Today marked my first medical school exam.

Well, not really. Our professor gave us an exam today that doesn’t effect our grade. It was a way for us to see what kinds of questions we will be asked and to become familiar with the format. The format is interesting – Each question is on a slide, and there is 1 minute per slide. No going back to questions. At first I was a little nervous about this, but really a minute is a long time. Especially if you know the answer right away. There were a few instances where I zoned out.

Even though I knew it didn’t count, I studied this weekend as if it did. I really want to be able to see if my study habits have been efficient. I won’t know until tomorrow, when we get out exam back, but I felt the exam was fair and kind of easy. She actually told us it was an easy exam. I wish she hadn’t held back – I want to know how it is REALLY going to be. But honestly, it was nice of her to even give us this practice exam.

Today I feel a lot better that I did over the weekend. I had a lot of anxiety about getting through all the material. Not only for this “exam”, but just in general. I don’t want to be behind after the first week. I feel on track today. Now that orientation is over, I was able to get in 3 hours of studying done in between classes. I will probably study about 3-4 hours tonight. I was even able to get a workout in today! Overall, everything feels less hectic. It’s a busy but I know that I can manage it.

For those curious, here are the courses I’m taking:
Histology
Embryology
Anatomy
Osteopathic Manual Manipulation (Lab and Lecture)
Problem Based Learning (small groups where we study clinical cases to learn the different aspects of medicine)

The first 3 classes make up Gross Anatomy and they are the main focus for the first 12 weeks. After that other classes will be added in, like History & Physical, Healthcare Management, etc. But the main part of my curriculum is Problem Based Learning. PBL is the reason why I wanted to go to LECOM. It replaces lectures and is geared to students that learn better through self-study. It’s so perfect for me because I hate going to lectures. A few here and there, I don’t mind. But all day? I wouldn’t last.

Tomorrow is our first day of OMM. The lab is interesting because we will be practicing on each other. I’ve never had OMM performed on me, so I’m not really sure what it is – I think it’s in between a massage and visiting a chiropractor. So, in order to practice on each other, all the girls have to wear sports bras and shorts. We can put a shirt on when we are playing that doctor role with our partner. I’m not thrilled about this, mostly because I’m not particularly happy with the mid region of my body, but it could be worse. The upside: we don’t have to dress up for lecture! Not that I mind, but it will be nice wear a hoodie.

Ok – this journal is REALLY dry. I think I might be boring myself. I remember the days of my Livejournal – there were lots of random, emotional posts. This blog doesn’t even let me tell you my mood! I guess emotional stability has its price.

On the non school side of things, Lorin and I saw Funny People this weekend. I really liked it. It felt really genuine. Of course, there are flaws. As with all of Judd Apatow’s movies, it could have been cut down by 15-20 minutes. I don’t know which scenes, but his movies always feel just a bit too long. The Eric Bana scenes were great – I could listen to him talk in his native Australian accent all day.

See? I do think about other things besides school!