An Overview of MBBS 1 (Semester 2)

Its been an actual full year of taking a medical degree online. SHOCKING.... I know.

It is certainly an odd time to be a medical student. (I say this like ALL the time when someone asks me the generic ' So, how does it feel to be a med student?')....

RECAP of MBBS Semester 2!

The courses I had to take:

• CHINESE 2
• GENERAL PHYSICS LAB (GPL)
• CELL BIOLOGY
• ORGANIC CHEMISTRY
• SYSTEMATIC ANATOMY

The courses that were part of our electives:

• GLOBAL HEALTH (I chose this!)
• HISTORY OF MEDICINE
• MEDICAL PHILOSOPHY

The Yasss and Nopes of each Course I had taken:

1. CHINESE 2

The Yasss:

For all the courses I felt were delivered well online, I personally think Chinese was the best of all. I say this because the Professor I had this semester was the same one I had from the previous semester. The thoroughness she went through for each chapter, grammar and the extent of giving us in-class 'surprise quizzes' showed her dedication for each of us to learn it well. I didn't mind the surprise quizzes, for it keeps us on our toes and ensures that we are actually up-to-date with the class and lessons itself. 

The Nopes:

I must say, we had the MOST number of homeworks and assignments given by this Professor. All the others in comparison had far fewer. By the end of the semester we had a total of 27 homework, whilst all the others had 8-9. 

2. GENERAL PHYSICS LAB (GPL)

The Yasss:

Okay, massive shoutout to my people that stuck with me doing this shit. Thats it. 

(Yoong, Ryan, Nadia, Sheila... big 💓's to you all)

The Nopes:

This WHOLE damn thing was a BLOODY NOPE. 

First off, the PRE-lab quiz. 

The questions that were  'pre-lab' were nothing of the sort you would expect. It took a group of 5 and for one set of pre-lab, the whole bloody batch.. 

Next, were the online lab simulations... (ASDFGHJKL...) 

Imagine at 2-3am, you are stuck figuring out how to get the full lab score ONLINE using their DAMN ONLINE Lab simulation. (I have PTSD for labs online now.. THUCK you sah much... to whoever made this shit a requirement for us to do..) 

I look at this image below and I start having some level of anxiety. 

Now after figuring out how to get the full score (after your 20th time...) you now have to write these darn lab reports. Within these lab reports, you now have to figure out how the entire template + calculation and answer some really challenging questions. IYKYK ... some of these questions were just a big 'here you go, go search far and wide off the internet, use page 3 or 4 of google if you need.' 

I swear, with every lab experiment and report i had to do... (see image below).

3. CELL BIOLOGY

The Yasss: 

It was the fundamental basics that will pave the way for more hard topics coming to hit me in the face in the next semester.

Thank god for Qbanks and Prac questions, that was a yay for the Finals!

The Nopes:

WHO actually thought 150 slides is 'doable' and is 'okay' for my mental health as a student? Every week when the TA sends a cheery message of  

"This is tmr's lecture slides! Please go through and be ready! 😊"

I am actually placing bets if the number of slides this week will outbeat the number of slides we received from the week prior.  

Confession: I can barely listen in after the first 20 minutes of the lecturer, and spent teaching myself after.... Good luck to future me for biochemistry.

4. ORGANIC CHEMISTRY

The Yasss:

Each time we are greeted with ' Greetings, fellow students of Organic Chemistry....." by our Prof. D******** I am internally thinking we need to protect this man at ALL costs! 

To say that he is very understanding is an understatement! Not to mention how thorough he goes through each lecture, and even spends his time emphasizing the bits that should be focused on and grasped for the finals! 

Best Professor we had this term! 💖

The other Yasssss are to my fellow friends who are the super helpful in helping an old mind like me get through organic chemistry! You know who you guys are 💓!! Wouldn't have gotten through the HW and BIG HW finale without them! 

The Nopes:

The only nope I have for this subject was how long it took me to grasp the topic.... But that's just a fault of my own 😝

5. SYSTEMATIC ANATOMY

The Yasss:

I was fortunate alongside my fellow Class 2 to be under Prof ZXM this semester, after hearing from many seniors that he was the best at teaching this course. He delivered each lesson with pure enthusiasm and excitement! You can almost always hear how excited he is per lesson.

Additionally, given that I had already a good background in this area, I was quite comfortable with the lecture content, even though it was delivered online. Hoping next semester's Regional Anatomy content is delivered equally well.

The Nopes:

We had DOUBLE the assignments again. 

On top of the strange and unfamiliar platform of MOOC where we had to go through each lecture content, participate in discussions, complete quizzes we also had to write essays for each topic. 

In hindsight, it did prepare us for the long answer set up in the finals, that no amount of 'just reading Gray's book would have'. Hence, definitely do those assignments and questions he gives as 'extra' homework to prepare. 

The part that made the least sense to me were how we were given qbanks and reviews that contain clinical anatomy questions, when we were not taught this in detailed but expected to KNOW.  

Note: MOOC is an online platform that was a bit challenging to maneuver through.  It had certainly lots of interface issues for those that do not reside in China itself. Thank god the TA was a gem 💓.

6. GLOBAL HEALTH

The Yasss:

I especially liked how this lecture was delivered. The engagement per lecture was refreshing! It ensured we were having some form of participation, even though we were learning online. (Plus/ minus the hiccups we would occasionally have with internet connectivity). 

I think our Prof's delivery for the content we had in Global Health was interesting and insightful. I enjoyed the open discussions we had with her and the other fellow students who were vocal about some areas and topics!

The Nopes:

It just sucked that we had to learn this course online, I would imagine it would have been much more interesting learning this face-to-face! 

How the Finals Conducted Online (Format)

1. MCQ only exams

• Cell Biology

2. MCQ + Long Answers

• Systematic Anatomy
• Chinese 2

3. Essays/ Take home assessments/ BIG HW

• Global Health
• Medical Philosophy
• History of Medicine
• Organic Chem

4. Just Lab Reports for EACH lab Experiment:

• General Physics Lab

Overall, this semester was only made possible with my four 💓s. We have been through THICK and THIN this entire semester. 

Thank god we can put GPL behind and out of our minds.

Also.....We are now 1/6 Doctors! 😆