Well this semester is turning out to be a little busier than
I thought! We just got done with a crazy week of exams and as of today, we have
had our first exam of every class we are taking.
Last week we had the first exam in Surgical and Autopsy
techniques. The point of this class is
to apply everything we know along with the College of American Pathologists’
cancer staging guidelines to grossing specimens. We learn what information and sections are extremely
important to submit so the Pathologist can do their job. I knew the exam would
be difficult and that I would have to think a lot. We got our scores back this
week during a meeting with Michelle. No one was super happy with their scores
and the average was fairly low compared to how we have performed through the
rest of the program. Michelle assured us
that she was happy with how we did and pleased with how we thought through
questions…which made me feel a lot better! She knew it was our first exam and a
lot of us ran out of time. Next exam we
will be given more time and now we know what to expect. Even if no one did as well as they thought, it’s
just an exam and it doesn’t mean we are going to make bad PA’s! We are all on the right track, it was just a
learning process and now we move on…
Tuesday we had our first Lab Management exam. This class we take with the undergraduate Clinical
Laboratory Science program and we learn about good management skills, HR
policies within hospitals, and regulating agencies over the different aspects
of health care. She gives objectives for
each section and that is what the exam was based on. I am not going to lie, it was a pretty
straightforward test and we all did really well on it!
The other three exams were today!...yes, that is three exams
on a Friday! Physiology exams are always
at 8am on Friday mornings. We have 9
exams throughout the semester and each unit is taught by a different
professor. Which kind of makes it
difficult to gauge how the exam will be because each professor writes their own
exams. Most of them give us practice
exams beforehand which is nice because you can kind of get an idea of what they
want us to know. They also stick to the rule that for each hour of lecture,
they pull 4 questions from that material.
Each exam has a different number of questions on it based on how many
lectures were in that unit. This was our
second one and the next one is next week.
These exams can be fairly tricky if you don’t read the question and
answers carefully. I have been happy
with my scores so far but I definitely have to think a lot!
Today was also our second Microbiology exam! These exams are 50 multiple choice questions.
So far, I think if you study, you are fairly prepared for the exam. There have
been a few questions here or there that were surprising, but overall, I think
if you study, you should have a good idea of what the answer is.
Our last exam today was Advanced Microanatomy. We had basic
microanatomy in the spring and this semester we still have lectures with
pathologists, but this time they are showing us abnormal histology. We are
given clinical scenarios and Justin shows us a slide under the microscope, and
we have to select the correct diagnosis.
Our exam today was 32 questions and overall it wasn’t that bad! I really like this class and learning the
microanatomy. (but I’d still never want to be a pathologist…I picked the path
of a PA for a reason)
Last weekend, WVU health professional programs hosted a free
tailgate for students and their guests.
They had free food and free beverages before the home game. A bunch of us went a long with a few of the
second year students. It was really nice
to talk to them and hear about how their year of rotations is going. A few of them have already accepted job
offers which is awesome and I am happy for them! They are almost done and it is
crazy to think that will be us next year!
