(Temporary) Freedom!

Freedom by ~LightformGr on deviantART

About 2 weeks ago, I took the USMLE Step 1 board exam. It's an exam that every med student in the country studies for weeks on end, trying to do the best they possibly can. It's exhausting that board studying almost immediately after taking cumulative finals for classes in early-mid May. After taking the weekend off, we hit the books running.

In many ways we were on "lock down," focusing on nothing but studying and doing practice questions. Day after day it wears on you, burn out was quickly approaching on the horizon for many of us. About 3 days before my exam I hit my "peak," that point where you know that's about the best you could realistically do. It was a good thing I took my exam soon after my peak, as another week would've resulted in a decline in my score.

Come the actual test day. I arrive a little over half an hour early and I begin soon thereafter. 15 minutes of tutorial (quite annoying), 7 one-hour blocks of 46 questions, and 45 minutes of break time that can be divvied up however one wants. Partway through the exam I realized that my audio wasn't working . . . which made it difficult to answer the 2 questions that required audio to hear the heart sounds and murmurs. :-/ That sucked and freaked me out, but I quickly regained composure. I left that exam feeling dazed. At one point in the middle of the exam I had a fleeting doubt that I'd pass. I soooo do not want to re-take that exam.

But after all that, after all those weeks of studying and laboring through the USMLE World Qbank questions, I am free! Well, for a little bit until I began M3 year . . . next week. Sigh. It never ends. At least they say M3 year will be better.