Passed, I think

Well, preliminary tally of the correct answers seems to indicate that I passed both the practical and the written part of the anatomy exam. I did better on the practical, and from what I can tell I "passed" the written by the skin of my teeth. Whew. We tested for 5 hours straight. Holy crap I was tired.

Let me just give you a little rundown of how it all works:

1. The class splits - half to the lab, half take the written... then we switch

2. I took the written first, and the course director had to tell AT LEAST 30 students not to open their booklet early. He said it over and over... and they were still doing it! These people got into med school???

3. The test was f#$$%% HARD! I studied every day for weeks and BARELY passed! It was multiple choice... but there was a lot of stuff I really didn't know the answer to at all. Some stuff I plain forgot, and a lot of stuff I knew.

4. Upstairs there are 7 labs. Each lab has 10 structures on the cadavers and 1 or 2 radiographic images or bone samples, etc. We get 20 minutes in each lab and its basically a free-for-all. You have to see everything and figure out what it is. If there's a hard one, then people "clog up" on it.. and then you can't see for crap. Let me tell you future docs, there is a WHOLE LOT going on between your clavicle and your shoulder... and you better get good at differentiating between strings that look flat (nerves), strings that look like maybe something can flow (arteries), and strings that have a little purple tint (veins). Its a nightmare! It's like a yarn ball, and to really figure it out you have to get up close and personal. Mmmmm. Then you have to wait cause there is ALWAYS a jackass who won't move from a structure because he can't figure it out. Nevermind that 8 other people have a blank space next to #14. Fuck em! He'll stay as long as he wants.

5. The brilliance of the exam prep is really evident at the end of the exam when there are two sheets of identical answer keys posted on the wall RIGHT NEXT TO EACH OTHER. That's super efficient with 180 students crowding trying to write down 140 answers to score themselves.

Well, that's pretty much it. Can't wait for next time.

Oh, 2 other good things happened. My friend "T" who's a 2nd year in Texas sent me a "care package" for my exams... so sweet of him. Complete with coffee, granola bars, a notebook, etc. Yay! I love care packages. And the second (while not good exactly) proved to be rather interesting. On my way driving home from my exam I was so tired and exhausted that I did not even notice there were two TOTALLY naked women standing on the side of the street. It actually didn't register in my mind for a good 20 seconds.