Always Carry Your Notes With You!
This coming Monday is our first block exam. Unlike in undergrad, in med school we take the exams of all our classes on the same day, back to back. The reasons for this is threefold:
- To ensure we are studying for all of our classes at the same time, and not just focused on studying one subject at a time (as we would do if we had exams on different days).
- To train our endurance. In the real world, we would need to endure through hours of stress at a time while tending to patients.
- To simulate the USMLE (U.S. Medical Licensing Exam). Again, we would need to be able to sit through a test that takes several hours long. All the exam questions at AUC are also written in USMLE format.
This will be my test schedule for Monday:
MCB I 8:00 – 8:50 AM (40 questions)
Break 8:50 – 9:30 AM
Anatomy 9:30 – 10:20 AM (40 questions)
Break 10:20 – 10:50 AM
Histology 10:50 – 11:50 AM (50 questions)
Break 11:50 – 1:45 PM
Anatomy & Histo Lab Exam (50 questions):
Group C 1:45 PM
The written exams will be multiple choice (“USMLE style”), and the Anatomy and Histo Lab Exam will be a practical in which we identify labels on cadavers, bones, microscopic images, and x-rays. Since I’m in Group C, I got lucky and will be taking the Lab Exam at 1:45pm, rather than right after the Histology Exam. But for Block 2 Exams, I will be going first!
The test results for the morning written exams will be posted by the time we finish our lab exam (yikes!), so who knows if Monday night will be a celebration or a “personal reflective moment.” Ask me then… But for now, time for me to go back and study my forearm!
