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March 29, 2024, 12:50:24 am

Author Topic: Just a guy in med school  (Read 16055 times)

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justaloser

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Re: Just a guy in med school
« Reply #45 on: October 25, 2020, 08:38:52 pm »
+9
Weekly update. I cannot believe there are two weeks left of the first year of university; the sun's staying out for longer, the end-of-year fatigue is settling in, there's talk of exam revision all over the place. Summer is looming near and hopefully with it, eased restrictions and a bit more freedom.

Decent week this week.

I had a chat with a faculty member, who ensured me my mental health was fine and advised me to review some past exam questions just to make sure I'm able to study with a direction (she suspected that I'm studying more than I need to, which I agree but also disagree with). Funny that -- in VCE I had a very good idea of what to revise, maybe because of the study design system and ubiquity of past exams/commercial exams, but now I'm completely thrown off. That's just the HS-Uni transition at work, I suppose.

I've gone through one past exam for Semester 2 and one for Sem 1 without having revised first, just to check my knowledge. Semester 2's past exam was fine -- I was surprised that I could get almost all the answers correct. Sem 1, not so much -- I went through it in a call with other classmates and we had an extreme amount of difficulty with immunology, which happened to be 90% of the paper, literally. At least it's good that I know to spend time on immunology (never understood the MHCs, I forgot the complement system components anyway) University exams are so much simpler than high school, really...

In terms of content, the past week was asynchronous and focused on the heart; I've learnt a lot, like how to read ECGs, the coronary arteries, atherosclerosis, hypertension, reading arrhythmias, heart attacks, taking the cardiovascular history.. phew. Anatomy's also thrown at us a myriad of lectures (I htink easily >3 hours?) which were a pain to get through, but more tedious than difficult -- the embryology of the heart, the thoracic cage and diaphragm and the adult heart's anatomy. But at the end of the day, it's still satisfying to get closer to viewing the body as an intricate, interwoven "whole" rather than isolated systems and areas; compartment syndrome makes more sense when you can understand how fluid can get to the place where it starts compressing stuff.

Thank goodness for textbooks; Katzung's pharmacology and Hampton's The ECG Made Easy have been really great for learning about alpha/beta blockers (for this week anyway, it's always been a stalwart source of info) and learning how to read ECGs. In fact, The ECG Made Easy was better at explaining some other stuff than the faculty notes.

Take care, and good luck with your exam revision!
« Last Edit: October 27, 2020, 09:53:41 am by justaloser »
2020-24: Monash Uni MBBS (Bonded)

I don't really go on here anymore. Feel free to DM though

I have no idea about the UCAT percentile required to get an interview/accepted into medicine. Mine was the first year that they used the UCAT. Just try and maximise your ATAR and take care of yourself.

My Med School journal

justaloser

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Re: Just a guy in med school
« Reply #46 on: November 05, 2020, 12:19:31 pm »
+10
Short update

We are almost at the end. Half of pre-clin is about to be over. All the tutes are over -- there's just one last goodbye tomorrow morning.

Continued studying the cardiovascular system. We've gone through so much -- there's a myriad of drugs to combat hypertension, high cholesterol, arrhythmias ... and I actually learnt how to spell rhythm for the first time in my life. Some fun things I learnt about this week included spontaneous coronary artery dissection, where your heart arteries basically burst without predisposing risk factors and it imitates a heart attack.

Studying for exams has been a bit tough. I've attempted about 4 so far as a diagnostic tool and have gotten passing marks, but have still been beating myself up over it just because I feel like I'm really behind in a lot of aspects. That's one of the constants of med school -- you think you're on top of things but you really aren't. You know nothing. You can score an 80% on one quiz and barely pass a practice exam. And that's immensely frightening yet awe-inspiring -- there's just so much to learn. I suppose it's made me more humble too -- I'm not anyone in particular, just someone trying to grow and learn.

I've also been heading down to uni to salvage what little of the first-year experience lockdown took away from us this year. It's been good -- splashing my money on coffee (uh oh), seeing friends in the flesh, studying together. Although I usually only spend an hour or two actually focused on studying at uni, those hours feel a lot more focused and well-directed.

Moving forward, my main areas of attack will be biochemistry, revising clinical examinations of the lower leg and population health, which in particular I cannot remember the formulas to. Very grim -- I hope that I can scrape by and make it past the 50% mark. But those are the main areas I've failed to recall for my practice exams, alongside HLSD, HEP and neuroanatomy. I'll also write a email thanking my clinical tutor for the support she's given me when I reached out for help.

Medicine truly is the intersection between science, the humanities and simple interpersonal communication. I'm glad that I'm learning what I am. Good luck with your exams
2020-24: Monash Uni MBBS (Bonded)

I don't really go on here anymore. Feel free to DM though

I have no idea about the UCAT percentile required to get an interview/accepted into medicine. Mine was the first year that they used the UCAT. Just try and maximise your ATAR and take care of yourself.

My Med School journal

justaloser

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  • Posts: 62
  • I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer.
  • Respect: +116
Re: Just a guy in med school
« Reply #47 on: November 21, 2020, 12:10:27 am »
+8
First year's done.

Exams were over a few days ago but I've been awash in the freedom (that somehow only first-year medical students contrary to stereotyping) of no class. Perhaps I should be happy; our tutor told us to enjoy our break because it'd be one of few we'd get in medical school. How ominous.

The exams themselves were alright -- the first (sem1) was definitely a bit 'out-there' with the questions asked, but then again I definitely neglected that content for sem 2. Speaking of which, semester 2's exam was definitely better -- a lot of very accessible content (I've read about the Trendelenberg test in practice exams so much that I've essentially memorised the positive sign) but also a few obscure questions I was puzzled by. Nevertheless, I'm just satisfied/relieved by the fact they're over. And the faculty has been overwhelmingly kind to us with our assessments -- it's almost concerning given that we're probably being coddled too much before future years.

In the past few weeks I've been going to university to study with friends, meet people, even just see people physically and trees and the sky (oh, what staying indoors for three months does to a man). How crazy it is, that one year ago I was and only now I'm getting a taste of the university life that I was told so much about. A pre-exam detox from social media served me well and gave me the chance to read The Death of Ivan Ilych -- an absolute BANGER of a read (lol), highly relevant to medical school (the concepts of illness and suffering, life and death, the coldness of medical professionals) and probably my gateway drug into Tolstoy.

In terms of my goals for the year, I've at least met 3 -- got a negative COVID-19 test, have gone for kebabs with friends (not exactly -- I was peer-pressured into getting a HSP to share) and I have maintained a 70% average (a bit above that actually but hey, Ps get MDs).

I'll write a full review of the whole year soon.
2020-24: Monash Uni MBBS (Bonded)

I don't really go on here anymore. Feel free to DM though

I have no idea about the UCAT percentile required to get an interview/accepted into medicine. Mine was the first year that they used the UCAT. Just try and maximise your ATAR and take care of yourself.

My Med School journal

justaloser

  • Forum Regular
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  • Posts: 62
  • I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer.
  • Respect: +116
Re: Just a guy in med school
« Reply #48 on: November 29, 2020, 08:50:59 pm »
+11
Okay I'm going to chunk this reflection up into parts because I don't think I could write it all in one go.

Reflection on the year pt. 1
When the Monash medical faculty moved all of our classes online, before the other faculties did, I was quite saddened; many plans for the year such as joining clubs, having nights out and simply just meeting new people seemed to completely disappear. It felt quite unfair but, at the same time, I was still quite awestruck by everything – the online portal, the new way of doing things, the initial novelty of online classes – so the idea of losing out on the “jaffy experience” wasn’t completely occupying my mind. Even the first week’s content itself seemed so mystifying although looking back, it was VCE Bio 3&4 (and it sucked).

Now, I can confidently say that although this year was certainly unprecedented and uniquely challenging (I’ve gotten to the point where I resort to buzzwords), I’ve still had the jaffy experience. Although I have yet to push a revolving door or even attend a single O-week event, I’ve still managed to grow as a person.

Firstly and perhaps most importantly, this year has really highlighted the importance of mental health. Perhaps it’s been all the time alone, or maybe it’s being around students who have had similar experiences to be able to openly talk about and reflect on mental health issues.

Impostor Syndrome - the elephant in the room
Keep in mind this is all anecdotal.
It’s highly relieving and yet concerning to realise that there are indeed so many other people that suffer from constantly comparing themselves to others. There's a prevalent problem where one idolises someone who they’ve only seen one facet of; just because someone can come up an impressive differential diagnosis in a tutorial with doesn’t mean that they have their own weaknesses and insecurities.

I say this because I’ve been in both situations and it's not ideal: to be held up higher than you are makes you feel like a fraud or put excessive pressure on you to perform, and to hold up others based on small interactions unnecessarily hurts yourself. It's also quite isolating; you might not want to approach someone who seems intimidating or "too good" for you, which only results in a potential friendship being cut short.

When meeting a high school acquaintance again as a friend (our only interactions together were in an English club), we both admitted that we each thought ourselves “too nerdy” or “too dumb” to be each others’ friends, even though the two of us have so much to appreciate about each other. It’s interactions like these that make me realise that first impressions often lie.

To talk about this stuff is definitely sobering, and usually takes a silent, calm night somewhere and the implicit consent of the other people you’re with. But whenever people have been able to share their experiences such as those of impostor syndrome, I feel like all listening do benefit from knowing that it’s more of a disease of perception rather than reality. After this year, I’ve realised that it’s not about whether someone is better or worse than you in an absolute way; someone may know more about one topic than you, but you might have better studying technique for example. There’s always things in certain fields or areas to learn from someone and vice-versa.

That being said, I must say that this is not meant to belittle people, it’s about being realistic and realising that others are often not omnipotent. 

Another note:
I also appreciate the university’s acknowledgement that medical students do suffer from a lot of issues. I know that personally, the staff I have talked to have been extremely supportive of mental health issues and insecurities, even being able to take time out to talk to students (not just me) and counsel them and encourage seeking help.
2020-24: Monash Uni MBBS (Bonded)

I don't really go on here anymore. Feel free to DM though

I have no idea about the UCAT percentile required to get an interview/accepted into medicine. Mine was the first year that they used the UCAT. Just try and maximise your ATAR and take care of yourself.

My Med School journal

justaloser

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  • Posts: 62
  • I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer.
  • Respect: +116
Re: Just a guy in med school
« Reply #49 on: April 20, 2021, 07:10:30 pm »
+8
What happened?
I forgot this existed. Summer holidays came and went and I got sucked up into the typical self-destructive flurry of outings and drinks and poor sleep schedules and in the process this journal was obviously neglected.

So what's second year like?
Actually it's ... pretty good. It definitely feels a lot more "doctor-y", with a lot more emphasis on clinical case studies, clinical reasoning, learning diseases and their presentations, investigations and test results etc.. Everything feels a lot more intertwined which gives a sense of purpose to learning.
Apart from the Zoom fatigue, going to real-life classes (a privilege, admittedly) is also fantastic. We've gotten to interact with cadavers and specimens and those classes are an absolute blast -- getting to see and feel organs as they exist (the smell isn't that bad either imo). The last time we had specimens we got to interact with a full body, which was both a haunting and exciting experience.

In terms of systems, we've covered resp, GIT and are moving on to renal. It's going by so much faster than one year ago. What a far cry from the musculoskeletal content we started with! Cardio still remains my favourite though -- I love how intuitive cardiac physiology is, and learning to interpret ECGs is quite fun actually. That being said, there is some apprehension remaining about clinical exams -- I haven't practised those much, so my actual technique is probably terrible.   

Looking forward (for real)
Although I'm not particularly active in the AN community I hope I can keep regularly posting here. It's a great opportunity for some self-reflection and more importantly, to have a detailed journey of med school (cue the typical "it's about the journey, not the destination").
2020-24: Monash Uni MBBS (Bonded)

I don't really go on here anymore. Feel free to DM though

I have no idea about the UCAT percentile required to get an interview/accepted into medicine. Mine was the first year that they used the UCAT. Just try and maximise your ATAR and take care of yourself.

My Med School journal

justaloser

  • Forum Regular
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  • Posts: 62
  • I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer.
  • Respect: +116
Re: Just a guy in med school
« Reply #50 on: May 08, 2021, 12:04:38 am »
+7
The past two weeks

We were supposed to have placement (in Mildura I think) and an 'urban week' . Unfortunately it didn't happen and was postponed to next semester, most likely due to the disparity between domestic and international students (who have to live with Zoom tutorials). It's just another aspect of "post-COVID" (a bit wary about using this term -- it's an extreme privilege) life I suppose -- we've been able to have labs (with cadavers!), live workshops and tutes.

In place of placement we've had a relatively light two weeks -- no lectures, no new content, even labs for revising year one content! It's a privilege -- whilst friends in other faculties are drowning in assignments our faculty pulls the brakes on new content. It's also a nice time to do some pre-reading for the next week's tutes and iron out any topics that haven't been understood.

In terms of content revised over these past few weeks, it's been all over the place. Some notables included an ECG workshop -- I love ECGs -- and a workshop on the breast examination (completely out of the blue). There was also some limb revision (year 1 content) which I'm totally grateful for. It was the ECG workshop that stood out to me the most though. Once you get the hang of the process by which you interpret it, it grows a lot less intimidating. That's the same with a lot of stuff I guess.

It's also always piqued my interest how subject to change everything is: there are multiple different methods for examining breasts for lumps (and different attitudes towards breast examination, one paper included responses ranging from "covering my arse from legal action" to "it's educational and empowering"), different definitions of hypertension (the US recently set the bar 10mmHg lower than Aus apparently). It goes to show the importance of keeping up to date with things. It's exciting in a way -- change is happening before our very eyes. 

Over the next few days I'm probably going to take a study break. It's a bit strange to be doing it but I think I've earned it. It's definitely going to be a bit disconcerting getting back into the groove of new content, watching lectures, but it'll be good getting back to learning new content.

That's it, take care .

EDIT 22/07/2022
Hi. I don't want to make a new post as it will necro the thread -- I don't want that -- but here's a little update on things since it's Friday night, I'm sleepy and I have nothing else to do.

I've been on clinical placement for the last 6 months -- currently in my second semester. It's an incredible experience and highlights why medicine is really wonderful. There are many highs and many lows. You learn a lot of things about everything, even just simple things like culture and geography and even by just observing you get to appreciate the full gamut of human emotion and thought. I love it, even though it's probably an unhealthy relationship.

I still love ECGs.

I advise that anyone considering medicine really strongly consider the costs and benefits. Find a young doctor or medical student and talk to them (older doctors are, admittedly, somewhat out of touch). Also please don't be like me and just blindly go for a spot in Bonded medicine -- specialty training is such a huge part of it and having to serve 3 years in a regional/rural area can really impact your "pathway" (yes, it doesn't end with VCE/uni I'm afraid) to training.
« Last Edit: July 22, 2022, 06:59:15 pm by justaloser »
2020-24: Monash Uni MBBS (Bonded)

I don't really go on here anymore. Feel free to DM though

I have no idea about the UCAT percentile required to get an interview/accepted into medicine. Mine was the first year that they used the UCAT. Just try and maximise your ATAR and take care of yourself.

My Med School journal