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.

1ST WEEK OF MED SCHOOL!!!

and I am still alive.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, hello guys, I have just survived my first week in Med School!!! Its not that bad...yet. Since majority of the classes were orientations on subjects to be covered for the year, doctors introducing themselves, exam policies, grades, and, for some subjects, the first topic of the year.

A view of the room, and my classmates.

Inspiring. Dunno how I'll react when I start studying for Biochem and Anatomy (act like a crazy woman, I guess)

The school's guidance office oriented us on the different policies, and ran through the handbook. 

The week went by in a blur, and I cant really remember the order of subjects unless I look at my schedule, but basically, we had Biochemistry, Bioethics, Physiology, Anatomy, and Community Medicine.

All the doctor-lecturers were amazing, funny, and very accommodating. Even if classes were 3-4 hours long,  the doctors really had a way of making you pay attention and understand and not mind the long class hours. It also helps that the new classrooms are comfy, well ventilated (which is extremely important because of the heat outside of the building), and conducive for learning.  So from 8-12pm, one class, and from 1-5pm was another class. Usually, most of the professors don't use up the whole four hours, and dismiss us early.

Our doctor- lecturer up on stage running through the basics of Organic Chemistry.

A view from the back.

Classes are awesome, just kind of worried aboout Biochem, Aatomy and Physiology because I have nooooo background whatsoever. But, I just have to double time. 

As all the doctors advised, " You only need to do three things to survive Med School...one....study...two....study...three...study."

< insert evil laugh>

Dorm Life Must Haves

I apologize in advance for the rumble jumble tumble way of a blog this is. I realized that I kept posting things in random and it might be hard for you readers to actually find certain blogs and keep a certain sense of continuity if all my posts just jump from one subject to another.

But, what the hell, that's how my brain operates. In short, sabog.HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Aaaaaaanywaaaaaaaaaaays, since finding a dorm and the first day of classes are coming up, I suddenly found myself scrambling for more stuff to lug into the car and shove into my dorm.

The first trip to the dorm where I moved in all my stuff, it took two people and me to bring up all that stuff within a span of 2 hours. Mind you, I was located on the 2nd floor, and its not fun carrying 5 boxes of clothes, kitchen utensils, and whatnot up the stairs.

That was the night before the LOAD or orientation for freshies, so I spent the night there. And I found things to be...lacking. There was a lot of stuff that I forgot to bring, and a lot of stuff I forgot to buy. I don't know if I have become something short of hoarder because of the sheer volume of stuff I brought in, but there was still a lot of stuff I lacked.

So for first time dormers like me who have no sense of what should be inside a dorm, and the necessities that would make my med life more comfortable, here's a list of things that you should bring when you're moving in:

FOR THE KITCHEN (or if lacking one, foodie must haves)
(yes, as you may have gathered, I'm a food person, and my sole focus of comfort is food, hence, putting kitchen necessities first)

1. water. I had everything in my ref, and I forgot to buy water. facepalm.
2. biscuits, cookies, anything that's ready to eat.
3. candy.
4. coffee/tea/juice- if you're particular with that sort of thing when you're studying
5. pots/pans- to fry an egg, cook some instant noodles or something, make a homey meal
6. water heater/ kettle- for those late night coffee trips
7. toaster/microwave- anything to heat up the cold, lifeless meal that you intend to eat

FOR THE CABINET/CLOSET

1. hangers- you dont want to spend hours ironing out wrinkles in clothes that could have otherwise been wrinkle free if you just used a hanger
2. baskets/hampers- especially the mesh types, these come in handy for separating your dirty clothes with the new ones
3. shoe rack- if you're a bit prissy on the supposed order of shoes, you need one. For me, I just threw them all in a pile at the bottom of the cabinet.
4. Storage boxes or karts- in case you have a little space, or no cabinet at all, storage boxes are ideal. buy 3-4 of them and you are ready to go, makes moving in a lot easier too. 

FOR YOUR BED

1. Your own pillow- you wouldn't want to cozy up to dorm given pillow that has already been slobbered on by a gazillion different people
2. Mattress- just in case your dorm doesnt provide one, or their mat is as hard as rock. IF you are using one that is already provided by the dorm and its not new, give the mattress a spray over with insect killer like Baygon to rid it of any bed bugs/bed mites lurking around. Air it out for a few minutes or an hour, and you are good to go.
3. Blankets.

FOR YOUR DESK

1. Organizers- you can hang these up or prop them against your desk to keep your overflowing stock of highlighters
2. Bookends- to prop those heavy textbooks up

Here's a few cool DIY organizers that you might like to try:

ADDITIONAL STUFF

• Laundry detergent and bleach- for your white uniforms, you wouldn't want the local laundry shop screwing with your expensive immaculate uniform
• Scissors, sewing kit, manicure set, tape, super glue
• Your own lamp
• Fan

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

Start of Classes in 3...2...1...

First day of classes will be on June 5, and I am feeling both excited, and nauseous.

Seriously. I feel like I'm in kindergarten again, and I dont want to be the person who sits alone during lunch or break time. HAHAHAHAHAHA

Well, this is Med School, and I hope as hell that it won't be like highschool .

This totally sums up how I feel.

Anywho, I might not be able to post as frequently, but I promise, promise promise that I'll try to post every week. 

Say Hello to My Little Friends: My Med Books

I finally bought my med books! I didn't buy all ten of them because...ahem...they were..ahem...too expensive. :))

 

Clinical Anatomy by Regions and Moore's Clinically Oriented Anatomy, and Netter's Atlas of Human Anatomy are must haves, as advised by the higher years, for Anatomy and Physio subjects.

They say Netter is a big big help when it comes to dissecting time. For Biochemistry, you can either choose from Thomas Devlin's Textbook of Biochemistry with Clinical Correlations, or Harper's Illustrated Biochemistry. Feedback from these 2 biochemistry books is that Harper's is more direct and doesnt explain most of the basic biochem stuff/concepts. Non-science majors might find it a bit more difficult to understand. Devlin, on the other hand, explains everything, and is very helpful for those who dont have a background in the hard sciences, or have never taken up biochem in college.

Of the two books, I still opted for Harper's even though I come from a non- pre-med course. Reasons are: 1) majority of the other students use Harper, as well as the professors, I just want to be on the same page (both literally and figuratively) when classes start. I dont want to get confused if I use Devlin while others use Harper. 2) They say that the board exams base their biochem questions on Harpers. I dont know if there's any truth to this, but one school who has had a 100% passing rate in the board exams have sworn by this.

Aren't they soooooo purdy?!?!?! :))

They are heavy as hell, and if I had to bring those to school everyday, I would probably have severe scoliosis by the end of the year. loljk.

I was able to get some of the books here at half price from 2nd and 3rd year students who weren't able to use them that much during their first year. I kinda had second thoughts about buying it when I realized that they were selling it because they were unused. Then again, one of the students explained that there were so many things that they needed to study at one time that they barely had enough time to read these books, and they just relied on a collection of tranx or transcriptions.

Tranx is a reviewer which is a combination of the teacher's actual lecture, and the book. So one student records the teachers whole lecture, transcribes it, matches additional information from the book, and voila! you have your tranx.

Why not just refrain from buying all the books and focus on the tranx? Well, for one thing, I dont want to get dependent on other people's work. Sure, I can make my own tranx for every single subject, but I doubt I'd have the willpower to actually do it, as well as the time involved.

These books will be my best friends for the next few years, I just hope that they'll love me back. :))

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!

MED SCHOOL EXPENSES and DORM

My parents' wallets are probably bleeding right now, sustaining multiple blows from the immense amount needed to sustain my budding med school life.

First off, you will already be spending Php100,000 (AT LEAST) on the tuition alone.
and then...

"...dak!#$@%&WEN#$%^#$GLBVFOIJkndlkganngoiwf43*)(&((da4qo3ur908uj;dmsa;g..."

Thats what ran through my head when I started counting off all the things on the list that needed to be paid if I wanted to be in a comfortable state of studying in Med school.

So here's a list of projected expenses for one academic year (give or take a few thousand):

*These are all just estimates to some degree...

• Tution fee: Php 113,000 x 2 semesters
• Uniform: Php 950 per set (blouse and skirt or pants), I just bought two sets and will try to have 2 more made at a cheaper price. My classmate from one med school has one that costs only Php500 for the whole set.
• Books: Php23,600 ( these are the books from my previous blog.
• Allowance: Php 250x 6days a week (I just thought that I might have Saturday classes or something, idk. :)) ) 
• Dorm: Php5,000 per month for 12 months. Most of the dorms there require a 12 month contract with the student.  

For the room I'm renting, its fully furnished, and has the following:

1. one refrigerator
2. 1 round table
3. 1 cabinet
4. 1 study table
5. 1 rice cooker
6. 1 microwave
7. 1 TV
8. 2 long shelves
9. 2 chairs
10. 1 bathroom (woot! woot!)
11. small kitchen

Payment for utilities are separate, Php100 for water, Php50 if you want cable, and payment for your Meralco (can range anywhere from 250-500 pesos).

BTW, I found the dorm in Villa Nicasia, its a small village of dorms that's like 5 minutes away from DLSHSI.

Here's a map of the place.

Villa Nicasia

DLSHSI also has its own dorm called Dormbuilt, but I heard from other students that its a little pricier than the ones outside of the school.

Dormbuilt's pretty cool, spacious parking lot, safety and security is a given, and I think there's a curfew for it.

Going back to the dorm I found in Villa Nicasia, of all the dorms I looked at, this one was the most reasonably priced considering the size of the room and the furnishings. The other dorms that I looked at that were to be occupied by a single person costs roughly the same, but differed immensely with the size of the room! There was one dorm, it was just 1/4 the size of the dorm I'm staying in now, no furnishings, just a bed frame and study table, and it still costs Php5000!  O_O

I looked at about 10 dorms that day,all along the main road of Villa Nicasia, and I just about had it with the heat, and the frustration from not finding a good room. I just took a random turn and found myself along a street where the building was kind of scary looking with the old paint and all, but when I asked to look at the available room, I was pretty surprised with how great it was.

Well, after reviewing all the expenses, my mom just looked me in the eye and said, "Anak, everything has been provided for you. In my time, I didnt even have enough allowance to ride the jeep going to school. You have everything. All that's expected of you is to study, and study well. "

Holy shit. I feel the pressure now.