Reflections of the Exam Week That Almost Broke Me Down.

Ouch.

No, really that is all I have to describe the events of last week that I still would rather not talk about until I get all my grades back - and I am praying that what I will have to talk about will be better than how I felt while taking the exams.

My exam schedule:

Monday:
Pathology Lecture Exam 8AM-10AM
Pathology Lab Exam 2PM-4PM

Tuesday: Off

Wednesday:
Intro to Clinical Medicine
Psychiatry Mental Status Exam 8-9AM
Gastroenterology, Neurology, Physical Diagnosis 9-11:30AM

Thursday:
Genetics 12-2PM

Friday:
Neurology 10AM-1PM

Whew. Even now, it is all a blur.

Every now and then I have that mid-exam freak out while half-way through a question (Friday, it was around question 57 - I had to get to 125...) my mind wanders off about how I "don't know anything" or that "I am going to fail", but I have to stop right then and tell myself to calm down. People are always surprised to find out that I deal with test anxiety, but it's something that you have to actively work on to go away. And it definitely helps to know that you prepared enough for the exam - which I questioned myself about all week.

Some Ecards

I am so relieved it's over, but I have to definitely re-work how I do things, because there was not one exam where I didn't feel like I was cramming until the last second. I know I put the hours in. I barely slept, barely saw my family, and was constantly thinking, dreaming, breathing my notes - but something was off. Last year, I wasn't cramming or missing out excessively on sleep, but I walked out of most of my exams feeling pretty good.

I need to be more efficient with my time - class time and study time. I need to work SMARTER and not necessarily HARDER.