Exams
So it seems this whole term has been about the dreaded end of year
finals. However, it is merely my mind playing games because we actually
spent the whole term on our first visit to neurology – and
boy what a visit it was! Obviously the brain is the control centre
for all things neurological so is inherently amazing but the rest
of the nervous system is somewhat underestimated! Just one example
is have you ever sat and thought about just how every single inch
of your skin is capable of sensing touch, heat, pain etc? And how
that all gets analysed and acted upon – and all in a fraction
of a second!
Just like human medicine, veterinary medicine is a subject which
requires not only your knowledge to be tested but also your reasoning,
practical skills with animals and your ability to discuss a subject
in a coherent manner. This therefore calls on a host of exam techniques
to be employed. To this end the exams consisted of a one hour multiple
choice exam, a 2 hour problem solving exam, a 3 hour essay exam,
4 different practical tasks involving animals, 4 ISF vivas and a
SPOT test. Let me explain these last two.
The SPOT test is a 1 hour exam where you have 30 ‘stations’.
You have 2 minutes at each station where you are asked 3 questions
about either a picture of something or a specimen for example a
stomach. ISF vivas are Integrated Structure and Function oral exams.
This is where your name is called by 2 examiners and they take you
off for a ‘relaxed discussion’ about something, for
example one of my ‘discussions’ was about synovial joints.
The ISF vivas are dreaded by every student and people have come
out crying in previous years! As I stood outside the room waiting
with the other 11 students in my ‘batch’ I thought one
girl was actually going to faint, she looked terrified!
I spent the first 2 weeks of July doing my pig placement. Talking
of pigs I would like to take this opportunity to perhaps abuse my
position here and beg you all to eat only truly free range pork.
Many pork products that are labelled as free range may not be entirely
accurate. A large percentage of these pigs would have been born
and reared outdoors for the majority of their lives but are bought
indoors to be fattened up for the last few weeks of their lives,
which obviously if you are buying a product because it is free range
somewhat defeats the object! So please do take a moment to ask about
the production method or if you can afford it buy organic pork.
Because this isn’t a neurology lecture I won’t tell
you all the (amazing) finer details of how your brain is enabling
you to read this and how millions of nerve cells are making your
hand and finger muscles move the mouse, instead I shall ask you
to indulge me whilst I tell you my summation of my first year at
vet school.
I have enjoyed this last year almost more than I can say. I have
enjoyed every single subject we have covered so far – even
the ones I have found very difficult to understand! I have done
2 previous degrees and a college course but I have truly found my
place here on the veterinary medicine course – it is as if
every fibre of my body needs to be a vet. I know this sounds really
sad and desperate but until you have a dream and can finally start
on the path to that dream you may not understand just what that
feels like.
The material and information that we are privy to is amazing.
At the beginning of the year we would stand in corridors as lecturers
talked about things that were almost like another language to us.
We get taught about so many subjects in such detail that it is sometimes
overwhelming to try and analyse it and make sense of it all –
especially when they’re telling you how to AI (Artificially
Inseminate) a pig and you are in a class room looking at 2D pictures!
But now that we have been on the farm placements and talked to very
experienced farmers and actually done the AI it all becomes so much
clearer.
It is like we have been given a language that only vets and farmers
understand. We can discuss things that no average person would ever
know how to or probably want to discuss. We can look at an animal
and see things Joe Blogs cannot see. It is as though dozens more
colours have been added to our visual spectrum. I am not saying
any of this to belittle Joe Blogs or to put up barriers or endorse
exclusivity I am simply trying to explain just how privileged we
all are to be training to become veterinary surgeons.
We have been given 2; inch-thick booklets of notes to read over
the summer ready for the start of the 2nd year – they are
on parasitology – bring on the bugs! I am confident that each
year gets harder but I’m equally confident that they also
get more interesting.
Oh I guess I should mention that I PASSED all my exams! Yippee!
I had actually planned my whole summer for re-sits in September
but I am going to get a holiday as I’m off to stay with a
friend in the Lake District for a week – and she’s roped
me into helping at her puppy training classes, looks like it’ll
be a busman’s holiday then! Have a great summer and I’ll
see you in the 2nd year.
Judy
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