The second year of med school started yesterday. So far, so good. The second-year lecture hall is much nicer than the first-year one; there are more aisles so people actually fill in the middle, and the HVAC system works better so I’m wearing short sleeves and not freezing. (I was a bit chilly yesterday in a tank top, but not so much that I had to leave, unlike certain times last year.)
Grades are back - while last year was pass/fail, this year we have honors/high pass/pass/fail. Scheduling is by various-length blocks: first we have pharmacology, pathology, and ENT for three weeks, then a week of tests, then the next block is something like two months long. Most of the time we get the Friday of exam week off so there are long weekends to recuperate, which will be nice.
This year is supposed to have a much heavier workload than first year (we don’t usually have afternoons off, for one thing, and we have to learn a lot more data) but it should be a little more interesting because the information is more directly relevant.
Somehow I’ve ended up helping to run several student groups. I’m semi-officially one of the people in charge of the CPR teaching team and the Gay-Straight Alliance. And I’ll continue to be involved with the Perinatal Project (which provides prenatal information to at-risk pregnant women), the Young Scientist Program (which teaches science to school kids), and probably the Reproductive Health program (aimed at middle schoolers). Although that sounds like a ridiculous number of teaching volunteer programs, it’s actually only half or less of the teaching teams that are available here, so I’m restraining myself if you think about it. I do plan to keep teaching test prep as well, but probably only on a substitute basis in the interests of keeping my schedule reasonable.
I might post more if I continue bringing my computer to class. I’ve been wanting to do several posts wrapping up the first-year experience; we’ll see how that goes.