Feel so
happy and relieve today. Joy is oozing out from every inch of my heart. Is oozing
even the appropriate word? For one, I am done with and submitted the group
report for our visit to the old folk’s home. Second, I have obturated and
restore my 1st ever RCT case on an extracted tooth. Was actually
quite blur with the steps but thanks to Dr. Sapta, all doubts were cleared. Can’t
wait to start access opening on the next tooth.
Third, I have presented my end perio posting exam case to Dr. Sunil. It
was taking forever for me to sit down and finish that with sir. He pointed out
my mistakes and it was a good discussion. Fourth, I have completed all my
entries into Gloco; getting all the signature from the lecturers. Fifth, I finished
trimming and polishing my denture base. Tomorrow will build up the occlusal
rim. Hopefully can deliver the denture by next week. Now you see why I am happy.
Exam results
are slowly churning out. It was the worse exam ever in my BDS life till date.
11 subjects in 5 days is not an easy matter; that is 2 subjects per day. I think
I only had 4 hours of sleep daily. For some of my classmates, those 4 hours is
already considered luxury and a crime to do during the exam week. Oh I hate
that routine life of getting back to my room and rushing through notes and
textbook preparing for the next day subjects. I’m not a last minute person, so
if anything calls for last minute, it will definitely reflect on my marks. According
to the score, I really need to buck up on Oral Pathology, Perio and Oral
Surgery. Will try to find out about the mysterious OSCE items left at my last
station. Most of the SAQ papers I fail to attempt all the questions. I knew
what to write but don’t have enough time to write everything. The word “briefly”
was seriously annoying when the marks of 8/15 were allocated for one sub
question. I hope the lecturers were able to read my handwriting when they go
through my answer sheets.
After that
one week of exam, I tell you, I was quite angry with myself on certain
subjects. I feel like I didn’t do my best to prepare for the exams. However,
there is another part of me that feels differently. Will knowing every single
line in the textbook help you become a good dentist? Ultimately, I want to be a
good clinician and not a parrot which know facts just for the sake of exam. What I find I’m still lacking is to apply the
knowledge I know in to clinical practices. Some points are good to know, some
are still irrelevant to our current level. I find that once exams are over, I
will forget almost 70 percent the next day. It is as if my mind associate memorizing
facts for exam as a torture, and wanting to throw it out once it has the chance
to. Sometimes I feel we are just too exam oriented. I feel that an assessment
should be made over time in the clinics through silent observation by our
lecturer. It is not that in the exam, we need to modify certain things to suit
the exam, and end up sometimes blaming it on exam stress that we don’t perform
as well as in clinics.
Well I been
hearing a lot of different views about getting good grades, some of my batch
mates say “I don’t aim high, I don’t aim for distinction, not like you, I just
want to pass and focus more on my hand work. I don’t want to stress myself up,
like you.” Marks and distinction to me are not everything. No patient will walk
in your clinic and ask “Dr, did you get distinction in your dental anatomy? Or Dr,
did you get an A for your 3rd block exam in 3rd year?”. My
view is that don’t choose to be ignorant about certain facts and knowledge that
might do harm to your patient. Being lazy and stagnant is not the way in
dentistry. I get annoyed when people try to get the easy way out; but then
again that’s how the world works. For me, I just get irritated if I feel that
certain things are a must know and I don’t know. Exams are always taken as self-
assements for me; something to mark where I stand and what areas I can improve.
All in all,
shall continue to wait for all the results to be out. Lesson learnt; New challenges
set; Goals to be Achieved.
