Amanda McConnell
Tuesday, September 23, 2003
6:45 am- My alarm goes off and I hesitantly roll out of bed (I stayed up late the night before working on my CBL (Case Based Learning) case and now I am paying for it.)
7:00- Shower and Breakfast
7:50- Boarding the bus- I chose to live in University Courtyards which is a little over a mile from campus but is still considered within walking distance thus I was not granted a parking pass. Instead, I have to either walk to campus or ride the bus and this morning I was running late so I chose to ride the bus.
8:00- The bus arrives outside of Grosvenor and I hurriedly run to the LRC (our med school library) to return the books I checked out last night.
8:10- Class begins officially at 10 minutes after the hour (we call it OU time.) This morning’s lecture is on Nucleic Acids. Although this lecture is a review for me, it still covers a lot of information so I read the pre-readings and tried to pay attention during lecture. Unfortunately, I fell asleep near the end of class- obviously I didn’t drink enough coffee this morningL
9:10- Dr. Johnson lectures again but this hour is on the topic of DNA and RNA replication. Basically, they just want us to have a review of this material and this hour I stayed awake the entire time!
10:10- OMM lab begin. This two-hour lab is held once a week. Right now we are learning how to diagnosis and beginning to treat some of the dysfunction we found on our partners. I find this class interesting and I am excited to see how I will be able use OMM in my practice.
12:00- Student Luncheon in celebration of National Osteopathic Medicine week. We had three different D.O.’s come and talk to us about having pride in our profession. They also fed us pizza and believe me we eat a lot of pizza around here!
1:00- CBL Groups- Twice a week our CBL group meets to discuss our patient case. The subject of the patient cases reflect the material we are learning in lecture. This is a great way to review the material and ask the facilitator to clarify any questions you may be having.
3:00- Clinical Skills Lab- This class basically prepares you for the ins and outs of being a doctor. Today we discussed how to ask a patient’s history and what to do if a patient is not responding to the treatment you prescribed. This is a very hands on class that is led by 5 D.O.’s in various specialties. I really enjoy it.
4:56- Luckily, I caught the bus in time and didn’t have to wait for the next shuttleJ
5:15- I check my email and called my boyfriend to say hi (he is finishing his undergraduate degree at Wright State so I try to call him a couple of times a day.)
6:00- Dinner. Tonight I made Chicken Helper’s Fettuccini Alfrado- it was quick to make and will last me for several meals.
6:30- Study, Study, Study! I reviewed everything we learned today and some of the material I didn’t comprehend on Monday. I don’t really know the best way to study right now so I am just trying to learn everything from today’s lectures before I go to bed. Tonight I need to understand all of the DNA and Nucleic Acid material as well as my CBL and my Clinical Skills Lab. I have heard from many of the second year students that their biggest piece of advice is to not get behind in your studying. I am trying to adhere to their wisdom and stay on top of my studying.
8:30- I am already tired of studying and I feel like my brain is fried from learning all day so I am heading to my Step Aerobics class!
10:00- Home from aerobics and luckily rejuvenated and ready to study some more but first I need a shower!
10:20- Back to the books… this time I am going to briefly review my notes from today and then I am going to pre-read for tomorrow’s lectures. We have four lectures tomorrow morning so I am going to spend some time preparing for those.
11:30- Putting away the books and calling Ben (the boyfriend) to say goodnight.
11:45- Journaling and bed
Wednesday, September 24, 2003
7:00- Alarm goes off! Time to get ready and eat breakfast (today I had a bowl of Lucky Charms- it was my favorite cereal as a child and still is!)
8:10- First lecture of the morning. Today the topic is DNA Replication. I was a biology major in undergrad so I am pretty familiar with cell biology. Luckily, we don’t have to know all the minute details that we did in undergrad. We basically just have to understand the big picture of replication and how it can relate to clinical cases.
9:10- Translation Lecture. I find this topic to be more difficult but luckily I already read the reading assignment so I don’t feel that far behind!
10:10- Our next lecture is Introduction to Genetics. I am interested in genetics and since this is an introduction I found it to be a review from my undergrad biology course.
11:10- Mutation Lecture. This is our last lecture of the day (we have had four back to back this morning!) Normally, they do not schedule four lectures together but since we are done at noon today I am glad we are getting them over with.
12:00- Lunch with my Mentor. OU-COM does a great job providing support to their students. One of the ways they do this is by allowing first year students to chose a faculty or staff mentor. My mentor is Jill Harman, Assistant Dean for Admissions (you may have met her already and if you haven’t you should!) She is very nice and has fixed me a homemade lunch of spinich rolls and salad today- this is definitely a good reason to sign up for a mentor!
1:00- I decided that I really need to study all day today because this weekend I am going out of town. I started in the LRC by researching my sickle cell case. We have our next group meeting tomorrow and there is a lot of research to be done before we meet. After about an hour of studying my case, I move onto studying my lecture material from today. Each professor assigns a lot of readings but I try to only read those topics that are relevant to the lecture notes and to our assigned objectives. I always make flashcards for the material that I do not know and then I review them during my free time (like while I am waiting for the bus, or even in between classes.)
4:00- I am done studying (for now.) I can only study for about three hours at a time- I think that is the limit of my attention span so I catch the bus to go home. On the way home, I call my mom. I am so blessed to have a wonderful family that is always supportive and encouraging- my mom gives me the positive boost that I needed.
4:30- Check email and review my flashcards from the week.
5:30- Time to workout- tonight I am taking a Cardio Kickboxing class, which should be interesting since I am still sore from last night!
7:00- Back home and in the shower
7:30- Time to hang out with my roomies and fix dinner.
8:00- Study Time… tonight I started by reviewing again what we learned about DNA and RNA these past two days. The majority of the time I spent pre-reading for tomorrow’s lectures on Membrane Transport. I was fortunate to have been introduced to most of these topics during my undergrad but classes here move so fast that you really have to study and review all the time. It is only my third week here so I will let you know if my study habits change but for now I am just trying to study as much as I can.
10:45- Done with studying for the night- yea! Time to relax and watch some TV (yes, I said TV- despite popular belief you will have some time to watch it.)
11:15- Called Ben to say goodnight and I am off to bed!