MBBS 2 Semester 1: Almost knee deep to HELL
So, where did I left off?
*cue in dramatic recap narrator*
Previously on D's med Journey... Recap! We were on the highway to hell.
Now, the second half of the semester is where this semester's sole purpose was to make you feel forever TIRED, forever out of sleep, forever QUESTIONING your degree choice and forever making you feel BURNT OUT.
Overview of this semester, I rate and give it a solid 8/10 feeling absolutely f*****g TIRED. It was just about right after the mid-term examination and presentation we had for Medical Genetics that (I kid you not...) we did not have a single break, and our weekends became weekends used to catch up and study for the following week's test/quiz/ assessment. Picture this.
Out of all the courses we have done so far, this was the most tedious course done ever and it was by far for me the most challenging of all. A list of things that are *trigger* phrases in this class:
- ✨Overcome your difficulties✨
- ✨If you study, it WILL be EASY✨
- ✨If you are familiar, each picture takes ONLY 20 seconds✨
- ✨No camera, only 1 attempt✨
- ✨Make sure your network is workable in advance✨
If you followed my previous post, you would have known the tediousness with this course was the weekly lab summaries that contributes 5% of your grade. The quizzes that is held almost every 3-4 weeks are also 5% each and are challenging as it is. HOWEVER, the most frustrating thing is no marks are ever given for any assessment done for this course. So, we walk into our finals week not knowing where we are standing in terms of grades. Pretty sure i am on a borderline of passing this course.
How did i study for this? I used notes from a textbook known as BRS Cell Biology: Histology. Gives a great breakdown for all the theory and the wordy descriptions for histology, as for pictures, I used a paid resource known as Meyer's Histology: Meyer's Histology.
Overall, I do not wish to come across Histology ever again nor have this as a focus in a speciality. Jokes i know this course will come back to haunt me when Pathology comes into the picture in 3rd year. π
2. CHINESE 3
Its is still ιεΈΈιΎ.
As noted before, it only gets harder and harder each time we level up in language skills. With every input of new grammar and vocab, I am sure the old ones have escaped my mind. *poof*
As always with every term, I learned the most from Chinese classes. This is mainly due to how well structured each lesson is and how thorough the lecturer deals with the lesson per class. Albeit challenging for nearly all the lessons, it was still one of the best courses to follow through and make you feel like you have taken something from it.
My take for Chinese is get you a good friend to help you with all your Chinese :p (you know who you are π)
3. REGIONAL ANATOMY
Previously, I rant about how dissections in the future will be scary for those of us studying 'online' dissection. I shall emphasize again that it is indeed STILL scary!
The only thing i am grateful for was my previous experience in the anatomy lab and the ability to have seen dissected cadavers before online med school. Those of you who have yet to experience this... well.
Good luck and don't get sued.
The best resource for all things anatomy: Teach Me Anatomy. Alternatively, I can offer you a crash anatomy theory course and provide study info on anatomy courses (pay for my time please π, I am a broke med student who likes nerd merch + food).
4. BIOCHEMISTRY
I will start of with a picture that describes our experience. (IYKYK)
Bring back to the fact that I was already BEYOND F**KED for this course. We had to do 3 assessments for this course, where the professors had discussed to extend the dateline of the submission after numerous complains of how last minute they were at chucking us a 3rd assessment, almost a week before finals. Yes, how generous of them.
The big question, did i manage to catch up to ALL the lectures? No. I had 5 lectures left (all freaking DNA with the 513 slides... *cough fkthat cough*) and at that point of cramming i reckon 5 lectures left was not going to kill me and I shall settled for a beyond average passing score with a shit tonne of sheer dumb luck. Which i am totally glad I had, for it meant i need not repeat this course EVER again.
My resources were certainly not the lecture slides given but the textbook: Lehninger's Principles of Biochemistry.
If I did had to repeat this course ever again, I shall tell my future self to NEVER leave Biochemistry this last minute, EVER again.
Things I wished happened this semester
- A student free study week BEFORE finals (why doesn't every university have this?)
- Planned my time better (Prioritize biochemistry and chinese for sure)
- Assessments to have been more spread out evenly
- More free weekends for ME to catch up and study (not cram weekly for different assessments)
- Having your friends in the same course whinge and complain about how stress and burnt out we are on a weekly and daily basis
- Moving on to more medicine based courses
- Appreciating the fact that this is a challenging course and I am glad to have survived this semester.
- Did not appreciate that I was beyond my lowest this semester having felt burnt out almost every other day of the week.
- The struggles of work-life-balance when assessments pile up on a weekly basis and there was so much commitment asked from myself (I am sure others relate to this well).
- Having more gray hairs on my head and possibly more stress lines (RIP, youthful skin).
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