End of Semester 2 Examinations

My blog deserves a good update after not updating for almost a semester.

Semester 2 was an enjoyable semester, well to a certain extent.

The shortest semester in IMU, I spent three quarters of it not studying.

Only 12 weeks long,
I spent the first two weeks with my sister who came back from Australia;
the 3rd week trying to revise
the 4th and 5th week with orientation = not studying (I believe I blogged about it, and well, whatever I didn't say, let's keep it as history, I don't think I want to talk about it again, it almost screwed up my semester)
the 6th and 7th week enjoying myself with the post-orientation parties among other stuff to attend to,
and the last few weeks of my semesters frantically studying, almost killing myself in the process (almost literally, but no I didn't attempt suicide, although I really wanted to die at that point of time).

Orientation was good, but I think the studying process was even more interesting. I did a bunch of crazy things which I love to describe here.



Well, basically for 5 weeks, I slept on average of 4 hours.

I came to a point where I ask myself again, "Why am I doing medicine? Why was I so ambitious? Why in the world did I think that I was smart enough to sail through studying for it? Why was I so idealistic about not minding the long hours of working and on-calls, when even sleeping 4 hours a night is already killing me"

Honestly, it was bad times. Up to now, I still have no idea what my semester 2 work is about.

In that 5 weeks, my friends and I did a bunch of crazy things.

• We screamed a lot to release stress. I even screamed in the library, and people started thinking I was going crazy. I was.
• I ran at 11pm to release stress. Well basically I had a lot of energy in me, and I had to release it, so running was a good way to do that. And the area around IMU was really unsafe at that point of time, having just had 2 robberies happening in less than 24 hours and many other rumours of snatch-thefts and break-ins. But I really had to run.
• I broke pens, and highlighters.
• We camped out at McDonald's, which was quite a lot of fun. What we did was wake up at 8am, go to the library and study till 10pm (time the library closes), then head out to the nearest McD's to mug up till 2-3am. Then go home and sleep. Repeat the cycle.
• There was once where I stayed in McD's till 6am. I camped there, slept there, brushed my teeth there.
• And there were other times we studied at other McD's beside the nearest one (in Technology Park Malaysia). We studied at SS15, Subang Jaya; and Bangsar McD's.
• There were other times when I went to be at 12am to wake up at 3am to go to McD's to study.
• We also sneaked into the enemy's camp (Monash University) to study. Their library is awesome, because it opens on public holidays. And their Histopathology/Anatomy lab is so cool because it almost never closes. Its supposed to be open till 12am but the guards only come about 2-3am. Monash's facilities are really really really really good. But I still think IMU's curriculum is better. No regrets choosing IMU =))
• I climbed along the window sill of the CCTV-monitored Monash library. Apparently they said something like the CCTV is visible on the website or something. I don't care, I'm from IMU. Catch me if you want to.

Well basically, after all the mugging and cramming and studying and memorising and understanding and what not, I didn't finish studying. I didn't study half of my semester 2 work which is 25% down the drain, and almost half of my semester 1 work, which is another almost 25% down the drain; and even the stuff I studied I doubt I could remember.

Basically, the night before I was so so so so super tension. I realised that I am going to fail. 50% is pass. No way I am going to get through this exam, I told myself.

The night before my exam, I went to sleep early, and woke up early to study. I flip through the stuff I never studied, and then prayed really hard. I don't know, but I really thank God for the sense of peace in my heart. I just had this feeling and knowledge that I'll pass my exam. I simply claimed God's promises that I will pass, that I will get through this obstacle, that I will conquer and win the battle (because the battle is not mine)

I was almost excited to sit for my first paper (SAQ), my batchmates thought I went bonkers.

SAQ abbreviated for Short Answer Question or you might know well as Structured Questions.

So, I went in the exam hall with confidence. Sat down, look at the paper, read the questions, *don't know how to answer*, nevermind look at next question, *still doesn't know how to answer*, writes some crap, looks at next question.

I don't know why, but even through that, I still felt confident and positive, even though I couldn't answer. I finished the two hour paper in one hour. I flipped back, and to my horror, less than half is done. There were whole questions (with the subquestions) that were totally blank.

Then I started doing again from question 1, and yeah, couldn't answer much. Just wrote crap.

Two hours up, I handed in the paper. Paper almost half blank, I only realised this much later after pondering. Well, I had like 20 minutes waiting for the invigilators to pick up my paper. I could have picked up my pen and fill up the blanks, but I thought I'd be honest, so I didn't.

I left the exam hall not knowing how to feel. I was somewhat still feeling confident and happy, yet worried at the same time. It didn't really hit me till much later that I left half the paper blank, which means if I got only a few mistakes for the things I wrote, I'd've failed the paper.

Then I sat my second paper which was multiple-choice questions (MCQ) which they call One Best Answer (OBA) which is supposed to be harder than MCQs because more than one answer is supposed to be correct, but you have to pick the best answer.

I thought the paper was tricky, but I knew how to do it. So in my mind, I knew I'd secure an A for the paper, well, at least a B.

Then we had a few hours to study before the next paper (OSPE) the next day.

I had in mind many things I wanted to study. I listed them down. But didn't touch them, because I was talking half the time. I was too tired to continue studying at night, so I went to sleep.

OSPE stands for Objective-Structured Practical Examinations. There are 24 questions and 5 rest stations. Each question is 5 minutes. You will start at one station, where there could be a plastic model, or a diagram, a picture, or a chart. Based on that, you will have to answer questions. After 5 minutes, the buzzer will sound, and you have to go on to the next station. You can call it station games, or kan cheong game, whatever, but I can say it is quite fun.

The paper wasn't as tough as SAQ, so I prayed hard it will pull me up. And thank God the stuff I was planning to study didn't come out. Well-deserved rest :)

2 weeks fastforward, I got my results. I was so kan cheong okay. But I somewhat thought that I did well enough to at least scraped a pass.

Well I did! Haha. But seriously, I'd have to thank God. Indeed a miracle. I seriously deserved to fail based on how much I studied.

And yeah, as predicted, I failed my SAQ paper with a C-.
OSPE was so-so with a B.
And I got C+ for OBA, which was jaw-dropping. I thought I did quite well for it.

I got an overall B- which was far more than a pass, praise the Lord!

C is pass, C- is fail.

And if you think B- is not that far from a C, think again.

B- to a C is approximately 15 marks away (5 marks for each grade)

And 15 marks is frigging hard to get okay.

The OSPE or SAQ paper is 33.1% each.
Both the OSPE and SAQ papers have 24 questions each.
That means 15 marks is about 12 questions.
That is A LOT of questions okay.

But seriously, I couldn't have possibly done it by myself.

I passed my final papers, which I thought I'd've failed and hoped for my continuous assessment will pull me up.

And well 23 people in my batch failed.

If you think that is a lot, think again.
Approximately 40-50 people fails the EOS2 (End of Semester 2 examination) in each batch.
And only 23 people failed this time.
Some more this exam is among the toughest exams ever, according to the seniors.
And only 23 people failed this time.
That only proves to show how crazy smart and competitive my batch is.

I've still got one more hurdle to overcome ie EOS3.
I will study hard.

P/S: I will try to edit it and beautify this post with more pictures, so check back again =)