Thoughts on the GI block

Another exam done. Another block completed. Another step closer to being done with my preclinical medical education.

Yesterday's GI exam took a lot out of me. It was long and several questions were quite complicated. When studying organ systems, I love the feeling when everything just comes together a couple of days before the exam. I remember with Cardiology, I could think through the entire working of the heart and relate it to all the diseases by the time the exam comes around. For some reason, this didn't happen as much for GI (and for some parts of Brain Sciences in the 1st year). I still felt like I was memorising different disease states and different mechanisms but it felt very disconnected. I wasn't the biggest fan of the organization of the course but hey, such is life.

I hate it when I take an exam and have no idea what one of the pathology pictures is showing. Now make that now knowing what a series of 3 pathology pictures are showing - arghh!! What I do love is figuring out the pictures from the question stem - and thankfully I think I did exactly that for these 3 pictures!

On the bright side, I really enjoyed the small group portion of our GI block though. We have about 8 students per small group led by a faculty member. We had an excellent bunch of classmates in the group - many of whom I have never had small group with - and it's always nice to work with new peers in this setting. Our leader talked a lot but really incorporated the pertinent clinical information with the cases provided. I find that a lot of the information stuck with me very well (and hopefully I won't forget it any time soon).

So, 19/20 exams done. One more to go. 20 days and I will be done with 2nd year. Wow.