I just received an email from SGU stating that they are "concerned" about my academic performance. Yes, I did bad in Parasitology (1-credit) and in Genetics (2-credits), but I got As in Neuroscience (8-credits) and Physiology (6-credits). Not to mention that I still have the Genetics final exam coming up and I can make up for my bad grade. Also I have yet to even take the midterm for Immunology (2-credits). Ethics (1-credit), last year, was my lowest grade too. It's no wonder they give the least interesting courses the fewest number of credits.
It was my fault that I did bad in Parasitology and Genetics, but I have corrected the mistake. The mistake was not studying in the library. I studied in the library all through 1st Term, and I started studying in my room again. I've realized that this makes a huge difference in efficiency.
Anyways, a little pissed about the email and I find it amazing that they are "concerned" that my cumulative GPA will not meet the 2.5 minimum, when I can still make a >3.7 cGPA throughout all terms, which in my opinion is pretty good.
This blog is about my life in Grenada as a Medical school student.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Half-way through
It's been a long time since I posted. I'm done with all the midterms now for Neuro, Physio, Genetics, and Parasit. How were my grades? Parasit<Genetics<Neuro<Physio as expected, I got As in Neuro and Physio since they involve less memorizing and more thinking. Honestly though, I didn't study hard enough and I blame myself for procrastinating. I'm back to normal now, so hopefully it won't happen again.
The next big boss is going to be Immunology followed by CPM - an ethics related course (yikes!). I'm still hanging in there, I have to do better this term and I know I can do it!
The next big boss is going to be Immunology followed by CPM - an ethics related course (yikes!). I'm still hanging in there, I have to do better this term and I know I can do it!
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
First round of midterms over!
I haven't updated in a while due to being busy. I am done with Parasitology for the whole term and I had the midterm examination for Genetics. I was expecting a lot of risk calculation questions for Genetics, but unfortunately, she made the exam mostly on semantics - my weakness. So who knows how many words I memorized. All the conceptual questions were alright. It was the first time I had to use all 2 hours in a medical exam. Parasit was straight-up memorization, but I knew that so I was fine.
Anyways, a sigh of relief, but also a sigh of disappointment b/c I feel I could have done better. Though it's not over until the fat lady sings.
After the exam, I just went straight into my room to get my phone and then I was confused as what to do today since there are no classes and nothing else to study for. It's a unique feeling b/c when you're used to studying and you suddenly stop, there's a feeling of emptiness.
Anyways, a sigh of relief, but also a sigh of disappointment b/c I feel I could have done better. Though it's not over until the fat lady sings.
After the exam, I just went straight into my room to get my phone and then I was confused as what to do today since there are no classes and nothing else to study for. It's a unique feeling b/c when you're used to studying and you suddenly stop, there's a feeling of emptiness.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Week 3 over
I forgot to update. Yes, it's been a great week. The classes are fine still. The material is all stuff that I learned in the FTM (foundations to medicine) before I even started real med school. Furthermore, it's my favorite courses - Physiology and Neuroscience. The teaching style is similar to engineering in both and the material overlaps tremendously. For physio, I just have to sit back, relax, and listen as it is just a story. For neuro, I just have to do some math (yay). Genetics and Parasitology require a bit more work since it involves lots of memorization, but it's all-do-able.
I have volunteered to become an Anatomy 'demonstrator' to help Term 1 students in the Anatomy lab every Fri from 8-10 pm. Last Fri was my first shift. Yes, I do get paid - it's only 10 ec per hour, but that means 20 ec every time I do it, which is equivalent to one free meal. It was great, I have access to all the course materials that Term 1 students have. I basically read 2 weeks of their material (~9 lectures)+lab videos in 3 hours after my class on Fri. Then, I even finished my own lectures that I had on Fri. By the time, it was 8 pm, I was already ready to go to the lab. I wasn't expecting many students during 8-10 pm, on a Fri, especially when it's only end of Week 2, but there were many. I helped a lot of students.
It's a lot better than joining clubs in my opinion as it forces me to review anatomy from 1st Term, which will be on my board exams. It also gives me an opportunity to refine my lab skills, which when I do clinical rotations, is going to be of prime importance.
I'm also working out 1-2 times per week now, which I think is reasonable.
I have volunteered to become an Anatomy 'demonstrator' to help Term 1 students in the Anatomy lab every Fri from 8-10 pm. Last Fri was my first shift. Yes, I do get paid - it's only 10 ec per hour, but that means 20 ec every time I do it, which is equivalent to one free meal. It was great, I have access to all the course materials that Term 1 students have. I basically read 2 weeks of their material (~9 lectures)+lab videos in 3 hours after my class on Fri. Then, I even finished my own lectures that I had on Fri. By the time, it was 8 pm, I was already ready to go to the lab. I wasn't expecting many students during 8-10 pm, on a Fri, especially when it's only end of Week 2, but there were many. I helped a lot of students.
It's a lot better than joining clubs in my opinion as it forces me to review anatomy from 1st Term, which will be on my board exams. It also gives me an opportunity to refine my lab skills, which when I do clinical rotations, is going to be of prime importance.
I'm also working out 1-2 times per week now, which I think is reasonable.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Week 2 over
The 2nd week is over. Nothing has really changed. Still the same courses: Genetics, Neuroscience, and Physiology. I am still enjoying my on-campus living. I am able to cook breakfast and dinner everyday. Here are some of the things I've cooked:
I also volunteered to help with Anatomy dissections once a week. This way I can keep up with what I learned.
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| Vegetarian Penne Pasta |
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| Egg & Cheese Sandwich |
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Term 2 begins!
I didn't have time to update the blog. My vacation was awesome. I came back to Grenada on Jan. 11th night. It was a 20+ hours trip, but after I landed, I still had work to do. I have officially moved on-campus now and the room is great! Single room with kitchenette right behind charter hall - it doesn't get any better than this. All my classes are in charter hall, I literally can reach my classroom from my house in 1 min. walking. The view from my window is great too. Only sad part about all of this is - some of my pots and pans were missing when transferring from my off-campus house to my on-campus house. It seems somebody just went into my room and took them.
Class started on Jan. 10th, I was 2 days behind. It's Saturday now though and I'm fully caught up with everything. I'm doing the same routine - making my own notes for every lecture. I have 3 courses right now - Genetics, Physiology, and Neuroscience. Genetics is just like biochem from last term. Physiology is the closest thing to engineering I'll ever get and will probably be my favorite course. Even missing the whole week, I could still teach the course. Neuroscience is also an awesome course and is similar to anatomy from last term.
This term is a lot better than term 1. All the classes end before lunch time and the best part is I don't have to commute, which means I might actually start liking Grenada. I can now study as much as I want in the library and eat conveniently.
Class started on Jan. 10th, I was 2 days behind. It's Saturday now though and I'm fully caught up with everything. I'm doing the same routine - making my own notes for every lecture. I have 3 courses right now - Genetics, Physiology, and Neuroscience. Genetics is just like biochem from last term. Physiology is the closest thing to engineering I'll ever get and will probably be my favorite course. Even missing the whole week, I could still teach the course. Neuroscience is also an awesome course and is similar to anatomy from last term.
This term is a lot better than term 1. All the classes end before lunch time and the best part is I don't have to commute, which means I might actually start liking Grenada. I can now study as much as I want in the library and eat conveniently.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Last lecture for 1st term
Today, we had an integrated lecture. One professor from each of our courses was there. We were given a case study and we had to use all the knowledge from all our classes to solve the case. This wasn't for a grade and the lecture was optional. In fact, many people did not show up or left because they wanted to study for final exams instead. I stayed because I was curious to see what case study they were going to give us.
As soon as I saw the picture, it was clear it was ascites. There was a clear swelling in the abdomen, which is the definition of ascites. Now, the question is what caused it. It was an adult, so it couldn't be an embyrological defect. I also couldn't see any superficial veins near his umbilicus, so it couldn't be a porto-cavo anastomosis problem. That left me with only two options - hypoalbunemia or a pleural effusion with a CDH defect. There are probably other causes, but this is all I remember from what they taught us. Pleural effusion would be more of a thorax problem though, not an abdomen, so the most likely cause was hypoalbunemia. This is what I got from just looking at the picture of a patient with a swollen abdomen in 1 min.
Next, we had to go through the algorithm that most docs have memorized. Ask patient history, lab tests for blood, CT, etc. Eventually, they got the lab tests for serum albumin and it was low, confirming my hypoalbunemia. They later showed the picture of his eyes, which had a brown ring around his iris -->Wilson's disease b/c of Kayser-Fleischer rings. In this disease, there is an abundance of copper and it forms rings around the eyes. Though I would never correlate this with ascites in my wildest dreams. So if they didn't show me his eyes, I would've never guessed it. Anyways, mystery was solved and I left the class because there was no more reason to stay. The Anatomy professor discussed about using CT, the Histology professor pointed out the cells in the sclera with copper deposition, the Biochemistry professor talked about hypoalbunemia, and lastly, the ethics professor talked about um - ethics.
I left when the ethics lecture started. The diagnosis was over and I knew the pathophysiology. The only thing that didn't make sense was the fact that Wilson's disease was a genetic disorder, so why are the manifestations only now? The patient was in mid 30s. In real life, ascites would have happened a lot sooner. In Wilson's disease, there is a defect in a gene that codes for a transport protein that transports copper-->hence no copper is transported to the right places-->copper build-up in liver-->liver can't make albumin-->hypoalbunemia-->oncotic pressure goes down-->hydrostatic pressure is still high so-->ascites. They didn't say all of this stuff however. There was still 30 mins in the lecture, so I'm pretty sure they explained later. Though most of the time was just spent talking about the patient history, which really revealed nothing.
Anyways, it was a nice fun lecture, even though I didn't stay for all of it.
As soon as I saw the picture, it was clear it was ascites. There was a clear swelling in the abdomen, which is the definition of ascites. Now, the question is what caused it. It was an adult, so it couldn't be an embyrological defect. I also couldn't see any superficial veins near his umbilicus, so it couldn't be a porto-cavo anastomosis problem. That left me with only two options - hypoalbunemia or a pleural effusion with a CDH defect. There are probably other causes, but this is all I remember from what they taught us. Pleural effusion would be more of a thorax problem though, not an abdomen, so the most likely cause was hypoalbunemia. This is what I got from just looking at the picture of a patient with a swollen abdomen in 1 min.
Next, we had to go through the algorithm that most docs have memorized. Ask patient history, lab tests for blood, CT, etc. Eventually, they got the lab tests for serum albumin and it was low, confirming my hypoalbunemia. They later showed the picture of his eyes, which had a brown ring around his iris -->Wilson's disease b/c of Kayser-Fleischer rings. In this disease, there is an abundance of copper and it forms rings around the eyes. Though I would never correlate this with ascites in my wildest dreams. So if they didn't show me his eyes, I would've never guessed it. Anyways, mystery was solved and I left the class because there was no more reason to stay. The Anatomy professor discussed about using CT, the Histology professor pointed out the cells in the sclera with copper deposition, the Biochemistry professor talked about hypoalbunemia, and lastly, the ethics professor talked about um - ethics.
I left when the ethics lecture started. The diagnosis was over and I knew the pathophysiology. The only thing that didn't make sense was the fact that Wilson's disease was a genetic disorder, so why are the manifestations only now? The patient was in mid 30s. In real life, ascites would have happened a lot sooner. In Wilson's disease, there is a defect in a gene that codes for a transport protein that transports copper-->hence no copper is transported to the right places-->copper build-up in liver-->liver can't make albumin-->hypoalbunemia-->oncotic pressure goes down-->hydrostatic pressure is still high so-->ascites. They didn't say all of this stuff however. There was still 30 mins in the lecture, so I'm pretty sure they explained later. Though most of the time was just spent talking about the patient history, which really revealed nothing.
Anyways, it was a nice fun lecture, even though I didn't stay for all of it.
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