I just figured out how to change the profile associated with this blog to the email address I actually use now. Hopefully that will simplify my life a little. It may also lead to some new people finding this blog - hello, everyone! I hope that all my previous posts are fit for present company.
Anatomy is going well so far - it's really encouraging to see how well the first year students have been doing. It's kind of hilarious, because most of them seem to think I know everything, because I'm a TA - yeah... I don't, actually. But I have gotten really good at knowing how to look stuff up, so if you want help with that, I'm your girl. I'm sticking to my guns so far about not telling anyone what a structure is if I'm not sure I'm right - makes me look kind of stupid sometimes, but I'd rather look dumb than tell someone the wrong thing. If someone asks me, and believes me, "because I'm the TA," and I'm wrong, then that's unfair - so I'm taking one for you all, M1's, and you're welcome.
Studying CNS pathophysiology right now - basically seizures, headaches, strokes, etc. It's pretty interesting - the module is a little confusing, so I'm highlighting all the parts that don't make sense so I can tell the module author. Apparently, "You left out a bunch of words and phrased things in a really confusing way," isn't all that helpful when they're trying to revise. Who knew?
House is a mess... I need to clean, but don't really want to, so I'm not. The worst part is it would probably take about fifteen minutes to make things presentable. Oh, well.
On an entirely different topic - Eoin is the best cat ever. Know why? He doesn't mind baths, for one; he rides in the car well, for another - but the absolute best thing? If he feels sick, he meows (you all know the "cat about to throw up, meow, I'm sure), waits for someone to come see what's wrong, and then runs downstairs to throw up on the concrete basement floor - after showing you just where he's going to go, so you can clean it up right away. Fantastic. I may never get another cat - I couldn't top this one.
According to our neighbor (across the street), our next-door neighbors with the barking dogs and the tabby cat don't ever feed their animals. Now, I don't know how true that is - the cat's old, and old cats get kind of bony - and the dogs certainly look well fed. But I wonder. We'll keep an eye out. Another neighbor said her cat has feline leukemia, so I think we're going to keep Eoin in till he's got his vaccination in the next month or so. We only take him out on the leash, and don't let him approach other cats, but better safe than sorry. Everyone thinks that the neighbor tabby is the disease-spreading culprit - poor kitty. Unfortunately, poor kitty likes to spend time in our yard, so we want to be sure Eoin stays away from her and anything she might leave in the yard.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Ranting
I generally try to be a nice person. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt. That said, I'm having a very difficult time with one of the other women in my program.
She's a sweet person, who tries really hard to be helpful. That said - she is incredibly distracting, irritating, and often says things that make life more difficult instead of less.
This person comes into the lounge nearly every day, and chats with the people who are trying to study there. Now, I don't know about you, but I usually assume that when a person is typing away on a computer, or discussing an assignment with another person, or smiles at me and then immediately returns to what they were doing when I arrived, that that person is busy and doesn't want to visit. This woman doesn't. She continues to talk, is oblivious to cues that are meant to indicate the end of a conversation, and often speaks to us condescendingly about the things we are trying to learn (she's a year ahead of the rest of us, and already on the wards). Or she tells us that the material we are studying is wrong, and that "the attendings say that..." - which is fine, but not really helpful - if we miss an exam question, "So-and-so said the attendings say..." is not a valid reason. I appreciate that she's trying to help, and she's probably coming in because she wants to socialize a little and relax. That's fine - but we are not taking a lunch break, we're studying, and we don't have the time to facilitate her down time.
It's aggravating to say, "Have a nice day," as she leaves, and then realize that your polite nothing has invited her to stop and lecture you for ten minutes on what she's going back to the hospital to do. She can't go out the door without stopping to talk at least three times.
The thing is, she is basically nice, and very friendly - but she has often wasted an hour of my time this way. I guess I should stop trying to be nice and just walk away and study elsewhere - but why should I have to? Our lounge is for relaxation and studying, mainly by the first and second year students in our program - if I'm using the lounge as it was intended, why should I have to leave because someone else is being disruptive?
Oh, well. Not really looking for a solution - I could be blunt and tell her I need to study, or leave the room. I know what my options are, I just feel mean for doing either, and kind of resent her for putting me in a situation where I have to be rude to her or not get my work done.
She's a sweet person, who tries really hard to be helpful. That said - she is incredibly distracting, irritating, and often says things that make life more difficult instead of less.
This person comes into the lounge nearly every day, and chats with the people who are trying to study there. Now, I don't know about you, but I usually assume that when a person is typing away on a computer, or discussing an assignment with another person, or smiles at me and then immediately returns to what they were doing when I arrived, that that person is busy and doesn't want to visit. This woman doesn't. She continues to talk, is oblivious to cues that are meant to indicate the end of a conversation, and often speaks to us condescendingly about the things we are trying to learn (she's a year ahead of the rest of us, and already on the wards). Or she tells us that the material we are studying is wrong, and that "the attendings say that..." - which is fine, but not really helpful - if we miss an exam question, "So-and-so said the attendings say..." is not a valid reason. I appreciate that she's trying to help, and she's probably coming in because she wants to socialize a little and relax. That's fine - but we are not taking a lunch break, we're studying, and we don't have the time to facilitate her down time.
It's aggravating to say, "Have a nice day," as she leaves, and then realize that your polite nothing has invited her to stop and lecture you for ten minutes on what she's going back to the hospital to do. She can't go out the door without stopping to talk at least three times.
The thing is, she is basically nice, and very friendly - but she has often wasted an hour of my time this way. I guess I should stop trying to be nice and just walk away and study elsewhere - but why should I have to? Our lounge is for relaxation and studying, mainly by the first and second year students in our program - if I'm using the lounge as it was intended, why should I have to leave because someone else is being disruptive?
Oh, well. Not really looking for a solution - I could be blunt and tell her I need to study, or leave the room. I know what my options are, I just feel mean for doing either, and kind of resent her for putting me in a situation where I have to be rude to her or not get my work done.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Memorization in Half-Lives
No, I don't mean that I spend half my life memorizing... although, this past week, I have. Jeez - I could have done without that realization. At any rate, I've noticed that I can memorize about half of any given set of information on one pass. So, for example, I had a drug list of 500 to learn for my pharm exam - the first time through the list, I got 300 right. Out of that 300, I got 180 the next time; and out of the 120 left, 50.
So what this makes me think is that I should start studying much bigger chunks of information, so as to learn more, faster. Flawed logic? Probably. But I kind of feel like a genius for coming up with it.
Pharmacology is kind of an interesting subject to study. It's a huge amount of information, and you need to understand a lot of physiology for it to make much sense - the less phys you know, the more you have to brute-force memorize. I am all for efficiency (read: lazy) and so I'm not so much a fan of straight memorization. As a result, I've reviewed a lot of phys this summer so the pharm would make sense.
Another result of not liking to memorize? I can't actually remember mnemonic acronyms. You know, "Some Drugs Create Awesome Knockers"? Not so much - I usually forget what acronym goes with what, and which of the 73 "K" drugs Knockers stands for. So, I go for drug-name based memory aids - "Eszopiclone" = "Iz Zolpi Clone!" (same basic mechanism as zolpidem.)
School officially starts back on Monday - I'm starting back to class for the first time since last October, because I'm independent study and a TA for the anatomy class. Not looking forward to 8 am class at all, but anatomy should be fun - it'll be a good review for me, and a little change of pace from studying flash cards and tables in my study all day.
So what this makes me think is that I should start studying much bigger chunks of information, so as to learn more, faster. Flawed logic? Probably. But I kind of feel like a genius for coming up with it.
Pharmacology is kind of an interesting subject to study. It's a huge amount of information, and you need to understand a lot of physiology for it to make much sense - the less phys you know, the more you have to brute-force memorize. I am all for efficiency (read: lazy) and so I'm not so much a fan of straight memorization. As a result, I've reviewed a lot of phys this summer so the pharm would make sense.
Another result of not liking to memorize? I can't actually remember mnemonic acronyms. You know, "Some Drugs Create Awesome Knockers"? Not so much - I usually forget what acronym goes with what, and which of the 73 "K" drugs Knockers stands for. So, I go for drug-name based memory aids - "Eszopiclone" = "Iz Zolpi Clone!" (same basic mechanism as zolpidem.)
School officially starts back on Monday - I'm starting back to class for the first time since last October, because I'm independent study and a TA for the anatomy class. Not looking forward to 8 am class at all, but anatomy should be fun - it'll be a good review for me, and a little change of pace from studying flash cards and tables in my study all day.
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