So I should blog every once in a blue moon eh?

Soooo its been a while yeahhhhh...

Indeed it has. Stuff tends to happen over time. In terms of this blog however, its quite the opposite. Since I haven't written anything original over the past half year or so (?) I'm gonna get down and dirty. And regurgitate everything that's happened in the life of this little MedKid since my last post.

Get ready. Get steady. Go!

Second year vs. first year - I may or may not have said this before (I ceebs rereading my posts right now), but 2nd year is a piece of noobcake with pwnage-icing topped with a slice of pro-ness compared to first year. Study is seriously chill. Reasons; 1) the workload is lighter - naive little MedKids go into first year thinking they know everything there is to learn. Unbeknowst to them, BAM! Cecil (refer here) ninja's in from nowhere and smacks them in the face, causing frontal bone fracture with concomitant coup and contre-coup contusion, leading to cerebral oedema, mass effect, central herniation and ultimately, the end point of all the best mechanisms, death. Whiiippeee! That was first year. In second year, you actually know stuff. You no longer quake in your boots when you see the words "clotting factor" or "parasympathetic stimulation". "Cytokines!" isn't your catch phrase anymore for any immune system related question. And now, you can actually read an ECG. (Hell yes baybee, hell yes.)

Word of caution: ECG machines mad baaaad alarm clocks.

And now, because you know your foundations, other stuff is a whole lot easier to learn. Also, the admin like pounding in the basics, so you oft get the opportunity to redo first year material to make sure it sticks in your head, which, for those that havn't forgotten everything, makes for easy studying.

Reasono numero two-o) you sort of know how to study medicine. The coursework is less, but the material is still just as difficult, if not more so (*shudder* brain anatomy */shudder*). Even so, you're so used to rote learning lists of random names (such as the muscles of the limbs) that beating out the obscurest names of the obscurest structures in the depths of the brain that no one really ever talks about is no big deal. (Example, the crus of the Fornix and the Habenular nuclei and whatever. I don't care anymore, I did my exams.) But anywho, as I was saying.. uhmmm yeah. By second year, you will have honed down your studying skills to a scapels edge allowing you to cut through swathes of boring junk without a single bead of sweat. That's the theory anyway. In practice, it certainly does help to have good study habits, but mine are nowhere near perfect aka I cannot blow up a mans head with my mind just yet...

3) Our mid-year medical exams were formative - meaning they didn't count. Need I say more?

4) Less contact hours. Instead of the deadly jungle that was my first year timetable, this years timetable is relatively desolate. Most days (Mon, Weds, Fri) I have afternoon CBL (refer here this time) meaning that I can sleep in until about 10 o'clock. On top of that, I've just been a naughty boy and have been skipping some of the more useless lectures. So instead of my almost impeccable attendance record last year, this years attendance record is only slightly more than a stained square of 2-ply toilet paper. Sigh. The reason for this ceebsness? Most of it stems from the fact that I know I don't need to work as hard as first year. I sort of regret putting in the amount of effort that I did. And now I have a feeling I'm going to regret not working hard enough this year. But that shall be reflected in the exam grades. In terms of clinical skills and CBL assessments however, I've been doing pretty good so perhaps that's what's been causing my false sense of security. Gah, we shall see...

And now for some random gratuitious picture! The caption: "Hugs keep us alive"

If only this were a T-shirt design... guess what, it is!

All this means MORE TIME TO CHILL AND STUFF. Chilling how I hear you ask? Read the next instalment of the Chronicles of a MedKid and you will find out!