Medical School: Year Two, Term Two = Done!

Another end of term smile :-)

I can finally breathe again! If only for a few days, LOL. Last Friday, I completed my final gastroenterology exam and ended the second term on a good note. This means I now get to enjoy one full week of vacation before hitting term three with full force. It also means that I only have three more months of classroom learning to go before I take my medical board exams and start clinical rotations for the next two years. At this point, I am just sooooo ready to be done with sitting in a classroom all day, and I can’t wait to spend my time in the hospital being more hands on. I know as a medical student, I’ll be at the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to what I’ll actually be able to do on rotations, but right now I am so ready for a change!  

No greater feeling than having an empty to-do list!

The above picture is my current situation and what I like to call a picture of happiness. This is the white board on my wall in my room, and not having anything on my to-do list is making me smile non-stop. I had originally planned to spend this week doing nothing but studying for my upcoming USMLE Step 1 and COMLEX Level 1 exams, but I realized that I was extremely burnt out and needed to slow down my pace a little bit. Between dealing with more mandatory lectures that usual, constant board studying, exam studying, and dealing with workshop, speaker, and other issues for the upcoming SNMA Annual Medical Education Conference in a few weeks, I just really needed a break! And all of this is not counting my daily responsibilities of being a mother and handling other miscellaneous items like appointments and such. I wish I could say I feel guilty about not using the week to study, but I really don’t. Last week, I finished my first pass through UWORLD, so I am still on track to reach my goal of doing at least 6000 questions before I take my board exams. I have been staying pretty consistent with my study schedule since I started in December, so I figure a week-long break won’t hurt too much. Plus, I still have three solid months left to address my weaknesses.  

The past few days have been spent catching up on phone calls, emails, and other things that I have been putting off, so technically I am just now getting to really take a break. I am looking forward to doing nothing but watching television, pleasure reading, and spending more time with the little one over the next few days.  When I return to school on Monday, we will be taking the COMSAE which is basically a mini board exam to assess where we are at, and then a couple of days later we will take the COMAT shelf exam for OMM. This will serve as a good baseline to let me know where I currently stand, and it will probably get me right back into focus on what I need to do over the next few months to improve.  It’s only going to get busier for me from this point forward, so excuse me while I go relax!