End of Obgyn Rounds

Without realizing, it has already been four weeks. Such a long time it may seem but why do I feel that I've only gained "that" much? I've got to reflect on my actions, definitely.

I'll come back for more vaginal deliveries, that's for sure.

Wake up! Rise up!

In less than 2 months, I'll be finishing my fourth year of Med School. "How fast time flies" seems to be my favorite quote these days. Yet, every single time I ask myself, how much of it have been of quality? How much of it have I used wisely? With regret, I'll say, not much.

During my last usrah, our naqib, Ust Fairuz said to us, "Ramai orang cakap, masa berlalu dengan cepat. Tapi banyak manakah berkat masa yang berlalu itu?"

After hearing that, I felt like a huge anvil just dropped on my head. Seriously. I started to relate it right away with my daily activities.

A perfect example would be my three-times-a-week four hours clinical rounds. Last week, I used to complain, four hours is just too long for us to be in the ward with patients. But this week, although I'm still elated when my Professor released us early, I made sure to make full use of the time I have at the wards. I try not to complain, even when the resident repeat the same things. I try not to complain, even when two different Professors gave a lecture on the same topic.

I am a student, and my knowledge is like a drop of water in the ocean.

So I hope my fellow colleagues who might stumble upon this post, to wake up, to rise up. We may have our complains, but complains are not meant to be reflected on our attitude in class. Save them for later, cause we will never get any benefit from complaining.

We've only got two years left before all eyes will be on us. We will be judged for our actions, not only by our future patients but also by Him. Two years, what will we get if we keep on complaining?

Be enthusiastic. Avoid complaining.

[Notes] Types of Abortions

Untuk semua 4th year students, tak kesah la current or ex Obgyn. Moga dapat dimanfaatkan bersama. :)

http://www.mediafire.com/?dytzwzjth3t

"International"

Kelas saya pukul 10 hari ni. Tapi saya ingatkan pukul 9. Mati-mati gi mandi sejuk2. Adeihh.

Tapi takpelah. Ade masa skit nak update belog.

Ehem2.

Assalamualaikum and a very good day I bid to all. Urhh.

A few things happened and a few things ARE going to happen this week.

Let us start with 'happened'.

Our system here in Alexandria Faculty of Medicine have long been called the International Undergraduate Medical Program or IUMP in short. To date, the program is made up of four batches of students, mine being the seniors. Being international, we assume that we'll have Arabs, Negros, Frenchies, Europeans, and Malaysians together in one lecture hall. Well, you'll see this mixture of nationalities in the second and first year lectures, but not with the fourth years. That all changed last Saturday when 10 Saudi Arabians joined us. ;)

Kalau korang google gambar minah2 Saudi, diorang semua pakai tudung yang berbonggol2 kat belakang. Rambut depa panjang sgt agaknya. Anywayy, I talked to one of the Saudi guys, Muhammad Abd Aziz. I first thought that they'll only join us for TBL classes but no, they're joining us for good. Lectures, ILAs, TBLs, the whole nine yards. Wow, I thought. Competition. ;)

So, I was eager to see whether will there be any Saudis which will join my clinical rounds. Aha. My 'wish' came through. Two ladies ;) Hehehehehe. Bertambah seronok kami berempat kaum Adam. :P

How things will be, I don't really know yet. But I guess changes can be good at times. ;)

Regarding "are going to happen", nothing fun in that. I've got my Clinical Pathology exam tomorrow and my Clinical exams next Saturday. Got to get the oil and start greasing, have to get rid of all those rust.

Oh yer, our batch annual dinner will also be held next week, on the 10th. Dress up ladies. :P

A difficult day at the hospital.

Hye guys.

I'm here today, updating in a rather somber mood. Continue reading if you're really interested to know why.

Yesterday was supposed to just be another day for us at the hospital. Lectures by the professor, taking patient history, inspecting them, conducting physical examinations, yada yada yada. Well, it started out as planned. A rather long lecture on Chronic Myeloid Leukemia and Lymphoma by Dr Nabil where I found myself to be ultimately clueless. But takpe lah, boleh je baca balik kat rumah nanti. Moving on, we then had a female patient. This patient was suffering from Schistosomiasis, which is an endemic disease here in Egypt. Yang bikin panas nye, mak patient ni ade sekali. The patient was rather cooperative with us, but the mom on the other hand was unbearable.

"Heyya musyfatirisy min subh" "Haram haram". Or something like that. At one phase she came near us and I was even afraid that she might swing her arm at me. Haha. That didn't happen tho. :P

We then rounded the ward to see a few other patients. The next one was suffering from lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphoid tissue. He was cachexic. When our doctor was demonstrating for us, the patient brokedown. He plead his case with tears streaming down his cheeks. How could one empathize and not symphatize? We can see that he was exhausted but our doctor was adamant to show us the examination. It required a kiss on the cheek and some comforting words from the patient's father to calm the patient down. Seriously hati kena macam batu, kalau tak memang boleh nangis lah tengok semua ni.

And to round it all up, a patient went into septic shock right in front of us. His mouth was foamy and he wasn't breathing. It was an emergency situation of course and we saw it spot on. Oxygen tanks were brought in and CPR was performed. That same patient was walking about normally around the ward just days before. According to our doctor, the patient suffered from acute leukemia and had received a round of chemotherapy. Unfortunately he caught an infection and his body wasn't able to fight due to the chemo. Even antibiotics can't help. When we left, the doctors were still performing CPR on him. I'm not sure will I be seeing him today in the wards. May God be with him.

Hmm. It is all in a days work. Life, moves on.

Selingan tatkala sibuk

Assalamualaikum wbt. Selamat sejahtera semua. (Ade gaya lecturer tak?)

Mcm biase, kawe masih sebok dgn studies kawe. Smlm dpt lah cuti sehari tp kawe pi main bola dgn teman. Nak bagi peluh tubek sikit, baru sihat tubuh, dok gitu?

Sy orang KL tulen, tak reti cakap dialek. So yang kat atas ni, sj nk main2 menghiburkan diri sendiri. Jgn makan hati yer kawan2 utara dan timur ku. :P

Anyway, I just feel like updating the people back home as to what I did last week. Jeng jeng jeng. Surprise2. I took my first blood sample. ;) Seronok n nasib baik lah my hands takde nak menggigil sangat. Got the vein on my first try but the blood didn't come out. I had to move the syringe around and let the needle find the vein without pulling put the syringe. Peluh sejuk lah jga! Hehe.

Thanks Anas for letting me poke a needle into your arm. ;)

Next time I'll try to get some pictures from my clinical rounds. *wink2*

Oh, here's something for those who enjoy seeing the photos I take. (Bajet ade je peminat gambar ko). Haih.


Till the next update. Stay sane.

Of clay and bricks

Evening guys. (Or morning if you're reading this in Malaysia)

If I'm updating my blog frequently, it means I'm back in Egypt. Hehe. Less distractions mean more ideas for me to update my blog. :P

Anyway, I had my first class today and wow, the clinical years are definitely different from what we've experienced in the pre-clinical years. It was only one day, but it felt like a week. There were lectures as usual but rather than being spoon-fed whereby what the Dr said is similarly written in the book, it was completely the opposite. Furthermore, the only things that I was able to take note from the lecture were only the headlines. -.- An hour felt like two. Urh. And I've not even started talking about the assignments. Hmm.

So next came the clinical rounds. Four whole hours of going around the ward, taking notes as we go. I need to get myself a notebook as it is utterly impossible to write on a piece of paper while walking/standing. We discussed not only the patient's condition but also our basic science knowledge which we've taken in our first three years here. There were obviously some gaps in between questions since we can't remember the answer. Fine, there were LOTS of gaps. Haha.

Thus came lesson number 1. "I can't build bricks without clay." Ouch. Doctors 1 - Us 0. Nasib baik lah tak buang buku-buku teks lama aku tu. Haih.

Oh, its fun when you have to look for what you've learned in reference books or online. But it sucks when you're paying for them. Huge hole in my pocket, and its only day one.

Thyroid gland examination

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.

Us third years are now in our Endocrinology block. So, for our Professional Skills section this week, we had the chance to learn a "little" on how to examine the thyroid gland.

For us clinicians, there are four methods of examination.

First is "Inspection" where we only look at the gland for any abnormalities in size and shape. Some patients may have a very large goiter but some may only have a slight enlargement. We also ask the patient to swallow because the thyroid, being enclosed completely by the pre-tracheal fascia, moves up with degluttition.

The second step is "Palpitation". The best way to palpate the thyroid gland is from behind the patient, whose head is semi-flexed so that his/her neck muscles are relaxed. This is because to palpate the thyroid, we have to insinuate our fingers under these muscles.

The next step is "Percussion". This is used to examine whether the patient has a retro-sternal protrusion of the thyroid. I'm not exactly sure to as how it is done but what I do know is it involves something about the resonance of sound. Pening pening. >.<

Lastly, "Auscultation". By using a stethoscope, we auscultate the thyroid gland for any bruits. Bruits are actually whoosh-like sounds which we can find if the gland is hypervascularized.

So during yesterday's section, the girls went up first to inspect the four LADY patients that came. One has a normal thyroid, one has a slight thyroid enlargement, another has a multinodular goiter and the last one has a very large goiter. During my observation, I noticed that very few of the girls communicated with the patient. Some simply went up and palpated the patients' gland and asked them to swallow. The patient with the multinodular goiter was especially irritated by this. Oh well, these few girls could be having some jitters since its not easy for us to examine patients.

However, most of the other girls did greet and smiled at the patients. It was a bonus for me to see how other people did it and learn from them. Thus, when my turn came, I did what the other girls have done. I simply greeted the patient and asked them, "May I?". And after I examined every patient, a "Syukran awiy" followed and the patient will look up at me, smiled and reply. It simply shows how far a soft approach and a kind voice can help clinicians during examining our patient. All of us, boys AND girls learned a lot from the section.

To be honest though, I did hesitate a little bit when it comes to holding the patients' hands to feel the temperature and condition of their skin. Haha. Sorang patient tu nampak segan bila aku nak pegang tangan dia, aku pun segan lah gak kan. Tersenyum je lah. :P

Ps. Mane elaun aku??!!! >.<

Overjoyed.

Do you guys remember the entries I posted after each individual paper I had for my finals a month back? Remember the predictions I made? Well, I suck at making predictions. :P

The first surprise for us - the results came out waaayyy too early if compared to the previous ones. It used to be at least two months after the exams before we could even get a rumor that its coming out. And after the rumors, it'll be like two more weeks before they actually release the results. Biaselah, arab dengan bokra dan biiznillah mereka, takleh nak dipisahkan. Haha. But when I thought things were not as great with the administration as they used to be, they did this. Releasing our results just barely a month after our finals. And I even heard that the slight delay was because the administrators were trying to meet with every department to try and help those who had 59s and get them to 60 so as they will not have to resit for the paper. I'm surprised, really.

Oh come on Joe, tell them your results already. :P

Alhamdulillah, to my amazement (honestly I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw them) I improved from 1 A, 3 A- and a mixture of Bs last year. I scored 3 As, 4 A-, and 3 B+. I am thankful for His rezeki and guidance. That'll bump my CGPA up a lil bit. ;)

Anyway, that is that for last semester. I've always been one who does not get carried away with results and achievements. The only thing that is to be brought forward throughtout the year is perserverance.

This semester is a whole new chapter. What we get for last semester won't get us through this semester. There's no such things as, "Alah, kau dah score 7A sem lepas, mesti gempak gak lah sem ni" or "Ish, aku fail lagi lah sem ni since sem satu pun takleh lepas". There is only hardwork and apa nama?* Hehe.

Failures are but only a delayed success, and success is nothing but only a stepping stone for the future. So to my friends and colleagues, jom lah kite same2 habiskan 3rd year ni. We started this journey together, and even though our struggles are different, lets finish this the way we started. :)


*apa nama was Tun M's favourite line when he forgets things. :P

Obesity and Diabetes Mellitus

This will be a post related to Medicine, so do give it the skip if you aren't interested. Lol.

Classes have just restarted and I'm already missing the holidays. :P

Anyway, during PBL today, the doctor asked us the relation between obesity and diabetes or in other words, how can obesity lead to diabetes? I remember I read a journal about it once, some time last year. Haha. The only words which I could recall just now was something about "the cells can't really use the insulin released", so I simply kept quiet. When I got back home, I looked it up again. And yes, I'm on the right track. ;) I'll share it here for those interested.

Normally, glucose homeostasis is maintained by several mechanisms, namely insulin secretion, insulin action, hepatic glucose production and breakdown of glucose by cells. There are several cells in the body which are exquisitely sensitive to the action of insulin like the adipose tissue and muscles especially. So, in the fed state, insulin is released, glucose is taken up by these cells and there is inhibition of hepatic glucose synthesis. Likewise, in the fasting state, insulin synthesis is brought down to the basal level, hence causing inhibition of glucose synthesis to a lesser degree, just enough to maintain the normal blood glucose level which is about 120mol/dL.

In obesity, there's an increase in adiposity, which causes glucose intolerance due to insulin resistance. There's a decrease in the cellular sensitivity to insulin action i.e. the cells can't respond normally to basal levels of insulin. At the early stages, this phenomena can be compensated by the pancreatic beta cells, by increasing the secretion of insulin causing hyperinsulinemia. But, if no intervention takes place, eventually these cells will be exhausted and are no longer able to produce insulin, hence causing diabetes mellitus.

Obesity has now become one of the major dilemmas of the medical world. Not only it is a risk factor for diabetes, it also a pronounced cause of cardiovascular diseases like atherosclerosis and hypertension. The best way to overcome this is not by using drugs or surgeries, but a change in lifestyle. Sounds simple right? I don't think so. People are lazy nowadays. Haha.

Anyway, I think that reading up about something and writing about it (not copy-pasting), can really help make the knowledge embed in your (or in this case, mine) long term memory. Give it a try. ;)

Pathology - Checked!

Ooh ohhh. I can smell freedom now. :P

After slugging it out for a month, the end of my finals is just around the corner. After today, there's only 2 more days with 3 more papers to go - Problems & Professional Skills, Human Rights and IT. And after all these, I'll be shooting hoops in Mansurah. ;)

So, down to business. Pathology was hard. The essay was good but the MCQ? Stinks. Sang 'A,E,I,O,U' twice just to get an answer. You know what I mean. :P The questions were stinking specific. Too specific as a matter of fact. I believe it was the first time they actually asked us some numerical figures in an exam. Why would I even bother to read how many percent of Non-Hodgkin's lymphomas arise from lymph tissue and how many percent from non-lymphoid tissue. It had always been only either "commonest" or "least common". Never numbers. Pfft.
I did take a swipe at it and answered 70%/30%. I guessed close enough. Hehe. The answer was 65%/35%. Doubt the professors will give marks for being 'close' though. :P

I really want to give myself a B+ for the effort but I've to go for a B. Booohoohooo.

Oh well. I'm too close to the end to be too bothered by it. Winter break, here I come! xD

Kupasan Farmakologi.

Hai semua.

Saya ingin cuba sesuatu yang baru, sebab itulah entri ini berbahasa Melayu dan bukan berbahasa Inggeris seperti biasa. Hahaha.

Semalam, telah berakhirnya peperiksaan Farmakologi untuk pelajar-pelajar tahun tiga Kuliah Perubatan Universiti Iskandariah. Rata-rata dapat dilihat muka keriangan, dan kepuasan para pelajar menjawab soalan yang tidaklah serumit soalan-soalan Parasitologi atau Fisiologi. Masa yang diberikan juga dirasakan berlalu teramatlah perlahan jika dibandingkan dengan hari-hari sebelumnya. Masih tinggal sejam, tapi dah boleh nampak dua tiga orang pelajar yang dah tak boleh nak duduk diam. Sayakah? Dah siap lah katakan, asyik duduk tenung jam je. Haha. Walaupun siap awal, takde langsung rasa bangga dengan diri sendiri. 3-4 kali juga lah kertas tu dibelek-belek. Simply making sure there're no mistakes. *oops terlepas gak kuar BI* :P

Hmm. InsyaAllah A-. ;) Kertas seterusnya, Mikrobiologi.

*please re-read using tone pembaca pemberita* :P

Catatan penulis: Saya bukan macam Amani yang cakap "I sound silly when I speak in Malay" because sememangnya I don't sound silly speaking our native language. But I have to admit, I do sound silly writting in Malay. Rasa skema berbaku-baku ni. Yer lah kan, like what someone always said to me, I'm Malay, bukan Melayu. :P
Hope you guys got some laughs out of this. Hahaha.

Ps: Kepada Nursham Melati, happy 21st birthday my dearest bestie. The both of us go way back and you're one of those who have known me the longest. So, I sincerely hope and wish you have a great one on your 21st birthday. Much love. :)

Parasitology - Boooooooooooo!!

"Pass, insyaAllah."

Those were the words which first came to mind right after I handed in my paper. I did pretty badly too last year and I thought what I've done this semester would change things. Pfft. Guess not. It felt like the questions got even harder. :P Sooo, I'm just gonna look at passing the paper. That would be a huge relief. Sigh.

And up next is Pharmacology. I've got like 3 days before the exam so it should be more than enough to not get the names and groups of the drugs all mixed up. Serious berbelit lidah nak sebut satu-satu. That's only memorizing the names, not to mention their pharmacological actions ngan therapeutic uses lagi. Aduyai, penat dah otak nii. 2 minggu je lagi, Jo, 2 minggu jeeee.

Okay then. I'm sorry for the short and boring entry. I am a tiny bit tired at the moment. Look out for the next update. It could be something a little bit more interesting. Haha.

Physiology - Checked!

Again, I am sorry for not updating you guys about Physiology as soon as we had the paper. I was just lazy I guess. :P

So.. Physiology.

Prelude - There's only 2 words that I always use to describe the burden of Physiology on us - TOO MUCH! Really, I am not joking. For the first semester of our 2nd year, we had like 300 or more pages to cover. And for this semester, there is not much of a difference. One whole book to be revised, memorized, and practically to be slept with. Haha. 260 or so pages, try to digest that.

Comment - Like always, the first part was MCQs. Some mistakes here and there, I guess. About the essay on the other hand, we had eight essay questions and each was worth 2.5 marks. I really don't get how they get their markings done because for some questions, my answer was like one whole page (eg. the question about referred pain) and for others, it was only 3-4 lines. I didn't really know the answer for that question though, sebab tu lah pendek kot. :P
Eight essay questions and three problems definitely felt like too much. Honestly, for the last few questions, I felt really tired to really think so I just answered the first answer that came to mind. Seriously rasa nak muntah gak ah bila jawab hari tu. Haih. Physio oh physio. On the other hand, I'm just glad its out of the way now. Alhamdulillah.

Conclusion - Again, B+.

Histology - CHECKED!

Ok, my bad. The paper was on the 10th, the same as my birthday which was like two days ago. I got held up, so here's the post regarding our 2nd paper, Histology.

Prelude - I consider Histology to be one of the burden of my studies. I simply dislike studying it. What's with all the cells and their organelles, functional characteristics and yada yada yada. Urh. I mean, even UM have abolished this subject and integrated it together with Anatomy. So does a few other international universities. How I wish Alexandria University would have opted to do the same. Too bad I guess. Oh well, next semester's will be the last of it. So, I freakingly can't wait! :P

Comment - I think, since it was on my birthday, luck seems to be on my side. ;) We need not have to draw any diagrams and surprisingly, I left NO questions unanswered. Its definitely different from the past semesters where if there's any question which requires us to draw, I would simply close one eye and turn to the next question. And if there's any question asking about any kind of LM or EM descriptions, there will definitely be holes in my answers. Hehe. But this time around, things were a little different. I'm sure I missed a few points here and there but overall, I actually enjoyed myself. Call me weird but yeah, I did. It could simply be because of the fact that we had like three nights to study for it after our Anatomy paper. Yeah, that could be it. Alhamdulillah. :)

Conclusion - However happy I am that I did well for the written and I got full marks for my presentation(everyone in my group got full marks btw), does not mean I'll give myself an A for it. I screwed up the practical part the week before and I'm sure my midterms weren't that good either. So, I'm giving myself a B with a B+ being a surprise. ;)

Up next, the dreaded Physiology. >.<

Anatomy - CHECKED!

I guess I'll write an entry after every paper I sat for. At least I can talk about it here when no one else wants to listen. :P

Prelude - Anatomy has long been one of the few 'feared' subjects simply because of the amount of reading that is required. Every single sentence has the possibility to be asked. Skip one, and you'll pay. (like I did)

Comment - Hmm. I guess I did 'OK'. The first part went rather smoothly minus a few questions which I'm clueless about due to the fact we didn't really take it in the lectures so I assumed it wouldn't be asked. Guess again. Lol.

And then comes the second part of the paper - the short essays. Urh, someone needs to remind me to make a better time-keeping for myself. I rushed through the last question which was about the development of the tongue. Not that I clearly remember the details anyway, but if it was any other question which I'm confident of the answer, I'll be pissed for not planning ahead and not being able to answer because of the lack of time. So, yeah. And another note to myself, next time, read even if you've taken the topic last year. >.< Oh why didn't they ask about the pituitary or the thyroid gland instead? Why couldn't luck be on my side?? Grr.

Conclusion - Taken everything into consideration, and by everything I meant the midterms, practicals, assignments and today's paper, I would say a B is in hand. I'd be thankful for a B+ and I'd be surprised if it turns out to be an A-. Ooh, I love surprises. xD

Ps. B = 80, Bplus = 85 , and an Aminus = 90-94. Go figure. :P

Study leave.

Hello. ;)

As most of you would have guessed, (you'll know if you've been following this blog) I was having my practical examinations throughout the whole of last week. And yesterday's Parasitology paper concludes it all for me. :) Now with the practicals out of the way, it's time to pick up arms and fight. Its hell time. Rawwrr! xD

The following will be the 'fields' for me to tackle with my, hard-wrenching-eye-popping-jaw-dropping "weapon". :P (I've no idea what is it, so don't bother asking)

29/1 Pathology
30/1 Pharmacology
31/1 Parasitology & Microbiology
1/2-2/2 Physiology
3/2 Histology & Anatomy
4/2-6/2 Anatomy with a pinch of Physiology ;)

It is rather crammed up, don't you think? Oh well, this is all that I could muster in one week of study leave. Better hope it is good enough. Prayers up people! Pray for me! :)

Effing midterms, again.

Title says it all.

Title explains why I've not been blogging recently. And I also have my countless (it is only three, really) assignments to blame.

Title explains why I'm dreading this coming Saturday.

Because of the title I'm ranting right now.

I wish I can simply ignore the title, but obviously, I can't.

The title sucks.

Eff! Eff! Eff!

Neuroscience

What's up peeps? :)

I'm sure most of you are unaware of the fact that I am currently studying all there is to know about Neuroscience. Yer lah en, I didn't write any entry about it, so how can you guys know right? :P But yeah, the block prior to this which was the head and neck was to prepare us for our current block - Neuroscience.

Hence, up till now, I've found the topic somewhat interesting no matter how abstract it is. Why abstract you may ask? Well, for one, the Physiological point-of-view of Neuroscience tend to be resolving a lot around theories and MORE theories. There's even a FEW different theories on a SINGLE phenomena. Take the topic of 'referred pain' for example. To explain its occurrence, one could argue whether to agree with the "Facilitation theory" or the "Convergence theory". Both are accepted nowadays but you still can't resist arguing about it. :P

Neuro-anatomy on the other hand, requires a whole LOT of imagination. The structures are so MINUTE that when the professor asked me, "Can you see this fibres running transversely?". I squinted trying to look for the fibres mentioned and simpy answered, "Oh, yes." I didn't see it btw. Hehe. So at the end of the class, the professor said Neuroanatomy is very hard and one have to really read and try to understand before seeing it practically. Out of the blue I blurted, "Yeah, it is kind of IMAGINARY." Heh. He corrected me by saying, "It is not imaginary. It is there but you need to use your imagination." Macam takde beza je, kan? :P

Anyways, that happened during last week's practical. This week's practical was a whole lot easier since we're looking at the surface of the cerebral hemisphere. It felt somewhat awesome holding a brain in your hand. ;)

Subhanallah, how something which is the size of one's hand controls everything.

Well, you've got to admit, it does look cool. ;)

Mad doctors on the loose.

Let me ask all of you a rhetorical question. Would any of you want to be attended to by doctors who are seeing things? Doctors who are anxious, cranky for no reason, mentally ill? Read here if you guys wanna know exactly what I'm talking about.

It seems that newborn doctors nowadays are cracking up, one by one. There's finally proof to the term, "Mad Doctor". However, as funny as it may sound, this issue is definitely causing headaches to the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA). I'm a little bit flabbergasted when I read the article and saw Dr Ismail Merican's comment regarding the cause of the problem. Pressured into taking Medicine by parents? Puh-lease. People who are pressured into medical school by their parents, will not even graduate medical school in my opinion. To graduate, you don't only need intelligence and hardwork. What you really need is the driving force which will push you through all the hurdles waiting in front of you. This "push", which will give you the perseverence and the consistency required, is what you need to graduate med school.

One have to admit though, studying Medicine is definitely a huge hurdle. Putting that fact aside, medical students themselves have to realize that, success in obtaining a medical degree DOES NOT mean the job is done. As a matter of fact, it is only beginning. Learn to accept this as soon as you stepped your feet in med school and I believe, you'll be fine. Prepare yourselves not only physically but most importantly, mentally for what's to come - housemanship, hours of being on-call etc. Mind over matter as some may say.

Whatever it is, I do hope the MMA will find the best solution for this matter. Another examination before our housemanship is definitely not the way to go. Whoever wants to sit for an exam when you've graduated after 5-6 years of studies? If you wanna test something, put knowledge aside, and focus on our sanity instead.

So, to you non-medical people, if any of you happens to fall ill and goes to the clinic or hospital, be sure to ask your attending physician or doctor, "You're not ga-ga, are you?" Hehe. Just for laughs. :P