Author: Benji Ho

After an overnight 9 hour flight from Miami to London, then a 1 hour flight to Manchester, and then a 1 hour train ride to Blackburn, and a short 5 minute bus ride, I’ve finally arrived at my new home for the next 6 weeks, the Royal Blackburn Hospital! My first impression of Blackburn when I arrived by train is… Continue reading

The time has come. In approximately 24 hours, I will be in Blackburn, England, jet-lagged, cold, and excited to start my Psychiatry rotation at the Royal Blackburn Hospital! It will be my first rotation ever, and I will be joining a small community of five other AUC students, two of whom I already know from my class on the island.… Continue reading

The transition from Basic Sciences to Clinical Sciences can be a challenge for many students. For the first time in nearly two years of being together, your class is now dispersed and you find yourself isolated from your friends and classmates. You have all this paperwork you have to complete and a big test to take, and your advisors, deans,… Continue reading

Now that the step is over, I’m playing the waiting game… waiting to schedule my rotations and waiting to start clinicals.  I feel like this entire semester has been a semester of anxiety: I’ve been anxious while studying, anxious during the test, anxious after the test, anxious waiting  for scores, and just when I think I get a brief moment… Continue reading

Thanks so much everyone for the support! I have been getting some questions on what I used to study for the Step 1, and here I’d like to address that. At AUC, in order to finish Basic Sciences, every student must pass the NBME Comp as well as a Kaplan Comp, to ensure that we have acquired sufficient medical knowledge… Continue reading

AUC does not have official school-sponsored sports groups. However, AUC students have always put together sports groups. Throughout my time on the island, I have seen basketball, soccer, street hockey, and softball teams created by AUC students. Many groups, like the AUC Bacteriophages (men’s softball) and the Cushingnoids (men’s soccer) have competed with local island teams in the St. Maarten… Continue reading

About two months ago, my brother Jimmy Ho came down to Miami for a business trip to shoot a wedding for one of his clients. As I had been out of the country for a while, it was truly wonderful to see him and his family again. As part of a wedding gift to Irene and me, Jimmy and his… Continue reading

Dear Friends, Family, and Blog Readers, I’m happy to announce that I have passed Step 1 of the U.S. Medical Licensing Exam! It’s such a big relief, and one that marks the end of the first half of my journey through med school and beginning of a new phase: clinical rotations! Thank you to my friends, family, all those at… Continue reading

When we parted earlier this year, I never knew when was the next time I would see Chris and Arif again. While on the island, we were always together since the beginning. Together we can be so honest to each other that it didn’t matter what we said. These guys were the best. But as honest as we were to… Continue reading

Being away from the Caribbean for a few months already, I can truly say I miss the beautiful beaches, the community, the warm weather, the water, the cultural diversity, the food, the mountains, and the friends I’ve made there. However, there is one thing I DON’T miss about living in the Caribbean…
Note: This was a particularly unusually gnat/mosquito-infested day.… Continue reading

Ever since I moved to Miami to study for my USMLE Step 1 exam, my life has been pretty routine: wake up, study in the morning, meet with study group, finish study group, and afterwards, you guessed it… study some more… you get the point. But today my routine was a bit different. While I was studying some medical case… Continue reading

Our generation is living in an age of social media, where communication is getting ever easier and learning has expanded beyond the books. With the advent of social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube, we’re finding more and more ways to use social media to ease and enhance our learning experience. As a med student, here are 5 ways I’ve… Continue reading

With the approaching autumn, Irene and I decided to have our first hot pot night of the cold season. Hot Pot is a tradition in both of our families, with everyone cooking fresh meats, vegetables, noodles, fish cakes, and an assortment of other wonderful things over a steaming "hot pot" of broth in the center of the table while eating, sharing a good time together. While you can find hot pot anytime of the year, it's especially common during the winter months. Here's some fish cake. Continue reading

Tomorrow (Friday, September 23, 2011) will be an important day for many new students here at AUC. The White Coat Ceremony is one of the two most important ceremonies in the medical student’s educational career, the other being Graduation. Performed in most medical, nursing, and PA schools around the US, it is a beautiful ceremony where the students are given their first White Coat, a cloak of trust, professionalism, and compassion. Putting on the white coat for the first time symbolizes the students’ official welcome into the greater medical community of white-coat wearers. Continue reading

After studying medicine for nearly two years, I've come to the conclusion that doctors are always hungry, or at least when they are naming medical conditions. Whether it is a fancy Latin word that ends with the letters "-itis" or named after some famous scientist in the past, there's countless ways one can describe diseases and symptoms. However, in the medical world, somehow, nothing describes diseases better than with food. Here are some of the more common ones I've come across in my studies... Continue reading

Being apart really changes group dynamics. During Basic Sciences, although we all more or less know each other, groups of close friends and cliques tend to form. Then after Basic Sciences when everyone gets dispersed to different places around the US and UK, the crowd of students get shuffled again, and new bonds form, and we find new support in others we may not have gotten to know as well on the island. I think this is a good thing. It's good to get to know people again, in a different time, place, and setting, and become a part of many interlinking network of friends. Continue reading

Just within the last year alone, I have noticed a surge in the use of iPad at AUC, and it's not a surprise as to why. As I have expressed before, the iPad is an incredible tool for med school, being both versatile and handy. There are tons of apps out there that med students find useful. I've downloaded and tried out quite a few apps. Here are the ones I personally like and use regularly. Continue reading

Ever since moving to Miami after finishing Basic Sciences, I've discovered that several of my friends who are starting their rotations here have many questions concerning housing, living situations, as well as who else I know from AUC is or will be going to Miami. As I have not started clinicals yet, I myself have a lot of questions that other students may have the answer for. But who could I ask? Continue reading