Self study

Nakakaloko... Especially when you get around to thinking about it...

A year ago, I was just a nervous CGH intern starting on my first few days on the job. Everything was so alien, so unfamiliar.. The stuff you learned at med school and clerkship were of little help. This was the real thing, so much more real then clerkship, despite the fact that we were already dealing with real patients at the time.. It was such a big change for all of us because in clerkship you almost never worked alone. There was always somebody there to share the load or a senior nearby to lend a hand. Sure, we had residents during internship to refer to, but having moved up the proverbial "ladder of rank", more was expected of you and sometimes referring was an unacceptable option.

All those experiences.. the different procedures done at the wards, the different ORs I've assisted (ranging from the ridiculously simple to the absolutely fantastic), the infighting among interns, the MSA practices and the event itself, even the day-to-day interaction with the rest of the hospital staff, all left an impression upon me. This has been a good year, and it shall be remebered well..

Now here I am, reviewing for the boards, hoping to prolong the inevitable. I just hope and pray that a favorable outcome would be inevitable for me as well. =D

My seniors were dead on when they said that reviewing would be tedious and tiring, to say the least. Opportunities to procastinate abound, especially with an apparently endless amount of time.. But at least I'm finally settling into a solid study routine still relatively early on. Dr. Monty was right. You should spend the first few weeks of your review resting and generally doing all the stuff you missed during internship. You should also begin experimenting with how and where to study. Discover early on when is your most "productive" time of the day where you can soak up the most from your review sessions. He also said to shpp around for a comfortable chair, a table of the perfect height for you, and a lamp that would serve your purpose. I never got around to buying all these stuff because of space and budgetary constraints, but I have looked around the house for ideal places to study. Now that the NBA Finals are over (CELTICS RULE!!), I can safely say that I have a fine-tuned routine that should tide me over the next 1 1/2 months until the boards (man, how time flies!).