The Pathology of Boredom

I wish for a lot of things. Always. Right now, however, I only wish I could make my life a little more interesting. A lot more interesting. There's absolutely nothing to look forward to when I wake up every morning. Except for a day filled with hours of studying and half hour breaks. Even my PLs last year weren't so boring. I guess, this time it is the combination of a lot of PLs and the same old chapters to be done all over again.
I fear I might not be able to do my best when Exams finally arrive (it doesn't seem like 'finally' though. Two weeks down the line, I'll be talking about how there's hardly any time left!!). I feel I'm not really putting an effort right now and that is going to hamper my prospects. In the race to finish and stick to my time table, I think I'm going to end up not doing  lot of things properly.
I gotta get back to studying now actually. Next time, I am going to write a bigger post. :-)

Anti-Arrythmics...they don't even make sense!

It has been told to us that Anti-Arrythmics is not very important. According to a very enthusiastic teacher of mine, “they don’t expect you to know it!” In college, it is such a blessing to hear things like that. I mean, it saves you a lot of time that you would have otherwise spent doing the theory and, in case of this chapter, wondering why things can get so difficult at times.

So, you can imagine how lovely life is, and then I get this crazy idea to check out last year’s University papers. A macho kind of a thing, you know-the desire to say, “I can totally answer the questions, and I’m well-prepared even now, months before the exam”.

And, I come straight crashing out from my lovely world, because hell, there is a long question on Anti-Arrythmics in that Pharmacology paper!!!! So, today, I decided to do the chapter and now, I am begging anybody who reads this post: if you have any idea that can make this chapter easier and more understandable, I’d love the help. Frankly, I’ve never liked Cardiovascular System in Pharmacology. Everything depends on the patient and ten thousand illnesses that he may have. But, I’ve been getting a hang of it, and I should at least be in a position to be able to decide the drugs to be given, in simple cases.

With Anti-Arrythmics, however, that is so not the case. If I get a question on it, yeah, I guess I am in a position to attempt it and get at least 3 out of  the 6 marks allotted to that question. It’s just the practicality of my knowledge that I’m not sure of. So any help would be willingly and happily accepted!!

And, we supposedly have the final combined signing tomorrow. Let’s hope the story is true and that we finish off with the official work after all!  

Time to waste: I'd have asked for it!!

It is a said thing, and definitely an understood one, that the week following the end of exams is supposed to be a 'chilled-out' week; one that involves no textbooks, no 2 a.m. mornings, no racing hearts and a free, escapade kind of a feeling. It is also understood that when the week follows the end of Prelims, we are not going to get any of the above mentioned gifts. Instead, we are going to be handed numerous other ways which will help us understand the meaning of "WASTE of time".
I wish these people could step into our shoes for a moment and experience what we experience when time just seems to vanish in front of our eyes, and we do nothing!
The most cruel Department in terms of time, is our dear, dear Forensic Medicine Department. I understand that they are short-staffed, and that there is a lot of work they have to do. But, if that is the case, then they might as well, complete the entire work and then call us to the Department, right? But, it seems like they are hell-bent on teaching us the true value of wastage. We were called, first at 10:30 am in the morning for paper-signing. I din't go, because it is my experience that things never really happen in the Department. As expected, they announced that papers would be corrected by 3 pm and that we should assemble at that time.
With an increasing feeling of reservation about the entire set-up, I decided I'd go any way. And we were made to sit there, in that Lecture hall, from 3 pm to 7:30pm, doing absolutely NOTHING! Each time, we made plans to go home, we were told that the signing would start in hr hour. It was so frustrating! They could easily have taken one person's cell phone number and then contacted him, when it was all done. It would have saved us a lot of agony and hatred towards that department.
My entire week has been like this. Only the Pharmacology Department has been a little time-savvy.
All I want to say is, if I really had wanted to waste time in this way, I'd have asked for it. But, now, here I am, with wasted time, and the regret that it wasn't even wasted well! I know Government institutions are mismanaged, but I guess the optimistic heart never fails to keep hoping!!...(sigh...)        

Prelims: the Finish-line

Time to celebrate a bit :-)

2.5 weeks, and the ordeal is OVER! In the past two weeks, I've suffered and learnt real meanings of words like "Patience", "Frustration", "Insomnia", "Acidity" and most importantly, the mantra that "good things never always happen to good people", and that at times you never get what you really deserve.
The marks don't count- not when it comes to the satisfaction I've derived from every question I've answered. And at the same time, they really do count. If I end up getting less than I expect, I'm going to feel betrayed and again ascertain that this is one unfair world. If I more than I expect, I'm only going to put it down as my amazing luck. Please note, nowhere do I blame myself for the results. Typical student attitude. We just don't ever want to say, "We just din't study enough." Fact is, it isn't easy to do all the studying, and frankly, I can't bear to even think of how I've spent the last 2.5 weeks. I wish I could predict when I'm going to learn that doing my entire portion the night before the exam, is sheer foolishness! Yet, I can answer a part of that. It is only when I feel confident enough ( that is, after having done my portion at least three times over), that I can entertain such a thought. Currently, all I want to do is, take a few days ( hours out of days actually)off, and just relax. I want to do things that are going to make me want to get back to studying with enthusiasm, not with the resigning attitude that I so feel I am going develop soon.
So, how were my exams? Pretty ok. The papers were good. Except for a disaster that Micro 2 might turn out to be, and a catastrophe that Forensic is going to be ( I will eat a boiled eggplant if that doesn't turn out to be true!), the rest was definitely on the verge of good. My patience and the ability to stay hungry for 5 hours was tested big time during the Pathology practicals. I am not very good at staying hungry. During exams, no way. The tension and the atmosphere of the practical hall make a lethal combination. The moment my stomach gets a little empty, the brain starts to talk about putting in some HCl in there, and I suffer from vague symptoms of hypoglycemia and acidity. Patho was the height of it all. I was the 2nd last person to go for the viva, and finished at 5:30 pm. And I had had lunch at 11:45am.
Forensic (FMT) was another tester. This time, completely testing our ability to patiently wait....wait....wait...wait...wait...wait......and wait. I was there for the practical from 10 am in the morning to 5 pm in the evening. Had that 2nd viva not turned out to be awesome, I would've been ready to send a body in there for a post-mortem!!( kidding....I woud've just chucked the thoughts of FMT aside any way!!)
What have I learnt from my prelims? Firstly, I totally understand why a senior of mine, gave a post-exam party after her prelims had gotten over last year. The feeling CANNOT be described! You fly in the air, as high as you can go, feel the breeze blast past you and yet not hurt a single cell....suddenly swoop down and catch hold of all those small and special things you wanted to do for so long......and have a great night's sleep without worrying about those alarms that have been dissolving dreams within seconds, for the past 2 weeks.
And, I learnt that doing things on instinct does work to your advantage, making your paper go much better than it might have gone otherwise. I also learnt that everything has to end finally, so it is obviously going to a much better finish-line, if you stop losing your head and health over small things. :-)