For my busiest days, my schedule looked something like this: 9-11 ICM small group, 11:40-2:50 Behavioral/Pharm, 3-5 ICC or Med Ethics. Med ethics is a 10 day course that starts the first week of school in addition to pharm and behavioral. It's not hard, but you do have to prepare for the two quizzes and the final. Once that's over with, an additional half hour of lecture is tacked on to behavioral and pharm, but at least you get Wednesdays off. However you also then start up ICM 5 where you meet in *small groups* at least three times a week and you discuss different cases. ICM 5 *lectures* take place on Wednesdays at 12:30 and then you have quizzes on Fridays. Unlike all the other ICM courses, ICM 5 lasts the duration of the semester and your final grade includes quizzes, reports, leading case discussions, genital exams and you are required to do two hospital rotations at the St. Maarten Medical Center. So far I've done a pediatrics rotation and I've got my emergency rotation this coming Sunday.
Another random mini course we take for about one week is ICC. Typically ICC is supposed to begin after the first Comp, but this semester they it moved up before our final exams due to scheduling difficulties. I actually really enjoyed ICC and found both instructors to be engaging, but the fact that we had to sit in lecture everyday for 2-3 hours right before our shelf exams and Comp was asking a little too much of us (stress levels were a wee bit high). I definitely would have gotten more out of the class had it been after Comp. Both instructors are practicing physicians and AUC graduates who basically run through all the tips and tricks for surviving clerkships. From learning about the chain of command in a hospital to learning how to write a SOAP note, they did a solid job highlighting what is essential to know for the basic sciences to clinical transition. I feel like I have a better handle and understanding of what will be expected of me when I start my cores in January.
Once you get through all those classes, and pass Comp on the first try, life is pretty sweet for the last month. Physio live review goes on for seven hours every day for 5 days, but thankfully its optional (thus I have not been going), and then the mandatory Kaplan Live Review starts up with my Kaplan crush Lionel Raymond the following week. It's a 7 hour, five day integration of path, pharm, and biochem. After that.... I'm not sure what's left to be honest. Aside from a couple of meaningless exams and the Kaplan Comp, there's really nothing left for me to do except prepare for my departure. Pack up... sell my stuff... eat out...get tan....beach it. I may actually turn into a tourist.
Good morning how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from St Marteen? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in St Marteen in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Calle Valencia,39
28903 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez
Hey I am going to be attending AUC this September. Anything you would suggest to help in the transition? How was it for you?
ReplyDeleteEnjoy life as long as you can before you start here. Don't buy any text books before coming down, bring a shower curtain if you plan on moving to the dorms and be sure to pack lots of shorts and t-shirts! For more info, definitely go to my earlier posts when I talk about moving down. Or go to Benji's earlier posts. His stuff is very helpful.
ReplyDelete