The Shelf is Done, But Not Everything Is!

I thought the NBME shelf exam was pretty hard. Not that I didn't study enough, but some things I just didn't study properly. A lot of study tools were great, a lot I tried weren't so great. Some where so great, that I ended up studying something that didn't even appear once on a 113 question test. One of my favorite, useful, simple things to study was chemo-man. A very simple visual representation of various forms of chemotherapy and it lists the chemo drugs in a simple anatomical cartoon classifying them by something important: their side effects. Whether its the cardiotoxicity, or fibrosis, or cystitis, chemo-man really made it stick. I wish I studied more about anti HIV, virals, and fungals though! If I had focused more on that stuff (only a few questions) and looked at the cardiac and ANS various receptors and been able to differentiate which went where I feel I'd be way more confident. Not that I needed a high score to keep my grade anyway.

Now that's out of the way, I need to fill my month of April with volunteering and service in order to get my semester's 12 hours done. I'm no stranger to keeping stuff like this until last notice so I'll be fine!


Chemo man! himself!

-Ujaan

Service hours: 0

The grind is (Almost) over

We're done with almost every single thing in this program. We just completed our psychopharm module, which I nearly completely aced. I feel that I've learned a lot this last 6 months, both in and outside of the classroom. Study habits, the need to relax, balancing the aforementioned and being able to be a social person all at once. All of these are important and I believe this has all been beneficial to me. I've improved immensely at my ability to study and put in work while maximizing the time I put in to my studying. This, contributed with the volunteering I plan on taking advantage of is crucial for me to improve as a student and more importantly as a person.

I think it's something that me and some classmates can be proud of: improving how we study, something that is important for us both now and in the future no matter where we proceed academically. I think in terms of study habits, work ethic and maturity, I think this year I have grown more in this one not even full year than I did in all 4 years in college.
The whiteboard. One of my essential study tools. I wrote all of this from the top of my head the night before the test