2nd Year

So, second year of med school is proving to be pretty different compared to first year.  The most obvious difference is the instructional style. You could argue you that first year was similar to undergrad with just a LOT more studying.  Scott would go to class, have live or broadcasted lectures, and come home to study.  From a girlfriend/fiancee perspective, I would only see him on the weekends and try to avoid or plan accordingly for the weekends before an exam.  For some reason, med school loves to plan exams on Mondays (as if Mondays need more depressants).

Second year has a completely different feel to it. The school has a more independent study approach.  They assign topics/cases and the students are expected to research it.  Class is less frequent (of course, the price is still the same), and the stress has increased significantly with Step I (the first part in the US Medical Licensing Exams) in less than a year.  Ask me last year, and I probably couldn't have imagined that. The exams are less frequent, which makes studying harder.  For instance, his first test had a three-week window. Without any exaggeration, the exam covered a massive amount of 700 pages of notes.  Good for them, but I don't think I could do it.

From a now wife perspective, second year is plenty different as well. Since I'm working and gone all week, I expected it to be about the same.  The hardest part is probably that his studying can't stop just because he hasn't seen me all week or that I'm finally home and free.  It hasn't been too bad so far (though not an easy adjustment).  We do make meals together and play with the kitties, but the weekend before this last exam involved a lot of random projects to keep myself busy for the rest of the time. I got the house finally cleaned, my sister's family took me to a circus, and you readers got a finished blog.  It's just a different lifestyle... that involves plenty of patience and independence.

That being said, the exam went well. We had to put off a lot of things until this coming week (simple things...like going to the store for shoes)... but there's lots of catching up to do.  It seems like med school, no matter what the year, always involves some catching up...either on studying or whatever lies outside of school.

Our twins, however, don't seem to mind the studying.  In fact, they take advantage of the large books.

With love,