Block #1 Exams

Het wordt gedaan! It is done. Zij zijn geschiedenis! They are HISTORY!  I did ok, but I could have done better.  Decent grades on exams today and not really shocked by the intensity or the process, but there were some questions that were (to my knowledge) nowhere in our lectures, notes or Powerpoint presentations. I'm sure I'm wrong in that delusion, but I'd like to think the amyloidal deposition of beta pleated sheets (brain plaque) hasn't taken over part of my brain and rendered them inaccessible...whether I've seen the stuff or not. I know that I need to change the way I study #1 and I've got to buddy up with one of the folks that got a high score.

Genetics was one of those that the study, while moderately effective to understanding, was riddled with terminology that I wasn't sure of and process variations that I hadn't anticipated (non standard ELISA, PCR, reading gel plates, template sequence variations, etc). Such is the luck of the study draw. There will be no curves on this one though. A few 100's (grades) were posted. We are unlucky to have 6 transfer students in my class from another Caribe medical school who have had this course before (it's a repeat event) and they nailed this exam and obliterated the class outcome curve. Shucks! BTW, how did "shucks" become an explicative? Just doesn't seem to cover it.

I wish I'd had genetics before this class. Heck, I wish I'd had genetics at all!  I hate to admit this but the field of genetics in medicine wasn't even invented when I went to PA school. When I was in school we had just discovered HIV during my last year of school and if you met a Filipino nurse on the floors, that was exotic. I think that the ship doc on the Nina was the Surgeon General at the time and something Bubonic was amuck in downtown Birmingham.

Alas, I still have to learn Genetics for the now and future. I can tell you that it is unlikely that I'll head  a biochemical genetic research facility in my lifetime. Good thing really :) In any event, first exams are worth 15% of the class grade this term, so there is plenty of room for improvement (85% worth), particularly in Genetics. It's melamine-laced Mik-a-lobe (frontal or parietal?), er, I mean uh Heineken of course  (vergeef me immigratie want ik sinned heb). The Dutch just seems to flow when the stress is off.

Class starts back tomorrow.
Ik zal klaar zijn.  I'll be ready!