Melissa's Bio

Melissa's Diary

Whew! I've survived my first day with exams! We took our anatomy lab and lecture test this afternoon, and right now I feel okay about them (don't have any scores yet, though). Our exams were in the afternoon so I was able to do a bit of studying this morning (studied all weekend, of course), but my brain was not a willing participant by about 10 am. After that, I basically spend time visiting with classmates. There are always some, it seems, that are debating various facts from class (no, the long thoracic nerve goes…) and I tried to avoid those conversations so that I could keep my anxiety levels down.

My group took the lecture exam first. The questions were mainly K-type (3 or 4 statements and you choose which combination of them is correct) or what I consider a compound true/false question (which of the following statements is incorrect about…). Overall, I feel that the questions were fair (well, maybe there is one that I'll contest if I miss it), but it was tough. There were very few straight-forward questions, mostly they consisted of applying knowledge from lectures or remembering quite specific facts. On many of the questions I could easily rule out 3 of the 5 choices, but the remaining 2 were a toss-up in my mind. For the lab exam we had 40 structures tagged on the cadavers and we simply had to identify them. I felt well prepared for lab as the professor had given us 2 shorter practice practicals and the anatomy tutors had done a full-length one. I was able to make it to all 40 tags without getting that "what-on-earth-is-that!!!" feeling, which is a significant improvement over just a few days ago.

Now that the anatomy exams are done I have to start studying for the biochemistry test on Thursday. I was told before I began school that med school biochem would be easy, but I didn't believe it. Pleasantly, it is turning out to be one of my lighter classes. I had an excellent post-bacc biochem class so I'm mainly retrieving information that is already hidden somewhere in my brain. Since I was focusing on anatomy, though, I didn't look at biochem at all so I still have quite a bit of reviewing to do…so I'd better get at it!

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