#ustfms

I’m No Super(wo)man

I am supposed to be studying for my two short exams in anatomy tomorrow, but instead, I’ve got an episode of Scrubs buffering and I’m staring at my study sheet thinking about how much I love this show and how it accurately depicts much of what I’m feeling. For an introvert-loner-hermit-homebody like myself, learning that much of my day-to-day will consist of talking to people both exhausts and…

In the world, but not of it.

The world makes everything a competition. It’s tiresome. And it’s something I’ve noticed more and more in my journey to medical school and now, in medical school. It’s funny, because growing up in arguably one of the the most competitive countries with regard to all things life in the world, I never really thought that my rank (class or otherwise) mattered. I remember thinking it was really dumb…

After 2 years of medical schooling, I'm finally doning on my V-neck! *fireworks*

Goodbye to my old button-down uniform with weird striped-thingies on the sides! This has got to be one of the biggest achievements in my life as I mostly struggle just to come out alive in my day-to-day life in school. The endless hours of studying, curling to a ball whenever I fail an exam I worked hard for, zombie mode-ing due to apparent lack of sleep, caffeine-pumping and social life cutting have proved to be worthwhile. HAHAHA. I think now I have the right to leave tips for incoming first/second year medicine students, especially those who will enter the same school as mine (UST-FMS)!

So having said that, here are some basic tips for you guys~

1. Super Subsec and/or SMART Notes

These notes come from higher batches and they're pretty much everything that comes up on lectures and quizzes. I cannot stress how much these notes helped me in my life as a med student. I think they're called a trans (for transcriptions) in other schools. You'll never have enough time to go through all your required readings (esp if you read the books). Usually the handouts provided are enough, especially for Biochem, Physiology and Pharmacology.

2. Samplex

I'm a bit embarrased to mention the sample exams as my top 2 tip, but as the popular "saying" in school goes, "Ang studyanteng gipit, sa samplex kumakapit." Haha! Samplexes are the exams given in the last years and you can ask someone from the higher years for them. There's even a facebook group committed to samplexes. Some subjects recycle questions so you're lucky if you read the right one!

3. Books

You don't have to own everything written on the booklist. The only books I really used are:

For 1st Year: Wheaters Functional Histology, Netters Atlas of Human Anatomy and Snell's Clinical Anatomy For 2nd Year: APMC OB Book and Mosby's Guide to Physical Examination (though not as much)

The rest of my subjects I relied on the professor's powerpoints, lectures and super subsec/smart notes.

4. Mind the semestral courses

The semestrals are usually minors, but don't take them for granted. It's harder to make up for failed exams/low scores on theses subjects coz you only have a limited number of quizzes, SGD's and long exams. And they only last for 2 shiftings compared to the regular 5 shiftings on yearly subjects. Not much time to catch up on grades. Semestral subjects you should focus on: Neuroscience 1 and 2, Clinical Epidemiology 1 and 2 (I'm sorry to say this but I hate these subjects a lot), OB 1 and Surgery.

5. Take a break from the stress!

With the number of fraternities and sororities in campus, you'll never run out of parties to go to! Mostly they're scheduled after exam weeks so you can de-stress after a heavy week of working your brain off. Or if that's not your cup of tea, checking out hyped restaurants, watching movies and basically anything that doesn't involve studying will do. My Friday after-schools are usually reserved for no-school-related-whatevers no matter how heavy the next week is. Most of the time I spend it with the boyfriend, seeing old friends or going home to my family. :)