It is done. An interesting test, on the whole. Eight blocks of 46 questions each, and you get one hour allotted time per block. You have one hour of break time, to divide between slots as you see fit. And then if you finish a block early, you get that extra time added to your break. Med students, usually my classmates more than I, spend a ridiculous amount of effort figuring out exactly how long they will take for a break between each block. One of the study guides I used even has a plan written out in it. My personal strategy, should anyone care, was to do two blocks straight through, refuel with coffee, do another two blocks, more coffee, and then, since I had about an hour and twenty minutes of break time saved up, I took about 5-10 minutes between each of the following blocks to get more coffee and sugar. Before the last one I took about half an hour, just so I wouldn't be dragging. But it worked out, and I am done. Only one more test that matters between me and graduation.
Oh, and should anyone be reading this for advice, having found it through Google: Kaplan questions are exactly like the real thing, and Oasis's song "Don't Look Back In Anger" is great to have running through your head as a soundtrack. But that's just me.
EDIT: In response to a concern voiced to me privately, yes, I did eat dinner. A large dinner. To make up for having only coffee and sugar for 8.5 hours straight.
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life, the universe, and medical residency
Nathan
All names have been changed to protect the innocent and guilty alike.
Comments and questions welcome at jollycompany (at) gmail (dot) com.
Pretty much anything in italics is quote. Ask me if you'd like a source.
Without faith, without poetry, without music, medicine is pointless, for why save a life which is not special, and why dedicate so much effort to a cosmic accident? It would be worse than pointless, it would be cruel.
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5 comments:
Would there be any doctors if there weren't any coffee?
This may be inappropriate, but is there an unwritten rule that doctors must have bladders of steel to be able to consume so much coffee?
Ha, no. Although one of the interesting stories I heard in my first year anatomy class was about a guy with bladder obstruction who needed surgical drainage of it because the top of his bladder was at his ribcage. That's a bladder of steel.
And Thainamu - I feel when I talk about coffee, I sound like someone from Dune talking about spice: The spice restores life, the spice makes space travel possible. Ok, maybe not that last one.
MrStandfast - That's awesome.
Just keep in mind that the spice is also the source of personal destruction. Not that I'd want you to stop drinking coffee. It does, after all, increase my stocks. :)
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