Dear All,
Sorry for being MIA so long! Med school can kind of do that to you but i had a strange inclination to blog tonight.
Firstly, let me say that I am happy that I chose to go to SGU. The professors are amazing, I feel like I am getting a top quality education, and I am confident that they are doing everything to prepare us to take the USMLEs. I am very happy with the faculty, staff, deans etc. So for everyone that is avoiding a carribean school like the plague, things arent as bad as they are potrayed to be. Also, there are A LOT of very brilliant people here that will probably kick your asses in class, so if you think that you will come in there and everyone will be stupid, that is not the case I assure you. =)
For those of you that dont know me,
I am currently in the keith b taylor program at sgu and am currently a class rep. So far, I really enjoy my classes, and the exposure to global health has been great in terms of presentations but our class is making efforts to increase actual clinical opportunities.
The best part of going the kbt vs the grenada program is because our program is smaller, we get more personalized attention- ie go see the dean of students, teachers, clinical tutors as frequently as you see fit. It is also great the faculty are very open to feedback and really present the information well..
Some of the personal drawbacks I have faced have nothing to do with the school itself but just the sheer amount of information.
I will be honest and admit the I failed two of the exams on the unifieds..(which are like the first set of quizzes worth 5% of your grade)
after working 2 yrs, and adjusting to life in the UK, I was stduying very hard but not effectively..so i quickly changed my strategy and was able to pass my midterms..
post midterms im feeling pretty good about the material!
my game plan is doing objectives for each lecture, in addition to a sumary page..
I am not not the point where I feel like I know the material the same day but I do feel doing objectives and summary orients me and I spend as much time as possible during the week in the lab (mostly 10-12 hrs) per week, which i wasnt doing as much pre the unified quiz but wthats wut really helps..
med school is emotionally and mentally draining..
emotionally because you can be workin at your 150% and still feel like u arent understanding everything..part of med school is being able to deal with failure and being able to rise from the sheer bottom..there will be people who you will feel like get everything as soon as they hear it like osmosis but we are all dealt our own cards..
as exciting living aborad is..im terribly homesick..i miss home and that also makes it hard..aslo bieng in a long distance relationship is difficult as well..
overall, med school is exciting, intense, draining and sometiems can be an emtoional rollercoaster..but I have faith in myself that i will survive this..and i know that i must constantly change and adapt..
i want to make a difference in someones life one day and every day towards that goal is worth it..
i will try to post an update after finals...im hoping my new strategy works as i feel strangely confident but i hope its not false hope..
best advice i could give to anyone going into med school: bad things will happen, the more you face these difficult times, the better you will be able to cope.
