Panic Sets In

School tomorrow. 

I woke up today with an oncoming panic attack. I swear by the holy nose hair of Badjula that I just stood up from bed in a panic frenzy remembering that I'll be going back to the dorm and start a brand new week of med school.

Why was I panicking?

Because its a habit. Joke. Lol.

Some subjects were worrying me a whole lot--namely, Biochemistry, Physiology, and Anatomy.

Physiology- I can understand it, its pretty good, but the pacing is really, really fast. I'm having a little bit of a difficulty with the ions and whatnot floating in and out but, the sheer volume of stuff to study.

Next up, Anatomy. This is stressing me up a little bit because of the before lecture and after lecture quizzes that they have. Say goodbye to the 1/4 sheet pad papers that you leech off of your classmate because the professors in Med do it by bubble sheet.

Its 10 items, no erasures, they flash the questions on screen for 20-30 seconds per item. 

What's so stressful about this???

Out of the 10 items, you can only have two wrong answers to pass. Yup. 8/10 is passing. 7/10, your quiz is crap and you learned nothing.

In my time (nope, I'm not that old, I just like to talk like an old timer), 6/10 was the passing, and with the really nice, easily persuaded teachers, you can pass with only 5 items.

It would have been ok if I didn't  spend 3 hours on that one particular topic, but, what can I say, I think I may have gotten a 7/10. I'm still adjusting, trying to study a little bit faster, and a little more efficient. Holy Badjula knows I'm trying.

The professors/ doctors are really nice but absolutely strict, and I guess for good reason too. 

CHED dictates that if a student fails 40% of their load, they are automatically kicked of the roll. Meaning... you will be kicked out of the Doctor of Medicine program and will never be accepted into the DLSHSI Med Program. Ever. 

Guess what? Anatomy makes up 39.5% of the academic load in first year.

39.5%

So all you need is just one more subject (minor or major), anything to fill up that .5% that remains, and BOOM. You are taken out.

Every doctor-lecturer emphasized that. Every single one. 

Harsh, but its the truth. They said that around 6-10 students were not able to be promoted to the 2nd year because of failure in this one.

Good news is, if you failed JUST Anatomy, meaning you didn't fill up the whole 40%, you can still take up Anatomy next year. Yey!

Finally, Biochemistry. 

The doctor-lecturer was awesome, really nice. The topic? not so nice.

We were reviewing the basic (ahem ahem) concepts in Organic Chemistry. The doctor was assuming that all of us took this up in college and was going through the subjects like food goes through you during diarrhea.

My reaction to the first four slides was...

During the lecture, the doctor would ask, " Is everyone ok? Can everybody follow?"

And then some bibbo classmates would shout out in sing-song unison-- Yeeeeeeeeessssssssss Siiiiirrrrr. 

For those classmates, I would like to punch you in the face. Not. I just felt frustrated then. :)) It was extremely difficult to follow, and I would have appreciated it if the students who did get it would just quiet down a little and let the old timers like me struggle with a resounding " No Sirrrrrrr."

So now, I'm planning to study Organic Chem from scratch, while at the same time, struggle with learning Biochem and a bunch of ultra-toxic subjects. 

Fun. Fun. Fun. 

At the end of the Biochem lecture, students flooded the lecturer. One guy remarked,

"Sir, nawala po ako sa first few slides palang, wala na po ako naintindihan." 

~ Translation: Sir, you lost me at hello.

And the build up all these subjects led to the panic attack I had this morning.

My reaction to my future. I think it would be easier to walk into Mordor than pass these subjects.

Mmmmmmmmmmmm. Way to start the week.

De La Salle Health Sciences Institute Pictures

Ok, I know I'm kind of delayed in posting info about La Salle, but better late than never!
Got this from the PinoyMd website, care of @jcskie. :)
Flickr Photos of DLSHSI

This is the back entrance of the hospital. This leads to the canteen, the Wang Building, the Animo Center, the new library and New Med Building.

 The Wang Building, where most of the allied health courses are, as well as the admissions office, registrar's, school clinic, and other rooms are located. behind this is Dormbuilt.

 This is the park/open area behind the hospital and leads to the chapel and Wang Building.

Hallway of the Old Med Building, where most of the 2nd- 4th year med students take their classes. For the new batch, they will have most of their classes in the New Med Building. Woot! Woot!

 Inside view of the Wang Building.

Outside of the school, Congressional Road.

Wang Building again.

The cute Bahay Kubo near the canteen located on the way to Wang. They like to call this eatery as the Cadaver Canteen since its located near the Anatomy lab. :)) But their food tastes great and 100% free of human flesh. nomnomnom.

Tadaaaaaa! The new rooms located in the new Med Building!

For more information on DLSHSI, you can visit their site at http://www.dlshsi.edu.ph/index.php.

http://www.dlshsi.edu.ph/index.php

Freshie Orientaaaayshun!

We just had our Freshie orientation 2 days ago and I have to say, it. was. awesome.

The 2 day event/program was held in the V. Hall, 4th floor of the Angelo King Building. The hall was brand-spanking new. Clean floors, new air conditioners, new chairs, a working sound system. You might be thinking, "ano ba naman itong batang to, parang deprived sa bagong gamit..." 


Sa totoo lang, oo.

In our old school, the desks were crummy, with graffiti, bubblegum, cartoons depiciting boys'..um...junk... and walls were literally falling off because of the old plywood, and use of masking tape to keep it all together. Despite all this though, I still felt at home, (and it was the most wonderful 4 years of my life).

Actually, I was in a state of culture shock. Hahahaha, nope, im not overreacting. I really was uneasy with everything, the type of people (not anything bad, just different), the  culture of the school, the lingo, and how everyone was speaking in English (mind you, at my old school, taglish kung taglish, baklish aka baklang english, and whatnot was spoken in class, reports, presentations, meetings), and so much more.

Good thing I attended both days of the Lasallian Orientation for Aspiring Doctors, or as they call it, LOAD.

The incoming 2nd years were the ones who organized the whole thing. The day started off with a prayer, and learning the university's "standard" Lasallian prayer and school hymn. 

2nd Year Facilitators in all their awesomeness!
Photo courtesy of Don de Guzman

That's one thing that was new to me. University pride. You finally get to be proud of your school and be able to show it. Not that Im saying that Im not proud of my old school, Im damn proud to be a graduate of one of the most prestigious universities in the Philippines. But my old school was more focused on the idea of service to others, giving back to the country, and less on the image and pride for the school. 

To clarify, focusing on the value of service rather than school image and pride is not a bad thing, its just that I never fully experienced a unified, outward appreciation for the school itself. 

Anyways, going back to the orientation, after opening ceremonies, we had group building games, a quick snack, more games, lunch break, and then, the highlight of my day, the mock exams.

The very name itself describes the general feeling I got from this exam. a feeling of being mocked. 

 Well, all 50 questions, i have to say. I had no idea what I was doing in both the written and practical exam.

And I wish I could answer a lot like this in EVERY QUESTION that popped up on that piece of paper and practical exam.

Some students during the Practical Exam a.k.a. Prax

The purpose of the exams were to acquaint the students with the type of questions and manner of how the practical exams are done.

EXAMS= MIND BLOWN. There was not a single item I could answer correctly, I should think, and gave me the shocking realization that maybe, just maybe, I may not live through my first year in Med.

But with the mind-boggling, wallet murdering tuition, I have to at least fight like the devil in my first year rather than play dead and drown.

The mock exams certainly were an eye-opener, and Im kind of glad that they did it.

For the second day, we had the campus tour in the morning, and a short intro from all the doctors/ professors in the afternoon.

The campus was astounding. Big, spacious, newly renovated or built, and extremely conducive for studying. They had a new building made especially for the med students, i think it was 2-3 floors, with air conditioned auditoriums that could fit 300 students for lectures.

DLSHSI also has a gymnasium called the Animo Center, thats where they do their sportsfest, any social gatherings like the first day of school, and every year, they throw an all-out party for one of the Lasallian Brothers.

Near the Animo Center, they have Dormbuilt, which i mentioned in my previous post, and behind that, is a small soccer field/ track/ general area for whatever sports you are into.

They have a small chapel that holds services everyday, located in the hospital, which is very convenient when you need to pray for a passing in one of your exams.

The Library is equally great, one floor for the med students, and the other floors for the other courses in HSI. All airconditioned, with small conference rooms that students can use to form study groups. There are times where upper years would teach other students in biochem and other subjects.

Anyways, by the end of the two day orientation, I was feeling high and fine. Before, I would actually scoff at the thousands of students who would shout out for their respective teams during basketball season, school pride and stuff. I never really understood it, and at times, laughed at how spirited they were about these simple ball games.

But after these two days, I finally understood this whole school pride thing. After trying to foolishly sing along to the school's hymn, raising my fist in the air and punching the air to the beat of each hail!, I had this totally new feeling, it was kind of liberating and hard to explain, but, it was just an amazing experience.

Facilitators teaching us the school hymn, hail! hail! hail! Photo courtesy of Kim Agustin.

Kind of like an open forum where the 2nd year facilitators shared their experience in Med, the different dorms (Dormbuilt, Villa Isabel, Deer Land, Uwian), their lovelife, academic difficulties and tips on surviving med.

Im psyched about starting Med this year. Animo La Salle!

To Study or Not to Study Before Med School?

To study or not to study. That is the question.

This came to mind when the last few weeks of freedom before med school started weighing in on my mind. And I was kind of worried. why?

Well, during enrollment, I was standing in line at the registrar's office and a bunch of teens were lined up as well as talking really loud.

One remarked, "OMG! You're 20 already??? You're sooooo old!"

And my reaction was...

And thats when I kind of panicked.

These  "kids" were in tip top shape. They just graduated from college, so their brains were in excellent condition to get beat up by a lot of medical topics and whatnot. PLUS, they graduated from courses that could actually help them with Medicine.

(Old versus young brain:)

Me? I graduated from a course that focused more of Psychology, Socio, and Anthropology. Its an excellent course, and I loved every minute of it, and it was a great help when I worked for 2 years. But for Med? Its an entirely different story.

Last November, I went to different med schools and had my transcript assessed for additional units I may need to accomplish. Med schools like Ateneo, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, and San Beda required a certain number of units in Physics, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Anatomy, Physiology, Inorganic Chemistry, and natural sciences. So that was around 16-20 units that I needed to take up if I wanted to get into the different schools.

And, as I wrote in my previous post, I didnt take up the extra units because of the Php 70,000.00 price tag on them.

So what chance do I have to compete in the killer world of Med where my classmates are young, fresh, and ready to kick some academic ass? I had a slim chance. But I could take some steps to prepare myself a bit...like study.

So, should I study the hard subjects in advance? Or just leave it to chance, and hope that in my first year of med, we would all start off  at a leveled playing field?

I asked several doctors about this, and they said that, even though the new graduates have an evident advantage, oldies, or late bloomers like me, have the advantage of being rested, and motivated.

Fresh grads are sometimes at risk of burn outs since they had just 1 or 2 months to rest, plus, like all normal human beings, within the span of 1 or 2 months, they can forget about 80% of what they studied that year.

Good point doc. I mean, every year I went in college, I usually forgot what I studied last sem and had to review them again.

Right now, I guess I'll just enjoy the time I have left, and just study my ass off when the time comes.