The second round...

So we had our second block exams this past Monday. Upper semester students and professors claimed that this was the hardest block, mostly due to covering Head and Neck in Anatomy since there are a million things to learn and memorize. The whole block was quite amazing even if there was a lot to cover, most of the material was interesting at the very least. Most of the Anatomy was just understanding innervation of the head and neck and how vastly complicated it is, and tying the Embryology aspect into really helped understand why the order of organization is so chaotic. The Molecular and Cell Biology was purely memorization since there is not much logic to the rules of replication, transcription, and translation of genetic material, regardless it just somehow makes sense to me (either the Cell Biology course I took sophomore year at BU was that incredible or my memory is better than I thought). The Histology lectures were haphazard at the very least but Dr. Gilloteaux is amazing, if not just through his accomplishments, then definitely through is ability to teach material he is so passionate about.

I studied a lot through out the block, although I could have paid more attention to Histology, and I did much better than I thought I would after the exams. I vastly improved from the first block overall but I stayed fairly stagnant in the written portion of the Anatomy exam. I think that was partially due to the professors stressing certain material in the lectures and testing on much of the information that was barely touched. In all honesty I can't be too upset because we had the notes and all the information was in the lecture notes. Either way I think I have figured out a better way to study for Anatomy and will implement it this round to see if that works better (and hopefully not worst).

And now a little bit about dissecting:

The dissecting has been awesome! We got to do a butterfly flap through the skin, which is cutting medially and having double door type flaps to either side along with a lateral cut from left to right to separate an upper and lower portion. We were instructed to leave the fat on...only to later find out that the reason for that was to get experience cleaning it off the muscle layers. Although it was time consuming we had ~12 people in group so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Then yesterday after we finished cleaning up we dissected and reflected the pectoral muscles and unfortunately the group members dissecting around there cut into the subclavian veins. We were able to find and dissect around a lateral nerve on one side, only to find out that the TAs would chomp through our beautiful work with power tools and rib cutters to open up the thoracic cavity. Of course lab had ended when they finished that but we did get a sneak peek at the organs in the thorax, which was amazing. The last two days have been great because we have been able to learn how to use all our tools and have gotten a million tips from TAs and professors, which have their ups and downs, but I think starting around the thorax was nice since the structures are very large and easier to dissect before going into the micro structures in the head and neck regions.

Just an aside I will be trying to do some more photography and will hopefully post more pictures soon...thanks for tuning in!