[update] MD1 Midyear OSCE results released.

This morning, the midyear OSCE results were released for first year.

For the Abdominal pain history station, I got 29/40 (72.5%). The pass mark was 26/40. For the cardiovascular clinical exam station, I got 27/40 (67.5%). The pass mark was 29/40, so I didn't pass that station. Ah well. It seems like I've been invited to get more practice.

Anyway. As I have been saying before, I haven't been practicing that much in this subject, because the main subject is the science subject this year. I wonder if these marks get entered directly into our end of year result, or are scaled first. If they aren't scaled first, then it would seem possible for people to "fail" all their stations but still "pass" overall (ie get at least 50%). The handbook doesn't seem to specify the requirement of passing each station at the end of year to pass overall. https://handbook.unimelb.edu.au/view/2012/MEDS90002

The midyear test result for FBS still isn't out yet though.

[update] Medical test results

For any UniMelb people, this doesn't have anything to do with our test two weeks ago. Sorry to disappoint.

Recently I went for a fasting blood test. I thought it was good to do, since I haven't checked my cholesterol and fasting glucose and all that before, and I thought it was good to see if I needed any diet or lifestyle modification.

Today I received my results. Cholesterol, glucose, liver function, kidney function and FBE tests were all normal. However, my Vitamin D was slightly below the reference interval. It's not too surprising since it's winter in Melbourne, but it seems like maybe I should have more sunlight exposure during winter or drink more milk.

Another thing I noticed was that the contact person for some of the tests that I had was someone who lectured and held a tute at UniMelb about liver function tests! That was a pleasant surprise. But after all, UniMelb does have a policy that all lecturers for Medicine are either clinicians or researchers.

Anyway, it's good to know that I don't need to make too many changes to my current diet.

[update] Half the midyear holiday is over already. End of exam period for UniMelb Undergrad.

Tomorrow marks the half-way point of my winter recess for Medicine. Unlike undergraduate courses at Melbourne, we only get two weeks of holidays between semesters. Ah well. If it was too long, maybe I'd get too bored. Last year it didn't feel that the holidays were long because of the time preparing for the USyd interviews, but before that I probably felt that the uni holidays were a bit long.

Today is the last day of the exam period for UniMelb. If you have recently sat an exam, I hope you have done well. For UniMelb, the undergraduate results for the semester are scheduled to be released by Friday 6 July in two weeks time, although many will come out before that date. Results generally come out on the Study Plan on the day before they are out on the Results Service page, and the results going onto the Study Plan coincides with the subject coming off the enrolled subject list on the portal homepage.

[update] MD1 midyear break! 방학이다!

It's now the midyear break for MD1! There will be two weeks for us to rest. I am not planning to do that much study, but I think I might still do a bit of reading of the pathology textbook since it's been an area of weakness.

After two weeks, there is a Student Conference that UniMelb MD students have to attend for 4 days. There are some compulsory aspects, but on each day there is a section to select between 3 different symposiums. I think I'll be enrolling in some of the more research type symposiums. I noticed one symposium on the Thursday about Mental Health though which involves learning Yoga, African Drumming and Creating Teddies though which I'm considering joining for the experience haha.

It seems like the conference is also a way for us to learn more of the social science/ethics/law/professional practice side of the course. I was surprised initially that the course didn't seem to have it throughout the year, but it seems like they're putting a lot of it into the conference week.

As I said before, the conference is assessed as pass/fail. According to the handbook, I'll have to do a 1000 word report on one of the keynote presentations. Hopefully it should be OK...

[update] Midyear exam and OSCE done.

Yesterday and today, I completed my midyear OSCE and written exam. It was a struggle to prepare without having a swotvac/cram week. That said, the exams were not worth a large proportion of our final mark, so the timing isn't too unforgivable on the university's part.

For the OSCE yesterday, it was my first ever OSCE. I did a lot of things properly, but there were some things which I forgot to do. For instance, I forgot to wash my hands until almost the end of my clinical examination (oops) and didn't remember to make the actor lie down before palpating the carotids (to avoid the tensing up of the sternocleidomastoid muscle).

For history taking, I was reasonably comfortable talking to the actor about her abdominal pain, but forgot to ask about smoking and alcohol history, and I didn't list the symptoms of common bile duct obstruction apart from jaundice and pain properly (pale stools, dark urine, itch).

Ah well. As long as I don't make the same mistakes again, it's OK. After all, this was my first OSCE, and it wasn't worth too much.

With the written exam for FBS, it was quite difficult. I was reasonably confident with more than half of the questions, but there was a significant number of questions which I was unsure about or almost clueless about.

That said, others in the course that I have spoken to have also found the test to be difficult. Maybe the end of year exams won't be hard in comparison then, given that the class average for the subject was above 70% last year. I guess that way is good. I think it's better to have harder tests before the final so that we don't get false confidence before the final exams.

Anyway. That concludes all my exams this semester. There's two more days left for med this semester, which will include some revision lectures scheduled after the midyear exam. Such a strange thing to do.

For those reading still with exams to do, study well and I wish you all the best for them.

[update] Unimelb MD1 midyear exam and OSCE week + Unimelb undergrad second week of exams.

On the coming week on Tuesday and Wednesday, I have my OSCE and midyear exam. They are not worth a high proportion of their respective subjects of PCP1 and FBS, since they are year long subjects.

However, this will be the first time I will be assessed in an OSCE. This will be something new to me, unlike the many multiple choice tests which I have completed throughout my life. I'm wondering how well I'll do, and how hard they're going to mark for that. The main subject this year in terms of credit points is the FBS subject though, so I haven't been putting as much effort into PCP in comparison.

For FBS, there has been some level of bafflement among students because they put some revision lectures for the semester after the test instead of before it. Now that is a strange thing to do. Ah well. It's not something which can be changed this year, so we'll just have to deal with it.

The coming week is also the second week of exams for undergraduate students at UniMelb, and is part of the exam period of some other unis too. If you have an exam this week, I wish you well in your preparation and exam.