One journey ends, a new one is waiting

(In the name of Allah, The Most Gracious, and The Most Merciful)

Alhamdulillah, all praise to Allah. After all those years of struggling, those moments of ups and downs, those moments when I cried in silent, those moments when I questioned myself “why I choose this path?”, those moments when I felt nauseous because of too much of reading, those moments of being scolded in front of the patient, those moments when we were chased out of the ward, and many more of those experiences which I’ll never forget. Every bit of those experiences was really worth it the moment you see the word PASS after your name.

I must say the path of being a doctor is not easy, but I am very lucky to receive all the supports from my family especially my mom, my close friends, my group mates, and my fiancé who is very understanding. They were there when I’m feeling down, they were there when I was having a bad time, they were there to remind me about the main reason why I choose this path, and they don’t judge me when I’m at my worst. Last but not the least, I would like to thank all my lecturers for all their advice and guidance throughout these years. I am feeling blessed for having them in my life. Thank you Allah. Thank you so much for blessing me much more than I deserve.

Menuntut ilmu biarlah sampai ke liang lahad. This is not the end. I still have lots more to learn, I still have lots more to gain. I wish all the best to my fellow friends in the future. May Allah will always guide us to be a better physician not only for the sake of Islam but also for the sake of this ummah. InsyaAllah.

A.Khairul

P2S1: Medical Competency Exam (2)

For PS21 the college gave us one week study break before the exam, but depends on your last postings if the faculty in charge conducts the end posting exam earlier, you can get extra one week of study break. For the P2S1 exam there are 2 components, theory part which comprises the 120 MCQ questions and 5 Modified Essay Questions, and for the clinical part it comprises 10 OSCE stations and 1 long case.

Day 1, we sat for the MEQ papers which cover 5 subjects, Medicine, Surgery, OBG, Pediatric, and Community Medicine. For each subject there are 5 parts and the format is, they will project the questions using PowerPoint slide on the white screen in the hall and you have to answer the questions within the time limit of 5-7 minutes. When the time is up, the slide will change automatically and you have to put your answer paper for that part in a box and use a new paper for the second part of the question, in other words you cannot change your answer once the slide has changed.

Day 2, we had the 120 MCQ questions. We have to sit for a period of 2 hours answering 120 MCQ questions that cover all subjects from medicine, surgery, OBG, pediatric, orthopedic, psychiatry, ENT, ophthalmology and also community medicine, not to mention we were not allowed to go out from the hall during that 2 hours period. It was mentally and physically exhausting.

Day 3, first day of the clinical part of the exam. We start with OSCE stations. For OSCE usually it comprises either active station or passive station or it can be a combination of both active and passive. For active station, you have to perform a clinical examination skill to a patient or mannequin, and for the passive station you have to write the answer on the paper. They can give you an X-ray, ECG, a picture, partogram or even a video and you have to write down your findings and answer few questions related to the item being given. During the OSCE we probably didn’t do well in one of the stations and it is important for us not to be carried away with that and continue fresh for the next station. That is why we have to be mentally prepared for that.

The last day was our long case. Before the day of exam, I believe most of us cannot sleep well that night. So many things to cover for the long case, so many things to memorize, you will feel anxious, nauseated, palpitation and everything that will make you feel uncomfortable. At one time, I said this to myself “that’s enough, I have do my part and now I leave everything to Allah.” I went into my room took wudhu,  pray for 2 rakaats and pull myself to bed and hope when I woke up the next day, I’ll be in a positive mind and attitude. Alhamdulillah, I got a pediatric case even though I was not confident enough with the case, but the patient and his mother was very cooperative providing me with all the information that I need. When I presented the case, I tried to do it as calm as possible like I was presenting a case during our regular day, and personally I think that is the key to present a good long case for exam. I did learnt a lot from this exam, and will continue to learn more and do well in the future.

A.Khairul

P2S1: Medical Competency Exam (1)

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim~ I don’t know where to start, but I will try to make it short and sweet *smile*. About a month ago from 22th – 30th April 2014, I sat for the Phase II Stage I (P2S1) competency exam, an important exam before we can proceed to the final year. How was it? Alhamdulillah, praise to the Almighty Allah, it went well for me. I must say the stress that I had during the exam week was far greater than any other school or college exams that I ever experienced. I’m just an average medical student from Melaka-Manipal Medical College. Other medical students from other medical school probably have different experienced during their college/university exams.

When we started seventh semester, I said this to myself “I have to get serious from now on, start making my own notes, and do well in every end-posting-exam (EOP).” I was doing very well in every posting except for one posting in which I got a very low marks for the bed-side long case exam. When I looked at my marks for that posting, I have this thought, “This is not fair!! I deserved more than that!!” My group mate suggested that I go and meet the faculty in charge of our batch and talk about, in which I didn’t go. I remember one of the lecturers said, “You are going to need all the luck that you can get during your P2S1, so don’t waste it on getting a proxy, or cheating during you EOP”

In our college, if you didn’t do well in any one of your postings in fourth year, you have to work harder for the university exam P2S1. Normal candidates if they fail in one of the clinical component of the university exam, they can still reseat for the exam after a month, but for those who don’t do well in their EOP they cannot afford to fail in any one of the clinical components because they will straight away fail and have to take the exam again in 6 months time.

For that reason in my case I was the “special” candidate. When I think about it over again, I should be grateful. Because of that title “special”, it motivated me to work harder for my university exam. I started making my own notes more vigorously, making my study plan and followed it. The only thing that I didn’t do is have my own study group. No matter how many hours you spend your time on studying alone, there will be something that you overlook. Alhamdulillah during the exam week, I had a small discussion with my housemates, and from that discussion I realized things that I didn’t know so I read about those things.

To be continued…

A.Khairul

Annual Night 2013 #autumnlikeneverb4

I haven’t post anything new lately, so here’s the new update. Last night we had our college annual night dinner and the theme was Autumn: Like Never Before.  The top gun of the student council had been working hard and do their very best to make this year’s annual night dinner totally different from before.  Previously the venue will be at our very own Pathmanaban Hall, but this year we had it at Equatorial Hotel, Melaka. Personally, I think we did great along the way in preparing for the event, during the event and after it was over. Some unfortunate things did happened but that’s normal when you works with people. All in all good job MMMC student council 2013/2014!!! What a great way to end year 2013. *smile*

A.Khairul