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.

Updated: MED BOOKS and Download Links

Hey guys, sorry, had to delete the links, someone was informing me that they'd have me blocked if I didnt take it down. Oh well. :))

Just try searching the net for the books, there are always good torrent sites and file sharing sites like 4shared.com. :) 

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.

Med Books...Y U SO EXPENSIVE?!

UPDATES: hahahaha, instead of buying them brand new, you can buy them from the upper years, a lot of my classmates are selling their old books. :) 

you can also trysearching on sulit.com.ph for 2nd hand med books, i bought some of them online too, reliable rin yung mga sellers doon. :)

The book alikes are pretty expensive now that i think about it. And from my personal experience. Dont buy all the books just yet. Try to borrow books first and see which ones you like or are more fitting.

P.s. check my other post regarding which med books are usually used during your first year here. :)  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


I enrolled last week, and going through several of the buildings, I found myself in the basement of the research center, where a spritely woman was selling our med books.

She handed me a piece of paper with all the books listed on it, with corresponding prices and discounted prices.

Hmmmm. Short list. Not bad. 

Miss..how much all in all?

Wait a moment, I'll just compute it all. Dont worry dear, its all the books for the whole year.

Uh oh. The woman, even though she hadn;t computed it all yet, was already trying to justify the price...

Php 23, 600.00 lang po. 

Poker face. 

Ah, ok po, thank you. I'll come back during start of classes to buy the books. 

Not. I was shocked with the prices. Well, in all fairness, there were like, 10 books, so around 2k each. But I've never bought that many books that totaled that amount, ever. 

So I decided to poke around the internet, look for ebooks, or at least, 2nd hand books that could soften the destructive force that these books would create on my parents wallet. 90% of the books could be downloaded within the day. The other 10%, niet. 

Common sites like 4shared.com, Demonoid.me, and Torrentz.eu were pretty good at finding these little suckers. You can also try typing "download free med books" and a hundred or so sites would just pop up, and provide you with links to several useful med books. 

With torrent sites, you can just type med books, and several torrents are there for downloading. single books are at 20-100mb in size only, while others, the really good ones, are bundled up with about a hundred or so other medical books that are really useful like USMLE lectures, notes, colored atlases, pdfs, and other tidbits.

I found one seller on sulit.com.ph that sold black and white, photocopied versions of the book. at nearly half the price or so. Although its not advisable for some books like colored atlases for anatomy, physio, and neuro, its still a pretty good deal for other books that you just need to read. 

In sulit, they describe it as:

What's a BOOK ALIKE?

♥ Photocopied medical books, hard-bound, covered like the original one BUT are a lot cheaper.

You can read more about them here.

1ST YEAR BOOKS
	VOLUMES	PRICE
Devlin's Textbook of Biochemistry (7th ed)	1	P1520
Harper's Illustrated Biochemistry (28th ed)	1	P1210
Berne & Levy's Physiology (6th ed)	1	P1250
Langman's Madical Embryology (11th ed)	1	P930
Snell's Clinical Neuroanatomy (7th ed)	1	P1050
Moore's Clinical Oriented Anatomy (6th ed)	1	P1460
2ND YEAR BOOKS
	VOLUMES	PRICE
Robbins and Cotran Pathologic Basis of Diseases (8th ed)	2	P2350
Basic and Clinical Pharmacology - Katzung (11th ed)	1	P1500
Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine (18th ed)	3	P4460
Bates' Guide to Physical Examination and History Taking (10th ed)	1	P1350
Kaplan and Sadock's Synopsis of Psychiatry (10th ed)	1	P1680
Jawetz Medical Microbiology (25th ed)	1	P1250
Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics (18th ed)	2	P3540
Schwartz's Principles of Surgery (9th ed)	2	P2620
Goodman and Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics (12th ed)	2	P2770
POCKET GUIDES/ COMPANIONS/ “BABY” BOOKS
	PRICE
Pocket Companion to Guyton and Hall Textbook of Medical Physiology (11th ed)	P700
BRS Physiology	P450
Schwartz Manual of Surgery	P1300
Robbins and Cotran's Pathology Pocket Guide( 7th ed, with markings from original book)	P700
Harrison's Manual of Internal Medicine 17th ed  (2vols)	P700
Sabiston Textbook of Surgery Pocket Companion	P1000
Kaplan and Sadock's Pocket Handbook of Clinical Psychiatry (5th ed)	P950

Compare the book alike prices with this:

Not bad for some, right? I was thinking of different options rather than just buying them all from school since they were all sooooo expensive. 

And so I decided to buy the important ones (as upper classmen advised, the books that are important, are the ones you will need when you review for the boards). so out of the 12 books there, I just plan on buying 6 or 7 of them, and, since I have the ebook versions of the others, I just plan on buying a lot of paper, some black and colored ink, and voila! print my own textbook. 

Why not do it for all the books? Well, it would be a b*tch to just print 1,000 pages. And especially if they;re colored with super detailed drawings of the human body, I cant afford to have fuzzy images mess up with my studying. 

So I plan to print 4 or 5 of the books, chapter by chapter, going with the flow of teaching at school, instead of printing them all in one day. From Php23,600, I whittled it down to Php 14,000. I already have the super fast printer, all I need is the ink, and ink just costs about 350-400 bucks a cartridge. Thank youuuuu HP for being so sturdy and cheap. 

How about you guys?