Oral Examination = Success!

So, my oral examination was today at 10:30am. I showed up at 9am because I did not know what time to be there exactly and I could not access the timetable online for some reason. I knew that the bulletin board at the university had the times. I did absolutely no studying yesterday and this morning. I felt that I knew most of everything that we would be tested on. So, the way that the oral examination was set up was that there would be 5 professors in the dissection room. 5 students were scheduled at a time and were required to speak with the professor for 10 minutes about a certain aspect of the body. I waited in the library until it was my time. There were several other people in there frantically studying and they kept wondering what the exam was going to be like and speculating how the questions would be asked. As they were doing this, they were getting more and more stressed out. I attempted to study some last minute pictures of internal anatomy but couldn't bring myself to really study them for the umpteenth time! So I sat and read some news articles on my iPhone to kill time.

10.30am rolled around and I made my way towards the dissection lab. The professor I was assigned to was Dr. Neil Hudson and I was VERY happy that it was him. I met him in San Francisco at the reception for the university a while back. I walked over to him and he had a full canine skeleton in front of him with various forelimb/hindlimb bones. It looked like it was going to be pretty straight forward. So, he began by describing that this will be the format of many of the examinations and that the exams are not designed to make you nervous, etc. I wasn't a bit nervous and was actually excited (yeah, I know, weird) to take the oral examination. It's fun finding out how much you actually know. I was asked many questions about the various regions of the canine skeleton, directional terms, difference between feline/canine skeleton, etc. Oh, and of course, I was asked my favorite question. Describe the stifle joint and also, describe what happens when a dog tears the cranial cruciate ligament. Very easy! I'm pretty sure I did very well on that examination. The only mistake I made was that I said the bottom of the hindpaw was the palmar aspect, but I quickly corrected myself and changed it to plantar. Dr. Hudson just laughed and said it is common to get them mixed up and that he knew what I meant. Now, to wait for the grades to roll in. I am going to relax BIG TIME this weekend. New classes start Monday, I haven't actually looked at the new schedule yet. Well, off I go to relax some more. I have a feeling I won't get too many chance to relax anymore. Hope everyone is doing well!

Exam #1 (part 2): Over!

So, today was the written exam that was held at the main university (not the one I have been attending classes at). I had no idea where this place was, thankfully I had my handy dandy iPhone for that matter. I turned on my GPS and weaved my way through random streets until I found the main building. It was really funny when the elevator doors opened to where all the students were because almost every single person in the room was frantically sifting through page after page of notes in a last ditch effort to get some cramming in. I showed up in clothes and brought my pen and pencil and that was it. I find it pointless to cram at the last minute (literally). I was done studying days ago! Well, I have been revising to make sure it stays in my head. We were split into 2 groups and when we entered the room the desks were covered with packets (was really quite scary at first!). I sat down and filled out my attendance form. I began the test and it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. My favorite question was on the exam and it was a question that wanted you to explain the anatomy of the stifle joint and sacroiliac joint. Ok, very easy. That was an essay question and thankfully, for that matter! Another essay question was to explain the different epithelium of the body and give examples of where each can be found. That was somewhat easy, I illustrated a lot of examples to make it that much better :)

The toughest question on the exam was "What is a G-protein linked receptor.....", I don't really remember the rest of the question. I should have just put down "a receptor that is linked to a G-protein", that would have been easy! Regardless, it was cell biology and I had refused to revise the cell biology material that was available on top of everything else we had to know. It was pointless because I knew there would be only one question. SOOOO, there was a big blank spot below that question! I had no problems passing that question up. Besides, I knew most of the questions on the written and felt that the exam from yesterday wasn't horrible either. Tomorrow, hopefully, will not be difficult and all three will average out just fine. Tomorrow is when I have to talk about a certain part of the body for 10 minutes with one of the professors. Maybe it will be about the stifle joint? That would be great! Better yet, the contents of the abdominal cavity/thoracic cavity, which would be super easy as well. As long as I don't get a question about the origin and insertion of the various muscles, I will be happy. Well, I am finding it very difficult to study right now. My brain is fried from all of this studying and on top of that, I haven't been able to go out at all this last week. I have been cooped up in my bedroom for the last 8 days studying with the occasional outing for food. I guess I should attempt to revise over anatomy pictures and look at the origin and insertion of muscles. Wish me luck!

Exam #1 (part 1): Over!

Ok, so I've been slacking on the posts, but hey, I've been very studious for the past 6 days in preparation for my first big exam. Today was the first part of our examination. It was anatomy in the dissected specimens. I was a little nervous before entering the room but still confident with the amount of knowledge my sponge-like brain had absorbed over the past 6 days and of course the last 5 weeks as well. When we got into the room, there were two sections with 15 tables each. We chose whatever table we wanted to start at, so I chose the skull (seemed easy enough to start with). Of course when you start with something easy, it makes you feel that much more confident going into the next question. I had to label the structures on the skull and I did that with no problem. The next station, was of the canine mouth and I had to identify which tooth was the carnassial and why it is a problematic tooth when extracting (easy!). The next was a question about the stifle joint (my specialty!), and I was asked to label all of the ligaments and structures around the joint. This was also a tricky question because you had to figure out which side was lateral and medial just by looking at a cranial/caudal drawing of the stifle joint. So you had to know that the fibula was on the lateral portion because of the lateral malleolus. After that question there was a wet specimen of the thorax and abdomen with structures to be identified. Then there was a picture of a histological slide of tissue and we had to identify what type of cells and epithelium were labeled. There were some questions on facial muscles and salivary glands. The questions that were the most difficult of the practical were the embryology questions. There was a picture of an embryo with the structures and early kidney structures that we had to label. I remembered the names for the most part, but identifying them was another story. I probably scored half of the marks on that question and the next embryology question was about the early heart, which was somewhat easy until you got to the part where it asked "What do the aortic arches function to do in the fish?". In the fish? Honestly? God forbid if non of us pass this exam because we did not know what the aortic arches did in the fish! Almost everyone I know had trouble on the embryology questions.

What was really amusing during the exam was the alarm that sounded to notify us that we needed to move on to the next station. We had 5 minutes at each station and at the end of those 5 minutes, this alarm sounded and it sounded like a military alarm or something that warned us of an atomic bomb or something. Quite amusing. There were a couple of stations set up that when you arrived at them, you had a free 5 minutes to rethink over some questions (which I felt to be quite helpful). So, now I am home and preparing to study for the next part of the examination, the short question/essay portion. Should be fun! I hope there is a question on torn cranial cruciate ligaments! Hope everyone is doing well and I will post tomorrow regarding part 2 of the exam.

Anatomy Revision: Almost Done, Now, On To Deal With Embryology...

Well, I have been studying nonstop this entire week and still have 5 more days off before exams begin. I finished studying the GI tract and urogenital system last night, which was very easy. The university opened up the dissection lab today and will tomorrow as well so students can practice anatomy prior to the examination. I went for a few hours today and it helped quite a bit. I studied everything last night from the book and was able to locate everything in lab today. A lot of people were complaining that there were no labels on any of the specimens. I just told them that they should be able to identify things by now without labels and reference to the book. However, there are students who just now started studying this week. That's crazy! I have been studying for the past 5 weeks doing anatomy, etc. Wednesday is the official anatomy exam that takes place in the dissection room, Thursday is the written exam and Friday is the oral examination where a professor asks you questions regarding a certain part of the specimen in the dissection lab. I am hoping I do well, this embryology and cell biology stuff is stressing me out. I never thought we would have to go over cell biology again, at least not for a while. Oh well, I guess some things just continue to come back and haunt us every now and then.

I am also very excited. After the exams are over, I will be joining a fencing club. On the 28th, there is an evening meeting at some gym. Weapon kits and uniforms are provided and I will be learning the basics on fencing. I am very excited! I'm sure I will have some good stories to go along with this new activity of mine. Hope everyone is doing well! Back to the anatomy book I go! Cheers!

Canine Practical and Now Examination Time...

So yesterday the class had the last practical. The practical was live anatomy of the dog for a couple of hours. It was an animal shelter that was right across the street from the beach with amazing views of the ocean. We were assigned this black labrador puppy that was absolutely cute! Unfortunately, it was a Labrador PUPPY! So a moving target is what we were dealing with and constantly dodging licks to the face. I must say though, after about 5 min I was bored, 5 years of working with dogs gave me PLENTY of experience. However, I'm sure there were people that did not have as much practical experience as I have. I did a basic overview of the bones and lymph nodes, etc. Did some restraint to try and control the puppy and she was not enjoying the fact that I was making her stay still. We finished the live anatomy and went back home after that. Now I have an entire week off to enjoy (errr, most likely won't enjoy...)....and study hard. We have exams in 2 weeks and they are spaced over 3 days. One day is for the anatomy exam where we must identify structures in the dissected specimen. The second day is for the written exam portion where we have to answer 10 or so questions. The third day is the written essay portion. Hopefully it won't be too difficult, I still have quite a bit to review and haven't even touched embryology yet. I'm saving embryology for last. Well, better be off to study, hope everyone is doing well!

Horse Practical

So today was our horse practical. We had our Embryology lecture this morning and after, we headed to the Easter Bush Equine Center to learn how to handle horses. I tell ya, I sure like horses more than the cattle. The horses behave themselves much more than the cattle did. The horse that we had today was very good for everything we did, however, the giant clump of hay hanging in the corner was a GREAT distraction. We had to learn how to put a halter on, walk and trot the horse around outside (mine wouldn't budge a whole lot so I gave it a light whip with the end of the rope and almost went for a ride!), learned to lift the front and hind legs and how to apply a leg bandage. Was very basic and easy stuff. I will be tested on it in April, so no need to worry about anything for now. We finished an hour early so we went to the student room and played air hockey for a while, until the bus arrived. I have Embryology this entire week and then I have all next week off so I can study for my exams. Am looking forward to exams... Well, on to studying I go. Need to do some revision on the bones, muscles, nerves, etc. Hope everyone is doing well!

Cattle Restraint

So today was our cattle practical. Was nice today, no classes and only a practical at 2pm. We arrived at Langhill Farm a tad late because the bus was stuck in traffic. Once we arrived, we walked to the teaching shed and met Wilson and the other instructor there. The first bit was a talk about putting a halter on. This was quite easy. We had to put on a pre-made halter and then make a halter out of a piece of rope and put it on. Next, we then had to learn how to restrain the head. You basically reach your arm over the cow's nose and grab the lower jaw (similar to a head lock, would call it a nose lock?...). This was actually fun, there were a couple of times where the cow thrashed about and I was tugged around a bit. As long as you stay with the movement of the head, you maintain complete control. They were in crush cages, so that definitely made it much easier since they were unable to backup and move around. After the head restraint, we then had to learn how to put a mouth gag in. This was by far the most difficult portion of the practical. You basically have a metal mouth gag and have to reach in the mouth and slide it over the top and lower molars. It took about 3-4 times before I could actually get it secure. The hard part was that you also had to restrain the head at the same time with no help.

Once that was over, we then had to learn how to raise the hindlimb and suspend it using a pulley system. After that, we learned how to put a restraint rope over the entire length of the cow. This type of restraint is used predominantly when there are no proper facilities to restrain the cows and they are out in the open. Once these ropes are in place, you basically pull on them really hard from behind and someone in the front pulls the halter rope to the side. This forces the cow to lay down. Those were very easy to put on. Like I said, the only challenging part was the mouth gag. Well, I should get going so that I can study some. Hope everyone is doing well!

A Day With Babe, or Shall I Say Babes?

Well, today was our groups turn to take the bus to Oatridge. It is north of Edinburgh city. About 45 minutes by bus to be precise. We had our two lectures this morning and had about a two hour break. I studied at the main library for about 1.5 hours and headed back to the school. We got on the bus to Oatridge and 45 min later arrived. We had to sit through a lecture for 40 min regarding pigs. Once that was over, we all got on our waterproofs and split into two groups. One group to vaccinate piglets and one to weigh pigs. I was in the group to weigh pigs. This was quite interesting now. I was placed in charge of the scale and the rest of the group had to use a pig board and chase each individual pig into the scale. The scale was a cage and if the pig was over 90kg, I got to spray the back with red paint. A lot of the pigs would not budge into the scale, so I did a lot of slapping pig butts/backs and pushing with my knee. So, once we were finished with weighing the pigs, I was given the lovely job of going down the very narrow walkway where all of the pigs had collected and chasing them back to where they came from. I thank god that I was wearing steel toe capped wellies because I was stepped on about 6 or 7 times. The pigs, they squeal, A LOT! It was jolly good fun though.

Once we were finished with weighing the pigs, we then switched and got to vaccinate piglets. Now, remember, this is the first time I have ever had experience with pigs. The way that they pick piglets up is from the hind leg. You basically grab the proximal region of the hind leg (thought I'd throw some terminology in there) and swing each piglet up into your arms. There was an oral vaccination and also an intramuscular injection. The IM injection is injected about 1cm behind the ear. They do not give IM vaccinations in the hind end because this is where the cuts of meat are taken from. The last thing you want is an abscess in your store-purchased meat from an IM injection. So one of the girls in the group had the syringe gun and needle and had stabbed the girl that was holding the pig on accident! Silly vet students, when will they learn how to properly give injections? Do I have to show them everything? Hahaha!

Once we were finished with the vaccinations, we hosed ourselves off and it began to rain, A LOT! We got back on the bus to the city centre and I was so hungry I ordered chinese at this place off the main road. Now, this gets interesting. I picked out what I wanted to order on the menu, which happened to be the "Cantonese Chow Mein Special". I go inside the restaurant and ask for an order to go. So I tell the chinese lady what I want to order, "could I order the Cantonese Chow Mein Special please?". So, this is what her reply was (I kid you not!) "Cat meat? No! We have no cat meat here!". This lady seriously thought I said cat meat? Come one! I was laughing quite hard when she said that, hope she did not feel I was making fun of her. Anyway, I joined Blockbuster as well, was quite easy. Next is to go check out Costco (I wonder how different their products will be from the USA?). Well, off I go to continue studying. I must study all of the origin and insertion points for muscles and revise what I have already gone over. This is a long process! I am actually still enjoying it though. Except for the boring lecture on Farm Economics. Hope everyone is doing well! Talk to you soon!