Week 4

I am about to enter my fourth week of intensive course review. The first two years of medical school are spent sitting in class or standing in lab for hours on end, learning the so called basic science material. The remainder of our waking hours are spent studying said material. However, it isn't so basic anymore; not like high school biology where simply knowing where the femur was served sufficiently on a multiple choice exam, while the other possible answers consisted of skull, rib, humerus, and hot fudge brownie. The questions we are now faced with present a patient with a set of symptoms. That is all. The final question stem may be: What side effects do you expect to occur in this patient? This means we have to diagnose the patient, remember which drugs are likely to be used in this patient, and then choose the drug with a side effect appearing as an answer choice. All the while, keep in mind the potential lab abnormalities which may or may not be given which may mask something or be a simble red herring. The test for which I am preparing has 350 similarly worded questions over an eight hour time period. **Whew, sounds tough** OK, so I'll pass it, but to what degree? I have this week followed by three more to continue preparing. Better get to it.