Good Habits

Well, time for a recount on my habits.

Exercise: slowly getting back into it. Having exercise bikes that I can review work in is a godsend. I still have the same annoying problem of getting stuck with extra laundry and wet towels that I have to carry around all day, which leaves them with the tendency to smell moldy much faster. Since theft is still a potential problem, and running back home in a tropical rainstorm is not my cup of tea, I haven't quite figured out a good solution for this. It definitely helps with my sleep, and considering I've gained ten pounds....

Sleep: has gotten much better since I stopped drinking water after 8pm. I still get thirsty and have dry mouth at night, possible due to the amounts of coffee I drink during the day. It seems to have a pretty strong effect on me these days, even leaving me feeling a bit lightheaded at times. I've added a bit of wine as well just before bed. I haven't quite gotten over the habit of having a snack right before bed, which is a pretty big no-no.

Scheduling: I haven't carried around a schedule book for the last 3 weeks, which is a pretty crappy habit that leads to wasted days, much like yesterday. The first step to efficiency is a to-do list. In fact I am making a to-do list for today as we speak.

Memorization: I still haven't gotten around to using the Method of Loci efficiently, but I feel like there are still improvements over first semester. I tend to study material hard for two days and then expect to know it for the mini, but this is a bad habit from high school that just doesn't work in med school. Since I've started revisiting old material, its gotten somewhat easier.

Study products: there's always a trade-off between making and studying from study products, but its getting better as my notes focus more on testable material.

Food: still eating a lot of healthy soy, beans, cheese, etc, but still lacking in the vegetable department. Their short refrigerator lifespan and generally higher preparation time must be often somehow.


Health: Mentally I've been pretty drained after 3 months of work. I need a weekend soon. Physically, I'm noticed some localized back pain, which seems to be responsible for a lot of the pain in my thigh and glutes. I don't really know how to proceed with this though besides the occasional massage. It seems to be caused due to a slight tilt when I stand, caused by my left quads being more flexed than my right quads.

Damn it

Damn it anatomy. Again?!?
I hate you with the fury of a thousand burning suns. If suns could feel fury...or anything besides gassy, really.

In unrelated news: I can't remember how long its been since I've gone to a club. I need music.

Weekends

Today is a non-exam Saturday. This means I'll be lounging in bed for a few hours, catching up on some television, and while cleaning up the house I even had a chance to listen to a 2009 lecture on the beginning and the end of the universe. One of these days, I really need a Physics day to really consolidate my understanding of General and Special Relativity, as well as read up on the latest lay audience presentation on dark matter. Its just one of those things I've read time and time again, and each time I approach it from a new angle and realize I previously had a complete lack of understanding of how the universe works.

Its been a while since I've evaluated where I stand in school/life with my previously set goals. I've been putting it off, for fear of disappointment. Grades haven't risen to levels I kept hoping for, and each time I adapt my routine to fix a mistake I previously made, a new one gets made in the process. My greatest weakness in school has probably been the integration of anatomy and histology between classroom material and practicals. Anatomy is a big subject, and while they've opened up a brand-spanking new lab full of lights and computers and tables, the students I've spoken with feel that the quality of the lectures is beyond sub-par. Combined with the fact that anatomy lectures contain more information per lecture hour, require more work after each lecture, have presentation material relying on reproduced images that lack context, and is worth less than all other material on the test...

Or, in an equation:    

lots of info X lots of work X not worth much to my overall grade X bad lectures X bad teaching material X tough exam questions = Arthur is not interested in busting his ass over material that won't be asked on the STEP exam

Of course, the work is the tricky one. The whole relating objects to other objects...just not my cup of tea. Some people just get anatomy easier than others. Personally, I have terrible visual-spatial skills. If you've ever been in a car with me when I took a wrong turn, you'll know. My earliest test scores in grade school excelled in every subject except for basic cartography/geography. My performance on practicals are, as a whole, below average, because I'm asked to recall a specific image of stained cells or brain slices and it is not my strength. I still don't know which way North is on the island and I've lived here for over 5 months.

So when asked on a practical to identify a tagged  nerves/arteries/veins/whatever in a specific part of the body, I choke easily. Everything looks the same, damnit! Once I've identified the tagged structure, I'm in the zone, but out of the 45 seconds total, the identification easily takes 30 seconds, which leaves 15 seconds to read the question, recall everything about that structure, and choose the right answer.

During my first anatomy practical I applied the standard approach of studying the lecture material. Lo and behold, I received a poor grade. So on the next anatomy practical, I doubled my time studying, only to
receive the exact same grade. For the neuro practical, I used a study guide, went over every image multiple times, and easily spent twice as much time as the average student studying for the neuro practical, and still scored lower. Its disheartening.

Lesson learned: spending more time on a problem won't always fix that problem

So this time, I stripped everything out and completely ignored the lecture material for the most part. I created mind maps (easily 10 of them) showing the path of each nerve's progression, consolidating every reference to it in anatomy prosection videos, video aids, lectures from other universities, practice questions...the whole gamut. The grades on the practical still aren't out, but I felt immensely more confident identifying structures this time around. A lot of this, though, was due to luck. After learning as much as I could, I still needed to spend time in the lab practicing identifying structures through the muck, and fortunately one of the fellow students did two of the dissections that I was weak in (as my group wasn't scheduled for it; each group only dissects 1/3 of the material). If it wasn't for her...I don't even want to think about the alternative.

This is when I realized the problems still go deeper that what I listed above. Being on an island, Ross received its cadavers in a...'delayed' situation thanks to the slow shipping that the Windward Islands experience. Which means they are usually well past their prime date by the time they are received. The students who are the ones dissecting the bodies, often do a relatively poor job, but then again I don't blame them considering what they have to start with. Because of a lack of bodies/space, different groups rotate through dissections and so you can only physically experience 1/3 of all the dissections that are testable. Its up to those students to also teach the other students what they identified and learned during the dissection, but once again they often don't do a bang-up job. If you come in during your off hours to try and independently study the material, you have to pick and choose between different cadavers to identify all the structures, and even then, you're not sure if you are identifying something correctly or not because there are a lack of tagging/naming. The only time this occurs is when the hired TAs produce professionally dissected 'prosections' and give you a 10 minutes explanation of what you should expect, and even that is only offered in the first semester. Additionally, students are not allowed access to these outside of TA hours.

An additional problem is that our hired anatomy TAs are, while hardworking, often at odds with each other and with the profs. In fact, the one thing the entire anatomy department lacks is cohesion, and this is likely the root of the problem (not unlike this post). One question will, quite literally, receive 5 different answers depending on who you ask. Each official has a different opinion on the answer to a question, at what point one nerve becomes another, what is testable/significant/right/wrong.

A picture may be a thousand words, but those thousand words differ between who you ask.
Instead of throwing up 200 pictures of the human body during lecture/lab and leaving it up each individual to define it, they need to write a definitive guide in text. Using Grant's Dissector is a start, but with each deviation they include, it becomes less useful. The truth is, anatomy is a difficult subject because each body has variations, and depending on where an official was taught, they may have learned something different.

So to fix up this problem, they need two things:
A) Have one Ross-specific text to rule them all, and in the Caribbean bind them, and actually adhere to it. No more differing opinions.
B) Have interactable professionally-dissected prosections that are available whenever the lab is open. Have all the structures tagged so students aren't guessing whether their colleagues dissection is right/wrong.
C) Find out what the hell other universities are doing to teach anatomy. If you are using a grainy image thats pre-2001 and still being paid to teach...do your job. There are flash videos and animations out there. Google is your friend. Why am I using Google as your replacement?

Anyways, that's enough of a rant on anatomy. I'll be done with it in just another 2 months.

 I skipped out on a Boiling Lake Hike and even a Halloween party last night, mostly because I've just become disinterested in extracurricular activities. Its not exactly a great sign, but then again I've been letting myself go lately. Sleeping in as I usually do on the weekends leaves me with a headache, and I've been staying up again when I know I should be in bed. My lack of self-control in that regulating bedtime is actually a pretty big letdown, but last night was probably the first time in a while I shut off the laptop and just went to bed at 11. Truth be told, watching lectures for hours a day leaves a strain on the eyes, and even now I have a headache that only time away from the computer can solve. Sadly I have too much work to do today, but hopefully I'll get some time tomorrow.

July 19

After nearly 2 months, of travelling, the Angels of Mercy and Crafts arrived in Dominica. I am, of course, referring to the package sent by two friends that were residing in Toronto (who are transitioning towards the Montrealer side of things, no doubt for the poutine). Included in the package were muffins, wall-decoration for my dreary room, and among all...glitter. everywhere.

Which brings me to an important point: Glitter is the herpes of the crafting world. If you catch it, anyone you interact with will catch it, and its impossible to get rid of.

Today was a good day. The schedule is overloaded as hell because Friday is a mandatory day off, which means lectures from 8-5 this week, followed  by studying afterwards. Nonetheless, its been a great day.

Scratch that. I just killed 3 roaches in my apartment. It's been downgraded to a good day.

Ave Maria

Thanks to a late-night visit by Domlec electricians, I once again have 110V electricity in my apartment, which should make the coming weekend slightly better.

Never mind, it looks like the weekend is going to suck, as Tropical Storm Maria is definitely headed our way (http://www.stormpulse.com/atlantic?desc=NHC&idx=18&trk=1&sid=201114&lat=15.465&lon=-60.718&z=3&rd=0&cd=0&tk=1&ww=0&mo=0&sl=0&ht=0&mg=0&ob=0&wf=1&ml=1&ql=0). Just seconds ago it started pouring cats and dogs (and a few lizards and beetles).

And just like that, its over....for now.

Rock Me Like A

http://weather.gov.dm/weather_bulletin.php

Upside

While I've had a rougher st,art to the semester than I hoped, there have been positive developments in Ross and the community. Firstly, the semester's organization was changed and the first 6-week block was divided into 2 mini blocks, which will hopefully make studying for the block exam easier. Secondly, there are a few new food shacks that have opened up, serving great bakes, wraps, and tacos. Thirdly, the water filtration system seems to have undergone a major upgrade, as the taste and smell of the water now is far superior to even the best of times a month prior.

I'm also glad to see that our school has a crosswalk with bright LED lights and a sign, making this the first traffic sign I've seen since landing on Dominica months ago. The weather has been relatively pleasant (ie no hurricanes or thunderstorms as of yet), the number of midnight encounters with river crabs is at an all-time low, and I haven't even seen or heard a single critter in my apartment yet.

As far as personal development, I've since started using a notebook for additional learning/diagrams, and have started going to class (gasp!) instead of video-streaming. I've also begun 3 minutes of jump rope exercises each morning, which I hope to increase to 10 minutes, and eventually even add some running in the afternoons.

EDIT
time: 20 minutes after post
location: library
Well, I was wrong about the weather.

Somewhere

My fist sits, waits, it bides its time until the day I meet the engineer that developed my cursed air conditioner. Despite the multitude of modes, levels, and timers built into this monstrocity, then only setting it seems to produce is cold. Extreme cold. Waking up at 4AM because I can't feel my toes cold. Waking up at 6:30 again because my 4AM foray into the world of air conditioning was able to bring pain back into my toes. Anger soon followed.

I suppose the trip back hasn't been the smoothest. Luggage was delayed, my home's 110V circuit is broken (leaving only my fridge, lights, and a cursed AC unit working), and the material is piling up faster than my plate at Mandarin. Hell, even my trusty umbrella has abandoned me. WHY UMBRELLA WHY? I CAN CHANGE! I seem to have left my cap back home, as well as my wristwatch, both of which will be annoying to replace in the time being.

 Nonetheless, progress is being made, as the landlord's been called and slowly on his way. Furthermore, the unfortunately early start this morning gave me a whole hour to organize my apartment after my bag finally came in. I was also lucky enough to finish my banking in less than 30 minutes and even pay my rent.

Over the months here, I've noticed a slightly hightened awareness of scheduling, planning, and greatly strengthened memory. Its like my lazy brain finally received a wheelchair, and its rolling around yelling "WEEEEEE! as things get done. I was kind of hoping for a more noticeable change, as I seem to have an everlasting cloudyness to my brain, but at least, for a few minutes a day, its down to a light mist (maybe even a rainbow).

Neurology is....a lot of words. And for each word, there are another 8 words that can alternatively be used to name the location. Each location has some function, and of course this function's limitations change drastically depending on whom you ask. ie "the artery does NOT pass through this hole" vs "well actually the artery DOES pass through the hole". Fuuuuuuuu. Not sure what else to write, I can't really remember anything thats happened in the last 7 hours of lecture. Mental block. by which I mean a wooden block that I beat my head with every night so I can sleep in peace (possibly due to bleeding of the middle meningeal artery).


EDIT
time: about 2 hours after this post.
location: my house.
"KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHN!"

Daily Double Edit
time: midnight, 3 hours after I bought much electricity.
location: my house.
"DOMLEC YOU %$@^ I AM GOING TO $#!!@ YOU IN THE EYE-SOCKET UNTIL YOU @#$7%  IN THE #@$%"

As my observant readers can probably guess, there was still no electricity.

The Checklist

There are days when I just have no will left to study. I've taken a few hours off, had a coffee, talked with friends, exercised, kept a positive attitude, and most importantly slept well, but I sit down at a table with hundreds of pages of work to review and my mind will be less compliant than a rock. The most prominent enemy in med school is outward, in the challenge of countless theoretical and practical examinations. Every lecture is not just a preparation for eventual practice, but first a tome that must be memorized and scrutinized to the smallest detail.

However, the enemy that lies within is one I've gotten to know well here. The longer I stay here, the more I view my mind/brain as a separate entity from my self. It is a machine, a calculator that can retain information, crunch it, and spit out results, but its tempermental as hell and needs more fine tuning than an Italian car. I spend a good chunk of my day just controlling the conditions that will allow me to work through the tasks of the day. Yesterday, I had everything necessary except specific goals, and as a result I just half-heartedly went through my notes and questions, only recognizing later how inefficient my progress was. Today, I started by going through a hundred practice questions, just to identify my weak subjects, and plan on addressing the individual points I've identified thus far.

Good hunting, fellow students of life!

Downhill

Walking to the library, I went from cool and collected to flying into some sort of epileptic seizure in under two seconds. Turns out I walked into some sort of anthill and paid for it. Bigtime. Goddamn ants. First my cereal, then my feet? You've gone too far.

Fortunately, this was shortly after visiting the pharmacy. Why the pharmacy? Well, I somehow managed to damage my ulnar nerve while I was sleeping (or possibly during a game a few days prior), leaving tingling and a slight decrease in sensation along my left pinky. As a result, I need to wear a sling over the next few days...just prior to my midterm. The only upside to this is that, waking up, I was able to self-diagnose the nerve using knowledge from my previous midterm, so not a total loss, I suppose.

If bad news comes in threes, I don't look forward to the rest of the night.

Canada Day

I've lost track of what day or week it is. There are only classes and days remaining until midterm. The questions...so many questions.

The ground shakes, drums... drums in the deep. We cannot get out. A shadow lurks in the dark. We can not get out... they are coming.

please sir, can i have some more

It's days like this I consider buying 5 Hour Energy.

Sadly, nobody sells 5 Hours of Sleep.

Stupid Brain. Stay asleep damnit. I woke up around 4:30 AM this morning and immediately started reciting the muscles attaching to the pes anserinus, as well as the medial rotators of the gluteal region. This is why I should never study at home. A combination of Netter's Interactive Atlas (convoluted UI, excellent images but limited manipulative) and Google Body (inaccurate, limited in naming certain structures such as foramen, very manipulative and useful) proved to be a good tool for just repeatedly pounding the anatomical structures into my head. I've consistently scored low on the anatomy questions in both my first and second test, despite nearly doubling the time I spend studying for it, which means I need to change my approach. Thus, I've been simply using software (and hopefully more in-lab time) to look at the same structure from 10 different angles, depths, and flavours of coffee in order to really nail the relations between muscles. This takes time out of studying innervations and blood supply, which I'll need to catch up on another time.

I couldn't go back to sleep, so after half an hour I just turned on the laptop and started going over some old and new material. By the time 7AM hit, I was toast. Blah.

Rest and Relaxation

Today....was fantastically lazy. In bed until 10, skyped with family for a while, seeing as its Father's Day weekend. Got all my laundry done, cleaned, exercised, shopped, swam and tanned at the beach. But the only thing I will remember from this night is making pan-fried hamburgers that taste identical to my grandmothers'. I've been here for just under two months, and the first time I feel homesick is from eating a crappy burned hamburger. The taste brings back memories spanning decades. The only weakness of the burgers was that they kept falling apart. Part of the problem is that my chunks of onion and tomato that went into the ground beef were too large. However, I spent a few minutes reading up on the problem, and the advice is as follows: use fresh, unfrozen, cool (not cold) meat with a higher fat content (max 80% lean),  firming the edges with your fingers, only flipping the burger once, and not pressing the meat while its cooking. Also recommended was having a dimple on the inner sides, such that the burger resembles a red blood cell, allowing for more even cooking. Sadly, I'm bound by what little IGA stocks, so if the next few trials don't turn out fantastic, I may end up using breadcrumbs, eggs, or even ground pork as binding material.

The mashed sweet potato was ok. It did not bring back any memories.

The Sriracha Chili Sauce, on the other hand, is so mind-blowing it may actually replace ketchup in my life. It is the magical rooster of flavour.

I headed back to the library at 8:30pm, because I'd feel too guilty at having a day of total relaxation. Not that there's anything left to do besides going to a bar, but I've gotten pretty bored of drinking. Moreso, I wanted to think about ways of killing my next biggest time waster.

For years, my greatest problem was focus, being able to stick to one task for any period of time exceeding 30 seconds. I'm glad to say I've found ways to get past this by finally being in a field I am passionate about, but the new bully on the block is inertia. Starting work in the morning can be a drag, especially if you ever take a look at my schedule and the work that needs to be done. Its easier to just reading some news, check emails....and poof, an hour has flown by. To defeat morning inertia, I tend to spend 30 minutes at home just browsing the net and finish up all my time-wasting there. That way, when I get to the library, I can focus straight on the work.

However, its the breaks that kill me. I can focus for a good 30 minutes without a problem, but I haven't been putting the brakes on my breaks (terrible pun) after the mandatory 5 minutes I institute for myself. Over the day, the breaks that become 10, even 20 minutes long can easily combine to form a significant fraction of a day. In any library setting, having a beeping alarm is a hassle, as it needs to be configured, or i need to wear headphones to hear it, so the optimal solution has not quite fallen in my lap yet. Soon, though, soon.

The next biggest problem is "post-prandial somnolence" (feeling sleepy after a meal). Trying to study soon after a meal tends to give headaches, and while a short 10 minute nap at home can alleviate this, I would be hard-pressed to spend the +25 minutes walking there and back. I have no clue how to tackle this either. I've changed up the diet to include more salad, but this just leaves me feeling a chronic lethargy instead of a headache. Anyways, back to the drawing board.

EDIT:
While laying in bed, it occured to me that the meals causing the greatest degree of post-meal sleepyness contained a good deal of salt. After the current batch of burgers run out, I'll give a whack at

The long road

Its been a few tough days. The midterm was a challenge that I met full-force, but burnt out immediately after. It took almost three days to mentally recover, and during this time I kept dragging myself to a library to study for the two practicals that I had the following Tuesday. This strategy proved a failure. A friend suggested just taking entire days off and actually recovering, instead of creating a non-stop flow of stress, and while this never felt right for me, its something I need to consider should the situation arise again.

One fact about studying I was taught a month before arriving, which has proved invaluable to preventing failure thus far: what feels right isn't always right. As in, while it feels better to study to 1AM and completely catch up for the night, that strategy shoots yourself in the foot. While it feels like a waste of time to hit the gym when it means you create one more hour of work to catch up on during the weekend, the stress it relieves keeps you working throughout the week at your best, and in fact minimizes your overall work. Taking a quick break every 30 minutes may seem idiotic, but it gives your brain time to memorize and store everything it just learned.

Thus, the fatherly advice I've been given my entire life of "work all day and night" nearly cost me to fail two practicals from the overwork. Over a short period of time, I can see that advice being helpful, but over a period of four years...well, following that mantra, you won't last four years here. Sometimes you have to move sideways in order to move forward.

The Big Sleep

Having studied for weeks, the examination on Friday took more of a toll on my mind and body than I had bargained for. I spent the rest of Friday in a daze, unable to concentrate on the lab notes I wanted to go over, failing to relax at a poolside, failing in my attempt to take a 10 minute nap (which lasted 3 hours), and finally a half-hearted attempt to go out and celebrate in the evening. After about 5 minutes, I was sure I didn't even want to be at the bar, but I stayed for only one reason: avoiding regret. When you only have one chance every month to go out and party, choosing to stay home and sleep or read can elicit those feelings of regret that I have felt too often in my life. I don't want to imagine all the things that I could be missing. That's why I would rather go out, have a crappy time on Friday night, and try to recover the next day.

Except that Saturday had other plans for me. The sleep schedule was still a wreck, and despite sitting in a study room for hours, I could barely even memorize a few simple concepts, which translates into a big waste of time. In the end, I just called it a night and hoped I could make up for the work in the remaining two days. went to dinner and had a delicious salad with wine. This snowballed into an open-mike night, ice-cream, finding a cow that had snuck onto campus, drinks, and even some hookah and pizza.  All in all, a damn good night. I feel much more prepared today for the work that will soon follow. 

EDIT: I lied, it was a terrible day.

Eureka!

I've finally figured it out. My air conditioner, which uses various symbols like water, snow, and triangles to configure, does have a timer OFF switch. It took me 20 minutes of testing, but I finally have that sweet, sweet hour of sleep between 5AM and 6AM unbroken by noisyness and the cold. I received a whole 7 hours of sleep last night. Seven. Hours. Unbroken. You wouldn't believe how it feels.

I also may have discovered the cause of stomach, which has been in some pain since the first weeks I arrived. While initially assuming it was caused by food, stress or even just low exercise, I'm fairly certain its actually the temperature in the library. Including a few heavier layers has really improved my functionality day to day.

With a midterm coming up, I haven't had much time to sleep, much less write. I've wanted to discuss the biggest contributors to my procrastination in the morning and the evening, how I've been hoping to deal with them. I've also wanted to talk about other factors, like the effects of nutrition and sleep debt on energy levels. However, each of these could be a post within itself. If I had the time, I could write chapters and chapters of easy solutions to big problems and cite the most up-to-date research on the various topics I've been dealing with, but sadly that's just not possible. It took me three days to even get this short post done.

Mini Test is tomorrow, see you on the flipside!

No True Scotsman

This marks the end of my fourth week of classes, and in all honestly it feels like it started last week. I'm somewhat surprised at what I can remember from the first weeks of class, enough that I can recognize some sort of long-term memories being made. For any that are familiar with Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning, I came to recognize shortly before my arrival that my entire undergraduate experience (and the resulting GPA) was very much so a product of being stuck on the first 2 levels, which consist of passive learning/memorization. Nowadays you can see me drawing arteries and dermatomes on myself or repeating ridiculous mnemonics involving singing oxes and sixties teens.

Nonetheless, Ive found that my focus as of late has been slipping. Whereas I kept a solid no-distractions policy during my initial weeks, I find myself more and more temped to visit Facebook/email/etc during the boring parts of lectures.  Every Friday evening, I see diminishing returns after 5pm, despite knowing that I must begin catching up the next morning. I used to feel threatened that friends could find the time to go swimming/snorkeling, but I just focus on myself these days. Hell, the reason I spend more time in the library is most likely because of my own distractions in studying as of late. Part of these distractions is no doubt in the beliefs in succeeding. Keeping your nose to the grindstone can be challenge when you expect results to go nowhere, and sadly the human brain is wired for lazyness.

Getting used to the idea of always being behind on your work is a very odd one, but every senior I've spoken with has confirmed that it is simply the reality of med school. Last night, in the midst of a glass of brandy, I realized a change of perception was necessary. I was always being chased by a wolf, and the farther I fell behind, the more the pressure of assignments, readings, and lectures would get to me. I'd start feeling the wolf biting at my ankles, and when I'd finally fall, well...that's the end.  I still spend my days trying to catch up. This, time, however, I'm the one chasing the wolf. The wolf is always faster and stronger you or I, but the only way to win the race is just to never give up.

Need to buy a machete....

Up for hours last night, couldn't sleep because there was no electricity and without an A/C and many open windows, the room gets really hot. Turns out one of the settings on the A/C unit that I accidentally initated a week ago put the electricity use on overdrive, and finished a month of electricity in half the time I expected. I can also say goodbye to a little bit of food in my fridge, but I haven't had the time to stock up on perishables lately, so its not a big loss, just some leftovers.

The anatomy TA session last night was quite educational, and somewhat helped allay my fears about the brachial plexus, but I still have a while to go before applying the nice and orderly drawing to the mess that is the human body. Furthermore, a break-in and confrontation between a student and hatchet-wielding burglar haven't added to my ease.

I was fortunate enough to receive a letter from a friend today, written on the back of a McDonald's napkin, as well as a review of the food and weather in Ireland. This puts it as letter number 2 that has been received! What are you waiting for, lazy Torontonians! It'll take a month to arrive, so get started soon.

 I have also taken the plunge and drank Starfruit juice for the first time, but I find the taste less palatable than many of the other fruits found on the island.

Schedule Zero

At 7pm last night, I was the closest I've been to catching up to the required hw since I started. Three more hours would have put me at the cusp of being proactive instead of reactive. Sadly, at 7:01 my brain just completely gave up. It was a bit disheartening to know all that work would carry over to the next day. I feel that part of the reason was the switchover last week to completing a lecture fully, instead of alternating every 30 minutes as I originally had planned. I've sequestered into blocks of 30 min, with 10 minutes between (of which I expect 5 minutes to be a break). My current schedule for the day looks as such:

• 10:30 - 11:00  =  watch anatomy of forearm lecture
• 11:10 - 11:40 = dr yin's lecture
• 11:50-12:40 = watch remainder of connective tissue lecture i was reviewing this morning
• 12:40-1:00 = lunch, relaxing walk on beach
• 1:00 - 1:30 = work on PBL assignment
• 1:40-2:20 = review arm/cubital fossa/forearm lecture

and so on and so forth until probably 8.

The other main difficulty I've been trying to overcome is just mood and happyness in general. I feel that general mood plays a huge role in my daily performance, and exploring new factors that stimulate it is a large and potentially useful area. However, happyness differs for everyone. I've found that studying around people instead of alone is much more stimulatory, and keeps me going for hours past the point at which I would otherwise give up. On some days, instead of going to the library I stuck on a deck that overlooks the ocean and distant parts of the curved island (though, not being a study area, this can be a loud area with annoying mosquitoes and dogs begging for food. and apparently spiders...). Sunlight and walks on the beach are also nice. I also found that even just the smell of coffee improves my mood.

Music is on and off, as it can be distracting for the brain (ever notice how in difficult traffic you always turn down the radio?) and I don't have the time to constantly search for new music that stimulates me. Going to the gym should work, but I have to haul everything on top of my heavy backpack, and not every workout is relaxing. Last night, for example, I sent an hour trying to tire my body out, but couldnt even get a good 20 minutes worth of exercise.  Food is good, but that can also be a stress response as well. Playing a few sports would be great, but takes more organization, and I don't know many students that currently participate in them. I find cooking to be somewhat relaxing, but haven't had a decent 30 minutes to myself in weeks now.

One last issue: the last few days I have been experiencing extreme dehydration. I would finish a liter of water, and my mouth would still feel dry, my throat parched. After ruling out several possible factors, I stopped drinking from my water bottle, and within a few hours the symptoms had dissipated. Overall a very odd experience. Despite their supposed new non-BPA formula, I dont think I will be returning to my Nalgene anytime soon.
Anyways, back to work. There goes my next three breaks.

Desert Storm

I forget how hot it can get here. I was going crazy at home and in the library, so I went to play ball hockey at 8AM with a few people I haven't met before...and it was glorious. Feel uber refreshed now, and I just went through half a litre of water in 2 gulps, as well as an omelette and strawberry/passionfruit juice. Oh and a banana. You can never forget a banana on this island. As Fox, my neighbour-living-in-a-shack said, 'Have a great day in paradise today.'

Oh, and apparently being Canadian imparts some special status among students for ball hockey skills. Thanks Rada, for the generous invite, and thank you, Natalie, for forcing me to leave the books for an hour.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I feel like todays been a much more efficient day than I could have possibly imagined. Its 6pm and I've already gone through work that I expected would take me until 10pm. Using that double-speed feature to listen to lectures is much more powerful than I could have imagined. I was in so much flow today that when I had a headache at around 5pm, it took me a few minutes to realize I hadn't eaten since 10am. Guess there's a first time for everything.

Rough Tides

By last evening, I had become really anxious in terms of the amount of work I still needed to go through, to the point where it was severely obstructing my thought flow. Its easy to lose one's self in this wandering path of many trails, and can become destructive if left unchecked. I was lucky enough to have a friend see something was wrong with me and force my studious ass outside of the library by 7pm to actually eat a meal that day. Not studying for even 3 hours really gave me a chance to relax, 2 hours of which I couldn't stop thinking of going back to the library and cracking open the books/powerpoints. In that last hour, I finally gave myself an evaluation what I had been doing right and wrong.

I had fallen into "memorize everything" syndrome, which leads to high amounts of stress and less learned. Part of it is no doubt catalyzed by the sleep disability I seem to have acquired, where I can now only get about 5 hours a night, and it continuous to wreak havok on my ability to take in new material. I am going to the health clinic tomorrow to try and deal with it before this gets out of hand.

I've never considered myself an academic success, so falling into particular habits is already a fear of mine, and seeing others understand and remember concepts with ease just reinforces the bad thought spiral. I need to stop focusing on others, and just focus on the process.

Relaxing songs of the day:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4KOCHxUifY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8a4iiOnzsc

Dragon Stout

My brain hit the wall at about 7:30 last night...I spent about 10 minutes trying to read a lecture, and I realized I hadn't absorbed a single word of it. No point spending the rest of the night in the library pointlessly, so I went out for a nice dinner for a change (ie anything costing more than $15USD). Had ribs with a few friends...glorious ribs. Afterwards went to a bar for a few drinks, and woke up quite lazy this morning. This means I'm behind and have no real urge or energy to get started. I need to get in the zone soon, as Ive wasted 20 minutes in the library already. Maybe I'll have a coffee.

As I may have mentioned earlier, I tried a new method this week, where instead of watching lectures in class and then filling in the gaps at home, I just watch them online once, slowly, but completely. The benefits are that I should theoretically spend less time going back and forth between class and library, and because there's less hectic management, I should have a more complete understanding of the material instead of letting small holes accumulate. It has an inherent weakness, in that I spend less time revisiting a concept between lecture/filling gaps/notetaking, and memorization tends to work best through repetition. Nonetheless, I feel as though the repetition I used to be doing was mostly passive, and only on the lower order of Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning, so not a huge loss. 

Another problem is that by spending more time on each subject every day and actually recalling/memorizing it in one step (as opposed to putting it off for the weekend), I don't have enough time to continually be caught up in class with other students that attend lecture daily. I fall behind, especially as the weekend nears, but then catch up. Its a "slow and steady wins the race" approach. Nonetheless, it can be disheartening to hear students discuss material I haven't reached yet, and requires continue mental reminders that the process is slower but potentially more complete.

With video lectures, the onus is on the student to make his/her own schedule, and there have definitely been some adjustments that need to be made. I found that in the last few days, I spent too much time on a single lecture trying to learn all the minute details, and this set me behind. While I've been slowly getting better at setting a cap on the amount of time I study, I haven't really put a maximum time per lecture, and this set me further behind than I would have liked at this point. But then again, it feels like we're always behind. 

Anyways, I'm going to get a coffee to kick start my focus and hit the books. Hopefully go out for dinner again tonight, if I can make the rest of today count. Oh, and I passed by exam. With the next test including more material and of increasing difficulty, I expect the exam average to dip slightly. Additionally, as the other MERP students who took a pre-med semester start running out of school topics that they have already studied and are all exposed to completely new material, I expect their average to dip slightly, which should hopefully push me slightly higher above the slightly higher than average than I am currently. 

Apologies for the terrible grammer and sentence structure, as I've been falling back into the habit of not including personal pronouns, which I blame on 3 years of Japanese. 

Domo Arigato, Mr Roboto.

News From Home

Its easy to get affected by news from home. In my case, the passing of an uncle and his subsequent funeral today really kept me from focusing well yesterday. Combined with bad practices, I fell behind a few lectures, but I was ready to tackle them today...until I got hit with stomach illness #2 since I got here. I'm not sure if its the heavy A/C or a bad avocado I had this morning, but I've had to leave the library and I'm currently sitting on a seaside dock, where everything in stomach-land has calmed down.

It's probably the lack of A/C that has helped most with reducing, but the calming waves and chirping birds also help. I'm back in the mood to learn and regurgitate this information (as opposed to regurgitating my breakfast).

The bad practice, by the way, is spending more than 3 hours on any one subject. After the second hour, you start seeing diminishing returns. After many hours, I took a break and hit the gym, but I had wasted too many hours at that point on the same lecture. In the evening, I went to an anatomy tutorial, which proved quite useful in explaining some concepts that weren't covered well in class.

I must look back at instituting time-boxing.

Anyways, I'm rambling. Back to work.

Control

I try to stay keep everything in control, damnit. I make sure to seal the gaps, plug the holes, keep something small from exploding into a large situation I can't control. Today, I came this close to losing it.

I am, of course, speaking of the ant that somehow got into my Raisin Bran. Despite closing the opening securely, a tiny hole in the bag was hiding near the bottom, out of sight and mind. Waking up and grabbing a cereal is one of my few enjoyable tasks. Why do you have to take that from me? I asked this question as I devised the best way to deal with this ant...then I got tired of thinking and just tossed the cereal bag in the freezer. I'll deal with it later, and just sort through that bag of cereal very carefully in the future. All those jokes I've made about eating ants have become a possible reality.

There's something odd about being the first person in the library. Considering how lazy I can get at times, I don't always expect myself to leave the house by 6:50 and start hitting the books by 7, but some days I surprise myself. Truth be told, the library is the one thing about Ross that I have yet to see most other med schools match.While the actual building itself is small, with only a single floors and contains perhaps a few thousand books and periodicals, it remains open from 6AM - 5AM. That's 23 hours every day. And of course, this policy applies to the five other classrooms that are usually dedicated for study. You've probably heard the saying 'give a man a fish, and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.' I tend to rely more on a quote attributed to Bernard Shaw: "If you teach a man anything, he will never learn." I interpret it as meaning that that a person needs to teach his or herself, actively and with intent. A school can hire the best teachers in the world, and while the best can reduce complex ideas to simple components, use straightforward metaphors, speak clearly, maintain organizational structure, offer clear expectations and express enthusiasm, at the end of the day, a student needs to sit his ass down and read.

Well, thats a lie. Its also possible to study standing up, if one takes the time to set up a standing desk. I've noticed a  definite enthusiasm and aggressiveness when I used to work standing up, so if you don't mind the alternate lifestyle, consider giving it a try.

Nonetheless, the few times I do hope for a definition that isn't available on the internet, there are more enough books in this library to help. Worst case scenario, send of an email to a prof asking for clarification.

Anyways, I decided to spend today watching webcasts of my lectures instead of going to the actual lecture hall. I've found that for certain couses, the material is so foreign that I feel like I'm just sitting under a waterfall with only a small bottle of crazy glue to stop it. I've taken to watching the webcasts, pausing to find each new definition, and then resuming. Slow and steady wins the race sometimes.

FU

4AM, why do you refuse to let me sleep past you on the morning of my exam. What troll-guarded sleep bridge tax do I need to pay?

Another tip: always shower and dress sexy to an exam, even if it means giving up that one last review. Unless you know the material inside and out, chances are you aren' t feeling particularly confident on your test performance. Some of the self-confidence from looking good might rub off on your test, and you'll be more likely to recall a memory at the crucial moment if you're in a state of cool stress, as opposed to heightened stress.

But then again, do I need a reason to look good? :P

I should write about the time I took an orgo chemistry final with a tuxedo...scored an A in that class.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Finished exam a few hours earlier, then took a nap to make up for the 4AM wakeup. As soon as I woke up, my mind started going over the facts I had studied the night before, despite the fact that sleep would be much better for me at that point in time.

It really goes to show just how in tune your mind can get. Even a groggy  morning and I was still ready to jump out of bed with a shotgun full of nerve innervations. During the exam, there were more than a few questions which I recalled directly from the lecture but hadn't bothered studying for. Its almost scary how much information it picks up, whether you try or not.

I felt like I recognized a large percentage of the topics on the exam and answered them well. There were a few questions whose topic I recognized, such as lymph nodes and blood vessels, but hadn't been able to reach after falling ill earlier this weekend and losing an entire day's worth of studying. With only 5 pages remaining in the lecture, I ended up going to sleep at 11:15 pm (which is already past my bedtime) in order to try and maintain a schedule. That didn't happen. Of course, the only question on that entire lecture came from the last of the pages I didnt read. But it happens, and don't worry about it. This is just the first test of many.

I also found out today that spiders in Dominica are much faster than in Canada. It disappeared in the blink of an eye. Anyways, I'm off to the beach!

Ruh Roh

Uh Oh. I've already started hysterically cracking up at the mistakes I made during practice problems, leading to thoughts like "how on earth did I mistake a costo-thoracic joint for a transverse process". This is the one of the few steps before I reach a point of stress-induced insanity (or as I like to call it, supersanity).

Test in T-minus 14 hours.

anti-flow

Some days, you have flow and have to go to bed early. Other days, you have a crucial amount of work that needs to be done but can't actually do any of it. Today was that day. I sat in a study hall in silence for more hours than I could imagine, but the nimbleness of my brain from the prior day was gone. It took me more than twice as long to get through each lecture (though they were significantly denser) and bogged me down quite a bit.   It probably doesn't help that I have been somewhat unwell all day, so despite trying to do everything right, nothing is clicking.

I have done everything I can to avoid cramming on the last day, but it looks like I'm going to need to pull a Hail Mary on Sunday.

Flow vs Schedule

I have one hard rule in Dominica: there are no rules. Except the one saying there are no rules.
Ahem. Let me start again.

I'm currently sitting on a broken chair in my kitchen, waiting for 1.5 liters of oatmeal to cool and watching some baby ants do their thing in my kitchen. Wait a second, Im thousands of times bigger than them. Excuse me for a second.

I'm currently sitting on a broken chair in my kitchen, eating some of the 1.5 liters of cooked oatmeal and wondering if the ants understood the message I left them. After all, it only takes one ant to deliver a message...and there is only one ant left. I'm taking an easy morning, as I decided not to hit up the market and just sleep in (where sleeping in means waking at 7AM). Of course, I wouldnt need to sleep in had I not been studying till 12:30. "But Arthur", I can hear you saying, "what happened to sleeping at 11pm?"

Flow happened. And lecture based studying happened. And apparently, a loss of proper sentence structure as well.

When I first started, I was studying in 30 minute blocks with 5 minute breaks, during which I'd usually go outside, refill my water bottle and hit up the bathroom or just enjoy the view. But without bothering to configure my watch each time (a 30 second ordeal to begin with) I would end up taking longer breaks and slow the progress down. It also became harder to measure progress. Thus, I switched it up so that I would study each lecture from beginning to end where possible, and then take longer breaks between. By avoiding the disjointed reading, I could practice recalling more of the lecture as a whole, instead of just individual parts, and as a result I'd get much better Flow.

Flow (witha  capital F) is something that a lot of artists and psychologists mention, but is hard to control. Its a state where everything feels great, and you're in control and producing amazing work. And like a good wave, you want to ride it out for as long as possible. Or, put another way, its like hitting the Turbo boost button while playing Mario Kart. I don't really understand it, or pretend to. But I do know that my sweet spot for flow tends to be later in the evenings, around 9 or 10.

Well, shit. How does that help me? It doesn't. I start getting into some sweet studying right as I'm about to head to sleep, and because I go through an entire lecture before quitting now, it means I stay up much later. Then I need to wake up at 6AM and wonder what the hell I was thinking sacrificing an entire day of alertness for just one hour of good work. I've done this for the last 3 days in a row, and I need to remind myself not to do it again.

Another reminder: eat more fiber Arthur. You sit down in a library for over 12 hous a day. Your large intestines are not particularly pleased with your lifestyle choice, no need to make their work harder with 4 meals consisting entirely of pasta. The coffee you've had for the last 3 days also works against the lifestyle you are trying to build. Allright, Thursday doesn't count, that one was mostly for pleasure anyway.

Additionaly, there's the problem of doing the work vs completing the hours. I probably mentioned this once already, but one important aspect of med school is learning and memorizing the concepts one studies in class. By my second week, I kept making notes in class without continually testing my knowledge of the material, which is when I started feeling like I didn't know anything. This led to a lot of stress, bigtime. I didn't actually realize anything was wrong until I had just had lunch, with a full stomach, and I still had a big appetite and wanted to eat more. That's when I realized just how stressed I was. As you are no doubt aware, many other people also use food as stress relief, but I guess its a good thing I realized early on and changed up my methods.

What I ended up doing, oddly enough, was taking a friend's advice and reading 4 or 5 slides and trying to completely understand each one before taking down any notes. This forces you to, at the very least, have basic memory recollection that goes beyond 10 seconds, which I had fallen victim to. I also added a second manner of note-taking, which is a list. Every time there's a word/compound/toxin/enzyme/disease with significance, it goes on that list. It effectively serves as a flashcard/memorization tool that I go through the next day to try and recall everything I can. If I make a mistake or forget something, its obvious the mental association I made wasn't good enough.

For example: "be careful not to snap off the snare, its sensitive" refers to the V-SNARE and T-SNARE transport targetting molecules, which lock onto a membrane, and the SNAP and NSF (n-something Sensitive Factor) proteins, which unlock the SNARES. Of course, an important protein in this complex is Rab(Ras-associated factor in the Brain), which is easy to confuse with Ras (the superfamily of G-binding proteins) and Ran (Ras-associated factor in the Nucleus that tells importin and exportin when to release their cargo).

As soon as I notice a confusion between Rab/Ras/Ran, I have come across what one study tool called "interference". Its confusion between two terms/ideas/ways of remembering things. For example, I might mentally define the Posterior Longitudinal Ligament of the spine as the one posterior to (behind) the anterior ligament, but then again, I could also give that same definition to the Ligamentum Flavum, or the Transverse Ligament, or even the Superspinous Ligament. You really need to address interference as soon as you realize it, because instead of learning one thing wrong, you basically learn two things wrong.

After the list, I then force myself to use the concept map again for studying, but because slightly more time has been removed since reading the lecture slides, it becomes more challenging to remember every point, as well as the organization behind it. 'Why did the prof mention this' or 'where would this fact go' are questions that really help you categorize the knowledge in your head. It took me a few days to realize that just about everything can be answered by one of the following questions.
Is it describing a characteristic? a structure? a function? a process? is it a category? a component? a disease?

Finally, a word about color-coding the drinking water in Dominica

• Brown = its raining somewhat heavily
• No water = its raining too heavily and the city/school shut off water
• White = the school just added chlorine to their water reserves
• Bubbly = they just changed a water filter, some air bubbles got trapped and now look like soda pop thats been shaken.
• clear = probably drinkable, if its not your home tap water.

Thus, to reiterate and modify:

• keep specific lists
• keep mind-maps hierarchical, but only create them after reading several slides 
• always smile and keep positive, it really helps with...
• focus. be vigilant, notice when the mind strays and keep it chained to its post
• do your stretches
• don't worry about the grades, worry about the process
• go to sleep as soon as the alarm rings, even when you are in the Flow

PS: its very easy to feel isolated, make sure you send letters/emails/communicate via phone or skype with friends and family back home until you create your own small family here. You won't really realize how isolated you are at times, until its too late. I set aside a good half hour or so each day, either for blogging or chatting. Its like sleep: inefficient but essential.

Studying is going well, recognizing a lot of the concepts we studied in class. I'm pretty lucky to have a 3-day weekend prior to the Mini 1 Part 1 exam, next time I wont be so lucky.

Well...shit. there goes my luck.
http://www.npr.org/2011/05/19/136473820/u-s-predicts-3-to-6-major-atlantic-hurricanes?ps=cprs

On top of that, my umbrella suffered some damage today, so out of annoyance I left it at home when heading to the library. Bad call Arthur. Bad call indeed. I can actually see rivers of water forming on the street.

Memory Lane

I finally started memorizing the notes I made in the previous week. I was initially angry at the direction I had gone, but going over some of the concepts today, I was surprised at how much I still remember. Nonetheless, there's one overarching reality of med school, and that is:
In order to succeed, you need to understand a concept, make notes, and spent time memorizing them. In medical school, you only have time to do two of the three.

I don't know if its the nap I took midday, or the coffee that proceeded it, but I've been wired and in the flow since 4pm. just going to take a short nap and go for another 2 hours. I've also decided that instead of doing giant concept maps that connect everything, I would be much better off just keeping them small. It makes the number of files harder to handle (I already have 20 different files, one for each system) and its only been one week. Fortunately, its a short week, with friday being a research day.

Nap time! oh and dinner I suppose. yeah. food would be good.

Fuck it

Fuck it. Im going back to nap breaks. my brain is too dead by the end of the day to learn anything.
ive been up since 5:30 damnit. and i had class till 5. i cant deal with more than 12 hours without a nap. and you know what, 3:00AM wakeups arent that bad when you dont have to deal with the anger of your brain not absorbing anything.

Brain Sane

My mood from the first week of med slowly diminished to the point where I am right now, and I couldn't figure out why. I've been sleeping earlier (hit bed at 11 last night, still woke at 5:30....blarg) and trying to eat better (even more fruit and fiber), and ive been dutifully putting in the hous at school. Its been wearing away at me and it hasnt even been 6 days.

Then I realized about 10 minutes ago I hadn't stretched in a week, and believe me, when you are sitting for 14 hours a day, your body gets tight. After a 2 minute session I already feel like the happiest kid on Dominica again.

But then Anatomy and Meiosis happened.

Anatomy is what happens when you are faced with a shitload of stuff that is very detailed and you have no background in, and the only thing on your mind is wishing the lecture would end. I've been in that position many times in undergrad, and the reason is simple: i dont get what the hell is going on and I'm being overwhelmed, and that can turn into a lot of negative emotions. Fear, sadness, incompetence. It's easy to forget that others dont understand the information, and in truth it doesn't matter, because its you against the Test. There's a guaranteed passing grade of 65%, above with you are guaranteed to pass, and thats what you aim to beat. If you go under, you are at the mercy of a variable Minimal passing grade, which is based on a bell curve of failing students.

Every day, I feel like I'm behind and I put in the work till midnight, and I haven't had an hour to myself since we started and it really eats away at your self-confidence, especially when you're surrounded by biochem majors, physician assistants or physiotherapists, or even PACErs. You just need to go back to the list and focus on the tasks at hand.

Thus, to add on to my earlier important reminders:

• keep specific lists
• eat more eggs/beans
• keep mind-maps hierarchical
• always smile and keep positive, it really helps with...
• focus. be vigilant, notice when the mind strays and keep it chained to its post
• do your stretches
• don't worry about the grades, worry about the process

Today is going to be a busy day, from 8AM to 5PM in class, plus studies and assignments. not sure how im going to do any/all of it in one go




EDIT: Most of the other emotions have melted away. All that remains is rage.

the morning after

Woke up this morning with a specific list in mind, as I mentioned yesterday.
Went down from an hour to 45 minutes, which isnt bad, but in that time I also managed to squeeze in a shower, pack lunch, and prepare some coffee.
Definitely a win-win scenario.

In other news, I found out that the weeks I've spent without caffeine have resensitized me to the effects of caffeine. Hard.

FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Also, I've made a mental note that I need to somehow shove more memorization into my studying, instead of just the notes. While recall isn't bad, the small details will start to escape my memory soon.

Message to Future Arthur

Man, this internet time capsule sure is dusty. Look, its still written in Blogspot. Didnt that die out like Angelfire and Tripod?

How is the future, Arthur?  Well, technically its your present, but I'm writing this in my present day so you can read it in your present day. Understand?

Anyways, I just want give a reminder: you will get shitty grades on some of your tests. There's even a chance you might fail a section. Don't focus on the grades, or your life will be a roller-coaster of good times and bouts of failure-induced depression. Just remember to focus on the proper habits. If you consistently follow your good study habits and focus, the grades will come consistently. You actually have control over yourself. If you focus on the grades, well, you just can't control what is asked on a test. You can only do the best of your abilites.

Anyways, enjoy your future. Present. Whatever.

Peace,
May 15 2011 Arthur

PS: how did the Titanic sequel turn out?

Brain Gain

Last few days have been on and off for studying. I still haven't gotten uninterrupted 8 hours of sleep since my arrival, but I can probably confirm it is a combination of

• my study pattern (30 minutes study, 5 minutes nap)
• sunlight/insect chirping

While I've changed my study patterns to avoid napping and now get uninterrupted sleep, I feel like my mind isn't as fresh and spongy. Sadly, its the payoff one deals with when adopting a polyphasic sleep schedule. Sleep in big blocks, and you start to hit the wall at around 3pm. Sleep in small blocks of 3 hours, and you become more efficient but lose any semblance of typical sleep schedules. Also, there's little I can do for the 6AM start time besides get used to it. That means I need to start going to bed around 11, instead of 10pm, but that presents its own difficulties. How am I supposed to complete the notes from class and read all the lecture notes for the next day in under 5 hours? That doesn't even include time for exercise or dinner. Granted, I could do that in the morning, but timing is optimal. Notes must be made soon after class, before one forgets, and similarly lecture slides must be read a full day before, in order to maximize the spaced memory repetition. I also broke my no-coffee rule today, but only because the fruit juice shack was closed and I was hoping for something to sip on. Yeah, I've been trying to avoid the obsession with caffeine that most students here have. Hell, the students here would be the best unpaid spokespersons for Monster Energy/Red Bull/5 Hour Energy/Giant Caffeine Overdose Product. 

I still feel like I'm behind, and while most med students feel they are always behind, I just haven't had a chance to make notes for a number of classes. The one day I took off, combined with the other day I unspent packing, put me off schedule, and on top of that, I've started losing my focus faster. Right now, its little distractions, phone calls, browsing of the web, but in time it could seriously affect my concentration. While the Stayfocusd extension I use in Chrome helps a lot, it can't do everything. I need to consistently keep focus and apply some basic self-control, as well as use pomodoro timers or the like. That's where I found lists come in handy. This may sound like common sense, but for anyone that knows me, sense isn't all that common in my head. Making explicit, exact and direct instructions on a piece of paper gets me leagues farther than a mental list. This morning, for example, I had a mental list of "make breakfast, clean up, pack bags, head to school." Now, for just about anyone else, this is pretty easy to do, but in my head, I start running into problem branches. What should I eat? eggs, pancakes, cereal? do i have milk for cereal, or should i use the powdered kind? should I make tea/coffee? should i bother showering, or just apply deodorant liberally? what should I pack today, my writing pad and flashcards? where are those flashcards? what color pens/markers? what should I wear? etc.... Oddly enough, these simple tasks really bog me down. What can be done in 20 minutes takes an hour. Last night, I lost 3 hours just because I didn't structure a plan on what to make for dinner, how long to rest, and what to study. I need to keep ever vigilant! 

In a similar vein, I was looking over my existing notes and have spotted a few small errors (nothing that can't be rectified easily), but am more worried about the organization of the slides. While the juries still out on most of the Myer-Briggs testing, I am only confident in one aspect of the test, my need for hierarchy. The concept maps I currently have tend to circle around a central topic, but I realized only today that using a top-down hierarchy is much easier to recall in my mind. Nonetheless, I am quite happy with the notes I have been making, as I can recall most of the details of my studies from the past week, but still have some gaps in the notes that need to be filled in, clarified, or even attached to main concepts. 

I made red lentil soup last night. It tastes just like my mother and great aunt make it, continuing a long-standing tradition, but I didn't bother making the crispy bread that goes along with it. With the big pot that came in, I actually have enough saved up for 2 or 3 dinners. In the midst of it, I decided to just chop all my onions and tomatoes and refrigerate them, as cleanup with each meal is something I won't be able to afford in the coming weeks, and it should reduce preparation time as well, albeit at the cost of freshness. I'm hoping to mash some sweet potatoes tonight, but need a few other easily dinner ideas. I should grab some spinach tonight, and I might try and bake some beans as well. I can feel myself getting hungrier by the day, despite eating the same relative amount of food, and I surmise its due to a lack of micronutrients, but it could also be from the sleep deprivation. I've cut down on the proteins and am focusing on the staples to make up for it, but it could also be from a lack of iron, in which case I'll need to increase the uptake of eggs and beans. Sadly, red meat is at a premium in Dominica.

My clock/radio appears to be broken...the hours keep jumping around for some reason, despite (or possibly because of) the backup battery. The radio still works, which allows me to pipe in the only two local radio stations on the island, as well as the BBC.

Otherwise, all is well. Just need to fit some exercise time in today and hit bed by 11pm, but that seems unlikely.

Thus, the takehome message from things I've been learning:
-keep specific lists
-eat more eggs/beans
-keep mind-maps hierarchical
-always smile and keep positive, it really helps with...
-focus. be vigilant, notice when the mind strays and keep it chained to its post.

Software Bugs

Stupid ants. Stop trying to crawl inside my computer.

Oddly enough, the term 'computer bug' was actually named after a moth that flew into a historic computer and caused some problems. Guess I'm still living in the 20s.

Additionally, I tried plugging in my surge protector and it exploded. Smells like teen spirit that caught on fire, and otherwise burning plastic. So much for that.

Gah. Need to wake up at 5:30 to hit up the market. I am out of fresh everything.

Shipping Lanes

Last night was a total write off. Knowing it was essentially the weekend, I just came home, plopped on a bed and couldn't nap, so I ended up watching tv for a good hour or two. When I tried studying, my mind just wouldn't take it. I was moving at a pace of 1 page every 10 minutes, so I called it a night and focused on redoubling my efforts the next day.

Today was the next day, and it started off with a bang. More specifically, metaphorically banging my head against the wall for only correctly setting one of my alarm clocks, as the other was set for nearly 6AM when I was planning on waking for 7. Not that it would have mattered much, as I kept getting phone calls asking for Alex taxi.

Despite it being the first night where I had more than 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep, I still felt tired as hell this morning, and lecture flew by without absorbing much information. It puts me at a disadvantage when I effectively waste hours in lecture and don't learn anything. That's when I realized the only thing that had changed since the last few days was my attitude this morning. It was a single class, I was cranky as hell, and not in the mood to be in school....pretty much a repeat of my entire undergrad experience. The last few days, on the other hand, were all just self-induced cheer. Keep repeating 'be happy, you're on a tropical island, you're in med school" and it really does help phenomenally. Your attention to detail is more focused, you can miss entire meals without noticing it, and problems are merely small bumps on an otherwise smooth ride. Today, I could barely even focus on the powerpoint slide and gorged on several bananas before I figured out what was wrong and corrected my attitude, at which point I hit the library and ripped lysosomes and mitochondria a new one.

The white coat ceremony was a success, and once again I fought the status quo and wore a green polo to an otherwise white shirt and tie event. It was only about 2 hours after the white coat ceremony where my shipment of clothing, food, and school supplies arrived. Talk about island time. Lots of good speeches to be had by doctors, and the president of Dominica arrived and sat through the event. Walking around outside, I noticed he drives a BMW 700 series. Nice.

When I came with my boxes, I noticed 2 things. First, the cleaning lady had done a decent job. Second...my toilet actually works properly now. I don't know why. Not complaining either.

When I opened the first of the 5 glorious boxes, it hit an emotional nerve (im sure we will discuss this in a future neuroanatomy lecture). So much of what I was used to was sitting in those boxes (walnuts, almost, coffee, 3 cubic feet of chocolate) but as I started sorting through, I realized how little I needed. Even one box of carefully packed items would have done the job (namely, one big pot, a very sharp knife, and the remainder being clothes and shoes). In the last three weeks I'd learned to make do with what little I had, and that's when I actually started getting angry for no reason. Why do I have so much crap? Why do I have even more back home? Most of it was "just in case"...hell, I have enough canned food to last me through three hurricanes (I kid you not....well, I still haven't bought enough water though, as I keep putting off carrying 4 gallons up that hill). I finally received a D battery, meaning that the smoke detector in my apartment actually functions now. Also, with the clock/radio I bought, I can now listen to the local music/news of Dominica. Apparently, the temperature will continue to hover around 28 degrees C, and around 70% relative humidity.
Sounds great, but try walking into your home every day, unable to figure out why the hell its hotter inside than outside.


Peace!

Robert Ross Boulevard

Anatomy today was brutal...notes didnt seem to follow any logical order, I wouldnt have been able to notice if you even rearranged all the pages. This was followed by 4 hours of clinical training (ie be polite, listen to the patient, etc). While I do believe its important in the long run, those 4 hours would have gone far in helping me catch up with the stuff from yesterday, or even Monday. Yes, its been three days, I've been working past midnight every night, and I'm still behind. Go figure.

On the plus side, I figured out why my place always feels dirty. Turns out the paint from the walls is continually flaking off and falling on the floor. And here I thought I was shedding like a dog. I guess thats an excuse to buy a Roomba!

When I felt like I was falling behind in anatomy, I did some quick research last night on better ways to study it. One recommendation that popped up a few times was Stephen Goldberg's Anatomy Made Ridiculously Simple. I put the thought of buying it out of my head, as it would take over a month to ship in...lo and behold, one of the locals was selling it on the street today for about $20USD. Hopefully itll pay off, I'll be trying it out tonight.

I've been sticking to a 30/5 approach to studying. 30 minutes of study, 5 minutes of rest on my bed. Most of the time I have a really short power nap (coffee still hasnt arrived yet) and sometimes I try and actively recall what i just read, and give my eyes a rest. works well enough, it seems to be the lecture viewing thats killing most of my time. 8 hours wasted today on lectures alone, and another 7 on sleep.

Time for some pasta, peace!

Brain Cane

I have been whipped to hell with sweet, organic sugar cane (found in the local grocery market) while trying to read up on tomorrow's anatomy notes. I'm boned. want to go to bed now. Ive had one hour where I haven't been making notes/memorizing, and that was dedicated to dinner.

Main Brain

That first night was rough. As in, studying until 12:30pm and still not finishing all my studying. And then waking up at 6 and starting it all up again.

I noticed after the fifth hour of studying, I started to get a pain in my jaw. I'm assuming that its because of tight muscles, so Ive been giving myself a few quick stretches. The spinach I prepared last night was really good, with only one weakness: I didnt make enough for tonight. Dang. I finished my weeks worth of food in 1 day.

Fortunately wayward travellers, tomorrow will mark the day that my shipment will arrive. Ive been living off one piece of luggage for weeks now, and I will finally receive i) new clothing ii) more canned food and snacks iii) study supplies (which are now somewhat redundant, as Ive focused all my studying on my laptop)

Brain Lane

Im running out of words that run with brain.

Just finished my third hour of lecture. It definitely didnt help that they water fountain wasnt functioning and I have been dehydrated as hell this morning. It took me about 45 minutes to get ready and leave the house, which is longer than I aimed for, but it does give me time for a shower, packing everything, breakfast and tea.

I've gotten a lot better at paying attention during lectures and not resorting to my usual websurfing, which is a good plus. However, once or twice I've had a stray thought that enters my head based on the lecture material, such as a memory of studying it in the past, and by the time I realize, we've already moved on to the next slide. Not sure how to tackle this, but it seems like its at least partly caused by mental fatigue. I woke up again at 5AM today, despite closing the windows, sleeping at a regular hour, and having the A/C on....quite annoying.

I was slightly annoyed when I found out the prof hadn't posted slides last night as he should have, so I used the archived notes from last term, which turned out to quite different than what he used today. Fortunately this entire week is review, so I learned some concepts that will hopefully save me time in the future.
Looking forward to studying tonight.

Damn....Im sitting through anatomy. This class is brutally efficient. Doesnt help that I'm feeling really tired. Need to rewatch this.

Correction: I have been studying anatomy for what feels like eons and still feel like theres a metric shit-ton left. Then I need to review my other courses. THEN i need to review tomorrow's lectures.

Double-correction: it is 11pm on the first day of school and I still have work left. On my first day of school. The extent of my breaks is sleeping for 10 minutes between lectures. Its like asphalt has suddenly acquired sentience, power tools and a thirst for blood, and is jackhammering away at my brain with facts.

On the plus side, I definitely know I dont have the problem with focus that I thought I did...which narrows it down to motivation.
It's going to be a long 4 years......

Brain Drain

When predicting my ability to succeed in school, I had assumed for the longest time that my focus (or lack thereof) would be my biggest problem. I can recall hundreds of instances of being frustrated with a university course and just leaving it and procrastinating to do something else, and the thought of sitting anywhere for an hour and reading about biochemistry and anatomy non-stop did not seem feasible.

Thus, I spent the morning finding where I stand, and I was surprised to be going on with pure, undivided focus for relatively long periods of time (thank you, Pomodoro). In fact, opening up a browser and checking my email or reading the news has become such a habit I dont even notice myself doing it until 20 minutes has flown by. That is where I would like to thank the Chrome installation addon located at http://www.stayfocusd.com. Its a wonderful reminder that I need to get stuff done.

I also came across two noticeable errors while studying. 

Firstly, I was spending too much time reading and categorizing the recommended readings instead of the lecture notes, which should contain the bulk of our study material. Secondly, I wasn't controlling my break times between study sessions as effectively as I should have been, and the allotted 10 minute break soon became 30 minutes. These are all things I will need to watch out for in the future. I've returned to wearing my semi-functional watch, though apparently the battery has been a bit finicky since last summer.

I also worry about focus's best friend, motivation. After 5 hours, I doubt my motivation will be very high....this could be a problem as early as tomorrow. Only time will tell.

I went for an exercise break afterwards, and im slowly getting back into shape. I feel as though my last few days could have been more productive, had I given myself more goals and tasks, but its something I'll need to address in the future.

Library

Its Sunday morning (Happy Mothers Day) and I decided to hit the books.

Having the A/C on at night was magical, but I woke up in the morning feeling too cold, so I need to find a happy medium. Im still trying to understand the chinglish instructions for my A/C (well, i found one for a similar model) so its not perfect.

After last night, I finally got the drinking and partying out of my system, and looked forward to hitting the books at 7AM. or tried to anyway. Since the day-long rainstorm last night, water still hadnt been restored to a functional capacity (ie the water in your shower and sink is brown), I decided to skip breakfast and and grab my drinking water at the school. Turns out, even the day before classes, they are still operating on a semi-holiday schedule and wouldnt open until 8AM, so I spend the hour enjoying the warm sunny air and take a bit of my lunch.

The yams are good...but boring. Im liking the lentils, but I think I just have a craving for food in general. The heat and the walking around is certainly good for your health, but considering how much you end up sweating, its really easy to forget how much energy you burn through a day. I saw a 4th semester Ross student and he had lost a shocking amount of weight. You really have to manage your nutrition or face the consequences...So I stocked up on passionfruit, which should ripen in 2 days, and I've also been eyeing my neighbours mangoes :D

The library itself is surprisingly small, and while I'm not particularly worried about the study spaces (they have many classrooms open 23 hours a day with powerbar/internet/adequate seating) it doesnt seem as there are enough books for 400 first semester students to borrow. Additionally, its somewhat chilly in here, but the runny nose is my fault, as I had been informed of the A/C here ahead of time.

Having sunlight readily available outside though....well, compared to toronto's rain, sleet, snow and ice, its magical.

Of course, one other benefit is that if a person ever asks about the hardest part of attending a caribbean med school, I'll also be able to tell them about the ants that crawl over your notes while you study :P

Lemons and lemonade

Having been accustomed to the North American lifestyle, I knew that living here would entail certain sacrifices.

I arrived and found out electricity is expensive? Keep all the lights and A/C off, it'll help me sleep early
:D

Hot water heater drains too much power? Shut her down, cold showers will help me wake up.
: )

City shut off the water due to the massive rainstorm? I will walk 20 minutes and borrow some of the school's filtered water, I could use the exercise.
: )

The 'filtered' water was also brown: I can use the relatively clean water for a ghetto shower.
: )

But when a centipede/caterpillar/something with too many legs crawled out of the shower drain in the middle of this...thats just too far. Unacceptable. Overruled. Dismissed. Case closed.

Dominica, let me have my one sanctuary. Its less than 4 ft x 2 ft, and even at the best of times has abysmal water pressure. Pretty please?

Six days, zero nights

Fun fact: without sleep, a person will eventually die within the month.
This makes for one unofficial week of bad sleep in Dominica. Its probably because I'm using a makeshift pillow and its gets hot as hell in the night, and the crickets dont stop chirping and the roosters are crowing it up at 5AM, but this does not lead to a happy Arthur. I've noticed myself getting a bit crankier, but there isn't all that much I can do except turn on the A/C tonight and hope that makes a difference.

In other news, my first attempt at lentil soup wasnt half bad! I almost mixed up teaspoon and tablespoons for the umpteenth time....and i dont really have any measuring cups, so i need to eyeball 1 3/4 cups relative to...well, nothing. Because of my lack of pots, I couldnt brown the onions and garlic in a separate pot before adding it to the still-boiling lentils, which led to a much greener taste than im used to, as they werent cooked long enough. In addition, I had the bright idea of substituting carrots with green bell peppers....no arthur.

The next iteration will, in all likelyhood, be amazing. But the problem is I made the meal to last me three days, and I finished it by morning....but I blame my midnight snacking.

Fortunately, the one good aspect of waking early is that, on saturday mornings, I can hit up the local market and buy any number of local produce (where any number is less than 30). Today, I stocked up on onions, limes, passionfruit, carrots, yams, spinach, and even a few eggs. I will be heading out in an hour to buy some soy milk (they dont seem to stock regular milk?) salt and pepper, tomatoes, flour and ground beef and some cheese. I was planning on buying dasheen, but I took one look at that unholy ground staple and backed away. I also need batteries for my A/C remote controller and a lock for my locker, and maybe even a mat for my shoes, and the local IGA and James Store should be opening up soon.

See http://louisiana2dominica.wordpress.com for information on day-to-day living,  http://www.dominicaliving.com/exp_boiling_lake.htm for travelling/vacationing, and  http://spouseskitchen.blogspot.com for recipes provided by the lovely local spouses of fellow med students.

Its raining like hell outside, so I decided to try and make lentil soup again. The lack of cutting board space and sharp knives is really slowing things down, and I think the onions/garlic were somewhat burned before i could cut and toss in anything else, and the tomatoes tossed in hastily in big chunks. Next time I'm going to pre-chop a good number of the veggies and toss them all in together.

Swarms

Tried buying a banana this morning. A swarm of ant erupted from it.

Goddamnit food. Why do you always have to contain swarms of things.

Oddly enough, Im actually very happy that this island doesn't seem to have any bees.

Shack #4 (ie Food Pavilion #4)

During this orientation presentation on food in Dominica, I've decided to take the time and actually post the information provided by the proprietor of shack #4, who was previously a midwife trained in England and the sister of a past prime minister. Sorry if its a little jumbled, as im typing this while following along.

First warning: wash your foods, because otherwise you will get intestinal worms. This does not bode well with my intestinal tract.

Second warning: doctors can get diabetes too. Eat right!

Third warning: avoid fresh milk. typhoid is endemic in certain areas, and you dont know who has handled the milk or how.

You'll typically consume enough of your dietary protein each day (an egg has most of your daily requirements, as does 3 spoons of dried milk powder or half a can of dehydrated milk, which should be mixed in a 1:1 ratio with water). Tania is also a replacement. Remember to drink your 2 glasses milk or cheese to get your protein and calcium. 10 grams of tofu has even more protein than an egg, and a decent helping of calcium. you can also buy soy mince, boil in water and add vegetables.

You can get fish (tuna and marlee), probably about 4 pounds. There are other fish, but you'd need to drive out to get it.

If have diarhea, eat guava bush, which has a lot of electrolytes, but if it continues, hit up the ER.

In the market, they have sweet potatoes that are locally grown, are high in vitamic A, and have a lot of fiber and are also low in the glycemic index (good against diabetes). The local bananas are high in potassium and are supposedly out of this world. They call green bananas here 'Fiig', which you peel and boil, and its easy to mistake it for an unripe banana, but they dont ripen! Plantains can also be roasted and boiled.

Dominicans mostly eat root crops, though lately theyve started eating rice and, like North Americans, have started gaining first world diseases like diabetes (theyd rather watch tv than pick crops, but who wouldnt).

There are 10 types of spinash (zohe milat, bitter but similar to spinach in the states). This is full of folic acid, and because broccoli doesnt grow well here, you should have at least 2 plates of spinach a day.

Beans have low cholesterol, fiber, iron, and you should have 3 tablespoons of beens a day. There are also chick peas on the island, make sure you always have some in the freezer.

Dasheen is another root crop, and while good, you must be careful when cutting because it has oxalic acid, which will irritate the skin.

Breadfruit is seasonal, and also has low glycemic index, and can be replaced with green bananas. Just cut it in half and freeze one half.

Tomatoes alternate between expensive and cheap, but are pretty damn good on the island.

Pumpkins can be sauteed in onions and made into a soup.

Soursup leaf will help you sleep and relax, while soursup innards are apparently used as a ceremonial wedding drink.

Sapodillas are sweet.

Passionfruit has 75mg of vitamin C, makes for a good juice, but need s to be cut in a special way?

There are 10 kinds of mangoes on the island (queen mango is long and stringy, longo mango is stringy, dimango, mango tito is sweet, etc).

There are washington navel oranges, which are naturally green, but not currently in season. These are one of the sweetest oranges available.

Local coaco is like coffee, wakes you the hell up and is high in anti-oxidants.

Avoid eating watergrass, as the superstition in the past involved urinating on the plant, and in the past this led to a spread of typhoid.
Papayas are a bit rarer, and have more seeds nowadays.

There are a lot of superstitions (ie receiving curses from someone out to do them harm, not unlike voodoo), trying breadfruit to the body to treat pain, refusing the comb your hair to 'catch the diabetes', etc.

Remember to wash bananas. Green leafy vegetables should be washed in salted or lemon water for 4 minutes, to prevent worms.

They sell coriander here, but its called Shadon Beni.

ADDENDUM
after hearing all the positive things, I grabbed 2 fresh guavas. grabbed one and gave it a slight squeeze....horde of ants came pouring out from inside it. nightmare fuel. never again.

Brain Juice

Since I received my acceptance letter, I've been made painfully aware of the difficulties of medical school. Since that time, I've been looking at retooling my study habits (by retooling, I mean developing for the first time).

First off, I'll tell any student to install Dropbox (found http://www.dropbox.com/). Med school is a terrible time to lose your hard drive and all your study notes. Its free for the first two gigabytes, and works well with any physical hard drive backup that you make, and its accessible from any computer that has Dropbox installed.

A few weeks ago I started with taking a Meyer-Briggs self-test found on this site (http://www.ttuhsc.edu/SOM/success/default.htm).  I found it an interesting read, and the advice seems well-thought out (the document is 200 pages, not exactly a quick read). The author writes that learning is an active process, and considering both the short-term (mini 1 part 1 is in two weeks) and long-term testing (I need to be able to recall my first lecture in 16 months) that takes place, one needs to quickly memorize a lot of information. I'm not sure how much, but Ive heard the metaphor of trying to drink water out of a fire hydrant used a few times.

Firstly, the author distinguishes between efficient study (performing a process quickly and optimally) and effectiveness (actually accomplishing a task). ie you can read through a book for a test and try to recall all the information, or you can use a memorization technique that focuses on the main points.
To form strong memories, remember AVA. I say this, but i cant remember them all half the time.

A is for Active Learning. You need to not only read and reread, but ask questions, categorize facts, and make connections between what you learn and other things in your life.

V is for visualization. Memorizing lists of things (cells, characteristics, functions, enzymes) is brutal, inefficient and doesnt utilize most of your brain. Furthermore, you can only get about 15 minutes of list memorization before that part of your brain is toast. You need to place things you learn in a visual map, because minds tend to categorize information visually. If you've ever heard of loci memory recall, like the Memory Palace, then you know what I'm talking about.

A is for Auditory learning. You dont just need to write facts down, but you have to be able to explain what you are learning in your own words. This is another form of active recall, because you are forced to teach something in your own words. This is also a form of verifying what you learn, as you'll be able to spot errors in your thinking and also know when you know enough.

I found it difficult to put myself firmly into a number of the specific thinking types...for example, I feel like an introvert that loves talking to people. Nonetheless, I've started using the concept maps (colloquially referred to as Bubble maps) because of the benefits touted.

I initially started studying some notes last night while the disaster in my kitchen was taking place. I had planned on using post-it notes and a white board for concept mapping, but my shipment hasn't arrived on the island yet, so instead I utilized a simple pen and paper. Within the end of the 30 minute block, the page was full and had lines crossing all over the place due to lack of space. This would not be effective in the long term, as I'd still need to store the post-it notes somewhere and draw out a hard copy once I was done editing, so instead I decided to find some software that would allow me to edit on the fly, save pdf's (upload them to Dropbox!!!) and print out hardcopies

The first software I used to accomodate the Myer-Briggs study methods was bubbl.us. Simple, free  and easy to use, but I found that for the amount of maps I was continually editing, Bubbl.us was slow and inefficient at cross-linking bubbles or deleting them. Being online also meant I could access both the program and all my bubble maps from any computer, but also that I need internet access. With my laptop being carried around all the time, I would have preferred a program I can install.

Since then I installed another free and open source tool called VUE (Visual Understanding Environment), released by Tufts University (found here: http://vue.tufts.edu/). It seems to be simple and have the power I was hoping for, but I'll only find out with time.
Nonetheless, making concept maps takes a hell of a lot of time...but its effective. I can actually recall almost everything I read last night. Its actually scary how much I remember, and makes me wish I had used this more in university (though, I also recognize that most topics in university don't really map as efficiently). I don't know how well this will scale up over two years, but in the short term it seems extremely effective.

Earlier, I mentioned that I was studying in 30 minute time blocks. This was after reading (or skimming through the back cover) of the Pomodoro Technique (book available here for free http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/). I've been using a kitchen timer I bought (I also use it for cooking :3  ) and while it works well, it doesnt feel fantastically accurate and doesnt ring properly if not wound for a time greater than 10 minutes. I've also installed another free software called Pomodairo (found here: http://code.google.com/p/pomodairo/), and while I haven't utilized it yet in studying, it seemed to work well in tests.

Finally, I've been working on my schedule, as time-management has always been one of my weaknesses. I've stuck to buying a schedule book for now, but before I fill it out, I've been exploring how to best spread out my studying of a specific lecture. The academic success lecture during my orientation suggested:

• 30 minutes reading a lecture the night before. With 90 slides in the first lecture alone, that leaves 20 seconds per slide. I've currently found a program called Tabata Timer (found here: http://www.beach-fitness.com/tabata/) that can be used online or even downloaded and opened in-browser, which I've configured to beep every 20 seconds for 30 minutes. I'm not sure if its technically an interval timer or a continuous countdown timer. An important personal goal of mine is to skim through each slide and form an overall big picture of whats being studied, and draw in the large trunks of the ever-growing concept map.
• 1hr : sit in during lecture. Its been recommended to not take any notes during lecture, as the slides should have all the information one needs to know (but, as I've heard from upper semester students, this is not the case for certain profs).
• 1hr - 1.5hr : review that evening and fill in any notes and make concept maps
• 1hr : making practice multiple choice questions a few days later (I'll write about using spaces repetition software like Mnemosyne and Anki in a few days to accodomate this)
• 0.5hr : material review (Im not sure what to particularly do here)

Mind you, this schedule is per lecture, so I'll need to repeat this for each lecture I have each day....goodbye social life, hello contributing citizen!
Just remember, switch up topics every hour or two. Take regular breaks and get a good nights sleep regularly, as thats when you consolidate short-term memories into the long term. Also remember to never multitask, as studies show you tend to get sub-optimal performance in each activity that you are multitasking, meaning you lost time and energy.