this seems like a good was to get rid of stress

[simran]

When I got back from my Easter break I was really motivated to study. I did loads for PBL. I think most of my enthusiasm for the alimentary block was due to my previous work in a gastrointestinal ward. However two weeks into term my motivation went down.

I took part in the open day, met a few of the new students then and on the night out before the open day.

I had a GP placement. I walked back to uni, which was lovely. I walked through a park and picked a few flowers. Getting back to nature like that was lovely, plus finding a new route without a map at hand and letting yourself get lost.

I watched a film called Tsotsi, which was excellent. Its about a South African thug that is reformed after he finds a baby in a car he has stolen. The reasons behind him becoming a thug are also explored in the film. The soundtrack was amazing as well.

My mentor invited me and a few other students to his house. His house was enormous. The evening was really enjoyable as well, the salmon starters were great.

Last weekend I attempted the three peak challege. I managed to climb Ben Nevis and Scarfell Pike. We did not have enough daylight hours to climb mount Snowden. Even though our group did not climb all three, I still really enjoyed it. The hiking shoes I bought did make me feel quite miserable though. On the way up steep aras of the path I felt like my feet were slipping slightly. On the way back down I felt like my feet were again slipping. If I go hiking again I will need to buy new boots. The views when I reached high altitudes were amazing. Since I've been back I've found it hard to catch up on sleep, and get back to studying, as the scenes I saw when hiking seem more real.

I received my exam result for my online alimentary exam. I passed without even revising for the exam. This makes me think that I can balance work and P.

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I have not done much academic work since my last post.

On Friday we had a charity bed push in Derby town centre. We managed to raise over two thousand pounds. I managed to contribute to one hundred and ninety pounds of that total, which made me feel proud. I wore a nurses dress from work (it was washed since my last shift, no no germs were transmitted to the public). It came up to my knee. And I wore make up as well. I managed to raise more money during the bed push than I did during the treasure hunt, so maybe wearing a dress helped?

On Saturday I woke up really late, caught up on some sleep. I then got ready for the first year ball. I wore my purple dress, pink sandals. I t was nice to dress up. The starter was smoked salmon, which was tasty. I wasnt too keen on the main course, it was a rump of lamb. It was slightly too heavy for me. My dessert tasted like a chocolate brownie, so a swapped with P's dessert, his was delicious. His dessest had a layer of white chocolate mousse over a layer of milk chocolate mousse, covered in a layer of dark chocolate sauce, and decorated with raspberry sauce on top. Rupert's band played, they sounded really good. This was followed with dance music. Even P danced - that shocked me! I left when a DJ said he was going to finish off by playing twenty minutes of cheese.

On Sunday I chilled, and played a computer game for two hours - I know, terrible. Me and P then went to the Metro to watch Shooting dogs. Before the film started it was introduced to us by the Derby University representative of AEGIS, an anti-genocide charity. This was followed by another talk by a Rwandan who was translating for genocide survivor who was in this country for reconstructive surgery. The film itself was more graphic than Hotel Rwanda. P seemed to be more affecected by the film than I was, I put this down to P not having watched Hotel Rwanda. After the film finished I bought a book containing 28 testimonies of Rwanda genocide survivors. While we were walking back home we walked past the Glasshouse. They were playing dub reggae, P encouraged me to go inside, and we had a drink each. I stayed up until 4am reading my new book.

On Monday I did loads of tidying up and laundry. I also spent loads of time reading my new book.

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It's been a long time since I've last posted, so I'll keep this post brief.

In June I had an important assignment to hand in, one day after my Viva's. It was a challenge to manage my time effectively. As always I meant to start my viva way ahead of schedule, however as I had not received my reflective essays back, I found it difficult to start the end of year assignment until one week prior to the deadline.

My Vivas went well, I passed everything. The anatomy examiner, who had given me a grade B for my first ever anatomy viva, give me an A this time round! She said that I had improved! The clinical skills examiner remarked on how my confidence had grown through the year. Overall it was a positive experience.

With regards to my assignment, I had it completed one day prior to the deadline. It was due in at 1pm, upto 12.45pm I was in the library doing "last minute improvements" on the essay. Afterwards I went to Markeaton Park, where most of the GEM course had congregated. Games such as Ultimate Frisby, boys vs girls rounders, and cricket were played, all whilst GEMmers were becoming increasingly drunk, under a warm early summer blue sky. We went out later, got more drunk, woke up late a did not care - as we had two weeks off to study for our end of June exams.

I passed the MCQ. I did not do as well with the MEQ however. I scored four percent lower than the required competance level. When I looked at my returned MEQ papers, I noticed how the topics I had covered earlier on in the course were my weak areas. This is one thing I need to keep in mind for the future, keep revising past topics. In that respect this degree is very different to my first degree. For my first degree I needed to learn a subject in depth, sit a paper based on it, after which I did not need to cover the same subject matter again for any future exams. However the MEQ's have shown me how important it is to keeps refreshing my knowledge. Only if I do this I believe I will pass future exams, and is something I should be doing when I have not got such a heavy load at uni. Another factor in me not doing as well in my MEQ as I should have was I only revised for two days prior to the MEQ. I spent most of my evenings watching the world cup (I'm so glad Italy beat France). I know this sounds lame, but the combination of staying in halls, the knowledge of me passing all my exams with only two days revision in the past, and the World Cup being on did not help with my attempts at passing.

I passed my assignment, which was what I needed to pass into the second year of the medical course, so now I'm a second year GEM student! Whoohoo!

I had a lovely eight week summer break! The first two weeks were spent in Derby, I went to Kedleston Hall - very pretty garden, and I loved the drawing room - all those wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling bookcases were great! I went to Alton Towers, really liked Air (I'm a bird!) and the Ripsaw (for the fun value). I then moved back to my mum's for the rest of the summer break. I learnt how to read again for fun, by reading some story books. Later on during my break I covered some of the gaps in my knowledge that the MEQ's showed up.

During mid-August I had an awesome eight day five star break in Egypt. It included a Nile cruise, ten pyramids, eight temples, walking in the Sahara, three museums, seven undrground tombs, temperatures greater than 45 degrees celsius, and loads of shopping! I bought pretty glass perfume bottles, egyptain perfume, belly dancing scarves, and jewellery. And I loved the haggling so much. Often I would see something I like in a shop, ask how much it was, walk out of the shop in (mock) disgust, and the shop owner would run out of his shop (leaving it unattended!), carrying the item I had enquired about, and follow me until finally agreeing to the price I wanted to pay! Crazy!

Apart from my energetic, packed trip to Egypt, I relaxed as much as I could.

The last week back at uni has been busy. i have not been going out as much as I used to. I need to get my head around this block, and I feel that I could do so much better if I tried, so thats what I'm going to do now. I do not want to fail my end of pre clinical phase exams, so I'm gonna work my ass of now.

On that note, I'll get back to my PBL work for tomorrow.

[simran]

Academic stuff

My Neuroscience exams went well, I achieved my best marks to date. During the Vivas I was really nervous though, but the only station it really affected was my patient communication station. I was worried about my own performance, so I did not build up as much rapport as I usually do.

Endocrine went along fine, I have completed the online exam for it, I will receive the marks back soon.

In roughly two months time I will start my first clinical phase. Before then I have Vivas, a portfolio analysis, and four exams to sit. I am trying to revise for the exams, but find it difficult to due to the volume of note I has accumulated over the last two years. I have attempted to summarise notes onto revision cards, but I find that takes two much time. I tried to revise one block per week, however I get distracted too easily. During this weeks PBL case we are covering immunology and lympatics, so at least we a revisiong some topics.

Other stuff

I'm living close to the medical school. The room I'm in is very nice. However the chimney is falling down, the heating has been switched off, and there is no hot water in the taps. We still have hot showers though. One of the housemates has gone to Lincoln on a placement. The other two are in the process of moving out - too many things are going wrong with the house. I am tempted to move out, however I don't want to move before my exams, and soon after my exams my mother said she will start looking for a house for me in either Derby or Notts. So I don't think its really worth me moving out for 2/3 months. It would not be fair on the people I move in with.

I still can't drive. This is one thing I will need to sort out during 2007, learning how to drive.

I'm quite stressed out about exams. Which is good I suppose, as in the past I would start my revision too late, with consequences. Being worried, and taking the coming exams seriously, is motivating me to do some revision. Which is good, as I have PBL work to do as well as revision. At least I'm getting some revision done. I will have more free days closer to the exam dates, so the amount of revision I get done per week should increase closer to the exam dates.

[simran]

Hi all.

Work wise, I have covered one third of the material i need to for my exams in three weeks time. However I feel that I haven't studied thoroughly enough. I feel that revision cards are good, so I'm gonna use those to revise now. I aim to have done 3 blocks revision by the end of this week, if I've completed two by Friday I will watched Babel, reward myself.

I need to cut down on distractions, like telly and games, making more time to revise. And spend less time cooking, so I can spend more time revising.

Recently I watched Apocalypto, which I would have enjoyed more if it was not so voilent. I also went for a jog twice, only for 15 minutes though. I do want to lose weight so I can fit into some of my old clothes though.

The heating is finally back in by house - we have hot tap water again! One housemate is moving out, and another is moving in with his cat! I'm gonna go now, better go home and revise.

[simran]

End of preclinical exams - I think I will have passed them, results in two weeks.

I started CP1 two days ago, will learn how to take bloods tomorrow - scary!

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I passed my pre-clinical exams. I achieved my highest scores to date, so that insecurity I had when I narrowly failed my end of year formative exam has dissipated a little. I will try to study harder. I am into my second week on the wards in CP1. The timetable is more full now, so it will take a while to get used to it.

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I'm very tired. I have loads to study, but am finding it hard to stay away from the patients, they are soo interesting. I find that I like chatting to patients alot, so I'm think GP will really suit me, but early days yet. There seems to be some competition on the wards between students for signing up for sessions. I guess it's important to remember that the two most important things to remember are history and learning about the conditions.

[simran]

I think I'm settling into CP1 now. I have come to realise what I need to do. I have also met a doctor who is happy for me to present back histories to her on most days of the week, so I feel quite excited about that. Over the last two weeks I had a vascular surgery rotation. As it included two bank holidays, and two days in theatre, I have not taken as many histories as I could have (only five histories, presenting back only one). This is much less than my first two weeks, when I was clerking patients on MAU. I know now it is far more important to do the reading and presenting, than watching as many fancy procedures as I can. I will emmensly enjoy this theatre session I am timetable for with a consultant female surgeon though, she has I wicked sense of humour, and I loved her during induction.