Passed!!

I just got my grades back from the first block exams EVER in medical school… all I gotta say is… I PASSED!! Although this may not normally seem like much of an accomplishment to most people, but for me, this is a great start to med school, especially with all the scary things you hear.

• The class average for Anatomy was 77, with twenty percent of the class failing this exam.

• The class average for Histology was 70, but the professor has accepted alternative answer choices to some ambiguously written questions, raising the average to 75.

• The average for MCB, notoriously known over the years to be the hardest of the three, actually had the highest average: 80. Ironically, histology is known to be the easiest of the three, even though people received the lowest grades on it. I guess people concentrate too much on the hardest to the expense of studying for the easiest. So Lesson #1 of the day:

Just because something’s easier doesn’t make it less important. It you put it off, it will get you.

I scored slightly above the average on Anatomy and high above the average on Histo. For MCB, I did worse than I thought and got slightly below the class average but at least I passed. This leads me to Lesson #2 of the day:

Some actions are forgivable on the first try. There are always opportunities for improvement.

Yesterday, I celebrated the end of the first block by taking a dip at Mullet Bay Beach. It was actually more of a “personal reflective moment” than a “celebration” as I sat in the waters letting the waves carry me away. Afterwards, some friends and I ate burgers and fries at Deep Bleu Cafe, and made a toast with Belgian white beer at the Espresso Cafe. It was a painful celebration, waiting for the Anatomy and Histo grades to be posted the next day. I did not know what I was celebrating for. Now that I know I passed everything, I am ready to celebrate, a day too late. Oh Well! This leads me to Lesson #3 of today:

Whenever you’re ignorant, have some bliss. Don’t be too tense when you don’t know something… Relax a bit, be confident, and enjoy some life with the rest of your friends.

Today, a day after the exam, I am again in study mode, and have already been given a larger set of material to learn this morning in lecture. In anatomy lab, we are leaving the back and arms behind and moving into the head and neck for the next block, which is notoriously difficult. This next block will be a challenging one, but as I find my schedule and little niche to study, hopefully I will be even more prepared than the first.