But I'm getting ahead of myself. I usually write a little eulogy, er, hindsight 20/20 entry about each term. *sheepish* These usually come out better if I write them immediately after said term ends and not a summer break and three weeks into the new term later. I'll be short and to the point since I have much to say about this term which is shaping up to be a 'fun' one.
So. What to say about 4th term? First, a heartfelt wish to those souls in my class who had to decel because of the 13 credit monster - may it treat you better the second time around and may you show off your hard gained knowledge to the tutors and your groups thusly. Be strong!
Here are the bullet points of random advice and studying methods I found to work for me:
--> READ ROBBINS!!!! Anyone who tells you that Robbins isn't necessary is LYING to you. That book is flat out one of the most excellently written textbooks I've ever studied from. If you know Robbins you know what you need to know. It's concise (no, really!), relevant and wonderfully arranged. I was always aghast at people who tried to convince me that reading robbins was a waste of time.
--> Go to class! Ok, this one clearly isn't as universal as the previous point but I though that the lectures, for the most part (bone path excluded), were fascinating and well done. I really enjoyed that the department made a point of having specialists from each particular field come to teach us (so a respiratory pathologist taught us respiratory path and so forth - makes sense to me!). I find that it usually motivates the lecturer to, well, enjoy lecturing if it's on 'their' topic. And I don't care what anyone said - testable or not, the clinical stories made the lectures just that much more interesting! Bring them on!
--> Make the most out of your path group! I think a lot of people underutlized the path lab time but either half assing their slides or zoning out when other people presented. This is a mistake. You have to be in lab anyways and it's a significant number of hours each week so you might as well utilize them - even if you might want to take a mini rocket launcher to take out groups around you that don't understand the concept of 'inside voice'. Not that I'd ever do something like that....*whistling innocently*
--> This tidbit was offered to me. I sniffed at it, made many noises about eating it but ultimately fell into the same trap most of our class did (which was not eating said tidbit). So here I am offering it to you (whoever you may be) : DON'T fall behind in MICRO!!!! It's a five credit class people and it, while having 'easy' tests (comparatively speaking), will be very unforgiving if you don't know what you need to. And it's five credits, so not exacly a small class. I too fell into the trap of thinking "What? 5 credits? Hah! Path is 13 freaking credits! No way am I taking time from my path studies!". MISTAKE. Big mistake people. Think about it like this, if you keep up it's an easy A. And the credit count is the same as physio or neuro - think how much time you put into those classes. Also, keep your micro notes/tables and whatnot. You'll need them 5th term.
-->CPD. Yes, it's annoying. Yes, we all treated it like an obstacle to getting back to studying path. However, it will come back for you. It pays to have all the physical exam skills down pat and nicely tucked away in your memory. We've started our hospital visits this term which mostly seem to involve sending groups of us off to interview and do pertinent physical exams on *gasp* real patients! Not the time to stop and think "Hmm, now how did Pratt's test go again?".
That's all I can think of for now. Luckily for any poor sap who's managed to read through my drivel this far there's enough time separation between me and the beast that was 4th term for any more prattling of advice. This weekend I'll post about how 5th term's been going so far.
Preview: Pharm is hard! There are many, many, many, many drugs and we have to know aaaaalllll about them. Eep!
Ahh, back in grenada. As much as I complain, the sunsets here continue to be stubbornly gorgeous regardless of my stress levels. I live in a beautiful place.
