Last week was FINALLY finals week!  There is a definite time warp that occurs in med school where time goes fast, yet seems to take forever.  Almost everyday we use the phrase, Wait…that was YESTERDAY?!  Nonetheless, we took our finals and I am officially done with one semester of med school!  And, I’ve got to say, it feels pretty darn good.

I worried a lot before starting med school about whether or not I could handle it.  I’m definitely not the smartest one in my class, but it feels good to be holding my own.  Looking back on where I was just a few months ago, I feel like I know so much more!  But, in the world of medicine, I still know so little.  Unless you are experiencing abdominal pain or having a heart attack, I really can do nothing for you.  Learning about medicine is a slow process.  It’s amazing that I can have acquired so much knowledge in such a short time, and still have so much more left to cram into my brain!

Finals week was pretty much a nightmare.  Our last block exam did not go well for me, so I was a little stressed about how I would do on finals.  Our final exam was 6 hours long, split into 3 two-hour long chunks with a short break in between each.  The first chunk went pretty well.  There were a lot of easy questions that I had studied for and knew.

The second chunk was a little harder.  Now, I should preface this with saying that my school recently decided to switch from pen-and-paper exams to computerized testing, which is not going over well with the students.  I for one am not a fan of taking computer tests, as now we don’t ever get to see what questions we miss, which really doesn’t help me in the overall scheme of things.

Anyways, during our second chunk of exam questions, we had multiple questions that were exactly the same as some from our first set, which is probably some sort of oversight involved with the new computer exams.  And they weren’t easy questions, either.  So when you get to a question like that you have to choose to do one of two things:  stick with your guns and choose the same answer as you put before, OR choose a different answer and hope you manage to get one right.  I am still convinced that these are “special” questions designed to test, not our knowledge, but how good of doctors will we be.  Maybe they want to find our if we can stick with our guns and not change our minds like crazy people.  Whatever.  I stuck with my guns and probably missed both questions.

I felt really good about how I was doing until the final set of questions.  They were awful.  There were multiple questions that talked about things I had literally never heard of before.  I actually had to do “eenie meenie miney mo” at one point.  It felt good to be done, but it definitely took me about an hour to accept the fact that I probably just failed that exam.  I took it better than some people.  Some people came out in a sort of daze.  It was actually kind of funny to watch peoples’ reactions.  A handful of people just headed straight to the bar for a drink, and let me just say that some of them were still around when I got there at about 10 pm….

All in all, I think (/hope) I passed.  I am glad it is over, and I’m excited to have one whole week off to clean our house, do some laundry, and paint my toenails….it’s the little things in life.  Also, my husband and I gave each other our Christmas present early, which is a brand new Wii…so that will also be keeping me busy!  Sadly, the time warp works the opposite way when not in school, so I’m sure this week is going to be over before I know it….