Last trimester, I made a blog post about week 14 being the absolute worst week of the trimester. At the time, it definitely felt that way! Now that I am finished with anatomy courses, and therefore all of the anatomy practical exams, week 14 isn’t so bad! For starters, some classes are cancelled to give us time to study for finals. I will add that the only classes that are cancelled are the ones for which we were able to finish the material. If there was still additional material to learn, the professor is still having class.

I do have two practical exams this week, one in Evaluation and Management (E&M) of Head and Neck, and the other in Manipulations of the Cervical Spine. This may sound strange, but I genuinely enjoy these practical exams. They test our skills and application of the concepts we have learned, all of which directly apply to the way we will treat and assess our future patients.  This is what reminds me that I am going to school to be a physician. Don’t get me wrong, all of our exams are important. However, these type of exams feel more relatable and pertinent to our future practice. In a way, they combine everything we have learned in our other courses, and assess our application of that knowledge. For example, on my E&M practical, I may be asked to do various parts of the cranial nerve exam (for which neuroanatomy, and basic anatomy are relevant). I also have one written final exam this week. The big week is next week, when I will have six finals. But then I am done for a couple weeks! I love the breaks we get between trimesters!

Dr. Kahn, the professor of all the pathology courses, has a tradition where he takes a class photo with all of his students on the last day of class for Systems Pathology II (typically one of the last courses taken in Phase I). Here is our photo!