Microbiology and studying of the yellow pages of microbes

The first exam was patobiochemistry, which I managed to complete before the Christmas, so that I had my exams done as soon as possible. Second, and the most difficult exam of this semester was microbiology. I would have never thought that I would be learning over 170 microbes, including bacteria, parasites and viruses and their specific properties, but there I was, doing my best not to go insane. The worst part of this exam was the fact that there was no system or study materials which would combine all the required knowledge. Furthermore, names of the bacteria are quite difficult to remember, for example Propionibacterium Acnes, or Acinetobacter Baumanii. Because I wanted to finish this exam as soon as possible, I applied for the earliest exam term, which quite complicated my life, as I only had 8 days to study for the exam, due to other tests and school responsibilities, compared to an average study time for this exam of 2-3 weeks.

The last exam, internal propaedeutics was the key to my holidays, and despite the fact that it was not as difficult as the previous exams, it should not be underestimated. The exam consisted of an oral part as well as practical part, where the student was presented with a patient. During the second part, we had to collect information about the patient’s health, family and previous operations. Moreover, we were to physically examine the patient, including auscultation, palpation and aspection. For this exam I was not able to fully prepare, as the patients and their health complications differ greatly, making the diagnosis difficult.

The winter semester was the penultimate semester before the clinical part of my medical studies, which frightens me, as not only were these pre-clinical years flying by fast, but also the fact that I will be dealing with patients on a daily basis, discussing their diagnoses, which is a lot of responsibility. I am full of expectations and happiness, but also full of fear of what is to come.