Today , I want to talk to you about exams .
Particularly , the exams i just had for the past 2 weeks . It , finally , ended today on Valentine’s Day .
It’s been an exhausting few weeks for us Semester 7 medical students . We had our clinical exam yesterday and today . Yesterday , we had OSCE ( long case) and today we had OSCE (short case) . Both test us on our clinical skills in a stressed up situation . For instance , in OSCE ( short case ) , there are a total of 8 rooms , each with a clinical scenario. Students are required to move from room to room answering what is required from that clinical scenario . The challenge is that students are only allowed 5 minutes each station . In other words , in that short 5 minutes , students are required to think of their approach to the clinical scenario and perform whatever is asked of them ( e.g perform an examination of the cardiovascular system or taking a history ) .
If you asked me , it was fun. Seriously . All the patients were real patients . They had signs that we were suppose to pick up. So in that hour ,we saw so many different cases .
Interesting , it was . But , it was a pain to prepare for the exam . Medical exams are so general . There are so many things we can be tested on .
We would really need to learn to think like our lecturers to ease our preparation.
Despite reading , preparing , memorizing so much during the few days before exams , I realize , during exams it is not the knowledge loading the few days before exams that helped me but it was prior knowledge . It just points out to me the importance of our daily learning in the wards (not during exam periods) . There were many times when my patients face pop-ed into my head as i recalled the symptoms they presented with and the management plan the doctors implemented.
Overall , I can’t really assess myself on how i fair this exam . Results are released this coming Friday . The results are annouced in a very stressful manner . All students are gathered in the hall . They would announce the borderline pass students . These students are reassessed on that day itself where they decide to pass or not to pass the student . And the rest of the students in the hall were either a distinction student , clear pass student or … a student who failed . *GULP*
I’m hoping for the best . Don’t want to be reassessed or retake the whole semester 6 and 7 .
Hmmm…I love Medicine and all . But , i really hate preparing for exams. Grrr… None the less , *sigh* we’ll need to go through many more exams in future , better to just get use to it then .
This is one really boring post … Pfftt . Exams suck the fun out of life .
Shall make life more interesting these few days .
Last but not least , Happy valentine’s day !
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