One Exam Down, Many More To Go

I am sure you are all on the edge of your seat waiting to hear about how my exam went… Good news, I passed! (Cue the celebratory cheers and applause). Yes, I survived my first medical school exam, and I am proud of myself for doing it. I felt like I was well-prepared and stayed mostly calm during the exam. The exam had me cycling through three stages. The first being, yes, I know this, the second being something that I thought I knew but doubted or second-guessed myself, and the last was wtf is this (rare, but there were a few). I genuinely think all the ones where I second-guessed myself were ones I got wrong because I let that self-doubt creep in and change my right answer to a wrong one. Next time, I will be trusting my gut more. Overall, this exam and prep felt like a good trial run for the next blocks, meaning I know how I want to approach studying and how to better stay organized. I will be continuing with my goats, AMBOSS AI and Anki as my ‘go to’ studying tools. While the post-exam life is nice, it is also shortlived. We start the Musculo-skeletal system tomorrow, which is split into two blocks. I am honestly quite nervous for these blocks since there are tons of anatomy labs and there are so many muscles, bones, and attachments to remember. For someone who enjoys building muscle at the gym, you’d think I’d be looking forward to this block, but I think I am more excited for things like GI, renal, and endo/repro.

Before we stress about the next block, I wanted to share how my exam went and the things I did after it. Almost immediately post-exam, I had to refuel, so my friend Siena and I went to Raising Canes to celebrate and get some food in before our big night of celebrating ahead. I’ve only had Raising Canes once before this, since it doesn’t exist in Canada, and can confirm it was pretty good and a nice post-exam treat.

While not the healthiest choice, I also wanted to let you know that even though it was exam week, I stuck to my workout routine. I was in the gym on Monday, Thursday, and Friday this week, so it cancels out. Granted, I did spend most of my time on Monday and Thursday doing Anki while walking on the treadmill; I still consider it a win. I also finally used the lane pool for the first time on Saturday. It was genuinely so nice to get back in the water and swim for fun. I swam 1 km in 30 minutes, which is pretty good considering I haven’t swam for exercise in a looooong time. I hope and plan to continue going at least once every week or two. Then Sunday was another pickleball day. It was awesome to play for a couple of hours with my classmates and enjoy the stress-free pickling since we did not have to study this weekend.

 Besides my exam and working out, I got up to some other fun and interesting things this week. As part of our curriculum, we are required to shadow at least three different Tulane doctors throughout the year to get an idea of what a day in the life looks like for different specialties. I chose to shadow a pediatric psychiatrist for my first preceptorship. I had a great time, as I have no prior experience with psych and got to hear some interesting cases. I also learned that the Tulane pediatric psychiatry program is part of a triple-board program, meaning residents get trained in general pediatrics, child psychiatry, and adult psychiatry, so I got to learn from some incredibly well-versed residents and physicians. Everyone at the clinic was also super kind and welcoming. By the end of my day, I even got told by them (verbatim), “You are pleasant and not a piece of shit”, which is quite the compliment that I joked I would put on my residency applications. All jokes aside, they invited me back, so I do think I made a good impression (thank god). After my first-ever psych clinic day, I still feel quite neutral about psychology. I have not ruled it out, but it’s not something I am gunning for either (at least not yet). I think it’ll be fun to do more psych shadowing and rotations throughout medical school, but I am still openly exploring so many specialties. I guess it’s kind of like dating on the Bachelor, but for your career haha. I had my psych first date, am open to more, but not getting married yet. I have to go explore my other options and see which one I want to give my rose to in 3-4 years. I will keep you all posted as I try more specialties.  

 Outside of academics, I really got to make the most out of my social life once the exam finished. Post-exam, and the exciting night ahead which I alluded to earlier, our class and the T2 class went out to Wrong Iron and had a great stress-free night. It was great to see my classmates outside of the library again with smiles on their faces. It’s funny because studying can feel so isolating, but then you remember there are 189 people all working toward the same exam, so celebrating with them felt awesome. It was especially nice to talk to some of my classmates whom I haven’t talked to much since white coat. I also met some new friends!  Okay, vulnerable moment. I think my blog makes it sound like I am so easily making friends, but it genuinely has been challenging. I feel like I have had to really put myself out there, which has honestly been quite difficult and brought up a lot of insecurities. In Vancouver, I felt like it was easy, and friends came quite naturally because of the ice team and school, but here, I sometimes have been feeling like such a loser. Maybe it’s in my head, but some days have been so hard to feel like I am fitting in. I constantly find myself questioning things about myself, like am I funny, nice, approachable, pretty, or smart enough? It feels like high school again, which I didn’t quite expect to feel since I felt so sure of myself back home and am 26. Maybe it’s also the huge move and change of environment that prompted this, but I feel like I am so in my head about how I come across to people because I want to make friends and feel like I am part of the class. It feels like it’s happening a lot easier for some of my peers around me. I know I shouldn’t compare myself, but it’s human nature. I also feel like this move has changed my whole life, and I am struggling to balance the version of me that exists in Vancouver with this new life that I have. That doesn’t really make sense, but it doesn’t in my head either yet, and that’s okay. I feel like I have moments where I see glimmers of the happy, confident me, and other times I feel so insecure. It’s weird because it ebbs and flows so much, but again, I do think it’s partly just the extremely new environment I am in by myself that is prompting these weird feelings again.

Live view of me in my head all day

Weird sagway, but I also feel like I am starting to be known in my class as the token Canadian because I say sorry all the time for no reason, love hockey, wear almost exclusively Aritzia, and love Tate McRae (I’m Canada down, too). It’s kind of funny and makes me full of pride to hopefully be representing my country well, but it also does remind me that I am considered different here. Nothing wrong with that, and I honestly love the title because it is so me, but maybe that’s also part of why I am in my head so much. One positive about that is it has prompted so many people to talk to me about the differences between growing up in Canada and the US, which has been amusing to talk about. Even though our countries are beefing at the moment, there’s still big love and respect, which is reassuring.

Okay, back to my weekend. Saturday night was another fun night. I spent it playing board games at my friend Anthony’s house with a bunch of people from our class. We played this game called Monikers, which is essentially charades on steroids. Please look up the game if you’re curious, but it was hilarious to play. I got to know some of my classmates a lot better, and my team took home the win, which was awesome. I also had one of those glimmers where I felt like myself, which felt nice.

Then Sunday came around, and I got to attend my friend Lindsey’s birthday with a few of my classmates. We went to a hot dog restaurant called DatDog on Magazine St. and spent the afternoon chit-chatting. Then Lindsey and I went for a quick walk and popped into Reformation and Free People to browse (don’t worry, I did not buy anything). After we said our goodbyes, I went to Trader Joe’s and got some groceries, and I am now prepping for another week of classes.  

All in all, it felt so nice to chill all weekend without worrying about study time slipping away (thank you, Tulane Med, for making block exams on Fridays) and celebrating our first exam as the class of 2030. I am so glad to be done with my first exam, partly because of how fun it is to celebrate being done with all your friends.

Well, that’s all for me this week. Thanks for supporting me through my first exam, and hopefully, each exam will go just as well, if not better, than the first one. Have a great week and see you here at the end of it!