midterms was just cruel. So as an advisory warning, do not leave any major studying/comprehension for the end. You simply won't have time to go back. Something will suffer. I thank my lucky starts that cardio was taught so darn well otherwise I believe we'd all have been scrambling there at the end even worse that we had to. Still though, my overall advice for physio is not to get caught up in a false sense of confidence because the teaching is done so well. You still need to study!!
Immuno: Very straight forward and easy. It was exactly as we were told. 1 hour for 100 questions of pure memorization of cytokines, interleukins and characteristics of lymphocytes and myeloid cells. I was having flashbacks to my elementary school days. Remember when you had to memorize your times tables and they'd give you a worksheet of them and you'd have to finish it in five minutes? It was like that. Only immunology style. So. Make sure you know your IL's and CD's better than your own name and you'll be fine.
Neuro: What can I say besides "O.O". Hard! But I'd have to say fair. If you'd asked me that twenty four hours ago (before I got my score) I'd have had less kind things to say. But I did remarkably well even though I had convinced myself walking out that I bombed the thing. It was very detail oriented. I mean, you can't just know how the gate control theory for pain works in the dorsal horn, you had better know the transmitter too! You can't just know the red glass test, you'd had better know how to predict a result if a particular artery in the visual cortex is occluded. Detail! Application! Integration! After that midterm I will be devoting even more time to neuro the second half than I did the first (even though neuro has already managed to consume the majority of my study time).
All this said. Midterms went surprisingly well. It was a stressful week but I managed not to lose any significant amount of sleep and kept it together better than last term (which consisted of multiple meltdowns). All in all not bad. I do plan on tweaking my studying for the finals though. The main point being not to underestimate physio again! Immuno too will pick up now that we're actually going to start applying the knowledge (interesting) rather than just memorize cytokines (incredibly boring). And neuro is integrating more and more as we go on. We're starting off this coming week with motor pathways which, if my prereading is any indication, is incredibly complex. No rest for the first year!! Onward!
Listening to: 今宵、月が見えずとも
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