Blog entries tagged Med Life

The BIG decision...

Jerome L — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 08:41:46 +0100

Source: Clerkship Info Night Handout 2010, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto.

So this week, the 2nd year medical students at UofT have a big decision to make. We have to rank our clerkship rotation schedule preferences so that the UofT clerkship matching system can match us. In case you are not familiar with the matchingRead More...

Today was a Pretty Good Day

Joshua Liu — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 08:12:18 +0100

I have to say that today has been a pretty good day. Only had three hours of class, and the professors today were actually good. I think I space out in class more than anyone (e.g. I don't think during class and mindlessly take notes unless the lecturer is really good and/or the material is particularly interesting).

For someone like me, today's main professor did everything right. First, he had all of the important points listed in his notes. It really gets on Read More...

Where Do I See Myself in 10 Years?

Joshua Liu — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 10:22:10 +0100

This past Wednesday our first year medical school class was given our final lecture on Management for the year, along with the assignment of producing a one page document that shows where we see ourselves in 10 years (and considering that most of the lecture was about career planning as future physicians, I’d guess they want us to have some sort of focus on where we see ourselves fitting into medicine). There’s a ton of flexibility with this assignment (I know Mike made something Read More...

Lunch with Alex

Joshua Liu — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 08:44:42 +0100

On Monday I had lunch with Alex Shipillo, a good friend of mine who is very smart, driven, and talented, and whom I always have good discussions with and learn a lot from. The funny thing about my friendship with Alex is that I had talked with him and formed a friendship before we had even met in person (no, it wasn't E-harmony).

Alex and I both attended Shad Valley the same summer, but at different programs, but one of his best friends attended Shad Valley at McMaster with mRead More...

1st week of Christmas break! (Part 1)

Jerome L — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 05:24:26 +0100

Hey Guys!

So this is my first of hopefully many more blog posts to come. Let me start by introducing myself. As my profile mentions, I am a 2nd year medical student at UofT and previously completed my undergrad at York University in Biomedical Sciences. I have lived in Toronto my whole life, and I am glad to have gotten into UofT med because I am not sure how life would be if I had to leave my hometown for good.

Class for us 2nd years juRead More...

End of the 1st Semester of Medical School

Joshua Liu — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 04:14:26 +0100

I sit here typing this relaxed and in a pretty darn good mood. Although my first semester of medical school actually finished last Thursday, I've been too busy/lazy to actually sit down and write anything.

I think this is the first Christmas break in a while where I haven't really felt any stress or guilt whatsoever, and I guess most, if any of the stress, I've had previously was due to school. Even if not stress, just things like worries or concerns. In high scRead More...

So I had my clinical skills exam today…

Joshua Liu — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:37:34 +0100

As I mentioned previously, one of the courses I take in medical school is the Arts and Science of Clinical Medicine (ASCM I) where we learn basic clinical skills. So far this year we learned to take patient history, vital signs (heart/respiratory rate and blood pressure), and some physical exams (precordial, peripheral vascular). Next semester we will learn more physical exams like neurological, abdomen, etc.

For this first ASCM exam, we were evaluated on takingRead More...

Roller Coaster of a Day

Joshua Liu — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 06:41:39 +0100

Okay not really much of a roller coaster, but definitely some ups and downs - sort of.

This morning I did my last anatomy dissection ever. We looked at the posterior part of the forearm and dorsal part of the hand (i.e. the back of the arm from the forearm to the fingers). Being able to see all of the muscles and their tendons, and essentially knowing how the arm and hand works mechanically was pretty cool.

It was cool until I cut myself with the scalpel Read More...

Clarification of My Last Post

Joshua Liu — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 09:42:59 +0100

So I got this nice email today…

"Liu, Joshua Paul

You achieved the following scores on the STF exams:

Blood & Gross Anatomy average: 84.3%, Your mark: 74.7
Histology average: 85.0%, Your mark: 67.5
Embryology average: 76.49%, Your mark: 70"

Boy, that Histology mark looks ugly. I will be super sad if I’m asked to do remediation for that. I’m not sure what happened – I wasn’t cRead More...

So This is What It’s Like to be “Below Average”

Joshua Liu — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:35:02 +0100

Looks like I started a trend with the very last exam I took at York. After doing below average in a course (Molecular Biology 2) for the first time ever in my life in my last year at York, I have begun the year by getting below average marks on my first two exams, as you all already know. Looks like I might be continuing this trend.

I took my third exam this past Monday – Histology, Embryology, and Ethics. The embryology answer key came out a few days ago,Read More...