Mondaze Everyday

Time no longer has any meaning to me.  Daytime, nighttime, weekday, weekend.  They're all the same.  Dedicated Step 1 study period is here; every day feels like Monday.  Finished up my last final on Friday, and god willing, I passed it.  Keep your fingers crossed for me, I can't imagine having to retake that exam.  I barely have enough time to get through everything for Step 1, let alone study for a class I should have already passed.  Ok, enough catastrophizing.  

Last week's goal

1. Do not drop below 50% and aim for 65% every day. 

I dropped below 50% (to 45%) yesterday so that kind of ruined this. I did manage a 65% one day and a 75% another day, so overall I went up to 51% cumulative correct, so not too bad overall in terms of progress.  

This week's goals

1. Take a practice exam.  I think my goal is to be near-passing and hopefully I can start tackling tough subjects after I get my score and start DIT. 

2.  Do not drop below 50% and aim for 65% every day (this one carries over from last week).

3. Finish going through a rough first pass of First Aid to familiarize myself with the book before starting DIT.  

4. Finish going through Pathoma along with First Aid before beginning DIT so that the pathophysiology is fresh in my mind.  

5.  Complete all the DIT problem sets that I ignored while studying for finals.  I caught up a lot this weekend, so I only have 4 left (I think they only put out 34 sets)

6.  Complete the DIT primer series to "prime" my brain for DIT.  I also caught up on these this weekend, but I still have 7 to go, which is about 3 hours of video. 

Woo, ok.  That list looks a bit longer than I was anticipating, but it's always better to be overly ambitious so that I don't slack off.  Happy Monday.  

Bucket Listings

On St. Patrick's day, I saw an article on Huffington, a letter a grandfather had written to his grandchildren.  It was advice for life and I am a sucker for these sorts of things.  I linked to the original, but here are 3 pieces of advice that really spoke to me: 

• Make a Life List of all those things you want to do: travel to places; learn a skill; master a language; meet someone special. Make it long and do some things from it every year. Don't say "I'll do it tomorrow" (or next month or next year). That is the surest way to fail to do something. There is no tomorrow, and there is no "right" time to begin something except now.

• Travel: always but especially when you are young. Don't wait until you have "enough" money or until everything is "just right." That never happens. Get your passport today.

• Pick your job or profession because you love to do it. Sure, there will be some things hard about it, but a job must be a joy. Beware of taking a job for money alone -- it will cripple your soul.

I love the last one.  It's advice someone gave me once, and I feel so very grateful to be able to pursue a career I'm just crazy about.  I fall in love with medicine every day, and even when I hate it, I still love it.  As for the first two, I've added a bucket list tab.  I started my bucket list after I graduated from college, I've crossed some things out and I've added some new things (particularly from a this article from Huffington on the most underrated cities in Europe).  I loved that that grandfather said "Make it long".  Be ambitious with your bucket list, why not?  

HMOs and PPOs

I was at my very first medical school interview and I had really gotten along well with my interviewer, the Dean of Admissions.  I could tell she liked me and that it was going really well.  I was going to get into medical school!  The interview was over, when suddenly she says, "Oh, you know, we decided we're going to ask these new questions.  I completely forgot.  You know how the health care system is changing and all."  Oh sure, sure.  I nodded.  Of course.  "What do you think of HMOs and PPOs?" In my mind, I'm thinking ummmm…wut? And Ohmigod, this is going to keep my out of medical school. 

With as much confidence as I could fake, I conceded, "You know what? I haven't heard a good thing about 'em."

"Ugh! They are just terrible!" She agreed.

A few weeks later, I received an acceptance letter from that school.  Maybe if I'd gone there, I would have learned what HMOs and PPOs are, because going through the DIT healthcare primer, I realized I still have no idea…

Top Ten Books on my Spring List

Still Step 1 studying and studying for my (hopefully) last exam of M2 year (on Friday)...wish me luck!!  This week's Top Ten Tuesday is (one day late): Ten Books on my Spring 2014 To Be Read List.  My Spring TBRs probably won't be read until Summer time, but it's still fun to think about!  I need something to look forward to.  I got some of these from participants in last week's Top Ten bloghop, yay!

1. Better by Atul Gawande.  
I've read this cover-to-cover at least three times, but I think it'll be a good motivating read before 3rd year, so it's probably going to be the first book I pick up post-Step.

2. The Fault in our Stars by John Green
As seen on Beauty and the Bookshelf.  I like to read books before I see the movie, and I really want to see the movie.  I'm hearing good things, so I'm excited to read the book and immediately watch the movie afterwards. 

3. Divergent Series by Veronica Roth 
As seen on Fortune Favors the Brave  See above.  Same girl in both movies.  I don't know very much about her, but I hear she's this year's Jennifer Lawrence (I loved The Hunger Games).

4. The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
I started reading this over Thanksgiving break, but then got too caught up with school, so I'm only about 100 pages in, it's good, but not addicting, so that's why I'm going to read 2 and 3 first.

5. A Passage to India by E.M. Forster  
I started reading this before college, but didn't get very far and then I got distracted by other books.

6. Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol 
 I bought this one and Swann's Way in college sometime, but I've never had the time to read them.  They're both books that Professors recommended to me, and I think I'm always too intellectually exhausted when I have time to read, that I just want brain candy, but I do want to read these two!

7. Swann's Way by Marcel Proust  

8. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

9. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 

10. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Have you read any of these?  What did you think?  What are you top books to read this spring/summer?  Do you have any more recommendations for me?

Mundane Monday

Last week, I was really frustrated by the fact that I hadn't  been able to improve from 49% cumulative correct or 29th percentile, and then on Tuesday, I finally broke 49% and moved up to 50% cumulative correct!!  It was really exciting for all of one day before I realized how much work I still had to do.  I did manage to move up to 51% and 34th percentile today so hopefully this is the start of an upward trend!
I have my (hopefully) last final this week on Friday. It's a biggie.  My school does an overview block at the end of the year, and the exam is on Friday.  It's supposed to set us up for Step 1, but I'm kind of nervous about it because there's a lot of material and a lot of it is new: SO NOT AN OVERVIEW!  Last week I was studying for two exams (keep your fingers crossed I passed, that genetics test was a doozy), so my one goal was: 

1. Do not drop below 50% on any UWorld blocks and aim for 55% on most days.

I'm excited about having met this goal.  My low last week was 50% and most days I got a 65%!  This week is going to be another single-goal week because of my test on Friday, but I'm going to aim high: 

1. Do not drop below 50% and aim for 65% every day. (So far so good!) 

I'm going to be starting DIT soon, so there won't be as many posts, but when it's all over, I'll write a little DIT review for those of you who will be looking into exam prep.  I cannot wait for this week, and Step 1, and M2 year to be overrrrrr.  Happy Monday, and if you're reading this, please send me good luck and prayers that I pass all of my Spring courses.  :-/

Top Ten All Time Favorite Books From Your English Class

First of all, I finally broke my 49% cumulative! Finally!  To commemorate this joyous occasion, I am joining a blog hop! I was inspired by Whispers of a Barefoot Medical Student, which I just discovered.  I fell in love with the blog and her Top Ten Book Lists. Top Ten Tuesdays at The Broke and the Bookish seems like the perfect blog hop given that I was an English major in college. This week's Top Ten is "Top Ten All Time Favorite Books in X Genre". Taking a break from medicine and going back to my English major roots, here are my Top Ten All Time Favorite Books "You May Have Read In Your High School English Class, but Fell in Love With Anyway":

1. Paradise Lost by John Milton.

 So this isn't technically a book, but it is one of my all time favorites. I don't reread it cover to cover often, but sometimes I flip through the dog-eared pages. 

2. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

3. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

4. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair 

5. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. 

 Ok, this one isn't a book either, it's a play, but it's so wonderfully funny I can't help myself! 

6. Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert

7. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. 

 Duh. 

8. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

9. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. 

 It seems unfair that I only have one of the Bronte sisters on this list, because I really did love Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre and Anne Bronte's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, but Wuthering Heights trumps them both. 

10. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. 

 I think any list of classic literature has to include Dickens by definition, right?

*Outside of The Scarlet Letter and The Great Gatsby, I didn't read any of these in my high school English class.  Nothing ruins a wonderful book quite like reading it in a high school English class, am I right?

Tell me any of your Top Ten Books you may have read in a high school english class, but fell in love with anyway!

Mondaze: Worst Subjects

I decided to update the blog; I hope you like it!  It's a cleaner, crisper look and I thought it was time for a change.

Part of studying for Step 1 has been a lot of adjusting.  I am trying to zone in on my worst subjects because they obviously need more of my time than the subjects I'm doing well in.

I decided my worst subjects were those that fell at or below my current percentile (29th).  It feels like I've been stuck at 29th percentile FOREVER!!! Anything at or below the 29th percentile is something I really need to focus on:

Subjects

Anatomy

Embryology

Genetics

Immunology
Microbiology

Systems

Cardiology

Gastrointestinal

Genitourinary

Neurology

Pulmonary

Renal

This list is kind of surprising.  I loved and excelled at anatomy. I did better than the average on every practical I took, including neuro, which has historically been my worst subject.  I would also consider myself above average at genetics (it was one of my best subjects when I took the MCAT).  Embryo and Immuno are no huge shock to me.  Embryo is glossed over at my school and I've already discussed Immunology. 

Cardiology, Pulmonary, and Neurology have always  been tough classes for me…it's a lot of math/physics and I was an English major.   Neuro is just neuro, it confuses me.  

Gastrointestinal, Genitourinary, and Renal were my jam this year and last year, not sure what's going on here...maybe I just need to do more questions in these subjects.  

In terms of goals.  Last week my goals were:

1. Do not drop below 40% on any UWorld blocks and aim for at least 50% on most days.  Wahoo!  I totally met this.  My lowest score last week was 50%. 
2. Really try to learn from the UWorld questions.  I was a lot better about this because I broke up reviewing my exam into two blocks so I didn't feel desperate to just "get it over with" by the time I was on question 15. 
3. Get through 3 Pathoma chapters this week. So, two of these were for class, but I'm still counting it because 3 chapters is 3 chapters. 

This week I have two exams so I will mostly be studying for those two exams, so my only goal is:

1. Do not drop below 50% on any UWorld blocks and aim for 55% on most days.  I just need to get more questions right than I do wrong and then I can get past 49% cumulative.