Mexico Medical Student |

My coursework, as it is taught from professors here on campus, is OVER. YAY! Now we begin a Kaplan review course (partially paid for out of pocket by us on top of our tuition, but that’s another story) to gear up for the USMLE Step 1. Kaplan actually offers a specialized program that’s a little longer, and one can only assume “slower,” than the standard course in the US for IMGs because the instruction here is (and I’ll be kind) “inconsistent.” The school, to its credit, actually takes this seriously knowing that something like Kaplan will bridge the gap between the idiosyncrasies of some of our coursework and the specific nuances of what’s “standard” in US medical schools. After all, we are talking about pleasing a standardized test here, not apologizing for our education. Moreover, IMGs have a hell of a lot more importance placed on our standardized test scores. For example, you can imagine a review committee at Big State U saying, “What the hell does a 9.4 average mean in a Mexican school, anyway?” (even if you convert to a 4.0 scale, the point is that the curriculum doesn’t match in a way they’d understand), so you can see they’d look to the “equalizer,” the “standard,” that which levels the playing field. On top of that, come match day, we have to compete with US students going to LCME-accredited schools that keep in step with the USMLE in their curriculum from day 1 of their education (or at least a lot more so) since their published pass rates, etc. factor back to their school. Our school, as you might imagine as a foreign institution with a minority of total students participating in the USMLE, does not feel the need to publish the aggregate performance. Read into that what you will.

Well all of the above aside, I had several social events this weekend and was able to have some fun without worrying about an exam or studying for ANY real length of time for the first time since, well, probably the first week of medical school. In fact, I’ve been thinking about what I want to get done now that I actually have some time. Well, in actuality I just have more flexibility over my time, but it’s good enough for me. If I want to not study at all one night and just organize this or that, cool. If I want to take a 3-day weekend w/family and go somewhere (our schedule is very irregular, going 6 days weeks through Saturdays sometimes and other times having 2-4 days off at odd times), I don’t have to sweat it while I’m there or making sure to study tons before. In short, I can actually enjoy time when I choose to with the freedom to actually do it. Obviously, everything I mention is w/in the confines of responsible preparation and study, but it’s on MY terms, not on the school’s terms, constantly having to have information bulemia for grades week after week.

I don’t like being in class from 9-3 (w/lunch break). That is a serious downer. I was hoping from talking with the previous batch of students that they were going to reduce the hours/day, but clearly they didn’t. I don’t know how they expect us to sit through lectures for that long, and then go home and study, do questions, make more notes, etc. But there are students I know–friends even–that couldn’t even wait the weekend to start studying for the upcoming lectures that hadn’t even begun. Not me. I get bored way too fast during most lectures if they don’t keep a good pace, so the idea of “pre reading” (when you already have the bulk of the notes in front of you) is just something I am not going to do–didn’t much need it before, less so now. To each their own. All I know is that I finally feel some breathing room, and I intend to breathe some fresh air before I go back to any sort of salt mine.