About time for an update

I'm officially a 5th semester student. Can we just take a moment to let that sink in?

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thanks.

Fourth semester, you tricky tricky son of a gun. Everyone will tell you that third semester is really the toughest of basic sciences, but not me. Not for a second. The only reason fourth doesn't seem as bad at first glance is because the workload is about the same as third and you're already used to it at that point. You fall into a sort of lull when the semester kicks off with Path, Neuro and Behavioral. Path is the same as last semester, Neuro is like the return of anatomy rearing its ugly head, and behavioral is just not a real class. I apologize to all the behavioral enthusiasts out there, but it isn't and don't try to pretend that it requires any real work to do well in it. If you are a human being who is able to communicate and empathize with others, you'll be fine. For all you non-human, socially awkward, emotionally stunted individuals... you will still be fine.  Most of the information you learn is common sense except for maybe one thing--

POP QUIZ: When a patient says to you that he wants to kill himself, as a physician what is the very next thing you say?

a. "Don't do it! You have so much to live for"
b. "Why do you want to kill yourself?"
c. "How do you plan on killing yourself?"
d. "Please don't talk that way."

If you chose option C, "How do you plan on killing yourself" you clearly have taken a behavioral class before. C is the correct answer because apparently, a physician can assess how serious a patient is in committing suicide when they have a concrete plan for HOW they plan on doing it. Makes sense I guess. And then you would ask some of the other questions like why. Gold star for all those who got this right. I definitely got this wrong the first time I saw the question.

Now continuing on with my 4th semester rehash.

It isn't until after block 2 exams where the trouble starts. Behavioral ends and then pharmacology takes its place. And to make matters worse, ICM 4 starts and for the first time in med school your performance in ICM is actually being graded. You have quizzes per usual but then you have to take time outside of class  to prepare for focused interviews and write reports. That's never fun. And then you have a lovely ICM final which isn't too bad, but it does come two days after block 3 exams when people are just so done with studying that they don't even care about the final (like me).

Block 3 might have been the most emotionally and mentally taxing block of my med school career. I came out of it mostly unscathed, but I'm disappointed I had let my Path grade slip. Block 3 is the block to sacrifice your best class for the betterment of the rest of your grades and it just so happens that Path was that class for me. Oh well. Block 4 happened. No ICM there so the three classes were a lot more manageable. And then finals came and went. Although I found fourth semester to be just as hard as third, all and all I did pretty well in my classes and came close again to making Dean's List. One abysmal Neuro exam sunk that ship for me pretty quick, but I like how I came back and responded.
But fourth semester is easily the most sneaky semester when it comes to failing people. I already know of some people who had never failed a class yet they failed one or two fourth semester. Part of the problem is that when you do poorly in one of your classes in the beginning, that class takes precedence and people neglect pharm and end up failing that instead.  It's a slippery slope indeed. May you never be in that position.

I was going to take time here to have a stirring and meaningful reflection on my time on the island for the last year and half, but I think I will save that one for another rainy day.


~I'm not dead,
Andrea