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 […]

It’s finally here – my last block in the basic sciences at Baylor Med. This block will include “age related topics” and “genetics”, neither of which I find particularly interesting but are of obvious importance in clinical medicine (then again, so is everything, right?)

After nearly eighteen months of didactic lectures, the basic science component to my medical education is fast approaching. On December 17, the MS2s will be taking our end of basic sciences exam (EBSE) which is essentially a modified version of step 1. Students are required to pass this monstrous exam (200 questions in four hours) […]

In retrospect, yesterday was one of the longest days I’ve had this year. I slept a total of fifteen minutes the night before trying to cram as many last-minute details as possible for the hematology/oncology exam, but the hard part was trying to buy time from after the exam till one of the end-of-block parties. […]

Nearly eleven months after beginning orientation at Baylor Med, I’m proud to say that I’ve lived to see my last day of classes as a first year medical student (MS-1). This afternoon, we had a “professor/TA appreciation ceremony” where we honored our beloved teachers for inundating us with knowledge regarding all aspects of the human […]

As part of our training, every health science student has to complete the objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) to assess our clinical competency by performing physical exams, neurological exams, taking histories, and presenting cases.

This past exam week has been a marathon of sleepless nights culminating in a full session of “12 hours” from Wednesday night into Thursday morning. After the block party last night, I had been awake for 47 hours and was breathing hard just to get to my car… right across the street.

There are horror stories of medical students studying 8-10 hours per day, having no social life, and having to sacrifice their sanity just to keep up with the volume of material we’re held accountable for. I’m here to say that those rumors are pure nonsense.

The human body is a beautiful thing. Why? Because of how effectively and reliably it establishes homeostasis in an environment which is in constant flux. Most of us take our inner workings for granted, but every second of every day, our body is constantly fighting against change. Obama would be appalled.

It feels like just yesterday when I was at orientation with my PRN group in July. Now we’re already 1/3rd done with all of our pre-clinicals and staring down block 4 (head/neck, immunology, pathology) after the Christmas Break.