You must absolutely buy this book for pathology

All I've been hearing these days is pathoma pathoma pathoma. Well you know what? Pathoma is fine and all, but I would put it at the level of the Kaplan videos and book, but with even slightly less detail. If you want to take it a step further, I highly recommend getting Rapid Review Pathology by Edward Goljan. I don't know if you all remember, but I had purchased this book just before 3rd semester and I stupidly never used it. Such a mistake. For this semester, I've been using Goljan alongside the class notes and I can't get over how much deeper my understanding is on all the material. Not only does it match up perfectly with the class lectures, but it offers a detailed yet succinct account on each of the diseases. I really can't say enough good things about it. Now I understand why this book is considered the premier study guide for Step I pathology. Additionally, I highly recommend getting the pirated Goljan audio lectures. There should be 38 lectures in all, each about 55 minutes long. I've been listening to one lecture pretty much every night as I drift off to sleep and it's just another good way to expose yourself to the material.

Back to the grind

Some of you may be asking... wait, didn't you just have exams yesterday? YES! And they actually went pretty well, but unfortunately I get about 16 hours to enjoy those wonderful feelings of accomplishment and freedom before I have to gear up for the next round. I did manage to get to class this morning despite the fact I've slept 8 hours in the last two days, and even more surprising, I went to the library and put in another 4 hours of work. I can safely say that was a first. To be honest I'm not quite sure what's gotten into me lately. I  haven't felt this motivated since block two of my second semester but I guess I can attribute some of the newfound initiative to my awesome three week break over the holidays. Since the five semesters at AUC go back-to-back-to-back, you can imagine how exhausting it can get. Winter break is the longest vacation we have the whole year and those three weeks really did me wonders. I came back to the island refreshed, focused, and I just hope I can keep this rolling for as long as possible.

Sorry this is another short post. I can barely keep my eyes open right now. Definitely going to be an early night for me.

p.s. WE'RE GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOO PATRIOTS!!!!!!!!!

Patriots-Bills Jan 1, 2012

Boy it's been awhile

Hey guys, I realize it's been MONTHS since I last posted anything. I'm not really sure what happened back there. I guess I just ran out of things to say or I just got tired or maybe school took an overwhelming toll on my life third semester. Anyway, I'm proud to say that I successfully passed all my classes Woo! Physio turned out being my best class followed by Microbiology and lastly Pathology. I didn't do that well in Pathology overall. It's sad because path has been my favorite class in med school so far. If a class is your favorite, there is no reason why it shouldn't be your best class. Unfortunately, I was never able to give it the attention it required. I spent most of my days struggling with all the minute details of med micro and as someone who has a terrible memory to begin with, it took that many more hours to learn all those viruses and bacteria.

Anyway tomorrow are my first block exams for Semester FOUR. This semester I'll be taking Behavioral Science I, Pharm I, Neuroscience, and Pathology II (I'm hoping for some serious redemption in path). Block I exams are tomorrow and I don't know why out of all the time in the world I've decided to post a new update NOW when I should very well be studying. Maybe that just goes to show how ready I'm feeling for tomorrow. I'll post a longer account of what's been going on in my life later in the week.
For right now I just want to say thanks for the people in the first semester class who have come up to me and thanked me for my blog. It actually feels rewarding to think I've helped people in some small way in making their decision to come here.  I guess it's no real coincidence that I decided to write a new post after some of these students approached me Friday when I was helping out with the first semester reading project (Short White Coat).

Back to studying, and thanks again!

GO PATRIOTS!!!!!!!

Community Action Day!

Yesterday Phi Chi and many of the other organizations on campus organized Community Action Day, an event that allows students to give back to the St. Maarten community by participating in one of a variety of projects which include: HIV screening, Diabetes screening, Alzheimer's screening, teaching breast self-exams, playing with the little kids from the ICAN orphanage, or the older kids from Crystal House. The day kicked off at 7:00 a.m. with a free breakfast for all the volunteers and also free T-shirts. Naturally my friend and I aren't morning people, and we managed to crawl into the rotunda at around 7:40 when pretty much all the T-shirts disappeared. My friend accepted the XXL shirt that was left and I did not, hence my not wearing a T-shirt in the above picture... but at least I was wearing green anyway. One of the coordinators did end up finding me a Small, so I was a happy camper in the end.

Seeing as I had already done HIV screening in a previous semester, I thought it would be more fun to spend the day at the beach playing with little kids from ICAN. The following are a few pictures I took for the day.

Aside from a bad sunburn, a few near-drowning experiences ( I realized I'm not a very good swimmer with children on my back) and a couple of wardrobe malfunctions (actually one girl just kept pulling down my bikini top when she was trying to catch me), it was a good day. The kids were very enthusiastic and had a great time at the beach. I got to meet some new people from the other classes and I was happy to spend the day with friends.

Related articles

• Getting Involved (medschoolcaribstyle.com)
• Community Action Day (caribbeanmedstudent.com)

Block II-Trending in the Right Direction

I figured out how to study for Micro, the Phys dept still sucks, and I'm actually decent at Path without having to do anything. At the end of the day though, it's still the same old story for me. Block II can be characterized as a daily struggle with procrastination and complacency, punctuated with a five day study freakout phase that always ultimately keeps me in the clear.  I did better in grades overall since I studied more, but I still need to go up from here. Today is the third day into block 3 and I'm doing something I have never done before, I'm getting ahead... for one class, but it is Med Micro, the class that's been taking roughly 90% of my time. It's also the class that students here can get 100s in. It's fair, you just have to memorize every last single detail about each virus, bacteria, and fungus. My flashcards have been working out pretty well for this class so far.  With a little more time, I'm convinced I could have scored perfection on this last exam. I'm aiming for the 100 for the next one. We'll see.

Med Micro:
Average- 84%
Me- 88%

Physiology:
Average-80%
Me- 86%

Pathology:
Average- 80%
Me- 77%