So what is a med school exam day really like? I say day, because at least in the case of my school, MS II (second year) exams typically take about a day. Here is a breakdown of today’s exam (I think someone counted this was exam #63 of our current med school career):
Arrival: 9:00 am – exams are distributed and students proceed to assigned seats.
The exam is about 130 questions and lasts 3 hours. Students take out various snacks including bananas, chocolate, granola bars, etc. to make it through the long haul. Several cans of Redbull, Monster, etc. appear and are opened simultaneously. Some students wear bright orange earplugs – I’m not sure where this came from. Perhaps it’s an evolutionary withdrawal to past behavior – you are given those orange awkward headphones to wear at the computerized MCAT testing site. Granted we have distractions in our testing room on the first floor like garbage trucks, construction vehicles and the like. But I’m just saying it is foreign and unnecessary to me…. But perhaps some are more sensitive to noise than others. Test begins. During the test one must sign in and out to go to the bathroom (which isn’t so unbelievable considering you have to fingerpint in and out for most computerized standardized exams) by either the blue or pink piece of construction paper (which seems a little gender biased considering all we have learned about trying to maintain gender sensitivity).
Today’s “integrated” exam consisted of 80 hours of material from the following disciplines:
-Pharmacology: Diabetic drugs, estrogenic drugs, thyroid drugs, bone and parathyroid drugs
-Pathology: Endocrine system, male and female reproductive system
-“Clinical Medicine”: Reproduction, Urology, Endocrine and Geriatrics
Yes. All on one written exam. And by written I mean multiple choice, since I have never with the exception of two biochemistry exams, had to write any answers in med school that don’t fit within the bubble of a scantron. I can see why physicians are such poor writers.
Then there’s my favorite part – not just one or two questions but BLOCKS of several questions which were clearly never covered in class. I’m not talking about minutiae that was included in notes or lectures that one doesn’t know and clearly knows they just didn’t study or forgot, I’m talking about material that was just blatantly never taught. I don’t know if these is because exams are recycled from year to year and professors just don’t know what is taught and what is not, but whatever the reason it’s not acceptable. I can’t figure out what skill such questions are designed to teach us – how to make logical deduction and reasoning which you’ll have to do a lot of in medicine? The problem was it’s not like we were ever given the material or had past material to draw upon to answer such questions. The questions related to specific terminology that was just never taught, not in lecture notes, not in lecture. I went to every lecture live for these sections. I challenge our dean to look through the packets and “supplemental” readings we are given to try to locate where in the objectives or lecture material such answers and information are. Some of the questions were extremely obscure, and clearly not part of our curriculum – and we were not directed to outside sources during the course of the unit to consult where possibly we would have gleaned such information. I just really don’t get it – and the saddest part is that there’s no one in our administration to talk to about such things, and even if there was student wouldn’t. Part of me doesn’t care since the school year is done and I just want to move to the next test (finals are approaching) but part of me wants to understand why we were tested on such things and change the exams for future years. But this won’t happen.
Of course people (including myself) bitch after the exam about how ridiculous and unfair it was. Normally, I’d dismiss this. But in this case, I think it was warranted.
Then comes lunch. And by lunch I mean more studying. The lab practical is in the afternoon!!! Don’t think the day is over just yet. The class is divided up into two groups for the lab practical – one group goes at 1:30 and the other at 2:30 and the test lasts an hour – so after the morning’s written test most students scurry to the library to cram for this exam. The student is presented with images and asked a series of questions about many gross and microscopic images. Most of the time it will be things we have seen in our pathology case studies and labs, but often they’ll throw a zinger (or in this case two) at you that you have never seen before. The problem is if you don’t pick the correct diagnosis for the case presented most of the following question answers will be wrong (they purposely make answer choices so if you answer one incorrectly its difficult to answer the others correctly).
This whole day is a pattern that is repeated about once a month. It’s really healthy!!! Especially because you don’t sleep much right before!
Then finally the day has ended and one can go nap (or in the case of many of my classmates get obscenely drunk).
And for those of you that responded that you love med school, I don’t buy it. Some of you may be MSIVs who have a light year and have had clinical experiences that you loved in school – this I can buy. There are several reasons one can reply that they do: they don’t want to admit to themselves that they don’t love it and are indeed sad or depressed because med students pretend everything is always peachy 24/7 because they don’t talk about emotions, social desirability (they want people to think they love it, etc.) So I am dismissing the scientific validity of my poll. If one needs to convince themselves that they love it in order to function, than I suppose that’s fine. We all do what we gotta. I thrive on being honest. Sometimes it gets me in trouble.
Tales from med school 