Something Intelligent

Well, I couldn't think of a very creative name for this entry, so there you go. Hooray for being 2/5 of the way finished with tests! That's almost 1/2 right? The good part is we're actually 1/2 way finished with the actual hard tests. The one we have tomorrow is what I always call "the easy test" when I'm explaining to Kris why I'm not stressed and I'm taking a nap. It goes a little something like this:

A: (watching tv while eating, or doing laundry, or napping)
K: (in a 1/2 kidding, 1/2 serious manner) "Hey you! - shouldn't you be studying? Haven't you been freaking out about all these tests for the last 2 weeks? Why aren't you studying right now? Huh? Huh?"
A: "Don't worry honey. It's no big deal. Remember, I have the easy test tomorrow."
K: "Oh, okay." (goes back to playing video games)

Now to be fair - K doesn't usually yell out me for not studying because he's controlling or manipulative. It's because he has to listen to me gripe about not studying enough or cramming hard enough *occasionally* when I am disappointed with my grades.

Although to be honest I've begun to make peace with my grades. I used to get all hung up about class average and analyzing where I was in relation to it. I've come to realize that I'll just do the best I can, get all this stupid stuff over with in a few months and then begin rotations, where the ACTUAL learning begins. I guess I learn by doing - and there's not much to be done the first 2 years except look in books. The honest truth of it is that when you're applying for residency they don't really analyze your actual class grades very much. They judge you based on one number.

Enter, the STEP.

I don't know if I've written about it before, but the STEP is this giganto test we take upon completion of the first and second years of school. It covers every subject we've taken and often integrates material. It is an 8 hour long test with about 350 questions. It's not just some standardized test our school makes us take. Every medical student in the U.S. takes it and it follows you everywhere - even to your grave. It is the 1st step in medical licensing in the United States.

You know how they gave us 1 day to study for the boards last year? Well they give us 1 month to study for this test. That should put it into perspective. I've scheduled mine for May 29, 2009. Some people are saying they'd be burned out by then and have scheduled theirs for 1 week earlier. I say to them - I'm always burned out. I will probably take a short break after the end of school in April and then go through peaks and troughs of studying. If I get burned out I'll have time to get a 2nd wind, then a 3rd. I'll also have an extra week of studying and since I always feel like I could make an A on the test if I'd had 1 more day to study, maybe this will work.

Rotations start 1 week after that. Then scores come in July. 14 people failed last year. I'm not really sure how it threw off their schedule, but I'm sure it did. The faculty has been pushing us to start studying because they were freaked out. You know what I say? Give us better teachers. Noone goes to class this year - and they're doing BETTER on tests. Does this make sense? No. Does it show how completely inept most of our teachers are? Yes. Now, they are nice people and I hate to talk badly about them because I could never give the same lecture over and over and over for 15 or 30 years. But my gosh... These people make me wish Powerpoint was never freakin' invented. That's a rant for another day though. But even though I've been going to class so far I think I'm comfortable enough with their testing styles to give it a break next block. I'll let you know how it goes.

Wow, that was a long one! That was completely inadvertent. Gots to go study for the *easy* test now. Watch, I'm going to fail it after talking about how easy it is...