Officially a 3rd Year Medical Student and 4 Days until USMLE Step 1!

The smile of a 3rd year medical student :-)

My brain has decided it can't take any more studying for the rest of the night, so I figured I would type up a quick update post. As of today, I can officially say that I am a third year medical student, but I take USMLE Step 1 in 4 days (and COMLEX Level 1 in 10 days), so I still have that hanging over my head. I am just so ready to get these board exams over with and start rotations!

I don't think I'll ever feel ready to take these exams, but I've been told that no one ever does. At this point, I probably won't learn huge amounts of new information in the next few days, so I'm just trying to focus on the little mistakes I make, so that it doesn't happen on exam day. Today I headed to campus bright and early to take an 8 hour assessment exam, and while it wasn't too bad, not being given a score when I completed it was a bit frustrating. I heard it might take a week or so to get the results, so I pretty much feel like I could have spent the time doing practice questions at home and using the feedback to work on my weaknesses a little more since I'll have taken my exams by the time the results come in. Oh well! The good news is my stamina is pretty strong because I didn't even start to get tired until maybe the last 50 questions (it was a 400 question exam), so that's assuring.

In other news, my daughter finished school last week and I was so grateful to have my dad drive in from out of state to pick her up for the summer. I'm thankful to have uninterrupted study time, and I know my daughter is happy to have animals to play with and people who constantly interact with her because for the past few weeks I've been in a deep exam mode. But even when she's away she still brightens my day, and the text she sent me the other day was the best (pic at the end of this post). My family also has a huge Disney World and Universal Studios trip planned, so I'm sure she won't even miss me that much.    

But anyway, that's about it for now. I just bought a pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, and I plan on completely zoning out and relaxing for the next hour. My next post will probably be a post-exam update, so hopefully it will be a happy one. Until next time!  

My daughter sends the best texts! :-)