Exam Week

[Insert clever, introductory joke here. I would, but I got nothing. The picture below describes how my brain feels right now.]

 

Why does my brain feel like that? Because I just finished exam week! This week was the last week of the Musculoskeletal system. This was good and bad. Good because it meant that I was on the brink of surviving another system. Bad because it meant that me surviving another system was contingent on passing my final musculoskeletal system exam. I've had a lot of friends and family members ask me about exams/exam preparation, so here's an honest, slightly dramatized version of my typical exam week.
 

 One week before exam:

I'm not looking forward to studying day and night for an entire week, but I know it'll be good for me. I  learn/relearn/superlearn a lot of important information the week before the exam.  Still, I can't help but feel like Mr. Michael Scott:

 

My sleep schedule goes craaaaaaazzzy. Most weeks, I'm on a "go to bed at 11 pm, wake up at 6 am" type of schedule. During exam week, though, I'm all over the place. Studying till 1 am. Up at 4 am. I really feel like the lost boys from Peter Pan:

Which results in this happening during class. Photo credit to my classmate, Daniel. Nap credit to me, Nathan:

  Three days before the exam: 

•  My room gets really messy. And before anyone calls Homeland Security, complaining of a bioterror threat, I said my room gets messy, not dirty. For whatever reason, my will to keep my room neat and tidy just tanks. I figure that as long as I have clear paths between my bed, computer, and bathroom, I'll survive. 

• I stop communicating with the outside world. My texts sent per day total goes from like 100 to maybe five. The only calls I accept are from my mom or President Obama. So, if you aren't either of those individuals, don't expect to be hearing back from me till after I take my exam.

• I eat out more often. It saves precious time and energy that could be spent studying for my exam. This is what goes on in my head almost every day of exam week. 

Irrational Nate: "You should stop at Five Guys right now."

Rational Nate: "I can't. I'm poor. Remember the whole taking out loans thing?"

Irrational Nate: "If you don't, you might fail your exam and future medical career will be in serious jeopardy."

Rational Nate: "Well. Uh. Um. Uh. When you put it that way...."

And just like that, I'm standing in Five Guys, popping peanuts in my mouth, waiting for them to finish my delicious burger. As you might imagine, this situation happens pretty frequently during exam week. Everytime it does, I feel like Kronk arguing with his shoulder angels:

Day before the exam: 

•  I study. A lot. It's go time. I usually study the entire day. By this point, my butt usually hurts from sitting so much over the course of the week. I know that probably sounds terrible. Which it should. Because it is. I'm a pretty big nerd, but even I'm sick of studying by this point. Which inevitably leads me to do the following:

• I consider possible career changes. Is all this studying worth it? Maybe I should do something else. Lots of possibilities have entered my mind: Watch salesman. I like watches. Why not? Food critic for the food network. Yeah. I would seriously love that. Car mechanic. Seems interesting and manly and stuff. Plus, I would no longer have to sell organs on the black market to finance getting my car fixed. My current favorite, though, is Park Ranger at a National Park. I love visiting national parks. Who wouldn't want to do this every day?:

 As tempting as a career change seems at this point, I just suck it up, watch a Law and Order SVU rerun on Netflix, and keep studying.

Day of the exam:

Sometimes I study more. And sometimes I don't study at all and just take the test. It all depends on how I feel about life. If I feel ok, I study more. If I feel like the clip below, I usually just go ahead and take the thing.

So, then I take it. Our exams usually take about 2 hours and are composed of 100 clinical scenario based multiple choice questions. The questions can be really, really tough, but when you only need 60% to pass, it's very doable. It's always really nice to pass an exam. It means a) I can do this whole medical school thing! and b) no exam for three more weeks! And, naturally, this is how I feel:

And just like that, exam week has come and gone.