18 months. Hundreds of lectures on everything from embryological development to geriatrics. Countless hours spent learning structures in anatomy and memorizing lists for histology. Now that I’m finally finished with the eighteen month basic science portion of the Baylor Med’s curriculum, it’s time for some reflection. And some sleep.

Since I’ll be spending a lot of time in my car during clinicals, I needed something to keep me going during the long commutes. Unfortunately, my car didn’t come with an iPod interface, and the dealership was going to charge me an arm and a leg to install an add on module. After quickly perusing […]

This guest post was kindly provided by Matt Curvine.

A long time ago when I initially signed up with BlueHost, my primary domain name was rishi-kumar.com. I hosted my blog and other sites using that as the main header. Ever since acquiring rk.md, I automatically routed all queries of rishi-kumar.com to my new site. Essentially, my first domain had become nothing more than a […]

Its been said that the didactic portion (basic sciences) of medical school is more about “book smarts” while the clinical portion utilizes one’s “street smarts.” Among the latter is an astute mastery of dealing with people – patients, fellow medical students, nurses, residents, attending physicians, etc. I know I’m not going to be liked by everyone… […]

One of the incidental skills you learn in med school is learning how to take notes. Throughout the year, I jotted down some interesting stuff either in written form or in the PowerPoints. Keep in mind that most are a product of zoning out. Here’s a list of some of them.

For as long as I can remember, “Carol of the Bells” has been my favorite Christmas carol. In particular, I love this rendition by the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir.

Besides the online application, secondaries, and recommendation letters, some med school applicants like to submit “letters of intent” (LOIs) to schools which, creatively enough, they intend to attend upon receiving an acceptance.

Yesterday was my last day of preclinicals. Hmmm, let me say that again. My LAST day of preclinicals. Ever. It sure has been an incredible eighteen months since I embarked on this journey! I’ll be writing a post at the end of this week (after exams) summarizing my last six months in retrospect, but as […]

As part of this block’s genetics course, 4% of our grade was based on attending yesterday’s small group ethics session. We went over three cases, drew out pedigrees, identified the likely genetic disorder, and discussed ethical issues related to the cases.