As intersession ends.

Last year's class apparently did really, really well on the neuroanatomy quiz which means that this years quiz got significantly harder. We had it this morning and it was rough! And long! It just kept going and going. It was scheduled from 9-10 am, but I didn't finish until after 10:30 and only about half the class had finished by that point.

I will say that the text assigned for it has been the most readable textbook ever. There were even moments of humor it, and like a James Patterson novel the chapters are only a page or two long which makes it a fairly quick read. It also has lots of diagrams, interesting case studies, and a bunch of practice questions in the back.

Last Friday the med students had their big final for Brain and Behavior (their intersession class). When talking to some of them about it I realized just how much I am enjoying our intersession and how I don't want it to end. But it must! Next week we start up again with the medical students for Body and Disease. It should be interesting... I am withholding judgement on the TBL format and am trying to be cautiously optimistic. There have been extremely mixed reviews from the Brain and Behavior format from the medical students and apparently working in small groups negatively impacts the intelligence of the people in the group.

Wednesday afternoons the med students have their practice course, and since we don't have to learn how to interact with patients we get to use that time for clinical rotations. Actually, this whole week they are practicing their patient interview skills. Meanwhile we're going to have a four and a half day weekend. I don't have anything fun planned but it will still be nice to have a break!

Last weekend was actually pretty good. Friday was strange. I really wanted to go out but my classmates were opting to stay in and be studious, so I went to hang out with some medical students. My husband was visiting so he went too. It was surprisingly fun to do something different. Saturday, my class went to the Duke lemur enclosure (the second largest population of lemurs in the world) and we got to see lemurs! And slow lorises and bush babies! I want to go back in the warmer months when you can walk through the areas where the lemurs are running free (in the winter they have indoor spaces). I'm glad my husband got to come since for the most part he comes on the weekends when I have tests and don't go out.

There were autopsies on Saturday that we could have gone in to see. I kept going back and forth about whether I should go or not, and finally decided not to go. The kids have basketball games on Saturdays and the autopsy staff don't have the luxury of time to do a lot of teaching on the weekends. And my group has been able to see autopsies almost every day that we've been on call over the past few weeks, so I already feel a bit ahead of the curve.