Bad Moon a Risin'

Being in the 11th hour of my Med-2 year is a frightening thing. A lineup of what has to occur over the next 43 days:

1. 8 ISP exams -- endocrinology, gastrointestinal path, reproductive path, ophthalmology, neuro path, psychiatry, hematology, and rheumatic & musculoskeletal pathology

2. Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) training -- two full 8-hour days in April and an exam for certification

3. PCM exam -- April 13

4. CAPSTONE x 4 sessions

5. PD/PCM OSCE (a kind of "hands-on" test where we interview standardized patients and conduct physical exams as well)

6. CAPSTONE exam -- April 25

All of these things have to happen BEFORE I can really start digging into my Step 1 board preparation. I've started using the First Aid series (a nationally recognized prep tool) in my tradition studies in order to familiarize myself with the layout of the texts, and sometime next week I hope to begin the process of working through 2,250 USMLE-style Q-Bank practice questions.

Should I somehow mess up and survive the imminent three-month-long nightmare, I have one of the hardest rotations in all of medicine -- Surgery -- waiting for me on the other end. Yippee.