I got my confirmation email today that I am indeed in the endocrine class this term. Yay. And even better, my friend from first term in Samoa is in this class with me too. Double yay! It will be great to have a study partner this term. We have decided to have weekly Skype sessions before our lectures to compare notes and what we believe are the key points for the week.
I am making good progress through my first week's case study, although it's now the end of Wednesday and it took me two days to read the case study. I now have three days to read all the assigned readings from the core textbooks which is far-and-away much more than 50% more reading, if you get my drift.
I started my morning by doing housework before work, then revising yesterday's stuff before moving on, which was extremely effective for retention (I believe). I also Googled and Wikipediaed any words or terms I didn't know or fully understand as I came across them before moving on, which I think worked well. I underline the word and then label it with its definition.
I make notes in the margins of the case study and go back and edit and adjust anything as necessary. Being critical of the case notes and my own notes works well for me.
If things are listed within a paragraph, I relist them in a bullet-point list as my mind digests this form of list easier. Anatomical things I generally draw pictures, and especially for microscopic anatomy such as, for example in this case, the structure of a thyroid follicle.
This helps my brain remember information about T4 and T3 as I picture them in my mind when describing their actions and interactions with iodine and thyroxine binding globulin (for example).
I also did the end of case quiz (which is different to the new graded weekly quizzes) and was satisfied with my progress and retention thus far. I think they were perhaps a little easy, and I think I need to look at some USMLE-style questions from somewhere at some stage. I normally don't get my USMLEWorld Qbank 30-day subscription until the last 4 weeks of term, but this term I might start early, even though you can't choose just "hypothyroidism" questions for example. Hmm... I'll decide when I get paid next week if I can spare the $100.
I could probably do with two or three new textbooks too. The library at the hospital was shut today when we took our first patient there, so I'll try again during the week. I need this week just Guyton and Hall's Textbook of Medical Physiology. I have the others already which is great.
So that is all. Yes, I'm super-dooper motivated this term for some reason.
I hope it lasts.
I am making good progress through my first week's case study, although it's now the end of Wednesday and it took me two days to read the case study. I now have three days to read all the assigned readings from the core textbooks which is far-and-away much more than 50% more reading, if you get my drift.
I started my morning by doing housework before work, then revising yesterday's stuff before moving on, which was extremely effective for retention (I believe). I also Googled and Wikipediaed any words or terms I didn't know or fully understand as I came across them before moving on, which I think worked well. I underline the word and then label it with its definition.
I make notes in the margins of the case study and go back and edit and adjust anything as necessary. Being critical of the case notes and my own notes works well for me.
If things are listed within a paragraph, I relist them in a bullet-point list as my mind digests this form of list easier. Anatomical things I generally draw pictures, and especially for microscopic anatomy such as, for example in this case, the structure of a thyroid follicle.
Thyroid follicle
I also draw chemical, molecular structures. I have now chem background except my own self-study for the GAMSAT, but I still can visually appreciate the difference in structure between thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3) (see below):
I also did the end of case quiz (which is different to the new graded weekly quizzes) and was satisfied with my progress and retention thus far. I think they were perhaps a little easy, and I think I need to look at some USMLE-style questions from somewhere at some stage. I normally don't get my USMLEWorld Qbank 30-day subscription until the last 4 weeks of term, but this term I might start early, even though you can't choose just "hypothyroidism" questions for example. Hmm... I'll decide when I get paid next week if I can spare the $100.
I could probably do with two or three new textbooks too. The library at the hospital was shut today when we took our first patient there, so I'll try again during the week. I need this week just Guyton and Hall's Textbook of Medical Physiology. I have the others already which is great.
So that is all. Yes, I'm super-dooper motivated this term for some reason.
I hope it lasts.
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