Making Medschool Fun: Awesome Doctors Professors

With this post, I'll be featuring certain doctors who just made learning a lot more fun in medschool. Will update this from time to time. :))

Although a lot of our doctors slash lecturers are pretty good, some just are outstanding, funny, and awesome. I wont tell you guys specifically why since I want you guys to experience it for yourself. :))

ESPECIALLY the ANATOMY doctors - lecturers ( The Amazing Duo/ Trio). <3

Here's a few of them.

Doc JC, Doc JA, Doc Kent, the Amazing Trio. :)) Anatomy professors/ doctors/ lecturers. LaSalle born and raised. <3

Doctor Esperanza Uy, Biochem Lecturer, as one friend of mine described about Doc Uy, parang Showtime ang class. She is crazy good, strict, and fun. In this particular picture, we were having our lab discussion, and a classmate of ours fell asleep (the following day was our Anatomy Eval, so a lot of us were really sleepy, tired, and grumpy). She walked around the room, and when she got to a certain student who was sleeping, she would stand in front of the kid and stare until the kid woke up. :)) When our classmate woke up, she would just walk away and look for her next victim. Hahahahaha

Extra special Physiology class, our topic was Vision. :) Doc Dexter Santos graduated at the top of his class, and was in the top 10 for the Physician's Licensure exam. In this class, he used several episodes of Dragon Ball Z to illustrate several concepts.

Doc Francis Samonte, doctor lecturer at Physiology. :) We were waiting in line to do a Color Blindness test for Physiolab, my classmate and I were doodling on the board, trying to draw the circle of Willis (we had it in our Neuroanatomy Evals, very traumatic hahahaha). He walked by and said, "Who drew this? it that the Circle of Willis?" We were all kind of scared that maybe we did something wrong, and he just sat beside us and started discussing clinical correlations, and reviewing us on the interrelationships of the brainstem, spinal cord, basal ganglia, etc. Within 10 minutes, we had our minds blown by how simple the topics really were. (and at the same time, extremely complicated).

Not Sure About Med School?

NOT SURE ABOUT MED SCHOOL?

Its been about 2 months since school started, and I still don’t regret going to Med School.

Through the weeks, different horror stories came up about students who got  kicked out, or realized by the end of their 1^st year in med school that it just wasn’t for them.

I was just sitting through it all and thought, can that ever happen to me?

Well it can.

I just said that there IS a possibility that later on in med school that I might realize that I don’t really want it, or that I’m not made for it; but the truth is, I want to be here, and I have to be here.

Horror stories:

Ø  Med school is hard, and it will suck the social life out of you.

Ø  If you are not smart, don’t go into med school.

Ø  The professors/doctors are terrors.

Ø  Average sleeping time for med students is about 2 hours a day.

Ø  Its expensive and time consuming.

Ø  Your classmates might not be there by the next school year.

***all pictures included are not mine, just got them off the internet. http://www.flickr.com/photos/sylvar/6955985416/

The truth is...

Ø  Med school is hard, and it will suck the social life out of you.

Its hard only if you think it is, and if you don’t set your priorities right, it will suck all the life out of you. Honestly, med students still have fun, get drunk, and party. With all the exams, practicals, quizzes, and workload, it just gives us more reasons to unload and celebrate.

Ø  Its expensive and time consuming.

Expensive, yes, you can see my previous blog on med school expenses for that. Time consuming, absolutely. Sometimes 24 hours isn’t enough to tackle everything you wanted to.

Ø  If you are not smart, don’t go into med school.

If you are not COMMITTED or at least DEDICATED (in general), DONT GO INTO MED SCHOOL.

A lot of students here never planned on taking up Medicine. Some were forced by parents, some, just wanted to study a little more, and some just want to be kick ass doctors.

But in Med School, I will reiterate, you need to be committed. Just baseline COMMITTED.

You don’t have to like Med School 100% of the time, you can have your down periods too ( like I do, sometimes I just get frustrated with certain subjects and think, wtf am I doing here anyways?) . But the most important thing you can do is STAY COMMITTED.

First off, you owe it to your parents. Medicine is no joke. Php100k+ is no joke. You can feed a 100 families for a week with that money. The least you can do is study hard.

I’m not saying that if you do fully, and truly realize that Med school is not for you, don’t quit. If you are absolutely, 100% sure that its not for you, go.

But if there is even a .05% that you still want to be a doctor, I say fight for that .05% and let it grow along with your commitment.

In med school, there are lot of smart people. But being smart can only get you so far. COMMITMENT and DEDICATION is the key.

Ø  The professors/doctors are terrors.

Partially true. I think all doctors/lecturers/professors can become terrors if you don’t listen, understand, and participate in class. Whats there to be scared about anyway? That there is a graded recitation? Then why didn’t you study? That they can shame you in front of the class? Then why didn’t you put in the extra effort to study harder, or at extremes, grow a set of balls in that moment?

I honestly think that Med School, to a certain extent, should scare you, terrify you, and turn your life upside down. Why? Because in the real world, when you are actually practicing, there will be moments where it does exactly that—life or death situation, conflicting schedules or parties, horrible patients, you’re getting sued for malpractice, etc.

But here at DLSHSI, the professors are nurturing. Yes, I used the word nurturing. They will guide you every step of the way, they will get mad you but will let you know that its for your own good, they will be there for you when you need help (academic, financial, personal, etc).

Dont mistake nurturing for babying. Babying implies that you can sit on your ass all day and get spoonfed, and when you fail or meet an obstacle, the professor does it for you. No.

Nurturing, they help you grow, they encourage you.

With the professors here at HSI, all I have to say is that they are AWESOME. Want to know why? Well, enrol here.

Ø  Your classmates might not be there for the next school year.

I personally haven’t encountered this yet since we’re just 2 months into the school year, but upper years have told us that there are cases of classmates who just left.

Some didn’t continue medicine because they realized they really didn’t like it.

Some just took a leave of absence—maybe they got burnt out, tired, or just needed to step away and see the big picture.

AND some just failed too many subjects that they had to get kicked out.

Ø  Average sleeping time for med students is about 2 hours a day.

True IF you didn’t study beforehand and is used to cramming. I have classmates who have time to go to the gym, work out, join afterschool activities, party, and whatnot. They learned how to manage their workload.

Read this blog about the effects of sleep deprivation in med students. :)

***all pictures included are not mine, just got them off the internet.

As one doctor/professor said, “There is not such thing as time management.” Really? Well he does have a point, you cant really manage the time, you can only manage your tasks.

***all pictures included are not mine, just got them off the internet.

Study a week earlier, tackle the hard subjects first when you’re still fresh, learn new techniques for studying at the same time. Try to discover what learning style works for you. DONT CRAM.

I mean, you owe it to your patient to be the best damn doctor that they have ever encountered. Am I right?

Thank You Doc JC!!!

Cool thing happened this week. :)

HSI really takes care of their students. one of the things they do is have this Guidance Day for freshie Med students, which was more of a talk on adjusting to the medschool life. And after 3 weeks of med school, I have to say that I need all the help that I can get to survive my first year.

Well, to be fair, it IS the adjustment period for every student, but, I think there's no excuse for failing a quiz (which I had done yet again, hahahaha--quiet sobbing) or being unable to read all the material you need to understand the lesson beforehand. 

Honestly, I had difficulties in memorizing and understanding all the information that came out of each 3-4 hour lecture. But, the anxiety this caused me was lessened somewhat by this seminar.

I'm not bulls--ting you when I say that their pointers helped a ton load and you could actually see the results the day after.

 Doc Tata started the seminar with a few words of wisdom to impart on our young fragile, impressionable minds (lolwhut? hahahaha) and made us think about our future as med students. Are you living the dream for your parents? Yourself? Your boyfriend?

Next up, Doc JAA, our doctor/lecturer/professor for Embryology as well as our Student Adviser. We sent a good part of the hour just laughing. He gave us the statistics on med students, what works, what doesnt work in med school, and--my favorite part--categorizing things to do into neat little categories namely: a) negotiable or non-negotiable.


Physiology? Non-negotiable.
Biochemistry? Non-negotiable.
Anatomy? Non-negotiable.
Boyfriend/ Girlfriend? Pwede bang non-negotiable?


He also covered effective studying techniques as well as the usual techniques practiced by students that excel, students that are average in performance, and those who perform poorly. 


One of my favorites is using mnemonics for studying. He gave out a few examples (sorry, couldn't remember them that much, hahahaha) and my dorm mate and I tried it out while studying for Histology--Connective Tissue. 


Another doctor, Doc Kent was also there, and I wish he could have shared more of his experiences also. 

Aaaand finally. The rush I had that day. 


Doc JC, shared his experiences on surviving his first year of medicine. He excelled in his first year, being exempted from all the finals in all the subjects, and at the same time, still being active in several student/academic organizations. Pretty hard to follow that, right? Well he showed us that it is completely attainable, if he could do it, why couldn't we?


Well, in one of the slides he presented, he showed....(drumroll please....) one of my blog entries!!!! He said that he came upon the blog on the internet, and he wasnt sure if the author of the blog was present already, or was in thE room.


GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. I was freaking out in my seat. I turned white right then and there and my seatmate asked if I was feeling ok. 


I actually wasnt sure if it was my entry because it was so long ago, but it was my post about why you wanted to take up Medicine. 


It surprised me that Doc JC, or anyone actually from my school would stumble upon this blog. (I'm not sure who actually reads my blog, I sometimes think that they got misdirected to this page or something. hahahaha)


And what he said made me sooooo happy. He commended me for the blog/post that I wrote and said that I should come by the office and let him know it was me. 


WELL, that sure didn;t happen. I was scared/shy as hell. And I didnt know how to react to it all. 


But it certainly made my day. 


THANK YOU DOC JC!!!!

Will be sharing more of their tips and advice in another post, kind of groggy from all the studying. :)) Happy weekend guys!

2nd Week of Med

SUBJECTS OF THE WEEK: Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry, Community Medicine


From now on, I'm just remembering the week based on the subjects for the week. Why? Because everything else seems like a blur, and the only way I can remember events is when I associate them with the mind-boggling, overwhelming, and at times, depressing lectures--just like the ones we had this week.


First off, June 13 was the first day of classes for the rest of the courses in HSI (PT, OT, Nursing, Rad Tech) and we all met up at the Animo Center for the Opening Ceremonies. The place was awesomely decorated, taking on a carnival theme, balloons were everywhere!

They hired stiltsmen (dunno if this is a correct term for the entertainer, hahahaha) and a mascot too!

Cavite's symphony band came in through the middle aisle playing Michael Jackson's Thriller with the entertainers dancing to the beat, and then the finalists for the Talentadong Pinoy show (pretty much like America's X Factor or something) performed for an hour. 

People were cheering loudly, and just high as hell (hahahaha) and the performances moved on to the different dance groups of each college. 

By lunchtime, they ended the opening ceremonies and we were free to go...study. :)) 

The day before, it was Labor day i think, I didn't go home, I just decided to stay at the dorm to make up for the lack of knowledge in Biochemistry. Spent the whole half of the morning studying basic/highschool chemistry using my brother's book. Yup, if you have your old highschool chemistry book, I recommend  you use it. It really does help you a lot especially with the bonds (ionic, covalent), the hydrocarbons, structures of the functional groups, etc. The second half of the day, I spent on review for Organic Chemistry. Our Doctor-lecturer advised us to backtrack on orgchem so Biochem can come a little bit easier for us. 

So for the next 6 hours, in between mini breaks on FB, I studied orgchem. I did this at HSI's student center, located at the old med building. Its a small room furnished with study tables, benches, a small sink (for those who study there overnight), and airconditioned. Its open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and is open only for Med students. This was a lifesaver for me since the dorm is full of temptations (food, bed, tv), and it was stuffy and hot, so going to the Student Center was pure heaven. Not to mention that you can charge your laptop and cellphones there and wifi! woot! woot! The connection there is pretty fast, so the only con in studying there is the unlimited access to the internet.

http://www.dlshsi.edu.ph/Gallery/MED/images/IMG_3379_jpg.jpg

For the internet connection, you have to have your devices configured by the school's IT staff located at the ground floor of the Angelo King Building. You are only limited to 2 devices, so I had my smartphone and laptop configured. 

Anywho, I spent the next few hours in the student center and got to meet upper classmen, and honestly, I was thinking--these guys are invincible. They passed the first year. HAHAHAHAHA

They were absolutely friendly, and gave me tips on how to study for certain exams. For example, in Biochemistry, the questions are pretty straightforward so all you need to do is remember structures and functions. In Physiology, it helps to read it AT LEAST two times so you can understand the processes. 

But the usual advice is: STUDY STUDY STUDY. No matter what subject it may be, you MUST MUST MUST STUDY. and READ a lot. In Med, you can;t just stick to one book and expect everything to be there. For the doctors, they usually use 2-3 references for their presentations/lectures. And, if you can (and you should), read all the books. 

So Biochemistry down, we have, drum roll please... ANATOMY.

This subject really depresses me. Results for the first two quizzes came out, and surprise surprise. I failed both of them by a measly one point (7/10). Its frustrating when you studied your ass of the week before, and boom, you still fail. But, as the professors and upperclassmen advised, try to accumulate as many extra points as you can to make up for the failures. They're pretty generous with it, but the failures are overwhelmingly strong in this subject.

We had our laboratory period in the Old Med building, and looked at the cells found in different parts of the body.

We looked at cells from the spinal cord, blood smear, compact bone, and liver. Each student had their own microscope and set of slides.

The last time I used the microscope was in highschool, and using one again, and more extensively, was pretty fun. 

Physiology was the same, and the topics were already merging with the ones in Histology and Biochemistry. Well, of course, they're supposed to be interrelated, but you'd never expect it to just blend in perfectly unlike the way of teaching in highschool and college where each subject is boxed seperately with little to no connection bridging them together. 

This week was tiring, but still gotta push. This is just the second week. GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH/

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. :) 

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?

ONE MORE MONTH!!!

I havent blogged as much as before because...well...nothing much is happening yet. HAHAHAHAHA

Just waiting for enrollment time at DLSHSI, and looking back on it now, I'm pretty happy with my decision. I took my mom and dad to go see the school and submit a few requirements for their scholarship program. It was really funny, and melted my heart when I saw my dad just walking around the campus in awe. He had no idea that the school was this pretty. Here's a link from a forum, just a few pictures of the school:

DLSHSI CAMPUS PHOTOS

My dad just came home from Dubai where he had been working for several years, and twice a year for two weeks each, he gets to come home and just be with family. Seeing him after 6 months just made me happy and sad at the same time since he would be extending his stay there just to pay for Med School. So by the time I graduate, he would be retiring. And the sad thing is, my parents might be retiring with no savings at all because of my studies. Its not like I wont be studying my ass off to make it all worthwhile, but it really pains me to see them both growing old so fast. They're approaching their 60s, and I always thought that by this time, they would just be relaxing, playing with their grandchildren or something, and not having to worry about anything; and that my sisters/brother and I will be the ones to take care of them.

Anyways, going back to the short tour around the school, my dad was pretty happy with everything, he was so excited about it all that he already checked the dorm located within the campus called DormBuilt. The prices were pretty steep so I told him that we would just check Villa Nicasia ( a village of dorms located right beside the school).

My dad went door to door, talking to the other students about the best dorm in the area, it was really sweet and funny because all the students had this look like *idk, you're creepy man*, and when they saw that I was right behind my dad, with little sister in tow, they eased up and pointed me towards several other dorms.

Well, after two hours in the scorching heat, we finally did find the perfect dorm. The price was a bit steep, but justifiable enough because it was biiiig. My parents told me to just rent a single room because things will be a lot harder if I had someone else in the room with me. You know, annoying people, people who'd mess with your stuff, etc. In mom's words, "mahirap pakisamahan". At least, this room was all mine, own toilet, fully furnished, just needed a new coat of paint and a little cleaning up, but it was all good. I think the room was about 30sqm or bigger, so, not bad at all. You just had to pay additional for water (php100), and electricity. If you wanted internet access, you just had to add Php300, and cable was at Php50.

Well, I just hope that I get the full scholarship so that my dad wouldnt have to worry about all the expenses, because, after some computations of the expenses, for my first year in med, they would actually be spending about Php300,000+. Seriously??

Please Lord, please let me get this scholarship. T_T

Med Schools...Eeny Meeny Miny Mo!

Like what I stated in my previous blog, I had four schools in mind:

1. UP
2. UST
3. UERMMMC
4. DLSHI

And again, I chose these schools because they were the only ones that didn't require extra units. I initially wanted to go to Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM) and Ateneo School of Medicine and Publich Health (ASMPH) but they were requiring me to take up additional units in Physics, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Microbiology, and some Natural Sciences.

I really did plan on taking them up, and I went to several schools/universities within our area to see if they all the subjects were available to be taken up for the 2nd sem of their school year. I was lucky enough to find one school, University of Perpetual Help for it.

The campus is big, and spacious, new buildings, and the admissions office was very accommodating. I took their entrance exam, which was about 20-30 minutes or so, and I was then admitted. Since I required about a sem's worth of units, I had to go through several different departments and choose specific classes to get into. What really struck me with this school is how awesome and helpful the professors were there. They personally escorted me to the different colleges and spoke with the other deans of the college, and even gave me tips on which subjects were better to take up to prepare me for Medicine! Wow lang talaga. Hahahahaha. Their college of medicine wasnt bad either, all the professors are from UP Medicine/ UP Public Health (which is similar to MedTech) and their facilities are topnotch!

So I was pumped, ready to take on those extra units, and just get into the whole I'm-gonna-be-a-doctor mode.The day of enrollment arrived, and I went to their auditorium to start choosing my subjects. Pretty simple enough. I was able to get all the subjects, and a great schedule.

Then...the hard part.

I had to have my subjects assessed, and boy, was the line long. I finished around 11am, and ran to the line. It stretched around 3/4 of the quadrangle. Good thing there were chairs, but, sitting/standing in the heat at noon is not something to laugh about. After 7 hours of waiting, I finally reached the assessment room. A student took my schedule and printed out the cost. Unfortunately, one of the subjects hadn't been encoded yet with the proper amount so they sent me up to another room where I waited for another hour or so where a woman was shifting through papers looking for my subject. While waiting, I glanced at the partial cost of my 6 subjects...and my jaw dropped. It amounted to about 60k (well, it was kind of understandable since 3 of my subjects were lab), that cost more than my 4 years in college!!! I didnt know that that amount was perfectly normal for private schools. T_T And to think, I still lacked 3 units on top of that, so it was going to amount to about 70k or so in its final assessment.

And it came to pass, that at 9pm, I headed home, and told my parents that I wasnt going to take up the extra units. I reasoned that the 70k could instead be used to pay for at least half of my 1st sem in Med School. They still offered to let me take up the additional units just as long as I was sure that I wanted to get into PLM or ASMPH, but with parents approaching the retirement age, I thought better of it to just let it pass, and focus on other schools.

Such a shame really, that I bothered all those professors, and they were sooooo nice. :( Oh well. Sometimes things dont work out the way you planned them.

So back to the 4 schools that I enumerated earlier. Again, UP wasnt an option anymore since my NMAT score was below their requirement, and then I had to cross out UST (due to a very unfortunate incident), and then I was down to UERMMMMC and DLSHI.

Both schools are very good, but based on forums and the general opinion, UE is more established in terms of their Med school (around 60 years, I think) compared to DLSHI, which is fairly young (30 years or so).

DLSHI had a fairly easy  application process. Pay Php600, fill out their application forms and bring the necessary documents. Since I passed it around December, I had to wait until January for the interview. The interview took about 30 minutes where the Director for admissions, Dra. Tesoro I think, asked the usual questions --Why do you want to take up Medicine? How will you finance your studies? How do you handle stress? and others. They said that in a week, I'd know if I was accepted. By the very next day, I received the acceptance letter through email and I just had to pay the Php 5000 reservation fee.

Oh but wait, I still had to wait for the results from UE. Grrrr. That would be in the next month, and I was kind of scared to lose my slot. So I decided to wait.

What really attracted me to DLSHI was the generous scholarships for those who graduated with honors. Although UERMMMC also had one, DLSHI's was guaranteed once you enrolled.

Well, of the four schools, DLSHI was by far the most expensive one in terms of tuition. But with the scholarship, it became the one I could most afford without getting my parents bankrupt.

DLSHI and UERMMMC had what they called, the Entrance Scholarship. For DLSHI it is providing 50%, 75%, or 100% scholarship for those who graduated as cum laude, magna cum laude, and summa cum laude. UE also has a similar scheme but based on forums at Pinoy MD, they said that only 30-40 students in total, get the scholarship, whilst in DLSHI, all those who applied, regardless of the number, just as long as they fulfilled the requirements, they could get the scholarship.

Oh, before I forget (being a scatterbrain and all), here's some info about each school

UP:
- NMAT Cutoff: 90%-95%
-No. of students accepted: 160 (40 slots are reserved for Intarmed students)
-Tuition Per Sem: Php56,000
-Has an interview
-Application Fee: Php 1,000

UST
- NMAT Cutoff: 70%-80%

-No. of students accepted: 400

-Tuition Per Sem: Php102,000 (last I checked, and they increase every year by 4-7%)
- Has 2nd level exams (MCAT)
-Application Fee: Php2,000

UERMMMC
-NMAT: 70%
-No. of students accepted: 300

-Tuition Per Sem: Php96,000
-Has an interview
-Application Fee: Php1,600

DLSHI
-NMAT: 40%
-No. of students accepted: 310
-Tuition Per Sem: Php106,000 (and they increase by 3-7% annually)
-Has an interview
-Application Fee: Php600

Gotta cut this post short, gotta rush. Arghhhh, will continue. :))

The Boredom of Waiting

So, as I said before, I took my NMAT last December. What have I been doing since then?

Well, getting fat doesnt count. And its a good thing too, that I was able to save enough money to last me up until now.

I have tried looking for a part time job, but my mom was against the idea because she thought I might change my mind about medicine and get hooked again on being a corporate slave.

So I tried to do something that I enjoy and can make some funds off of. Art.

Since I was a kid, I have been drawing like crazy. I was an addict for Crayola and its wonderful assortment of colors and smells. Its like heaven with these things, its like crack for kids. :))

I then started with drawing Garfield, since it was the only decent comic book in our library at the time, and then I moved on to drawing Jon, and then funky monsters. Right? Right? See the evolution? Hahahaha.

Going back to what I've been doing while waiting for the results of the Med Schools, I just draw. I started painting some stuff, and tried selling them, but I guess, there's no market for it right now. But I still continue drawing these little buggers in the hopes of making time go faster, getting lucky and selling at least one of them, and just enjoy the time I have left before Med School harasses me.

Here's a few of my works:

 Well, I hope that this boredom streak will come to an end. Hahaha

Choosing a Med School......dundunduuuuuuuuun

Ok...now we're getting somewhere.

I took up the NMAT last December 4, 2011, and I have say...two months of studying on your own will not prepare you at all. Well, it was pretty difficult for me since I had no background at all in the hard sciences. A whole day of feeling dumb, sleepy, and hungry, in a cold room with a thousand other students vying for those top  spots that can admit them to any school in the country.

By 5pm, the test was done, and I was ready to go home, my stomach turned upside down with dread because I knew that my score wasnt too good, but I did my best.

Anyways, after 1 week, the results were out. Tadaaaa! My results werent that bad, somewhere in the middle. The lowest score I got was in Biology (that was cruel sonofa-----). But its all good, the scores were good enough for me to qualify for several good schools.

I applied for the following schools:
1. UP College of Medicine

2. UST Faculty of Medicine and Surgery

3. University of the East Ramon Magsaysay  Memorial Medical Center (UERMMMC)

4. De La Salle Health Sciences Institute (DLSHI)

I applied specifically to these schools because they were the only ones who  didnt require additional units. I actually wanted to apply to St Lukes, PLM, and Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health, but there were waaaay to many units lacking on on my part (lets just say that it would have taken from 16-26 units of hard sciences).

Well, after seeing my score, I knew UP was out of the question. Hahahaha. But there were other equally great schools to go to.

I was actually tormented with which school I would actually go for, even though their results weren't out (or even starting), I just wanted to set my mind on a specific goal. It always helps to set your mind on a specific school so that your thoughts arent all over the place.

Anywho, after finding myself lost, hopeless, and all over the place, I asked advice from my cousin who is practical, objective, and methodical when it comes to decisions (being the manager of one of the largest fast food chains, she was trained to be that way).

She told me: when deciding on something, I use a 5 point system. I list all the factors that I can think of that would have bearing on my decision. In my case, which med school should I go to? Well, the factors that I listed were (and in no particular order):

• Location
• Accessibility
• Tuition
• Availability of Scholarships
• School reputation (yes, Im still a sucker for this one)
• Safety
• Availability of Dorms
• Dorm costs
• Environment inside the school (is it conducive for learning?)
• Professors
• Affiliated hospitals
• Board Passing Rate

And under each school, I rated them between 1-5 (1 being the lowest, and 5 being the highest). And voila! an objective decision made.

My cousin also told me that if it still seems a little too subjective ( in terms of rating), I should list down facts to support the score/rating against each criteria.

Well, hope this helps you with your decisions!