T-Minus 11 Hours and Counting / Why Do Doctors Carry Around all Those Little Books?

In less than 11 hours we will take the first of our pharmacology exams this semester. Students who have completed this course rate taking these tests somewhere between having a root canal and attending a Carrot Top performance. So much joy awaits! I must confess I have spent the most consecutive hours studying this subject than any other in my entire academic career. The material isn't exceptionally difficult to grasp it's just that there is an enormity of info to get through. The wild card is of course, which testing philosophy will be employed by our esteemed professors. There are basically 2 schools of thought here at AUC. First, there is the clinically minded who test relevant material that actually has a correlate in the practice of medicine. Important concepts are hammered home and there is statistical relevance between doing well on an exam and actually knowing something useful about the topic tested. We all love this type of test. Sadly, there has been less of this type than most of us would like. In its place we have seen tests that focused on minute detail that has no real relevance. I have no problem with being asked detailed questions; don't get me wrong. My objection comes when the asking of the "minutia" preempts questions that would actually assess an understanding of the material. This is harmful in 2 ways. First, it doesn't actually give honest feedback of our mastery of a particular concept, and secondly, it fosters a culture among students that focuses on memorizing our notes rather than understanding principles. Both in my opinion are a recipe for disaster.

It does occur to me that perhaps some of our test authors may never have actually met a practicing doctor. For surely they would have noticed the multitude of handbooks overflowing from their lab coat pockets. Proudly they stick out, crammed chock full of details just waiting to be looked up; dutifully agreeing to safeguard information and sparing our brains for remembering important things like: "Out with the bad air, in with the good", plumbers shouldn't bite their fingernails, and the leg bone is actually connected to the hip bone.

I'll stop whining now. Admittedly it is late, I am cranky, and my head is swimming in a torrent of polysyllabic drug names and their mechanisms. To bed. To sleep, perchance to dream......


(Editorial note: Tired and cranky = Shakespeare quotes, Drunk = posting in Latin. )
12:40am and sober