WILTIMS #17: First test

Well, that was... unremarkable.

We had our first exam in medical school today, following a weekend where everyone stressed and studied and stressed some more. Yes, we have been exposed to a ton of material over the past two weeks and yes, we've never competed with classmates of this caliber before. But, as the proctoring professor said, this was the first of hundreds and hundreds of tests we will complete before we are board-certified, practicing physicians. Also, might I add that we've all taken untold hundreds of tests to get to this point! We must be good at taking tests, or we wouldn't be here. And if that doesn't calm the nerves (and don't get me started about nerves... vagus, phrenic, splanchnic, intercostal, left recurrent laryngeal...), a timorous med student can always fall back on the old adage: what do you call the person who graduates last in their class from medical school? Doctor.

All of that said, I actually think I did pretty well. I really enjoyed the lab practical, a test the likes of which I have never taken before. They arrange all 28 cadavers* in three rows and line the walls with diagnostic images (x-rays, CT scans, MRIs). Each body has one anatomical feature highlighted (with pins, string, probes, etc.), which we must then identify from ~5 multiple choice options. We have one minute at each station and then must move on to the next. The whole circuit (with some rest stop stations to allow for more students to be in the room at once) took about an hour.

One of the more labor intensive example questions

The written test was much more typical. 70 questions, an hour and a half, a scantron and a trusty number 2 pencil. Definitely passed, definitely didn't ace it. On to the next one!

*In an earlier post, I said there were 27 cadavers. No, they didn't kill off one of the students or anything. Unbeknownst to me at the time, there had always been a 28th cadaver that a 4th year student dissects before each lab, as an example of the proper procedure.