Test Day!!!!!

I am taking my first of 2 boards this afternoon. Today is the CS or clinical skills portion of the boards where I will be seeing standardized patients from 2:30pm-9:30pm.

then on friday is the CK, clinical knowledge or written portion. I have been studying my brains out and my practice session (1/2 of a real exam) was not stellar at all. It was a pass, but it is with a very small margin and I am totally freaking out. There are 6 areas that need work. And started working on them right away.

I just need to remember to calm down, calm down, calm down. I should take all of the time alloted to me as there is no extra points for finishing fast.

I guess I am very frightened that I will fail the exam and all of the hard work that I put in during these last 4 years will be in vain and I will be in a ton of debt. Last night I was hard pressed to get a good night's sleep. Nerves from both exams were not allowing my brain to get some rest.

I have done everything I could to prepare and I have to have faith in myself that I will succeed. Just like the MCAT, I cannot let this exam psych me out. It is a stepping stone to my career. I have the key, which is the knowledge in my head and now I need to open the door.

Thanks for listening.

COMLEX PE Eve

So at this time tomorrow I will be at the National NBOME clinical skills site taking my PE exam. Meaning that 1/2 of my exams will be over. I have been practicing with my friend for the last month and tonight I will practice a few more with my brother before calling it an evening and relaxing my brain and getting into the zone for tomorrow.

I have had many patient encounters before tomorrow. Not just in my rotations but my school had provided me with a great foundation for what I am about to experience. But still, an exam is an exam. Especially one that your future hangs on.

In less than a week, in fact in 4 days I will be taking the CK portion, the written portion. To date, I have done 1725 practice questions and my averages are around the range I want them to be. Part of the secret may just be to have the confidence in myself that I will pass the exam and that there will be questions on there that I will never know the answer. I am not sure if they are going to throw out those questions or they are designed to separate the men from the boys, so to speak. However, the hardest part of this whole month of studying was not the studying, but rather was to tell my girls "no" when they wanted to play.

Of course, one can say "I will have time to study later, but my children will never be this age again." And while that is true, you need to ask yourself "If I were working a 9-5 job, they would not even be asking me to play because I would be at work right now". Which is why I am a proponent of the quality time versus quantity of time. This weekend, I will certainly rest my brain before getting ready for my Emergency Medicine rotation that starts on Monday. In addition, I need to start preparing for my residency interviews that are coming up.

Hopefully once my board scores come in, I will get more interviews as program directors see that I have passed.

After the boards, the nerve wracking over where I will match will begin and once that comes and goes, then the fun will begin and relaxation can really start. Until of course indentured servitude of internship year starts. But hey, I will be doing what I have always wanted to do and that is be a doctor.